Happy St David's Day

Happy St David's Day

from llanblogger!

Eisteddfod's gem of a fundraising idea

 

* Call me: Christine Dukes is collecting unwanted phones,

 jewellery and foreign currency to raise money for the Llangollen

International Musical Eisteddfod.

 

 

UNWANTED jewellery, foreign currency and mobile phones are helping Llangollen International Musical Eisteddfod (LIME) retain its place as Wales’s Mecca for music, dance, costume and culture from around the world.

 

A host of international stars headed by rock legends Status Quo will line up for this year’s festival from July 8-13, which will once bring visitors flocking from across the globe.

 

But keeping the whole glittering affair running requires a huge fundraising effort and, as the Llangollen’s Festival Support Co-ordinator Christine Dukes explained, new ways of bringing in vital revenue are constantly being explored.

 

One of the latest ventures is a gem of an idea to recycle unwanted jewellery along with foreign currency and old mobile phones.

 

Christine said: “We are always looking for new and novel ways of raising money to support the expense of staging our iconic annual festival and exactly a year ago we decided to sign up to be involved with an organisation called Recycling For Good Causes.

 

“It’s an ethical company which has been working successfully with a wide range of charities such as LIME since 1996.

 

“The idea behind it is that people bring in their unwanted items which are then collected by the company and sent away for recycling.

 

“Money raised from selling off the donated items is then sent back to the charity, which has no overheads to pay.”

 

Christine added: “It’s a very simple idea which we introduced exactly a year ago and in the past 12 months we’ve raised quite a healthy amount of money from it.

 

“Basically, people are invited to donate items that they no longer have a use for. That might be jewellery that’s gone out of fashion, foreign currency that could have been lying forgotten at the back of a draw for years or old mobile phones.

 

“Phones seem to become outmoded fairly quickly as newer, more sophisticated models are introduced all the time.

 

“The currency can be from the UK or any foreign country. It can be either coins or banknotes, and I think many people still have some of that kind of thing lying around at home which they’d like to get rid of and benefit a good cause at the same time.”

 

According to Christine, LIME has attracted enough donations over the past year to warrant two collections by the Midlands-based Recycling For Good Causes, and these have included a diverse selection of items.

 

“We’ve had quite a few foreign banknotes, watches and even old trophies which had been handed out for sporting performance. There have also been a fair number of mobile phones of all makes and ages. But the thing we’ve had the most of by far is costume jewellery, in all shapes and sizes,” she said.

 

“Some of the items of jewellery, such as necklaces, have been broken but the good thing with this scheme is that you can still get money for them.

 

“Being part of Recycling For Good Causes has been a great success for us but, up to now, the people making donations have mainly been those who are associated in some way with LIME.

 

“We now want to spread the word about it as far as possible so that other people are encouraged to let us have their unwanted goods which we can sell on to ensure the fantastic festival we stage each year can continue to be the amazing success that it is.

 

“Goods can be brought in to the LIME headquarters any day Monday to Friday from 9am to 5pm and we would be delighted to receive all donations.”

 

The curtain raiser for this year's Eisteddfod will mark the return of opera superstar Bryn Terfel to Llangollen.

 

The acclaimed bass baritone will be playing the lead in a special English-language production of Stephen Sondheim's Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street featuring an all-Welsh cast.

 

This year's will also feature concerts by Dutch jazz sensation Caro Emerald and veteran British rockers Status Quo as well as a world premiere of a new work, Adiemus Colores, by top composer Karl Jenkins.

 

He will conduct his Latin American themed work with American tenor Noah Stewart, Venezuelan trumpeter Pacho Flores and Latvian accordion player Ksenija Sidorova to the accompaniment of the Llangollen International Eisteddfod Orchestra.

 

The Friday night concert, Spirit of Unity, will feature the Cape Town Opera, Africa’s premiere opera company, famed for their "vibrant vocalism and high-octane stage performances".

 

Appearing with them will be Wales’ representative in Cardiff Singer of the World, Gary Griffiths, the Wales Millennium Centre Only Kidz Aloud Chorus under the baton of celebrity conductor Tim Rhys Evans and British Sinfonietta, one of the UK's leading independent professional orchestras.

 

The Choir of the World competition for the Pavarotti Trophy on the Saturday night is the blue riband event of the week-long festival which will close with a Sunday night concert by Status Quo.

 

To book tickets and for more details about the urban dance competition go to the website at www.international-eisteddfod.co.uk

First sod cut at Cilmedw factory site

llanblogger exclusive ...

* At the sod-cutting ceremony, from left, are town crier Austin Chemenais,

Ken Skates AM, County Councillor Stuart Davies, Llangollen Mayor

Cllr Bob Lube, managing director of Dobson & Crowther Paul Holden and

Nick Scott, CEO of developers J-Ross.

* A general view of the Cilmedw site.

The first sod has been cut on the site of a new factory for the Dobson & Crowther  printworks at Cilmedw.

The ceremony this morning (Friday) was performed by the Mayor of Llangollen, Cllr Bob Lube, watched a group of VIPs from the company, developers J-Ross and the world of local politics.

The new factory will allow Dobson & Crowther’s current premises nearby on the A5 to be demolished to make way for a planned new Sainsbury’s supermarket.

Building work at Cilmedw is due to be complete by late summer with work starting on the supermarket shortly afterwards.

Clwyd South Assembly Member, Deputy Minister for Skills and Technology in the Welsh Government, who was at the ceremony said: “This is a great day for Llangollen and the Dee Valley.

“It is vital that we attract high quality, skilled jobs to rural areas, particularly for younger people, and this project will do precisely that.

“It will not only secure Dobson & Crowther’s future but also open up opportunities for job creation and help Llangollen to become a stronger and more vibrant community.”

UPDATE

* Keep Llangollen Special has submitted the following statement in response to the story:

"Keep Llangollen Special regrets that the Mayor of Llangollen and other dignitaries have chosen to associate themselves in a supportive manner with the job losses at Dobson & Crowther.

 

"Having researched this particular niche industry in detail, KLS forecasted these losses - from an original workforce of 110, now 60 – over two years ago.

 

"Billed as safeguarding precious jobs at Llangollen’s largest employer, this was the crux of granting planning permission despite powerful objections, including well-founded predictions of these job cuts. There are no other firms in North Wales where these people’s skills will be sought after, which leaves them especially disadvantaged in the job market.

 

"The smiles to camera will not be shared by these victims of broken promises. We call on those present to show at least a little contrition for their plight and undertake to procure resources to help them retrain in new skills to help them support their families.

 

"Given the new building and new machinery, we predict further jobs in line with European competitors who are more productive and run with fewer employees.

 

"In particular, we call upon Councillor Stuart Davies to apologise for falsely blaming the job cuts on objectors."

Chair, Keep Llangollen Special

  

Health board spends almost £800,000 on staff redundancies

The BBC has a story this morning which reveals the Betsi Cadwaladr University Health Board, which covers Llangollen, has spent almost £800,000 on redundancy payments for three staff.

For the full story see: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-26376046

Owner's ambitious plans for Old Armoury's future

* Ambitious plans ... the Old Armoury.

The woman who rescued an historic Llangollen building from dereliction has revealed her ambitious plans for its future.

Sue Hargreaves bought the empty and rundown Old Armoury, dating back to 1834, two years ago and embarked on an extensive renovation programme which has seen her introduce displays giving a flavour of its past uses as a lock-up jail and a police station.

And at the end of a fascinating talk about the project at Llangollen Museum on Tuesday night she gave details of her plan to complete the transformation of the building, which lies between between the A5 and Hall Street.

The scheme would see the armoury once again separated from the shop next door as it originally was before the first floor was turned into an army drill hall running the length of the first floor above the two buildings in the 1870s.

The ground floor of the armoury would then house a full reconstruction of the original lock-up while a small community hall, for exhibition and educational purposes, is created upstairs.

While the ground floor of the property next door would remain as a shop, a studio flat would be created above it, with income from its letting being used to help pay for the running of the armoury and hall.

In her talk, Sue Hargreaves said that when she bought the armoury two years ago she knew very little about it but immediately began looking into its history.

She started her investigation from the basis that it had been a police station but soon found there were no details of this use recorded at the Denbighshire county archives in Ruthin.

However, she did find a number of valuable documents including an original floor plan for the building, showing accommodation for a jailer and two cells downstairs with a small courthouse upstairs.

The building was in a poor condition and volunteers from Llangollen’s Tidy Town Team stepped in to clear it up and strip it back to basics.

Sue then decided to recreate, as faithfully as possible, the building’s earliest days as a lock-up and police station.

However, she is clear that it was never a fully-fledged jail but rather a place to hold prisoners temporarily until they could be brought before the magistrates.

By September 2012 the building was ready to be shown off to the public during Denbighshire’s Open Doors history event when it attracted 300 visitors on just two afternoons.

The armoury is still open to visitors on request to Sue who has made her recreation of the police station and lock-up as authentic as possible by kitting it out with props such as a Victorian policeman’s truncheon and handcuffs.

She told her audience at the museum that she had just submitted an application to the county council for listed building consent to carry out the alterations which will enable her to finalise her renovation plan.

“I want to restore the building to the same size it used to be, with no drill hall above, using the first floor of the armoury as an exhibition and education centre,” she said.

“We would have art and sculpture displays and perhaps Welsh classes there. I have had enquiries from a number of organisations who say they would be interested in using it once it is set up.

“We would form an organisation to run the building and the shop and flat next door. Its provisional title is Llangollen Arts Community and Education (LACE).

“The shop next door would stay as it is and have a studio flat above. The income from letting the flat would supplement the lock-up and the community hall.”

Old Armoury facts

·   The building was designed by the county architect for Denbighshire and is the only known building in Llangollen constructed from limestone.

·    Its first “keeper” was  a David Davies who lived in Chapel Street.

·    Sue’s research shows one of the lock-up’s prisoners was an Edward Hamer of Chirk who was arrested in 1860 after being found in possession of a chisel and poker and suspected of being about to break into a dwelling. He and another man, Thomas Humphreys, were eventually acquitted of the crime when they appeared at Ruthin quarter sessions. Sue has a recreation of Hamer lying on a bed in one of the cells – with his poker and chisel hidden underneath it.

·  Denbighshire was the first non-metropolitan county in Britain to set up its own police force in the 1840s, but Sue has been able to find very few details about the armoury being a police station. However, one piece of evidence for this comes in a reference made to Llangollen Fair in the book Wild Wales by George Borrow in which he details a family holiday through north Wales in 1854. The fair was held in a square (now Victoria Square) a principal feature of which was a police station, according to the author.

·   In 1871 the building was sold to local solicitor Charles Richards, with the purchase price apparently being less than the original cost of construction. In 1879 it became a base for the 9^th Denbighshire Rifle Volunteers, which is why the drill hall was built above both the former lock-up/police station and the adjacent shop. It was at this time it became known as the armoury.

It's almost time for the Accrington Pals to march

It's almost curtain-up time for the Twenty Club’s production of Peter Whelan's classic play The Accrington Pals.

* David Connolly, Andy Evans, Ally Goodman and Andrew Sully in a scene from the play. 

 

The Llangollen-based group is staging the moving First World War drama from March 6-8 in Llangollen Town Hall to mark the 100^th anniversary of the start of the conflict in 1914. 

The Accrington Pals is based on the true story of how the smallest town in England raised a volunteer force to fight in the war, contrasting life at the front and in the 1916 Battle of the Somme with the women left behind.


* Left: Director Rachel
Morris with the famous
Kitchener recruiting
poster from World War
One.



* Right: Natalie Evans
and Anna Turner
rehearse for the play.


* Pictures by Dave Roberts

* For more details visit facebook.com/twentyclub.

Plas Madoc closure decision delayed

Wrexham.com is reporting that Wrexham councillors have voted to delay a decision on the closure of Plas Madoc leisure centre until a review of the issue has been carried out.

For the full story see: http://www.wrexham.com/news/reprieve-plas-madoc-closure-reviewed-41456.html