A local man has constructed a model of Highlight Church as it was in the 14th Century, to help bring to life Barry's local history.

Archaeology and local history have been a lifelong hobby of Gareth Tyley's, having taken part in excavations in the area and writing the book 'Barry Unearthed' about excavations in the town from 1872 to present day.

With his latest project, reconstructing Highlight Church as it was in the medieval period, Gareth is hoping to be able to teach more people about Barry's past.

"The idea of my model was to reconstruct the church as it was in the 14th Century, do enlarged photographs and then take walks up there to match up the details with the wall remains that are there," Gareth explained.

"Many years ago, between 1963-66, I was involved in an excavation at Highlight Church.

"This is a reconstruction based on archaeological evidence and other surviving churches.

"It's taken a while to do. I don't think people realise the size of it, and think it's the size of a dolls house.

"But it's only nine inches long, three and a half inches wide, and five inches tall. It's quite small," he said.

The model is made from clay, wood and paper and is based on the ground plan of the church. Inside, Gareth has spared no detail, which are partly based on discoveries made at Llancarfan Church.

"They were doing some work there and they uncovered many were wall paintings which they didn't know existed," said Gareth.

"Most churches throughout the country during the Middle Ages were decorated inside with wall paintings because the local peasantry, for want of a better word, were all illiterate.

"So, the only way they could learn stories from the Bible was from the paintings on the wall of a church.

"If you go to St. Fagan's Folk Museum, they've reconstructed a medieval church and on the inside, it is richly decorated with wall paintings.

"All churches would have been like that at one time. And then of course, Henry the Eighth came along with the reformation, and then later on the time of the English Civil War, they were they were destroyed again. So very few survive."

Gareth has designed his model so that the roof can be taken off, displaying the roof timbers. These can also be removed to view the inside details, such as the wall murals.

He also has plans to reconstruct the Cliffwood Cottage in Porthkerry Park, also known as the Witch's Cottage.

"I excavated part of that in 1966. The actual documentary evidence it was lived in by a woman called and Jenkin and her son William," said Gareth.

"But they were reputed witches, and there's all kinds of stories about them. The idea would be to reconstruct that as it was in 1763."