CAER Heritage

26/08/2026

A huge thank you to Adrian Porch from the School of Engineering who came to the CAER Heritage Centre today to teach us all about Roman Engineering (without which we wouldn’t have Ely Roman Villa) through some very fun hands-on activities that really put our skills to the test!

We investigated the forces at work on Roman arches, used to build bridges, aqueducts, and the Colosseum. You can even see one still standing today after 2000 years in Caerleon! After finding out how they work, we built our own “Roman arches” using sugar cubes that we shaped. The Romans were excellent builders and we think our structures would have stood the test of time too, but we’d rather pop our building materials into a cup of tea!

We also had a go at creating mosaic tiles using colourful corn-crete and mixed up some of our own “Roman cement” using lime that we made in the kiln at St Fagans mixed with sand and a little water.

It was an excellent way to finish to our August Activity Programme delivered by experts from schools across Cardiff University, but don’t worry if you missed it! We’re planning more soon!

25/08/2026

Back in June we tried something pretty ambitious! We live streamed our CAER Heritage community dig to the International Association for Community Development (IACD) World Community Development conference held at University of Glasgow and in partnership with the awesome Russell Todd we brought the many voices of community volunteers, community development workers, students and community archaeologists and academics to the delegates there.

The whole session was recorded on Zoom and thanks to the brilliant Vivian Thomas, it has been edited into bite-size eposodes (bear in mind it was recorded on Zoom, so the quality isn't amazing, but it captures the essence we hope!)

So, over the next few weeks we will be posting these up on our YouTube so you can check out the session for yourselves! For this first 'episode' we set the scene and give an overview of CAER's journey, values, and strategies for employing heritage & archaeological co-research as a catalyst for community development...

Back in June 2026 we tried something pretty ambitious! We live stre...

23/08/2026

A proud & wonderful moment, from a few weeks back! Here's CAER Heritage co-founders Dave and Olly talking to Tom Hicks about his decade long journey on CAER Heritage from community volunteer to Marsh Charitable Trust ArchaeologyUK Archaeologist of the Year 2026!

21/08/2026

21/08/2026

19/08/2026

Unfortunately, the Silent Disco planned for Thursday 20th August has been cancelled.

We apologise for any disappointment or inconvenience this may cause, and thank you for your understanding.

19/08/2026

It’s been another brilliant morning at CAER Heritage with the latest session of our August Activity Programme. The Pharmabees team from the Cardiff University School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences delivered a workshop on how bees have played their part in making Caerau and Ely the places they are today.

Over thousands of years, Caerau and Ely has changed from a wetland “island” surrounded by marshy Fens into fertile farmland, while the Romans introduced gardens filled with food and medicinal plants that supported health and wellbeing. Bees have played a vital role in shaping our landscape, by pollinating wildflowers, crops and trees. We learned about how we can help them survive by planting bee-friendly flowers, creating habitats and reducing pesticide use.

We got to see Cardiff from the perspective of a Bee, flying over the city using VR headsets, and see how Bees view the world around them through their compound eyes by using special glasses. We were also lucky enough to see the pollen they collect up close under a microscope and hear the sound of the pumpkins our gardening group have been growing using an instrument that monitors the electrical signals of plants!

Some of us even got to try on real bee keeping kit and see some bees hard at work in the CAER Centre garden! A huge thank you to Les, Alex and Daniella for bringing all of this fantastic knowledge to share with us today! 🐝

13/08/2026

Well that’s one way to stay cool we suppose! 😂

Glyn, Em and Caroline have been hard at work today maintaining the flotation equipment ready for wet sieving. Flotation / Wet Sieving is one of the day-to-day post-excavation jobs that our environmental sample processors, like Glyn, Em and Caroline undertake.

Flotation removes all the clay and reveals the small pieces of pottery, flint and plant materials that would otherwise be missed!

Wet sieving samples from our community excavations in Trelai Park enable us to understand what the environment was like there in the past and how different areas of the site had been used. Helping us build up a better picture of what it was like to live there thousands of years ago!

12/08/2026

It’s been another fantastic morning at the CAER Centre for our August Activity Programme delivered by Cardiff University experts in archaeology, astronomy, microbiology and engineering.

Today we were joined by by Paul Roche and Tony O’Sullivan who led a workshop looking at how our ancestors viewed the night sky, how it influenced almost every aspect of their lives and continues to do so today. We learned about how the ancients interpreted the skies above them and how things changed with the invention of telescopes, cameras and satellites. We even heard a little about the eclipse that will take place later in the day and how this phenomenon occurs.

Then we were able to use thermal imaging cameras, track the movement of the sun and see sunspots with special telescopes, and interact with a virtual solar system. We even got to handle space rocks, some of them are older than the Earth itself! A huge thank you to Paul and Tony and to everyone who came along to get involved! Happy eclipse spotting to you all! 🌙

11/08/2026

As part of the August Activity Programme, tomorrow (Wednesday August 12th 10:00-12:00) we’re being joined by the awesome Paul Roche for a workshop where we’ll learn about how our ancestors viewed the night sky, and how it influenced almost every aspect of their lives. 🌌

We’ll be exploring how things changed with the invention of telescope, cameras and satellites, and learning about the eclipse that will take place later in the day. There will also be opportunities to handle space rocks, use thermal imaging cameras, and study the Sun with special telescopes! 🔭

If you’d like to come along please send us a message here or get in touch via email to [email protected]