Case Studies

Our Brief

Margam Castle is a Victorian stately home in South Wales built by a wealthy land-owning family, the Talbots, who also gave their name to the nearby steel town, Port Talbot.

Relatives of the Talbot family included the pioneer photographer, William Henry Fox Talbot, and their friends included Calvert Jones, the man who took the first recorded photograph in Wales - a portrait of Margam Castle.

Over the years, the Talbot family left the castle and it came into council ownership. In 1977 it was gutted by fire and since then has been only partially occupied.

David Clarke Associates were retained by Neath Port Talbot County Borough Council in association with Ffotogallery, a prominent photographic arts organisation. Their brief, working with architects Walters and Cohen and other specialists, has been to assist the organisations to revive Margam Castle. Specifically to plan, fund and implement a scheme to make Margam Castle a home for a magnificent new National Centre for Photography, Wales.

Our brief in the early stages of work has been to help the team with interpretation and devise a digital media strategy that will lead to the creation of a comprehensive digital archive of photography connected with Wales.

Our Role

Consultants

What We Did

Starting in 2002 we worked with the team to develop their vision for the interpretation of the castle - making the link between the historic building and the development of photography. At the same time we worked on a digital media strategy for the new organisation including a comprehensive digital archive of photography connected with Wales - i.e photography of Welsh subjects or by photographers connected with Wales.

The Results

Our report was delivered in 2002 and has since been included in the complete plan for development of the site. In 2005 the project secured £9.5m funding, sufficient for it to go into full-scale development.

We have recently been advising the team on the next stages of development.

Valuable experience from this project has helped to shape our approach to strategy consulting.