History's guardian marks 25 years

Raglan Castle, one of Cadw's listed historic sites

Twenty-five years ago a new guardian of the historic buildings and landscapes of Wales was appointed.

Cadw, the Welsh Assembly Government's historic environment body, is celebrating its silver anniversary.

Since it began, it has granted about £70m for conservation of some of the nearly 30,000 listed buildings and more than 4,000 scheduled ancient monuments.

Since 1984, the amount of listed building status in Wales has trebled from 9,500.

However, Cadw is responsible for the preservation of more than historic buildings.

Its remit extends to conservation areas, historic parks and gardens, historic landscapes and historic wrecks.

We have enjoyed our partnership working with CADW and the wide variety of work undertaken and new areas and history discovered BTCV Cymru

The first listing by Cadw in 1984 was an 18th Century cottage at Benllech, Anglesey, and its most recent was Ysgol Efyrnwy, Abertridwr, an experimental school and community centre opened in 1950.

Its list of buildings illustrates the history of Wales, from the Roman masonry depicted in Cardiff Castle to Norman fortresses, such as Chepstow.

Cadw believes a possible candidate for the oldest listed building in Wales could be the churchyard wall at St Cybi's church in Holyhead, Anglesey.

Traditionally believed to have been founded by St Cybi in the 6th century, the churchyard wall was believed to be the main defensive wall of a 3rd or 4th Century Roman fort.

Cadw has not only listed large medieval sites but has included in a list a number of small structures like old turnpike road milestones, bollards and even a Doctor Who-type police box from the 1930s.

World heritage

Cadw, a Welsh word meaning "to keep" became part of the Welsh Assembly Government in 1998 after devolution.

It has direct responsibility for 127 historic sites and since 1984, 24 million people have visited these sites, in addition to 2.5m visitors for education and lifelong learning programmes.

CADW'S RESPONSIBILITY 29,886 listed buildings in Wales and 4,111 scheduled ancient monuments 486 conservation areas 370 historic parks and gardens Source: Cadw

The anniversary year has had both highs and lows for Cadw. A third Welsh site was added to the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (Unesco) world heritage site list.

The Pontcysyllte aqueduct and canal, near Llangollen, was added to the prestigious list by officials early in the year.

To mark the anniversary year, grants totalling £646,000 have been awarded to thirteen of Wales' historic buildings.

The grants included money for a 19th Century cottage near Caernarfon and a former chapel now used by an Islamic society.

For the next 25 years Cadw has stated that it plans to focus on access and community involvement as well as physical conservation and mitigating the impact of climate change on Wales's built heritage.

Cadw has partnered with BTCV Cymru, whose volunteers have helped clear some of the historic sites from dense vegetation.

This has included a lot of work at Castell Blaenllynfi, near Brecon, where BTCV volunteers cleared the area of large trees, and built a new entrance gate with woodland path leading into the castle and to picnic areas.

The work has not only provided access to sites but BTCV Cymru's volunteers have benefited by learning new skills and learning about the local history.