Wales is home to many diverse cultures, religions, and people, who all contribute to its rich cultural heritage and historic landscape. Since January, Heneb staff have been working on the Mapping our Heritage scoping project, seeking sites of diverse cultural and religious significance in Wales that are currently under-represented on the Welsh Historic Environment Record (HER).
Not only has this project resulted in the creation and updating of over 90 records across Glamorgan-Gwent, but it has also been a fun, educational, and inspiring experience for those involved!
In March, Heneb staff met with Karsan Vaghani, Trustee of the Shree Swaminarayan Mandir in Cardiff, who kindly showed us around the remarkable building that has served Grangetown’s Satsangi Hindu community since the 1990s (previously occupying the former synagogue opposite since 1979). We were blown away by the effort, talent, and love that has gone into converting the building, as well as by Mr Vaghani’s warm welcome and impressive knowledge. Not only were we able to create a lasting written and photographic record of the building for the HER, but we were also invited to participate in the Holi festival hosted at Cardiff Castle that following weekend.
Overall, Heneb has established relationships with members of the public and professionals who have generously and enthusiastically shared their knowledge of culturally important places with us.
During the next stage of the project an appropriate professional will be hired to continue this work, carrying out more site visits to cultural, religious, and historic places of significance to all who call Wales home, as well as to broaden community engagement, and continue to add sites to the HER across the whole of Wales. Dr. Olivia Husøy-Ciaccia, Historic Environment Record Officer (Glamorgan-Gwent)
