Cardiff Bay: The Story Stone

Cardiff Bay has yet another piece of public art, this one to mark the 25th anniversary of the Barrage that closed off the once-tidal Bay and the natural outlets of the Rivers Taff and Ely to create a lake that now has water quality so poor that you definitely wouldn’t want to swim in it. But, hey, let’s celebrate the creation of the Cardiff Harbour Authority whose job it is to look after these murky waters. 

The artwork is the creation of sculptor Ben Dearnley, whose website says:

This project brings together the ancient world of standing stones with a modern twist. Within this huge piece of Welsh slate we have some of the stories of this wonderful regeneration of Cardiff Bay.

The mock standing stone is a 2.4-metre-tall piece of Welsh slate, with three stained-glass windows set into it. Each window shows different aspects of the Bay, pre- and post-Barrage, including the workforce that is now constantly required to clean up the rubbish that flows down the two rivers; some of the local wildlife: Salmon, Great crested grebes; and people walking, running, cycling and sailing in and around the Bay. If you’re interested in the artwork’s creation, the project page on Dearnley’s website includes many photos of the work in progress. 

If I sound cynical about the project, it’s because I am. There are two main reasons, neither of which is a reflection on Dearnley’s creation, which I actually quite like. The first reason is because, as I think I’ve mentioned in previous blogs about Cardiff Bay’s artworks, the Council (of which the Harbour Authority is a part) seems ever ready to commission and pay for new pieces but appears to allocate zero funds to maintaining them, with the result that many have now literally crumbled away or are eyesores. 

The second has to do with the area where this new piece is located, its surrounding ‘garden’ incorporating what was once a small and very necessary pond for small birds, until the machinery which operated its hydraulic system stopped working. Even then, the pond held a small amount of water and native plants until, under the pretext of ‘health and safety’ – that small amount of water was deemed a hazard even though the large unfenced lake a few metres away wasn’t – the Harbour Authority dumped a large quantity of stones and boulders in the pond to make it ‘safe’, which, of course, rendered it unusable by birdlife. 

What could have happened was a repair, even an enlargement of the former pond, and the installation of an artwork that encompassed or surrounded the water in such a way as to allow birds in but prevented access to dogs and their humans, thus rendering it safe. Something like an inverted hemisphere-shaped stainless-steel net, for example (this is not a product endorsement but a quick google found the website of a company called Creative Pond Covers Ltd which manufactures bespoke pond covers, exactly the sort of thing I’m envisioning). With a little imagination, this could have been a win for art and creativity, as well as benefitting the natural environment … but it isn’t.

Sign: Village Green no 41

This sign has intrigued me for some years, partly because the signposted area seems small to be designated a village green, also because I didn’t realise village greens were numbered, and I also wondered about the Inclosure Act, in particular the Section 12 that was mentioned. So, I decided to investigate. 

Village Green 41 is a small public green space that sits in front of the stone boundary wall of St Dochdwy's Church in Llandough, in the Vale of Glamorgan, in Wales. According to the Llandough Community Council website, the Council owns the green and is responsible for its maintenance. The green is home to a commemorative Millennium Stone, and has benches for people to sit and enjoy the trees and seasonal flower displays.

The number 41 relates to a Register of Town or Village Greens maintained by the Vale of Glamorgan Council, which, according to their website,

holds the registers compiled by the two former counties of South Glamorgan and Mid Glamorgan.

The registers were compiled, under the Commons Registration Act 1965, between 1967 and 1970 and contain information about all the registered common land and village greens in the Vale of Glamorgan.

Every area of registered land is listed in the registers under a unique Unit (CL or VG) Number. The registers also show if there are any rights of common over the land and record details of claims to ownership.

 

Next, the Inclosure Act 1857, for which I located this excellent summary on the LexisNexis website:

This Act was implemented to address the impact of the widespread enclosure of common lands in England and Wales. It sought to regulate and protect certain remaining public areas from further enclosure, ensuring that they remained accessible for public use. The legislation specifically extended protections to ancient or customary common lands, providing a legal remedy to curtail the loss of public open spaces. It also incorporated measures to uphold public rights of way, ensuring community access and recreational use while recognising the need for continued lawful agricultural operations on enclosed lands. 

As indicated on the Village Green 41 sign, Section 12 of the Inclosure Act relates to ‘Protecting from nuisances town and village greens and allotments for exercise and recreation.’ The details of the Act on the UK Government’s Legislation website explain those nuisances might include ‘wilfully and without lawful authority lead[ing] or driv[ing] any cattle or animal thereon’, or ‘wilfully lay[ing] any manure, soil, ashes, or rubbish, or other matter or thing thereon’, acts for which ‘any churchwarden or overseer of the parish in which such town or village green or land is situate’ might fine the offender, both for the offence itself and for the cost of remedying the effects of the offence. You have been warned!

South Glamorgan Coat of Arms

Though I’ve walked across the A4232 road bridge that crosses the River Taff where it flows in to Cardiff Bay many times – never a pleasant walk with all the traffic constantly flowing past at breakneck speed, I’d never until quite recently looked at the coat of arms that adorns either side of the bridge at both the eastern and western ends of its span.
 

I located a website, Civic Heraldry of England, Wales andNorthern Ireland, which aims ‘to collect together in one place information about the coats of arms of local authorities in England, Wales and Northern Ireland both current and obsolete.’ This is the information provided for the coat of arms of the South Glamorgan County Council, written in the obscure jargon of heraldry:

SOUTH GLAMORGAN COUNTY COUNCIL CYNGOR SIR DE MORGANNWG
*ARMS: Vert on a Pile reversed throughout Ermine between two Towers Or a Roundel per pale of the last and Gules charged with three Chevronels also per pale Gules and Argent ensigned with an ancient Crown Gold.
*CREST: Within a Mural Crown Gules a Mitre affrontée Or; Mantled Vert doubled Argent.
*SUPPORTERS: On the dexter side a Dragon and on the sinister side a winged Lion both Gules and each supporting a Trident Or.
*BADGE: Within an Annulet ensigned by a Mural Crown three Chevronels all Or.
Motto 'Y DDINAS A'R FRO' - The City and the Vale.

That website includes a coloured image of the coat of arms but I also located one on Wikimedia that shows the coat of arms more clearly and is free to use under Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 International license. It is shown below. And if you want to try to decipher the heraldry jargon, there’s a beginner’s guide on The Heraldry Society’s website. 

South Glamorgan County Council was active from 1974 to 1996, and consisted of Cardiff, which is now its own district; parts of south Glamorgan, which are now included in the Vale of Glamorgan district; and St Mellons, which is now in Monmouthshire.