St. Mary’s Priory Development Trust 2006
The Tithe Barn, St Mary’s Priory, Abergavenny
In July 2006 St Mary’s Priory Development Trust secured ownership of its adjacent 13th Century Tithe Barn – after almost 460 years of secular control. This was just the start of their greatest challenge – turning a leaking and derelict medieval shell into a thriving and Heritage Centre. With major funding secured from the HLF for Wales, the Welsh European Funding office, The National Assembly, CADW and Monmouthshire CC work started to rescue the historic building led by the Trust’s Project Manager Jim Blackwell and its Chairman, Sir Trefor Morris, CBE QPM. 2008 saw the fruits of their labours when on 23rd October the new Heritage Centre was opened by the Trust’s Patron, HRH Prince Charles. Since its original construction as a Tithe Barn the building has over the centuries been used as a coach house, theatre, market, warehouse, market, auction house and even a discothèque! With the help of local architects Morgan & Horowskyi the building has been stabilised and a new exhibition space, restaurant and learning space created for the people of Abergavenny.
The Exhibition Space
The Trust appointed specialist heritage consultants to design the exhibition space which tells the story of St Mary’s Priory and its Tithe Barn. Also on show is the impressive 24 foot long Abergavenny Millennium Tapestry which took a team of 40 local ladies almost five years to complete. The project’s attention to detail is amazing – the exhibition’s colour scheme was inspired by the colours used on the tapestry (and even repeated on the restaurant seating) and building’s dovecote holes reflected in the use of a square motif (see the panel left) throughout the exhibition and restaurant.
Audio-Visual Installation
Blackbox-av Ltd was commissioned by The Continuum Group of York to provide and install a selection of specially chosen av hardware for the exhibition. This included a number of touchscreen systems with bespoke steel housings and mountings to accommodate the interactives on slaved LCD screens, including a rare portrait orientation version to display video interactive. The installation also included various buttons, amplifiers, sensors and speakers used support the other parts of the exhibition.
In summary, an excellent, quality Welsh project that we are justifiably proud of our contribution!
