At school the Author was fascinated by History. She will always be grateful to the Latin teacher, Mr Cox, who gave up one of his free periods, every week for two years, to tutor her at the back of the School Hall (when the school was unable to cater for her preferred choice of A-levels,) His kindness and dedication enabled her to pass a fourth Latin A-level. As a result, she was able to pursue a lifelong career as an Archivist caring for old Manuscripts.

After graduating from Sussex University, she moved on to complete an Archives Course at the University of Bangor, and indeed was later to act as a part-time occasional Lecturer on this course for many years. Afterwards she worked in Record Offices in Caernarfon, Anglesey and Merioneth. Part of her degree course had included units on Education. She retained a lifelong interest in Education at all levels and participated in pioneering work promoting the use of Archives in Education at all levels in schools, colleges and Adult Education. She served on the UK’s Archives Education Committee in its formative early years. For many years she collaborated with a number of Departments in Bangor University, Coleg Normal and Bangor’s Teacher Training College, contributing occasional lectures for Departments in History, Geography, Social Policy and Institutions, the Religious Education Centre and for several Postgraduate teacher training courses. Later her remit widened to cover Museum Education as well. Later roles included oversight of the Anglesey Archives Service and the care of several Anglesey Museums. She completed a mid-career Masters Degree in Heritage Management (part time over four years) with the University of Leicester, based in Ironbridge Museum and Institute.

Her leisure interests between 1982 and 2002 included Aerial Archaeology. She gained a Private Pilot’s licence. Flying in a flimsy wood and canvas aeroplane with her husband she undertook pioneeering work recording the landscape of north-west Wales from the air. She had a long association with the UK’s Aerial Archaeology Group and served on the UK-wide Aerial Archaeology Committee. With her husband Capell she flew all over Europe covering Ireland, the Scottish islands, Orkney, Shetland and the Faeroes, France, Germany, Switzerland, Norway, Denmark and Iceland and also several countries in Eastern Europe just after it opened up to Western contact.

Her career involved helping other researchers, and she co-operated with many institutions within Wales and beyond including the BBC, HTV, the various UK National Monuments Records, the National Museum of Wales and several other Museums.  Once retired she travelled widely in Europe visiting Museums, Galleries, Archaeological sites and Heritage sites. She has served on the Anglesey Antiquarians Committee and is a Vice president of the Talwrn Archaeology Group.  Between 2007 and 2017 she was an active member of the Anglesey Ancient Roads Group. Finally, she is now able to devote time to her own research interests, currently focusing on the early history of northwest Wales.

 

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There can be few people better qualified to tackle the daunting challenges posed by this distant and obscure period.