Introduction

Cardiff is Europe's youngest capital city and its history is dominated by its maritime and industrial heritage. However, nestled deep in one of its suburbs, surrounded by houses, is one of the most important, yet little known and understood, prehistoric monuments in the region: Caerau Hillfort. Enclosing an area of more than five hectares, Caerau Hillfort is by far the largest Iron Age hillfort in South Glamorgan. The housing estates that surround the hillfort are home to more than 25,000 people – the largest social housing estates in Wales. Despite strong community ties, the people who live there are burdened by significant social and economic deprivation, particularly high unemployment. Its large population once fed major manufacturing employers, such as Ely Paper Mill and Ely Brewery, but since these closed down in the 1980s, employment in the area has never recovered. This is partly due to poor educational attainment – almost 50% of 16- and 17-year-olds have no qualifications and only 2% of school leavers go on to university (compared with 95% in other areas of Cardiff). Moreover, a disturbance in the summer of 1991 was publicised in the media as a ‘riot’ and led to a deluge of long-lasting bad publicity that has given these communities a real stigma, particularly in the minds of residents of wider Cardiff.

As modern political and economic power have become concentrated in the centre of Cardiff and at Cardiff Bay, Caerau and Ely have become increasingly marginalised. Whereas this challenging environment has deterred archaeologists in the past, this was the very reason why the Caerau and Ely Rediscovering Heritage (CAER) project was established. However, CAER is not a straightforward community archaeology research project; it is underpinned by objectives forged during a series of initial meetings involving local residents, local school representatives, the local community development agency, local heritage institutions and a small team of academics. Importantly, these objectives are focused not upon archaeological or historical research, but, rather, on how such research might be employed to transform negative views associated with these local communities and the broader challenges that they face. From its outset, the project sought to utilise the community's rich and untapped heritage assets and local expertise to develop educational and life opportunities for its inhabitants: building confidence, challenging negative stereotypes and realising the positive potential of the process of research co-production.