© Heritage Lottery Fund
(Above) Jennifer Stewart, Head of the Heritage Lottery Fund Wales, Jenny Abramsky, Chair of HLF and Dan Clayton Jones, Chair of the HLF Committee for Wales, all take in the landscape of Blaenavon.
Blaenavon, a Welsh World Heritage site containing a unique combination of historic, industrial, and natural interest has received a boost to its ongoing regeneration. The Heritage Lottery Fund has announced it is awarding the Forgotten Landscapes Partnership £1.6 million to continue the work being carried out in the area.
The new grant will be put towards the conservation of Blaenavon’s wildlife and its habitat, particularly the nationally important red grouse population. The historic wetlands will be restored to their former glory, and Welsh mountain ponies reintroduced to the surrounding landscape.
Dan Clayton Jones, Chair of the HLF Committee for Wales, said: “The grant will enable the Forgotten Landscape Partnership to move forward with their plans to conserve the historic character of this amazing and diverse landscape, its culture, important industrial archaeology and wildlife, which would otherwise be lost forever.”
Other regeneration projects are focused on the restoration of the buildings, post-industrial features and ancient monuments that form the distinct character of the landscape - a 70 km area that had been dominated by the iron and coal industry for 150 years.
It survives as an example of one of the only opencast mineral workings in south Wales, while also being rich in natural heritage and containing five sites of special scientific interest.
© Heritage Lottery Fund
(Above) The announcement of the Blaenavon grant was made by Jenny Abramsky during her first visit to Wales as the newly appointed Chair of the Heritage Lottery Fund.
The Partnership is looking to involve local people once again with the area, which is still seen by many as a derelict and neglected wasteland after the abandonment of the mines. Access to the wider landscape is to be opened up, and a team of volunteers recruited to act as guides on trails and walks, and to undertake land management schemes.
To further increase local pride, educational projects in schools will see children participate in photography projects and oral history activities, celebrating the area’s cultural associations.
This “joined up” approach, says Clayton Jones, “is seen as the next natural step in the regeneration of Blaenavon bringing prosperity and significant long-term benefits to the area”. The aim is to boost the local economy and tourism, while highlighting the connection between industry, society, and the natural environment.
The area was designated by UNESCO as a World Heritage Site in 2000, and is now recognised globally as an area of rare industrial heritage. The Forgotten Landscapes Partnership scheme is seen as one of the final pieces in the complicated jigsaw of its regeneration.
