Welsh Journals

Archaeological discoveries by T. C. Cantrill By H. E. ROESE MOST prehistorians who have dealt with archaeology in Wales have at least heard ofT. C. Cantrill, B.Sc. (Lond.), F.G.S. Some will be familiar with his archaeological publications, which are of considerable value (especially for Welsh archaeology) and prompt the following summary of his unpublished notes in the National Museum of Wales. Cantrill was a geologist and engaged on the Geological Survey of parts of South Wales, especially the Coalfield. He was attached to the South Wales Unit of the Geological Survey of England and Wales Field Staff from 1896 to 1909 and again in 1913. During this time he surveyed some 400 square miles in Glamorganshire, Breconshire, Carmarthenshire and Pembrokeshire. It so happens that the geological one-inch maps then in use for Wales are still the only ones available. Two-thirds of the more recent and revised cover, on which lie had worked, was unfortunately destroyed at O.S. Headquarters during the 1940s and has not yet been replaced. Thomas Crosbee Cantrill (1867-1931)1 was, however, no single-minded field geologist. His occupation frequently brought archaeological monuments to his notice; and where the entries on the six-inch O.S. maps were concerned, he was anxious that they should be both full and accurate. In the transcript given below he observes, unless reference is made to the fact that the six-inch map has marked and named a given antiquity, it is to be understood that it is omitted from the six- inch maps. It is not with any thought of depreciating the work of the Ordnance Survey that I mention these omissions, but with the hope that under the guidance of the Archaeology Officer now attached to the Survey [0. G. S. Crawford, appointed in 1920] the remains may be examined and if found to be of ancient origin, may be marked and named on future editions of the maps.' However, he did not leave matters at that. So Cantrill, the field-archaeologist, got to work with the aim to help and improve the situation. He began to record un- marked monuments and corrected faulty entries. He explains, 'My notes were made in the course of the day's work when a few minutes were occasionally filched from official duties, but no time could be spared for detailed observations, still less for excavations.' By the end of 1927 Cantrill had gathered personal observations on about 160 monuments (55 in Glamorganshire, 30 in Breconshire, 42 in Carmarthenshire, and 33 in Pembrokeshire). Inventories (by the Royal Commission on Ancient and Historical Monuments) for Glamorganshire and Breconshire had not been begun, and the Inventories for Carmarthenshire and Pembrokeshire had room for expansion, as he had found out: "An excellent Inventory published in 1917 has omitted few of the ancient monuments of this county (Carmarthenshire), but some have slipped 1 Obituaries of T. C. Cantrill appeared in the following publications: The Geological Magazine, Vol. LXVIII (1931), pp. 237-8; The Qtiarterly Journal of the Geological Society of London, Vol. LXXXVIII (1932), pp. lxxix-lxxx.