Amgueddfa Cymru – National Museum Wales

The Vulcan Hotel was built in Newtown, Cardiff during the 19th century and opened its doors in 1853.

At that time Cardiff was growing from being a small town to the most important coal port in the world.  Newtown, now gone, was known as Little Ireland because it was home to many Irish people who came across to Wales during the Irish famine to build Cardiff docks.  More recently it was a hub for the music scene.

The pub was built near the ironworks which provided the inspiration for its name: Vulcan was the Roman god of fire and metalworking, often depicted holding a hammer as used by a blacksmith.

The Vulcan finally closed its doors in 2012 and was taken to St Fagans National Museum of History after being dismantled in the same year.

The Radcliffe Trust awarded Amgueddfa Cymru – National Museum Wales a grant to help them tell the next chapter in the history of Wales and The Vulcan Hotel by re-erecting the Vulcan at St. Fagan’s National Museum of History, bringing it back to life for visitors to enjoy.

The Radcliffe Trust’s grant has benefited all who have been working on rebuilding The Vulcan Hotel at St Fagans National Museum of History, and especially the apprentices, including the Apprentice Traditional Carpenter, Tom who commented “It has been a huge learning curve for me to be part of a construction project from the start. I have really enjoyed seeing the progress on site as the construction has developed and knowing that I have been part of the process with the rest of the Historic Buildings Unit team.”

 

The link below taken from ITN news 2020

https://www.itv.com/news/wales/2020-01-22/cardiff-s-19th-century-vulcan-pub-being-rebuilt-brick-by-brick

 

The link below is taken from a BBC programme Inside Museum with Cerys Matthews in 2020

https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p08v7lsm

 

The Historic Buildings Unit (HBU) team from left to right:

Isaac Rees – HBU Apprentice Traditional Painter, Clive Litchfield – Senior Traditional Painter, Tony Lewis – HBU Site Manager, Michael Conway – HBU Stonemason, Andrew Price – HBU Stonemason, Ben Wilkins – HBU Senior Traditional Carpenter

This photo was taken by Jody Samuel – HBU Labourer, however, unlike the iconic New York photo of the construction of a sky scraper, the team have scaffolding below them