Pencoed/Mount Wood achieves coveted Green Flag Community Award

Keep Wales Tidy has unveiled this year’s Green Flag Award winners – the international mark of a quality park or green space. 

In total, 101 community managed green spaces in Wales have met the high standard needed to receive the prestigious Green Flag Community Award (83 in 2016/17).

The flag will be flying at Pencoed/Mount Wood in Denbigh in recognition of its excellent facilities and commitment to delivering great quality green space.

We are very pleased to have received this award for the third year running and feel it is just reward for all the Keep Wales Tidy and Countryside Services volunteers who keep it in such good order and to the committee of the Denbigh Community Conservation Volunteers (DCCV) which has now been involved in projects to improve Denbigh’s environment for over 20 years and continues to look for further areas to work on.

The Green Flag Award scheme is delivered in Wales by environmental charity, Keep Wales Tidy, with support from Welsh Government. It is judged by green space experts, who volunteer their time to visit applicant sites and assess them against eight strict criteria, including horticultural standards, cleanliness, environmental management and community involvement.

A full list award winners can be found on the Keep Wales Tidy website www.keepwalestidy.cymru/greenflag

New Surveys on Castell Dinas Brân

New surveys have been carried out on Castell Dinas Brân this year to find out what remains beneath the surface of castle and the Iron Age hillfort.

The geophysical survey, which was funded by Cadw and the Castle Studies Trust, used resistivity and magnetometry to build up a map of buried remains without disturbing the ground. The area is a Scheduled Ancient Monument so any excavations are not permitted without specific permission from Cadw.  Metal detecting is strictly forbidden on the site.

Recently the results have come through, and perhaps not surprisingly, features have not been identified within the castle walls, since the bedrock is very close to the surface and a lot of rubble from collapsed structures masks any other features. However in the surviving hillfort part of the site to the north, there is evidence that after the castle was abandoned the area was used for agricultural activity. There is ridge and furrow present which is evidence of strip fields that were cultivated in the 14^th century onwards, once the castle was abandoned. There are also intriguing hints of burning in a few places on the hillfort ramparts.  If you walk in this area there are small flat terraces within the site, which may be where houses were built in the Iron Age (about 2500 years ago), but the strip fields have in all probability destroyed the evidence here. However, just on the edge of the hillfort, the survey has identified the foot-print of possible round houses. We hope to use this newly acquired information about this fascinating site in information that will be produced in the future.

As part of the surveying process an Irish TV company who are filming a series on King Arthur came to Dinas Brân, as there are legends that say the Holy Grail is buried at the site. The filmmakers were keen to record the geophysical surveying which took place and to get some real archaeological techniques into their programme, which will be broadcast on the Discovery Channel by the Smithsonian Institute in the New Year.

Llangollen Whitebeam

The Llangollen Whitebeam has been identified as a unique species.  They were last surveyed in 1987 when just 239 specimens were identified – all of which were around Llangollen! Two more specimens were found in Shropshire in 2011. The tree grows on limestone rocks and it can be very challenging to get close enough to identify them.

The Clwydian Range and Dee Valley AONB is working with Chester Zoo and Natural Resources Wales to get a revised population figure with the help of eminent botanists Dr. Tim Rich and Libby Houston who are surveying the cliffs on foot.  21st Century technology is also assisting with the project as Andy

Goodwin from Remote Insight has been mapping the rocks and capturing high quality images with the use of a drone.

Survey work being carried out on Eglwyseg rocks in early September

Patchwork of the Past

The fascinating heritage of Loggerheads Country Park will be celebrated in a new Mosaic that has been created by a joint project delivered by Countryside Services and Heritage Service, Art Service and Let’s Walk Denbighshire.

Members of the Rhyl Communities first walking group enjoyed a guided health walk that showed the plants and industrial heritage of Loggerheads and then worked with artist Julie Rogers, Illuminarte to create a piece of art work that brings together the elements that make the Country Park Special.

The mosaic includes representation of the sites industrial past and lead mining, special plants and animals, such as herb paris, rock rose, bloody crane’s bill, king fishers and butterflies, the river and the limestone rock.

The work was funded through a grant received from Natural Resources Wales through a Limestone Legacy Project that aims to conserve and increase awareness and understanding of our special limestone heritage.

Helen Mrowiec, Senior Recreation Officer with the Clwydian Range and Dee Valley Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty said: "Limestone geology is one of the special features of the AONB, it is the backbone that creates the beautiful landscapes of the area which is why so many people visit and love Loggerheads in particular, it also supports a special community of plants and animals that are of European Importance.

"It has been great to work with the Community First Group to capture this special landscape and the mosaic will highlight its importance to future visitors to the park. I would like to thank the group, artist and funders for their hard work over many weeks to create this lovely artwork which will also brighten up the exterior of the visitor centre’

The Mosaic will be installed during October and will be available for all to enjoy for years to come. If you haven’t visited Loggerheads before, or if you are a regular visitor, autumn is a lovely time to visit with the leaves changing their colour adding to its charm, warm refreshments available at the Café and a broad range of gifts, guidebooks and local produce available from the visitor centre.   

Some quotes from the Rhyl Communities First members:

Janet Moseley – I love doing art and crafts but I have never done a Mosaic before so it was lovely to be able to attend the walks and do something so enjoyable.  

Carol Stringer -  I thoroughly enjoyed doing this.  I love the fact that it will go up on the wall in Loggerheads for all to see.  I will be very proud when showing it to my Grandchildren.

Jane Evans -  I have loved coming along to this group making new friends and having fun.  It has got me out of my house and doing something that I have really enjoyed.

Gail Page – This was a great class, I was able to bring my grandson who has never been to Loggerheads before and we had so much fun. Thank you.

Forest school has arrived in Llangollen

Wild forest school launched at Plas Newydd, Llangollen this summer with two fantastic holiday club sessions offering a holistic approach to education outdoors, combining structured activities with free time to explore.

The links between our health and wellbeing and the environment are well documented, along with the need for children to have time outdoors involved in free play. Children have an inherent wonder of the natural world, and the key driver behind forest school is to turn this wonder into wisdom so children grow up educated, excited and understanding how to protect and enhance our natural environment.

Before the formal concept of forest school was developed in the UK in the 90s there were a number of outdoor learning approaches going back as far as the 1800s emphasising the importance of creative freedom, childhood innocence and the importance of nature.  In today’s digital age it’s even more important and beneficial to engage our younger generations with the natural world and outdoor play.

Forest school session activities usually include:  

• Wildlife discovery and habitat management
• Games and opportunities for creative and imaginative play
• Den and shelter building
• Fires and cooking
• Tool use
• Natural crafts
• Seasonal celebration
• Themed activities (story book/topics/characters)
• Free play and child directed learning

Following on from the summer events,  our preschool group ‘Habitots’ started at Plas Newydd and  will run in 6 week blocks to allow children to develop their skills with the sessions. For more information about our sessions email wildforestschool@outlook.com or check out our Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/wildforestschool/

A successful summer of archaeological digs

There have been a number of successful archaeological excavations in the Clwydian Range over the summer, all with involvement from Denbighshire Countryside Service. On the Iron Age hillfort of Moel y Gaer Bodfari, archaeologists from Oxford, along with local volunteers, investigated an area of the fort thought to be a gateway into the site. At Penycloddiau hillfort near Llandyrnog students from Liverpool University have been learning the techniques of archaeological excavation whilst digging up the remains of an Iron Age house and Rampart. Open day visits at both sites were extremely successful with altogether about 300 people visiting the sites.

A local community group, Clwydian Range Archaeology Group, which started as part of the Heather and Hillforts project which was managed by Denbighshire Countryside Service, has grown from strength to strength and this year have been excavating on the slopes outside the hillfort of Moel Arthur. The group applied for and got a Heritage Lottery Fund grant which was matched with a grant from the Sustainable Development Fund of the AONB and with this they have been able to employ a professional archaeologist, Dr Ian Brooks, to teach them how to excavate. The group were excavating close to the Offa’s Dyke National Trail for four rather wet weeks in July and August. Their location did mean that they too had a great many visitors, about 260 of whom signed the Visitors Book! In previous years the group has found evidence of people in the area from 5000BC to the present day. This year they located an old stream bed and deposited within this were some extremely unusual limestone tools, the like of which has certainly not been seen from this area.

Work is now going on to see if anything similar has been found anywhere in the UK. The group are gathering together again at Loggerheads Country Park in early October for a workshop session when they will begin to document everything that they have found. Plans are that they will return next summer.

It is certainly exciting to see such a focus on our area, and heartening to see how many people made the effort to visit the sites to find out what is going on.