The conservation and repair of the west front of Tintern Abbey church, undertaken by Cadw between 2005 and 2010, provided an unrivalled opportunity to survey, record and analyse the design, construction and alteration of a much-celebrated example of medieval architecture. This paper considers in detail the moulding profiles and ornament of the west front and offers a developmental history for this part of the abbey church. Comparisons are made with ecclesiastical architecture elsewhere in England and Wales, and with the contemporary programme of work being undertaken at nearby Chepstow Castle. Two appendices outline the history of its conservation since 1900 and assess some Victorian drawn records of the west front.

The relation of the architect to architecture is elusive, since documentation can be scarce and the cult of the individual architect as a hero has allowed less well-recorded individuals to disappear from the narrative. The collaborative nature of building throughout history has been lost to historians. The paper considers the problems of attribution and the efforts of historians to discover architects, as well as those of architects to rewrite history to their advantage. We cannot take for granted the architect as he or she moves through history.

The concentration of military architecture in north Wales from Flint in the east to Anglesey in the west is unsurpassed anywhere in Great Britain. Some of the castles are attributable to the wars fought between the princes of Wales and Edward I of England in 1277, 1282 and 1294/5. Others were built several decades earlier, by both the Welsh and the English. Of these, some were slighted and left in disrepair after Edward’s conquest, but the English took over and modified some others, notably Castell-y-Bere, Criccieth and Dolwyddelan. This article is primarily concerned not with them, but with the castles built de novo around Snowdonia by Edward after his various campaigns: Flint and Rhuddlan founded from 1277, Conway, Caernarfon and Harlech from 1283, and Beaumaris from 1295. Their location reflects the outcome of the wars, with Flint and Rhuddlan founded in the east after Llywelyn ap Gruffudd had retreated into Snowdonia; Conwy, Caernarfon and Harlech closer to Snowdon after Llywelyn’s defeat and death; and Beaumaris on Anglesey after the Welsh uprising of 1294/5. These castles are judged to be the apogee of military architecture in the late thirteenth century. Imposing and stylish, they represent all that was required in a fortified castle at that time: a visible, formidable presence that dominated its surroundings; defensive strength in walls, mural towers, and gatehouses equipped with multiple portcullises and murder holes; and domestic apartments suited to the administrative and judicial duties that the constable would dispense in peacetime.

This paper provides a comprehensive description of St Davids Bishop's Palace. Almost completely built under the patronage of Bishop Henry de Gower (1328–47), it represents the most remarkable secular building in the Decorated style. Detailed analysis of each elevation of the palace has enabled sixteen phases of work to be identified, nine of which are grouped into three building campaigns sponsored by Bishop de Gower. This has enabled the evolution of the plan and the functions of the different rooms to be identified. The two main ranges of the palace are decorated with a unique, arcaded parapet, containing over 130 carved corbels, with other sculpture surviving internally. This represents the largest group of sculpture in a domestic building of this period and a detailed catalogue and analysis is presented. Both the architectural detailing and the sculpture show that the master craftsmen had close links with the Bristol school of the Decorated period.

In 1992–93 excavations were conducted in central Knossos, among the Minoan houses south-west of the Palace. This article describes the unexpectedly large amount of post-Minoan occupation there, casting new light on the extent to which the Hellenic town encroached upon the allegedly deserted Palace area. One Minoan house, much ruined, proved to have been reoccupied in the tenth century BC and again in the seventh. Nearby, a well-preserved pottery kiln of the early seventh century was discovered, and also a paved road of the fifth century which apparently ran across the ruins of the Minoan houses.

The pottery and other finds are presented in fourteen stratified deposits, mainly of the Early Protogeometric, Early Orientalizing, Late Archaic, and Classical periods. These are supplemented by important unpublished pieces from Evans's soundings in the immediate neighbourhood, confirming the extensive seventh-century reoccupation of the site.