After digging through my collection for 1980s memorabilia back in 2022, I’ve gone back to see what I have from the 1990s.
I’m fascinated by the very early history of the castle but I also love more recent history (yes, I know the 90s were 30 years ago!) I have a selection of guidebooks, leaflets, postcards and photos from the decade that gave us the internet, Britpop, grunge and Friends.
Cadw on the Web
The 1990s saw the birth of the internet so I visited the Wayback Machine in search of anything related to Castell Coch. There were a few pages from the Cadw website captured in 1999 and they’re a fascinating glimpse into the old web. I’ve mocked up a classic “beige box” PC monitor to see what it would’ve looked like visiting Cadw on Netscape Navigator 2.02.
The design is very typical of the early web. The elaborate primary navigation is made from illustrations and the secondary navigation uses plain list items.
Each page has a small amount of text with an illustration of a historic character and location on the right. There’s a list of Cadw sites but each page only has a brief summary and none of the images are available.
There doesn’t appear to be a Welsh version of the site captured at this time.
1994 Walking Article
This article from 1994 describes a 3 hour walk that starts and finishes at Castell Coch. I don’t know what publication it’s from.
It’s a perfectly adequate description of the route and location but one thing stands out; it describes William Burges as the, “American architect” for some reason.
1998 Leaflet
This leaflet from 1998 is a fantastic example of 90s design and has lots of information about the castle and other Cadw sites.
There was a production of Henry V in July and a Victorian Christmas Market in December. An adult ticket was £2.50, reduced rate £2.00 and a family ticket £7.00.
Castell Coch is a rich feast of decoration, detail and allusion.
I’ve recreated some of the designs below. (I don’t have a drone shot of the castle so I used an image from one of the postcards.)
Postcards
I only have a couple of postcards from the 1990s. Their popularity had declined over the 20th Century since the heyday of the early 1900s.
You can view my postcard posts for a selection of older examples.
This card was produced by “Images of Wales” and sent from Machynlleth on 10th September 1991.
This multiview was sent to South Africa on 18th June 1999. It was produced by J. Salmon Ltd.
Mary Gillham
I’ve shared loads of photos from the Mary Gillham Archive Project on Tongwynlais.com. Mary retired in 1988 but continued her travels and photography.
1998 Guidebook
After Sally Rousham’s guidebook from 1985, the next guidebook was written by David McLees and first published in 1998. This is a fantastically detailed guide with lots of new information and images.
The guidebook was revised in 2005 and 2010. I’ll cover these new books in a future post.
I hope you’ve enjoyed this look back at Castell Coch from the 1990s. I’d love to hear from you if you have recollections from school trips or family visits to the castle.
