Friends of Castle Meadows

The dedication of the Friends of Castle Meadows was recognised this year, when the woodland area in Castle Copse, located in Castle Meadows, was awarded National Forest for Wales status.

To mark the significant achievement, a sign was placed on September, 13 - a nod to the hard work that volunteers have contributed to maintain the beauty of the woodland.

An information sign has also been installed by the Big Pond dipping platform, with illustrations by local schools, supplying visitors with lots of information about what may be seen in and above the water in the pond.

Castle meadows
An example of community effort - schools have submitted their illustrations to create this informative sign for visitors! (Picture: Supplied). (Picture: supplied)
Castle meadows
The new sign can now be found at the pond, where you learn more about its inhabitants! (Picture: supplied) (Picture supplied)

Finally, the Friends are proud to announce that the Big Pond is now a Priority Pond within the UK and is recognised as having “high conservation value”.  It is a real achievement for the group and a cherry on a fantastic cake, following their Level 3 award at the recent Wales in Bloom awards.

Blaenavon Local History Society

Blaenavon Local History Society’s September presentation by John Evans to a packed audience at King Street Chapel dealt with the fascinating subject of crime in the 1800’s.

John’s audio-visual talk used some amazing ‘mugshots’ of period criminals from the police archives and detailed the sometimes appallingly harsh sentences meted out to very young children for apparently trivial offences.

Coal blaenavon
A coal book, showing the history of coal mining in Blaenavon (Picture: supplied). (Picture supplied)

On the other hand, one could get away with murder, quite literally, depending on your position in society. John also touched on how law and order was maintained in a very different age from our own.

Our Society meets on the second Thursday of the month in King Street Chapel, Schoolroom. Membership costs just ten pounds per year.

There is a great interest in the past of Blaenavon World Heritage Site and the Blaenavon Heritage History Group that meets weekly at the World Heritage Centre has just published a softback Short History of Coal Mining in and around Blaenavon.

The large-format, lavishly illustrated, 150 page book is available from Green Gables Grazing and Deli, 94, Broad Street at a cost of 15 pounds per copy and will appeal to all those with an interest in our past.