Your Humble Host

I would first like to thank everyone who has visited the Castle of Wales web site. We first went online in December of 1995, very uncertain if anyone else out there would be interested in a topic as seemingly obscure as medieval Welsh castles. At first the site was simple and primitive, a reflection of my early experiments with HTML, and we covered only a few of the better-known Welsh castles.

I was ready to call my experiment a success and move on to other things, however because I received a significant number of messages of encouragement from people who were thankful for the availability of such an online resource, I soon determined to create what I hoped would be a truly useful collection of information and images. (I suppose that means I'm not the only castle enthusiast cruising the Internet! :-) The site has since grown from a few pages to over 1000 different pages of information, accompanied by about as many photographs. My "hobby" had gotten a bit out of hand! :-)

My first priority was to provide basic information, not only about the castles themselves, but about the men responsible for their construction and the times in which they lived. Today, many web pages are little more than collections of links to other sites on the Internet containing little or no information of their own. While this is certainly a proper role for some Internet pages, I wanted something more for this project.

Secondly, I wanted to provide decent looking photographs of my own taking, and while I can't claim credit for all the photos found here, the majority of them are mine. Admittedly some pages are graphics intensive, and this can create problems for people who lack a broadband connection to the Internet. Still, the Castles of Wales web site has been commended often for it's above-average speed. As for the actual photographs, I use jpg files rather than gif, because jpg files are smaller and therefore easier to download.

The Castles of Wales web site was created using primarily HTML Writer v.9 beta 4a, along with Microsoft Front Page and Windows Notepad. The pages have been tested on a 17" monitor with a resolution of 800x600, using both Netscape and the Microsoft Explorer.

Although we have had several sponsorship offers, the Castles of Wales web site has always been a non-commercial educational service run entirely at my own expense. All the information and photographs are provided at no cost to the user, and we neither solicit nor accept donations for sponsorship. As far as the "look" of this site is concerned, certain elements common to most web pages are absent here - a reflection of my own ideas regarding web site design. Commercial advertising, site banners, annoying pop-up ads and windows, web counters and various "award" icons are perhaps conspicuous by their absence.

About contributions to this site... As I continue to upgrade both the quality of photographs and the content of articles, I'm hoping that more people will share with us their own thoughts and experiences about visiting Welsh castles. I encourage travelers, historians, and hobbyists alike to become involved. If you like what you see here, sharing your ideas is a great way to contribute to the project. Also, if you come across a page that doesn't have a photograph of the castle being described, I'd be happy to add *your* photograph to the page, credited, of course.

We encourage and appreciate your comments about this web site. By giving us your thoughts and suggestions, you are helping build a better site for everyone. I always reply to anyone who bothers to send e-mail. It's the least I can do, and, admit it...don't you always feel just a bit cheated when you compose a nice message and the recipient fails to reply? :-) If you don't receive a reply to your comments within a few days that means something has gone wrong and I encourage you to try again. Either your message didn't get through, or your mail server returned my reply to you as undeliverable (or I could be on holiday in Wales :-) Remember, you can always send e-mail directly to jltbalt1@comcast.net.

And finally, a special and loving thanks to my understanding wife for putting up with her husband spending SO MANY HOURS at the computer in order to create this site. Again, thanks to everyone for their kind support and keep those comments and suggestions coming!

Jeff Thomas is an American of Welsh descent. He and his wife, Parthene, live just north of Baltimore, Maryland are frequent visitors to Wales and Britain. Jeff received a BA degree in History from North Carolina State University, and is presently a candidate for his Masters Degree in Finance at the University of Baltimore. He is a member of CADW: Welsh Historic Monuments, Britain's Castle Studies Group (CSG), the Campaign for the Protection of Rural Wales (CPRW), the National Welsh-American Foundation (NWAF), the Welsh-American Genealogical Association (WAGS), and the St. David's Welsh-American Society of Baltimore. His study of Welsh medieval history began in the early 1990s.