Newsletter - Spring 2009
Contents of this edition:
Monmouthshire Orchards are put on the map
On 17th January more trees for Chepstow's community orchard project were planted in conjunction with Chepstow Town Council. Three sites were chosen: Deans Hill in The Danes, Fairview in Larkfield and Caernarfon Way in Thornwell. The planting, especially in Dean's Hill, was a truly community affair with old and young, children and dogs, councillors and Transition Chepstow members all turning out with spades and trowels to help. Around 23 fruit trees were planted and in time it is hoped that they will provide improved wildlife habitats, more beautiful environment and free fruit for the local communities. You never know, someone might even revive the ancient cider-making tradition!
In March Adventa launched a mapping project to discover the location of orchards and orchard trees in Monmouthshire. An orchard was once a feature of almost every farm in the County, and Chepstow town was famed for its display of spring orchard blossom. The launch event included talks from the Welsh Perry and Cider Society about local fruit varieties. Some cider varieties were bred on particular farms and are named after them or the farmer who developed them. They include Breakwell's Seedling, Perthyre, Berllanderi Green and Gwehelog. Some varieties have a remarkable history, but are now down to just one or two trees as farming and cider making practices have changed over time. The Monmouthshire Burgundy perry pear for example still exists on what is now Raglan Parc golf course, but the land is thought to have once been linked to Raglan Castle, perhaps producing perry for consumption by the Duke of Beaufort and their ancestors. Local varieties of apple provide a unique window to an entire social and economic heritage that is in danger of being lost. The Welsh Perry and Cider Society has created a living 'museum orchard' to preserve these rare old varieties. The Orchard Mapping Project may discover more lost treasures. If you would like to add your orchard (old or new), or even just a single veteran tree that is a remnant of an orchard, contact Erica Sheppard at Adventa on 01873 736038. Back to news index
Keep Abergavenny Livestock Market campaign
Abergavenny and Crickhowell FoE have been supporting the recently launched Keep Abergavenny Livestock Market (KALM) campaign to keep the livestock market and defeat the Henry Boot retail park proposed for the site. Over 2300 letters of support have so far been collected, including over 200 from farmers. Campaigners have been surprised by the level of anger at the Council, both among shoppers and among farmers, about the lack of consultation over this destruction of hundreds of years of tradition.
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Making historical buildings fit for the future
RURAL buildings preservation charity, The Village Alive Trust, is spearheading a conference in June entitled ‘Historical Buildings – A Sustainable Future’ with illustrious speakers including top advisor on heritage buildings in Wales, Richard Keen and the presenter of Discovering Welsh Houses, Michael Davies. The Trust is running the event at The Priory Centre, Abergavenny on Friday, June 26th, in conjunction with Cadw, Monmouthshire County Council and The Civic Trust for Wales. The day before, June 25th, delegates can see buildings saved by the grant-funded efforts of the Llangattock Lingoed-based Village Alive Trust. The conference is for those who aim to make the most of their historic building – whether it is a house, church, farm or commercial site. Owners, heritage building specialists and advisors, and those who provide traditional materials and building techniques are expected to attend.
The speakers, Richard Keen, chairman of the Historic Buildings Advisory Council for Wales, Michael Davies, Cliff Blundell, Edward Holland, Geraldine Delaney and Monmouthshire County Council’s conservation manager, Simon Robertshaw, will be followed by the presentation of the trust’s inaugural Conservation Award, which has attracted nearly a dozen entries for work on Monmouthshire’s heritage buildings.
Keynote speaker Mr Keen has made over 40 television programmes and published many books and articles on aspects of Welsh history and landscape. Formerly curator of the National Museum of Wales and advisor to the National Trust, he has also served on the Ancient Monuments Board for Wales. Michael Davies, architect and BBC presenter of Discovering Welsh Houses, will be ‘demystifying listed buildings’. A regular lecturer on building conservation his celebrated projects include the restoration of the Shell Grotto at Pontypool Park and visitor centres at sites including Raglan Castle.
Cliff Blundell, author and building limes consultant to the Aberglasney Restoration Trust in Carmarthenshire has saved over 50 buildings in west Wales from the destructive effects of modern materials. He will speak on the conservation of Welsh vernacular buildings. Edward Holland, projects advisor for The Prince’s Regeneration Trust and vice president of The Village Alive Trust, will speak on recycling historic buildings. Geraldine Delaney, consultant director with Heritage and Regeneration UK will take ‘small things make a big difference’ as her topic, while Simon Robertshaw, a chartered surveyor with a Masters in Historic Building Conservation, will talk about ‘planning to enhance your traditional building’.
The conference fee is £25 for individuals, with a discount for early bookings and £55 for companies and public bodies. Information and a booking form can be found at www.villagealivetrust.org.uk or by emailing village.alive@waitrose.com
Heritage open Day 18th April: Visitors will have their first chance this year on Saturday, April 18th to see heritage buildings saved by The Village Alive Trust in the Cross Ash and Llangattock Lingoed area.
As part of the 2009 open day programme visitors can see Cwm Farm Cider House at Llangattock Lingoed; Great Trerhew Barn, Llanvetherine and the Well House at New Inn Farm, Cross Ash. Parishioners will also open the historic, restored St Cadoc’s Church at Llangattock Lingoed and teas will be served.
All the sites will be signposted off the B4521 Abergavenny to Skenfrith road and will be open between 2 and 5pm. If the weather is wet stout footwear may be needed. Parking at Cwm Farm, Llangattock Lingoed is limited and visitors may prefer to park at St Cadoc’s Church and use the footpath down to the farm.
Further information on the buildings and the work of The Village Alive Trust, a local buildings preservation charity, can be found at www.villagealivetrust.org.uk
Goodbye at last to plastic bags?
The “Say NO to plastic bags” campaign begun by a small local group of Abergavenny Friends of the Earth supporters back in February 2008 set out to raise awareness of the whole issue of plastic bags and the harm they cause to the environment. It’s now over a year since the campaign started and we have witnessed a gradual but noticeable change in the attitude of shoppers and traders alike.
There is surely no-one who is not aware by now of the environmental problems posed by our love affair with plastic carrier bags: unsightly litter problems; expensive disposal in landfill; lack of recycling; harm caused to wildlife and livestock; wasteful use of fossil fuel; contribution to global warming; the indestructible nature of plastic.
There is considerable public support for our campaign in Abergavenny but more still needs to be done to spread the message. Some of the towns on our own doorstep, Chepstow, Monmouth and Hay-on-Wye, have conducted high-profile campaigns to reduce plastic bag use and all have produced their own reusable fabric bags. They have proved it can be done.
Abergavenny already impresses visitors with its Fair Trade status and its highly successful Food Fair and we feel that an attractive Abergavenny shopping bag would help the town to build on this and further develop its green credentials. In the current economic climate we need to do all we can to attract visitors and trade to the town and encourage people to shop locally. The Welsh Assembly has proposed a levy on single use plastic bags, so the timing could not be more appropriate.
The focus of the campaign is now to develop a bespoke Abergavenny shopping bag which should be as environmentally sound as possible, made of organic Fair Trade cotton, printed with non-toxic inks and ethically produced. A meeting was held on March 11th at St. Michael’s Centre to promote this project and to screen “Message in the Waves”, the film that was the inspiration behind the UK’s first plastic bag free town, Modbury in Devon.
Pupils from King Henry VIII School are involved in a competition to design an eye-catching image, logo and slogan for the bag and four local Primary Schools; Deri View, Cantref, Ysgol Cwmraeg Y Fenni and Our Lady and St. Michael’s Roman Catholic School are designing posters to encourage shoppers to bring their own bags. The competitions will be judged at the end of the Spring Term and prize money has been pledged by the Abergavenny Chamber of Trade, Abergavenny Town Council and Abergavenny and Crickhowell Friends of the Earth.
We hope to see the Abergavenny bag on the streets very soon. The Mayor of Abergavenny, Councillor John Prosser, will be presenting the prizes to the winners of the Bag Design competition at the start of the Summer Term. Individual prize givings for the Poster Competition will be conducted in the four Primary Schools. The winning bag designs and posters will be displayed in the window of the One Stop Shop in May and independent traders in the town centre have agreed to put the children’s posters in their shop windows to spread the “Carry-a-Bag” message.
CPRW challenges schools to create a Grand Design
This Spring Monmouthshire CPRW is again joining forces with Monmouthshire County Council to promote a competition for primary school children on an environmental theme. In past years, the competition has been divided into paintings, posters and written work. This year we’re combining the categories in a ‘Grand Design Challenge’ aimed at 5th and 6th year children. The challenge is to design a house for their own village or neighbourhood that has its own character, yet blends in with the street and the surrounding landscape. It should also be as ‘green’ as possible – ie. kind to the environment. The project will draw on the children’s artistic skills as well as their ability to express ideas in writing and their knowledge of ‘green’ issues. A grand prize-giving is planned for the summer term.
Big Garden Birdwatch, the results are in
Record numbers of us took part in this year’s Big Garden Birdwatch in January, with well over half a million records being submitted. The house sparrow remains the most numerous garden bird, although since 1979 when the Garden Birdwatch began, its number have dropped by 63%. The starling has fared even worse, with a steep decline of 79% on the numbers recorded in 1979. House sparrows are slightly more likely to be seen in Monmouthshire gardens than elsewhere in the UK, with an average of 4.5 per garden, but the starling doesn’t seem to be doing so well. In the UK on average, 3.2 starlings were seen in each garden making it the second most common bird, but in our county only 2.6 were seen by observers participating in the Garden Birdwatch. The long-tailed tit appeared in the top 10 birds for the first time this year nationwide, and it was more commonly seen in Monmouthshire than the UK average. The RSPB, who organize the Big Garden Birdwatch believe that this might be because the long tailed tit has adapted to feeding on seeds and peanuts put out on feeders and bird tables in our gardens, highlighting the positive impact that we can make on wildlife. The long cold winter of 2008-9 encouraged many of us to put out bird feed regularly and this appears to have helped many garden birds to survive. Smaller birds such as long-tailed tits are very vulnerable to cold weather. The full results for Monmouthshire, and the average number seen in each participating garden is shown below. For further information on the Big Garden Birdwatch, visit the RSPB web site.
House sparrow 4.51(average per garden in Monmouthshire)
Blue tit 3.86
Blackbird 2.99
Starling 2.66
Chaffinch 2.40
Long tailed tit 2.34
Great tit 2.16
Robin 1.87
Coal tit 1.22
Dunnock 1.21
Usk to Wye Campaign
On March 16th more than 50 local people and representatives of conservation groups gathered at Caer Llan near Trellech to hear about and contribute to the Usk to Wye campaign. The campaign is an exciting and ambitious new initiative to link up natural habitats across the area. It will involve local people from all walks of life; business, farming, landowners, charities and public bodies in working together across the landscape helping wildlife to adapt to climate change, making the area more attractive for visitors and offering opportunities for farmers and landowners to diversify their businesses.
Dr George Peterken OBE spoke at the conference of the need to connect landscape features together to maximise benefits for wildlife and provide corridors for different species to move from one area to another to ensure their survival in an increasingly disconnected natural world.
Mr Mike Townsend OBE talked of the importance of the landscape to people, the economic importance of it to those who work the land and the sense of well being that it provides to those who live in it and spend time in it. An important part of the campaign will be ensuring that the local population feels a closer connection with the natural world.
The conference delegates were inspired by a local landowner and a conservationist who have begun this work - restoring a smallholding to benefit wildlife that has created a perfect 'back to nature' camping experience for guests, and a conservationist who has over a period of years linked isolated patches of woodland together with hedgerows to create good extensive habitat for the threatened local dormouse population.
The Usk to Wye Campaign is a long term initiative, and as it develops there will be well publicised opportunities for local people to get involved and make a difference where they live. The conference ended with the planting of a selection of fruiting trees at Caer Llan.
Merger creates The Wye Valley Society
There was standing room only at the Old Court Hotel, Whitchurch on Wednesday, 4th March, 2009 when two local Societies, the Lower Wye Valley Society (LWVS) and Herefordshire Wye Valley AONB Society (HWVAS) - both concerned with the promotion, protection and enjoyment of the Wye Valley Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONB) - merged into one Society, the WYE VALLEY SOCIETY.
LWVS pre-dated the creation of the AONB and was formed in 1968 when local people became worried about inappropriate developments in their area. It was originally called the Lower Wye Valley Preservation Society.
The Wye Valley between Mordiford and Chepstow was formally designated as an Area of Outstanding Beauty in 1991 with a professional support team (currently led by Andrew Blake) established in Hadnock Road, Monmouth.
More recently, HWVAS was created in 2004, sharing the same aims as LWVS but covering the Herefordshire end of the AONB. Both LWVS and HWVAS were Charities, focussed on promoting the conservation, protection and improvement of the physical and natural environment of the Wye Valley within the AONB.
The merger idea was initiated during 2008 and the Members of both Societies consulted. The two sister Societies held individual Extraordinary General Meetings to allow their respective Members to vote on the merger motion. Following this a Special General Meeting of the newly formed Wye Valley Society (WVS) was convened and the Chairman, Executive Officers and Committee Members elected.
Roger Morgan (former Chairman of HWVAS) was elected as the new Chairman of WVS with Matthew Hall (former Chairman of LWVS) as the Vice-Chairman. Most of the elected officers of the new society had previously been committee members of either HWVAS or LWVS.
Roger Morgan said “I am honoured to be asked to chair this new society. We intend that the new Wye Valley Society will combine the traditions and campaigning enthusiasm of both LWVS and HWVAS and have a positive and proactive association with the Wye Valley AONB Unit. We would welcome anyone that shares our views to join us”
Anyone wishing to become a Member of WVS can email the Membership Secretary at membership@wyevalleysociety.org.uk. An Open Meeting will be arranged in the Spring to which the public will be invited.
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Tackling Climate Change Together
Monmouthshire’s Local Service Board has made tackling climate change one of its top priorities, and to get a better idea of what is already happening, as well as to gather key people together, they organised a conference in March 2009.
The conference was opened by the inspiring Andy Middleton from TYF, a diverse business in Pembrokeshire incorporating Welsh adventure holidays, action based equipment, an eco-hotel, events and management development all with a strong green leading edge. His presentation explored a wide range of subjects and revealed why environmental sustainability is so difficult for us to achieve, but absolutely essential for our survival as a species.
There were many fascinating insights and positive examples of people who are making a big difference by coming together in the search for solutions. One of his most interesting insights concerned biomimicry; learning design from the natural world, if we would only take the time to look and learn. In nature things are optimised for what a species needs rather than maximised for what they want. Consider the humble snail, which creates its own perfect shell from its own resources, providing shelter and safety; once the snail shuffles off its slimy trail, its shell is completely biodegradable. As Andy pointed out – we are the first species to create waste that cannot be converted back to nutrients.
To find out more about his philosophy, take on life and other activities visit TYF, the Do-Lectures or Hay on Earth.
Later we learned what members of the Local Service Board are doing to tackle climate change. The County Council has a number of areas on which it is actively working. The Environment Agency have set themselves a stringent organisational target of 30% reduction in CO2 emissions and are drawing up adaptation plans for different sectors of the Agency. Their speaker flagged up future difficulties that we will face over the availability of drinking water, much of which is abstracted from our rivers which conflicts with the need to protect fish and other freshwater species.
The conference ended with an opportunity for delegates to post comments and projects, and discuss their own activities with potential partners.
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