Walking festival on track for 2016

* The area around Llangollen is a walker's paradise.

This year’s Llangollen Walking Festival will be held from April 30-May 1 and 2.

Organisers say the event gives the chance to walk with professional guides who will share their knowledge of historical sites, rivers, canal and folk tales within the Clwydian Range and Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty.

Walkers can choose from a number of routes of eight, 12 or 16 miles. One of the walks includes a heritage steam train ride.

There are short walks around the famous Pontcysyllte Aqueduct World Heritage site with a Blue Badge Guide.

There is also a photography walk and talk and two Nordic walking sessions – one for beginners and one advanced.

On certain walks there is free beer, mineral water, energy bars and “dragon poo” cake.

Charges vary and places are limited.

* Book online at: www.LlangollenWALKINGfestival.co.uk Contact the organisers, TREKsmart walking guides at: hello@treksmart.net  and @WalktheMOUNTAIN #LlanWALKfest Tel: 01978 721306

Covering of snow on the hills

Llan residents found a covering of snow on the surrounding hills this morning.

While rain showers were forecast, temperatures were expected to pick up as the day progressed.

Operatic seeks sponsorship for next show

Llangollen Operatic Society is seeking sponsorship for its forthcoming production of the smash hit Mel Brook’s musical The Producers, which will be staged in Llangollen Town Hall from April 12-16.  

 

Producer, Tracey Rawlinson, explained: “As a registered charity, fundraising efforts and the support of our sponsors is invaluable in enabling our junior and senior sections to continue producing high quality productions for the enjoyment of the local community.  

 

“We have been very fortunate to secure sponsorship from a number of local businesses and individuals in previous years and we’ve always received wonderful feedback from them as to their experience. Following the overwhelming success of Sister Act in 2015, we are hoping to attract a similar level of support again this year."

   

For £125.00, sponsors are offered four reserved balcony seats with a prime view of the stage, four drinks of their choice from the bar, four complimentary programmes and the opportunity to display marketing material in the Town Hall on the evening of their sponsorship.

 

They will also have the services of a dedicated sponsor host, who will welcome them on arrival and be on hand to ensure their experience is enjoyable. 

 

Tracey added: “We believe this package represents excellent value and in return for our sponsors’ generosity, we will guarantee an unforgettable evening of entertainment and hospitality."

  

* If you would like to support the production or would like to have more information, contact Tracey Rawlinson on 07875 639533/e-mail traceyrawlinson@btinternet.com 

 

Tickets for The Producers are now available online at www.ticketsource.co.uk/llangollenoperaticsociety 

Residents welcome speeding crackdown

Residents in a Dee Valley village blighted by speeding have welcomed a crackdown on irresponsible drivers.

Clwyd South AM Ken Skates contacted Wrexham Council and North Wales Police last summer and urged them to do anything they could to improve road safety outside Pontfadog school and throughout the wider community, including Dolywern.

Chief Constable Mark Polin promised action would be taken, and safety vans were immediately deployed in the area. They have since been seen regularly and were spotted again near the school last week.

Labour AM Mr Skates was initially contacted by constituent Gayle Watkin regarding speeding and dangerous driving on the B4500.

Mrs Watkin, who has coordinated the local campaign to improve road safety, said: “Speed vans have been deployed a lot more often and personally I think there has been a slight reduction in the amount of vehicles tearing through the village, but there's still work to do.”

Dolywern resident Jools Payne said: “It's really good to see that Ken is using his powers of persuasion and influence to help protect the community.

“Positive action like getting speed cameras regularly monitoring motorists in the valley will, I hope, deter the numpties who think they can flout the law and drive like idiots through our villages. Well done Ken – good job.”

Mr Skates said: “Mrs Watkin asked for my support as residents have had concerns over road safety for years without anything really being done. I’d like to thank North Wales Police to their swift response and commitment to cracking down on this problem.

“However, the area cannot be policed all the time. Drivers need to take responsibility for their actions. How would they feel if it was their community motorists were screeching through and their children’s school people were speeding past?”

Mr Skates said he has written to Wrexham Council again to pursue permanent traffic-calming measures after previously requesting a reduced speed limit through Pontfadog, flashing signs, speed bumps and a barrier outside the school.

He added: “The authority was recently given a huge reprieve worth millions of pounds from the Welsh Labour Government, and it would be great to see some of that money invested in making our communities and roads safer.”

MP calls for official probe into bank closures

After the news that HSBC intends to close Ruabon and Chirk branches, Clwyd South MP Susan Elan Jones has called on a parliamentary select committee to review how small and medium-sized businesses are affected by the closure of local banks.

 

* Susan Elan Jones MP. 

She said: "I've already met with Iain Wright MP, Chair of the Business, Innovation and Skills Select Committee, and he seemed very keen on my idea that there should be a full inquiry into bank closures and access to finance for small and medium-sized companies.

 

"Select Committees in Parliament are cross-party and one of the things that is so important about them is that the  Government has to respond to all inquiries and reviews in full.

 

"It's time that Parliament looked seriously into what happens when bank branches close - as they have done in hundreds of towns and villages across the UK." 

 

She added: "But it's not words that I want - it's action at the highest level. There are plenty of countries in the western world that would never put up with the sort of shabby behaviour we are now getting from our so-called national banks.

 

"The USA, for example, has a comprehensive network of town and state banks. These are part of the regular fabric of American small town life - and vital for US businesses and individuals.

 

"We urgently need to be looking at similar models of banking in this country too."

 

In her letter to Business, Innovation and Skills Select Committee Chair Iain Wright MP, Susan Elan Jones MP wrote: "Having access to a bank or to financial services is vital. For a small business or local charitable group, it is the difference between failing or succeeding and it is so important that the government does all it can to support businesses in an already difficult climate. The heavy mechanisation of banking services has already meant that those running  business do not have the support that they may have had in the past; with every local banking facility that closes, that support diminishes further."

Demolition work proceeds at Cottage Hospital

* Pictures by llanblogger reader Mike Edwards.

Demolition work on the old Cottage Hospital is now well under way.

It was last March that county councillors voted in favour of bulldozing the 138-year-old building and the use of the site for new homes.

A housing association is to build six social housing units plus associated access and parking provision.

 

Also involved in the scheme is the development of an ancillary car park opposite the hospital and the erection of a further six social housing units with associated access and parking provision.

News that the local health board was closing the hospital, to replace it with a new health centre a little further along the road, caused a storm of protest from local campaigners led by the late Martin Crumpton.

But their battle to save it was eventually unsuccessful.

The hospital had been the birthplace of many people during its years of community service, amongst them Commodore Ronald Warwick, former captain of world-famous liner the QEII, who paid a sentimental return trip to the closed-down building early in 2013.

* Llangollen county councillor Stuart Davies says he has been involved in trying to save some of the "beautiful" sandstone that parts of the hospital were built from.

He explained: "Originally we were hoping to save some and store it at the Wenffrwyd old civic amenity site but officers advised that planning and NRW would have to be involved and also there were issues as to who would `own' the material.

"I went to the site and there was just a pile of rubble with the sandstone mixed in it.

"I called our AONB countryside officer and he came straight down and arranged to pick up some and store it ready for when we do sensitive restoration in the town." 

Eisteddfod's first choir is back for encore

* The Colne Valley Male Voice Choir.

The first ever choir to sing at the world-famous Llangollen International Music Eisteddfod is to make a symbolic return to celebrate the festival’s 70^th year.

The Colne Valley Male Voice Choir, based in Huddersfield, has scooped six titles at the historic festival over the years as well as five second places and two third prizes – but back in 1947 they missed out.

The 70-strong choir, which was founded in Slaithwaite in 1922, was the first to take to the Eisteddfod stage in 1947 and it was up against choirs from Hungary, the eventual winners, Spain, Italy, Denmark and Holland as well as Wales and England.

Now, seven decades later, representatives from the choir have been invited as special guests to the Choir of the World finals at the 70^th staging of the iconic festival.

It will mark a symbolic return for the choir which has enjoyed a long relationship with the festival where the great tenor Luciano Pavarotti made his first international bow as part of the Chorus Rossini from Modena in 1955.

 

The Choir of the World competition is now for the Pavarotti Trophy and although Colne Valley missed out on a prize in that first year, they went on to claim a hat-trick of wins in the 1960s and have become one of the UK’s most successful male voice choirs with a host of titles at home and abroad.

* The programme for the
first Eisteddfod in 1947. 

They have sung without music shets since Thom Meredith became the Musical Director as a 23-year-old in 1989 so they have performed more than 300 different songs from memory in 26 years – a feat unlikely to have been replicated elsewhere.

Eisteddfod Musical Director Eilir Owen Griffiths said: “We’d be delighted to see the Colne Valley Choir here at the Eisteddfod again.

“They are part of the history of the event and there will always be a welcome in Llangollen for the choir which started the great tradition of the Choir of the World competition.”

Returning to Llangollen will bring back happy memories for David Hirst, the second longest-serving member of the choir who joined aged 22 in November 1960 – just a few months after the first Llangollen success.

“Obviously, we have a special association with the Llangollen International Musical Eisteddfod and it would be quite an honour to return”, he said.

“As well as being the first male choir to sing at the Festival, there was a hat-trick of wins in 1960, 1961, 1962 and altogether there have been six wins, five seconds and two third prizes in the 23 visits by the Choir since 1947. Quite an achievement when you were up against 19 or 20 choirs.

“Meeting the other choirs and making friends is an important part of it all. We have had exchange concert visits with Welsh and other choirs through competing and it is a great way get to know people. There’s lots of camaraderie among choir singers.

“We hold the competition very dear and we’re still very proud of the fact that we were the first male choir to sing there.”

The Choir, which rehearses in Slaithwaite Conservative Club on Monday evenings, has only ever had five conductors during its 93 years of existence. The longest-serving was George Stead who led the Choir for 44 years and wrote the very popular Psalm 126 which is regularly performed by male voice choirs across the country.

Every year the choir holds an annual Christmas Festival concert at Huddersfield Town Hall attended by more than 1,000 people.

* Oldest voice, Frank Littlewood, now 86. 

“We are very much both a competition and a concert choir. We believe that by entering competitions, it is a sure and proven way to maintain and indeed, improve on the already high standards of the Choir,” said David.

“At the moment there are 72 full members and normally at weekly rehearsals and in concert we average around 60 singers. There’s a great camaraderie within the Choir and it is great seeing your friends every week.”

The Choir’s official accompanist is Keith Swallow, a celebrated solo pianist in his own right, who has been in the role since 1957. The longest-serving member is the Rev John Radcliffe, who joined the same year and is also the Choir Chaplain. The youngest singer is Tom Law, 24, while Frank Littlewood is the oldest at 86.

They have toured France, Germany, Ireland, Czechoslovakia and the USA, some of them exchange visits with choirs arising through relationships built at Llangollen.

In California in 1984 they experienced an earthquake which measured 6.2 on the Richter scale. The headline of the local newspaper’s review of the previous evening’s concert performance read ‘English Choir moved the Earth’.

“The Choir has performed with leading singers from opera and the Concert stage and has also sung in front of the Queen as part of massed choir at Leeds Town Hall. Many of the Choir’s present concerts have top brass bands as guest artistes” said David.

In recent years the Choir has competed and performed at the biennial Cornwall International Male Vocal Choral Festival where it has won the large choir class twice and in May they were also awarded trophies as the Festival’s Best Large Choir and the Overall Best UK Choir.

The Llangollen International Music Eisteddfod has been held every summer since 1947 and is recognised as one of the world’s most inspirational music festivals.

Next year’s event, the 70^th to be held, will feature star names Bryn Terfel, Katherine Jenkins and Jools Holland and his Rhythm and Blues Orchestra who will bring the curtain down on the festival on Sunday, July 10.

* For more information go to http://international-eisteddfod.co.uk/