Llanblogger is back ...

Llanblogger is back today following a short break.

Thanks for bearing with us while we were away.

Now we'll continue to bring you all the best in news and views from our town and out region.

Llan Food Festival hits national top ten

 

* Rob Price from Cadwyn Clwyd with food festival chair Colin Loughlin and Llangollen butcher Gwyn Davies.

 

Hamper Llangollen was named in the Top 10 food festivals in Britain by a national newspaper.

 

The accolade has delighted the organisers of the popular event that will be celebrating its 16th anniversary when it's held on Saturday and Sunday, October 19 and 20.

 

More good news came when it was revealed the festival won a special award from Llangollen Town Council for its contribution to the commercial life of the town.

 

It's estimated the event pumps nearly £400,000 into the local economy every year with £156,000 being spent at the event and a further £234,000 being spent in the town and the surrounding area.

 

Among the first to applaud the festival was Alun Davies, Minister for Natural Resources and Food.

 

He said: “I would like to congratulate Llangollen Food Festival in their excellent achievement in The Independent's Top 10 Food Festivals in Britain, as well as gaining a special award from Llangollen Town Council for its contribution to the commercial life of the town. 

 

"Food festivals are an excellent way of showcasing the very best of Welsh produce and, I know from my visit to the Llangollen Food Festival last year, that it is a great example of this."

 

Colin Loughlin, chair of the local committee that runs the festival was also delighted.

He HehEhsaid: "I am extremely proud that Hamper Llangollen has received this   fantastic recognition of being acknowledged as a top 10 food festival in the whole of the UK.

"We are the only North Wales festival to be honoured by the Independent.

 

"The  festival has gone from strength to strength since it was taken over by a local committee in 2011.

 

"The success of Hamper Llangollen is a mark of the quality of the people we have on the committee. Everybody is pulling their weight and the way it has come together is very rewarding.

 

"I think the magic ingredient in the success of the festival is the location, the town of Llangollen and the people who live here.

 

"One of our priorities has been to integrate better with the town by involving the school, the Llangollen Silver Band and local choirs.

 

"We're making a positive contribution the local economy. After last year's event, local traders told us they were delighted with the amount of business we brought to the town. They had a very, very business weekend.

 

"This year Graham Tinsley, the star of ITV's Taste the Nation and a former captain of the Welsh Culinary Team, will be joined in the show kitchen at the festival by the ever popular Dai Chef.

 

"They have done a great deal to raise the profile of real, honest to goodness food and their crusade chimes perfectly with our mission to promote the value of our indigenous producers who bring great taste and traceability to the table.

 

"We have a wonderful array of fantastic food producers clustered in the area and the festival is the perfect shop window for them.

 

"A food festival is so much better and more interesting than going to the supermarket because here you can sample the food and talk to the producers.

 

"Hamper Llangollen is celebrating its 16th anniversary this year and is firmly and rightly established as a major highlight in the UK's culinary calendar."

 

Robert Price, Cadwyn Clwyd's agri-food project officer, said: "In addition to many favourites, we have lots of new food producers wanting to come this year.

 

"The location of the Pavilion is absolutely  spectacular - I can't imagine that any other food festival in the UK has a more beautiful setting.

 

"It's also brilliant news for the local economy. If you buy from a local producer, all that money is recycled through the local economy and that sustains employment in our rural areas."

 

For more information about Hamper Llangollen 2013 go to: www.llangollenfoodfestival.com

County landmarks to feature on TV

Denbighshire Archives and the Ruthin Gaol Museum will be featured on BBC 1's The One Show as part of a focus on Victorian criminals and the early use of photography as a means of identification.

A production team, to include well-know historian, Ruth Goodman, spent a whole day at the Gaol and Archives, and the section is scheduled to be broadcast on 11 June.  

Presenter, Ruth, had her ‘mugshot’ taken and developed by a photographer who specialises in Victorian photographic techniques; a school pupil from Penycae found some information on his ancestor who had been imprisoned at Ruthin in 1871 for the theft of a velvet coat; and Ruth and Richard Ireland, a senior lecturer form Aberystwyth who specialises in the history of criminal law, discussed two rare, early ‘mugshot’ books which are part of the Denbighshire Constabulary’s records in the Archives.

Just a short break

Llanblogger is taking a short break for the rest of this week.

However, we'll be back with all the latest news and views affecting our town and our region early next week.

So see you then ...

KLS safety concerns over Post Office switch

Keep Llangollen Special (KLS) says it has concerns about one aspect of the plan to transfer the town's main Post Office from Castle Street to Stan's on the A5.

A member of the group has seen a notice in the Post Office to say the Castle Street premises will be closing on July 20, with the move to Stan's taking place on July 22.

But KLS chair Mike Edwards said: "We are concerned about the dangers for pedestrians crossing the A5 at this very busy location and these dangers will be intensified with increased volume of pedestrians going to and from the new Sub PO.

"We will be discussing this at our next meeting and will consider representations to our local members on DCC, but we may also establish a petition to make clear the community's concern about this issue."

Public asked to help tackle alien invaders in the Dee

* Himalayan balsam may look pretty but it can

cause havoc on river banks, out-competing native

vegetation and dying back over

winter leaving banks open to erosion.

 Organisations across North Wales and Cheshire are appealing for volunteers to help eradicate non-native species from the River Dee and its tributaries. 

Preparations are now gathering pace for Big Dee Day – the Invasion – which takes place on 28 and 29 June and follows on from the success of the annual Big Dee Day river clean-up.

This is the first ever coordinated event to tackle invasive non-native plants and animals, such as Japanese knotweed, Himalayan balsam and Chinese mitten crab.

A Denbighshire County Council spokesperson said: "It is open to everyone across the area – and we need your help to tackle our alien invaders right across the Dee catchment, from the river’s source in Snowdonia National Park right through Cheshire to its estuary in Liverpool Bay.

"These alien species are brought to the UK either accidentally or intentionally and can cause big problems for our native wildlife, as well as having other effects such as making river banks more prone to erosion, which can lead to flooding."

Local authority Countryside Services, Snowdonia National Park Authority, the Clwydian Range and Dee Valley Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty, Natural Resources Wales, Wildlife Trusts, the Welsh Dee Trust, Cofnod, Record and Chester Zoo are among the many organisations involved in organising this major event.

Councillor Carolyn Thomas, Chairman of Flintshire County Council and Chairman of the Clwydian Range and Dee Valley AONB, said: “This is going to be a fantastic opportunity for everyone to pull on their wellies and make a huge difference to our local environment. This is about direct action, on both sides of the border, and we are encouraging members of the public and voluntary groups to get stuck in with balsam bashing! We also need people to spy on the alien invaders and record their locations. Please keep 28 and 29 June in your diary and register your interest at  www.bionetwales.co.uk or contact your local biodiversity officer.”

Big Dee Day – The Invasion also has a Facebook page – www.facebook.com/BigDeeDayTheInvasion

Local biodiversity officers are listed below:

Cheshire Wildlife Trust	Lyn Byrne	07971 052162	lbyrne@cheshirewt.org.uk
Denbighshire	Lizzy Webster	01824 708263	elizabeth.webster@denbighshire.gov.uk
Flintshire	Amy Green	01352 703263	amy.e.green@flintshire.gov.uk
Snowdonia National Park	Gethin Davies	01766 772515	g.davies@eryri-npa.gov.uk
Wrexham	Emma Broad	01978 298762	emma.broad@wrexham.gov.uk
Gwynedd	Adam Daniel	01286 679381	adamdaniel@gwynedd.gov.uk

Fish and chips will help build special steam loco

* An artist's impression of how The Unknown Warrior will look on its launch day on 2018. 

VISITORS to Llangollen Railway are being invited to tuck into fish and chips to help top up the £1.5 million fund to build a new steam engine to mark the end of World War One. 

Specialist engineers at the heritage railway are steaming ahead with the ambitious scheme to create an entirely new locomotive, to be called The Unknown Warrior, by November, 2018 – exactly a century after the guns fell silent on the Western Front at the end of the 1914-18 conflict. 

The aim of the LMS Patriot Project is to commemorate all those who died in the “war to end wars”.

To keep the building project rolling ahead regular cash injections are needed, and the latest fundraiser will the running of a Fish n Chip Special train from Llangollen Station on Saturday, June 15.  

Tickets are £15 each and include a return trip on the Dee Valley line, starting at 7.30pm, hauled by the steam engine Black 5, subject to availability. 

The LMS-Patriot Project  was launched by heritage railway enthusiast David Bradshaw with the aim of building a new Patriot class loco, the originals of which ran in the 1920s and 30s. 

This will tour heritage railways across the country and will also be capable of running on the mainline rail network. 

Finance for the project is coming from public donations, legacies, commercial sponsorship and grant applications. 

It has received the endorsement of the Royal British Legion, and the engine will carry a Legion crest above its nameplate.  

Many original LMS drawings have been obtained for the project and, where necessary,  draughtsmen are preparing new plans using computer techniques which produce them in 3D. 

Assembly of the The Unknown Warrior began in 2009 led by Dave Owen, chief mechanical engineer of Llangollen Railway Works.  

Other workshops around the UK are making components for the new loco. 

The massive chassis of The Unknown warrior have now been laid using heavy gauge steel plate and enormous castings at a cost of £48,000. 

Next stages are to install the steam parallel boiler. Roughly the length of a single-decker bus and three times as heavy, this will cost £500,000. 

Next will come the fitting of the loco’s six 6ft high wheels iron wheels, which have a total cost of £60,000. 

The “tyres” which encase the wheels and the axles on which they will turn are both being sourced from specialists in South Africa. 

While some of the components for the engine are new, others are being reclaimed from scrap or bought from private railway collections. 

The booking form can also be downloaded from: www.lms-patriot.org.uk/FishnChip.pdf and the deadline for bookings is May 31.