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The National Library of Wales’ collection includes scaled architectural drawings of buildings and other structures, mainly in mid and South Wales, together with some examples for sites outside Wales.

Most of these scaled architectural drawings are technical drafts intended for use in civil construction, but include works of pictorial or topographical character such as perspective drawings featuring buildings amidst their environs.

Houses, civic and religious buildings are well represented, most of the works date from the late 19th and early 20th centuries, a period of considerable urban and industrial growth in Wales. The works range from simple pencil sketches on tracing paper to beautifully executed watercolours. Some designs were never built, whilst others are valued for showing buildings that no longer exist.

Where are the materials kept?

Most of the material is held in the architectural drawings core collection. There are also several collections identified by the name of the architect as well as items held in other collections.

Further information

Further details of the collections including digitised images of some of the material can be found by visiting the online exhibition: The Architecture of Wales, on the Library’s Digital Mirror. This is an electronic version of a physical exhibition organised by the Library in 1999.

Bibliography

  • John Davies, The Making of Wales (Cardiff, 1996).
  • Paul R. Davis & Susan Lloyd-Fern, Lost churches of Wales and the Marches (Stroud, 1990).
  • John B. Hilling, The Historic Architecture of Wales (Cardiff, 1976).
  • Anthony Jones, Capeli Cymru (Cardiff, 1984).
  • Thomas Lloyd, The lost houses of Wales. A survey of the country houses in Wales demolished since c.1900 (London, 1986).
  • Peter Smith, Houses of the Welsh countryside (London, 1988).
  • Eurwyn Wiliam, The historical farm buildings of Wales (Edinburgh, 1982).

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