The campaign to protect Wallace's birthplace near Usk in Wales has been given a new impetus by a Professor from Cardiff University, David Lloyd. David recently sent the message below urging everyone interested in the house to email Cadw and ask them to reconsider their unfortunate decision not to give the house legal protection (also see http://gwentbirding.blogspot.com/2010/08/more-on-wallaces-gaff.html). The aim is to convince Cadw to give the building protection by officially 'listing' it. Apparently the Mechanic's Institute in Neath, Wales, which was built by Wallace and his brother in the 1840's, is already listed by Cadw, which is one reason why they are reluctant to list a second building associated with Wallace. The main reason though is that they believe that the house has been extensively altered since Wallace lived there. A Cadw spokesperson recently said "Though Wallace's importance in the development of the theory of evolution is now fully recognised, it was decided not to list Kensington House as it has been substantially altered and now retains little of its original early 19th Century character and contains no features that directly illustrate its historical associations with Wallace who lived there for the first five years of life." (see http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/10284689), HOWEVER, they are completely incorrect! The fact is that the house is structurally little altered since Wallace's lifetime, as is obvious from comparing old and recent photos of it (e.g. see the photos below). Ironically, the Mechanics Institute which *is* protected by Cadw is in fact much altered internally, since it was gutted by a severe fire in 1903! Please lend your support and email Cadw today!!!
Subject: Alfred Russel Wallace Birthplace Llanbadoc, Usk, Monmouthshire should be a Listed Building: help please
Dear Colleagues,
CADW (devolved equivalent in Wales of English Heritage) have twice (in 2000 and again this year) rejected calls to preserve this building on the (mistaken) grounds that it has been extensively altered since Victorian times.
Alfred Russel Wallace lived in this house until he was five or six, and at least two of his sisters are buried in Llanbadoc Churchyard half a mile further down the Usk valley. He returned to this village several times in later life and has written fondly and extensively about his earliest days in his autobiography "My Life" (1906). This home, the formative influences of these earliest years in South Wales, and those of the further two periods, each of three years, spent working with his elder brother in Neath were very important, not only to his interests in natural history, but also the development of his socialist principles. (Please see references in attached short synopsis by Lloyd, Wimpenny & Venables, 'forthcoming papers online' at the website of J. Biosciences 35 (3) Sept (2010).
Please help by e-mailing:
Mr Philip Hobson hobsonp@wales.gsi.gov.uk at CADW (and copy to lloydd@cf.ac.uk) to stress that ARW was an extremely influential biologist. In fact, had a newcomer to evolutionary biology examined the literature during 1855-58, he or she would have concluded that the leading Evolutionary Theorist and Field Naturalist of the time was Wallace and not Darwin (who had published very little).
Thanks,
David Lloyd
(Professor of Microbiology, Cardiff University, Wales, UK.)
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| Kensington House (formerly Cottage) as it is today. Copyright G. Beccaloni. |
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| Kensington Cottage as it was in Wallace's lifetime, from a print owned by the Wallace Family. Copyright Wallace Family & G. Beccaloni. |
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