A gallery at Storiel in Bangor contains a selection of furniture and associated objects from the venue’s collection, providing an opportunity to view some items from the collection not usually displayed.

The furniture there at the moment is predominantly from Ynysgain Uchaf near Criccieth.

The Ynysgain items were left to the museum by Anne Eaden, friend and companion of Dorothea Pughe-Jones, the last of the Jones family to live at Ynysgain. Although the family lived there since 1669, the house is a little older for there is a record of gold hidden in one of the walls in 1646 during the Civil War.

The pieces are a mixture of traditional oak furniture typical of many farmhouses in the area and exotic pieces influenced by European style.

This reflects the wealth of the family and their ability to buy in furniture. Many pieces were commissioned locally using local carpenters to supply their needs.

The collection is significant as the lives of the Jones’ family are bound in this collection and each piece is steeped in tradition and history. From the traditional Welsh dresser to the Bible box from the 1700s, this collection tells its own story of rural Welsh life through the generations.

Further items of furniture can be seen in the Our Collections gallery and the Life and Work gallery in the museum.

Dorothea Pughe-Jones (Ynysgain) was born in 1875 and graduated from the University of Oxford.

She was a gifted writer and wrote a brief History of Wales in 1901, for which she won an Eisteddfod prize.

In 1910 she was one of the founders of the Bangor and District Women’s Suffrage Society.

She joined the Voluntary Aid Detachments from 1914 to 1919, to provide medical assistance during the war, volunteering in France and was later awarded the MBE for her service.