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The Museum of Welsh Life ( chronicling the lifestyle, Culture and Architecture of the Welsh people. Located in the grounds of . It is also one of the most popular Tourist attractions in south Wales. The museum was started in 1946 following the donation of the castle and lands by the Earl Of Plymouth . It opened its doors in 1948 , though it was originally called the Welsh Folk Museum. The brainchild of Iorwerth Peate , it was modelled on similar museums in Scandinavia . The museum includes over forty buildings which represent the architecture of Wales, including a Celt ic village, a nonconformist chapel (in this case, Unitarian ), a school house, a tollbooth, a cockpit and even a cow shed. Apart from the Elizabethan manor house of the castle and the Celtic village and 'House of the Future' (a Millennium project), which were built from scratch, all the buildings have been transported from various locations around Wales and painstakingly reconstructed on the site. With the reconstruction of the medieval church of Saint Teilo formerly at Llandeilo Tal-y-Bont in western Glamorgan (to be restored to its pre- Reformation state), all that is missing from the Museum as Peate envisaged it is a Pub . Though the museum was intended to preserve some of Welsh rural life, it now includes several buildings that depict the industrial working life that succeeded it, itself almost extinct in Wales. There is a row of workmen's cottages from Rhyd-y-car, near Merthyr Tydfil , as well as the pristine Oakdale Workmen's Institute. A post-war prefabricated Bungalow has even been erected on the grounds. Especially on Weekend s, the museum holds displays of traditional crafts with a working Blacksmith 's forge and a Cooper . Other buildings are staffed by people in period costume. All staff are required to speak Welsh. Part of the site includes a small working farm which concentrates on preserving local native breeds of Livestock . Much of the produce from the museum is available for sale. EXTERNAL LINKS
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