On 20th September 2014, we celebrated the 1st year anniversary of the opening of the coffee shop. Can you believe that a year has passed already?! In that time, we have had the pleasure of working with over 50 volunteer coffee shop assistants in order to provide you with a warm welcome and delicious homemade refreshments as well as generate revenue for the future maintenance of Valley Woods.
Not only have sales been good (we had a record-breaking month in September), but we’re receiving an increasing amount of donations from visitors. We’re sure that this reflects the appreciation that you all feel towards us as a local voluntary group taking on such an ambitious project and doing such a good job in the process – we are all very proud of our achievements!
Enjoying the BBQ! Photos by Faye Maher (Sept 2014)
To celebrate in style, we organised a BBQ on the terrace of the coffee shop in early September. Thank you to everyone for coming along with some sumptuous food to share and making it a very special evening to remember.
1st Year Celebration BBQ. Photo by Faye Maher
If you would like to join our community coffee shop team, do get in touch. We are particularly looking for volunteers who can help in the afternoons on Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays.
UPPER LAKE
Peace returned to Valley Woods at the end of September! The lake contractors finally left site having completed the restoration of the main tracks and lakeside promenade used during the lake de-silt. It’s a strange but lovely feeling – with no machinery around the upper lake and only the sound of birds and running water. Check out the difference a year has made:
Panorama View of Upper Lake 2013. Photo by Jamie Morris.
Panorama View of Upper Lake 2014. Photo by Jamie Morris.
View of Upper Lake and Island from Eastern Bank. Photo by Philip James (Sept 2014)
Even our canine friends are enjoying the new lakeside paths! 🙂
Photo by Big Al Tomlinson via Facebook. September 2014.
Did you know? The lake originally covered 1.35 hectares, but the massive embankment of the M4 motorway and A48 now cuts across its upper end. A small boathouse called “The Shanty” lay on its Western side too and at the head of the lake, there would have been a footbridge and a flight of stone-cut steps leading down to a landing place – both of which unfortunately disappeared beneath the M4 embankment.
Now disappeared beneath the M4 embankment. Photo by John Dillwyn Llewelyn (19th century)
The Shanty. Photo by John Dillwyn Llewelyn (19th century)
Writing in 1886, A Pettigrew provides us with a description of the lake in its Victorian heyday:
“Advantage has been taken of the narrowness of the valley here to make a lake by throwing a bank across it and damming the stream. The lake is beautifully situated and its surface along the margin is covered with different kinds of Water lilies, while the steep banks on all sides are wooded down to the water’s edge. In the middle of the bank, at the lowest end of the lake, there is a strong bulwark composed of large blocks of stone, which forms the resisting power to the heavy weight of water at a point where the lake forms a cascade, which leaps boldly over a fall of 18 feet, … Both lakes are well stocked with trout which afford good sport to Mr Llewelyn and his friends from boats during the fishing season.”
After nearly 80 years of neglect and encroaching development, we are so pleased that as a local independent charity, we intervened just in time and are able to bring Penllergare back to life for everyone to enjoy! With your support over the months and years to come, we very much hope that our restoration journey will go from strength to strength! We mustn’t forget that without us and without you, our secret and magical place could have been lost forever!
ARCHIMEDEAN SCREW
Good progress has been made with our negotiations with Ofgem about the Feed in Tariff arrangements – the payment mechanism for electricity produced by the Archimedean screw hydro turbine. The turbine is still in standby mode because of the long dry spell and the low water level in the lake. For the technical minded – the turbine has generated 5553kWh to date – just a fraction of what we expect over the winter! We hope that it will generate £10,000 per year to go towards the maintenance costs of managing Valley Woods.
WOODLAND GARDENING
Our wonderful woodland volunteers continue to make a huge impact on the woods with more rhododendron being cut and treated to prevent it re-growing and large areas of disturbed ground being picked over for stones and grass seeded – even in this dry weather, you can see the new grass coming through. Our volunteer woodland ‘gardeners’ have also been busy planting in the area close to the coffee shop – we can’t wait to see what this will look like next Spring (and of course in the years and seasons to come). What would we do without them?!? We’re so lucky to have such excellent and active support from a wide range of people and communities. If you would like to join us, please do get in touch.
Volunteer Woodland Gardeners Ray and Janet. Photo by Christine Clarke (Sept 2014)
Christine, Janet and Janet making progress on the upper terraces. Photo by Faye Maher (Sept 2014)
LITTER
A big thank you to everyone who picks up litter in the woods! We have come across quite a few people quietly going along and collecting litter of their own accord while out for a walk – often accompanied by mutterings as to why people spoil such a lovely place by leaving litter about! We often get asked why we don’t put more litter bins around the woods. At other sites, owners and managers are taking litter bins away as they attract litter! Also, it is very labour intensive. Having taken soundings from other places, we have to date adopted a zero waste policy – our message is simple – ‘if you want to keep Penllergare open, safe and welcoming for everyone to enjoy, please help us to look after it and take your litter home with you’!
WILDLIFE
Exciting news – a water vole has been spotted and photographed at Lower Lake proving the importance of Penllergare as a green corridor for a diverse range of wildlife. According to the Wildlife Trust, the water vole is Britain’s fastest declining wild mammal and has disappeared from many parts of the country where it was once common. It is threatened by habitat loss, but has suffered particularly from predation by the introduced American Mink. We are working with Swansea University and other experts to help respond to this brilliant finding.
Water Vole at Penllergare. Photo by Official Carmarthenshire Wildlife Watch via Facebook. Sept 2014.
Lower Lake at Dawn by Carey Beor. September 2014.
As the trees relax after a busy summer and turn the valley into splashes of reds, yellows, oranges, browns and greens, we have started to witness the emergence of nature’s army of recyclers – the mushrooms. October is the best time for a fungi foray! Look out for them along the damp woodland floor or on dead wood. You can even download family fungi activities here: http://www.naturedetectives.org.uk/download/fungi.htm
Shaggy Ink Cap – Photo by Brian Meredith (Sept 2014)
FUNDRAISING
Bright sunshine, a warm breeze and the thought of a bargain brought many people to the Car Boot Sale at the Penllergare car park in early September. There was an eclectic mix of goods on offer and trade was brisk. The event was organised entirely by volunteers and a huge thanks goes to them for all their preparation and hard work resulting in just over £1,000 (with Gift Aid) going towards the future maintenance of Valley Woods. Well done and thank you to all who came along to support us!
Car Boot Sale 2014 – Photo by Christine Clarke
The local Moto Area Manager visited us to present their cheque for £1000 from their community grant fund this month. Volunteer Managing Director, Paul Baker received the generous grant which is to be spent on upgrading paths and steps. We are Moto’s local charity of the year for 2014. If you know of any other local companies who might like to ‘adopt’ us in this way, then please get in touch.
Paul Baker and local area Moto General Manager (Sept 2014)
EVENTS
Forest Schools Swansea and Neath and Port Talbot are back in the woods again after a short summer break. The Forest Schools philosophy is “to encourage and inspire individuals of any age through an innovative, long term, educational approach to outdoor play and learning in a woodland environment”. The local group is particularly go ahead and have been working with us in Valley Woods for a couple of years. They have two sites, one at either end of the woods, and bring school children and young people into the woods for outdoor play and learning. They also hire our Woodland Centre for training courses for future Forest Schools leaders.
Forest School in action. Photo by Philip James.
A small group of our woodland volunteers visited the 10th anniversary open day of Blaen Bran Community Woodland in Cwmbran in September with the aim of finding out more about the methods in which other community woodlands are sustainable.They had a great time discovering more about their wide range of woodland products and being envious about their well-equipped woodland work yard. In late October, we will be hosting a regional network event for community woodlands in Wales organised by Llais y Goedwig which will give us other opportunities to share knowledge with like-minded organisations.
What’s more, we have been running lots of walks and talks this month as part of the Love your Countryside Festival, the Open Doors weekend and of course in response to your numerous enquiries and hunger for information.
Restoration Walk with David Connick (Sept 2014) – Photo by Christine Clarke
The third of our annual “Introducing Penllergare” guided walks will take place on Saturday 18th October at 2.15pm and the last of this year’s evening Restoration Walks will take place on Wednesday 29th October at 4pm (not 6pm as usual because of the change in daylight hours). The former focuses on the Penllergare story: the history, wildlife and restoration of the estate, while the latter concentrates on the restoration project currently ongoing in the northern end of the valley. For both walks, meet at the Penllergare car park and don’t forget sturdy footwear. Dogs are more than welcome provided they are kept on a lead.
You’ll also find us at the Blaenymaes Xstream Market Day on Friday 10th October. If you’re coming along, do pop over for a chat! 🙂
This month we will love you and leave you with a fantastic video of a visitor’s journey through Penllergare. A big thank you to James Dewitt for creating this and sharing it with us all.
We hope to see you soon! Thanks a million for your support!
Penllergare Valley Woods 