The week after Alistair was here I altered my seed, bird feeders from whole sunflower seeds to hulled sunflower, this has resulted in a marked increase in the amount of Siskins coming to the feeders. One neighbour has been feeding with hulled seeds and had attracted the Siskins that Alistair recorded, but I was only rarely getting them.

We frequently see people, often tall, grey haired men, but also some ladies, looking at the sheds, with dreamy looks and clearly re-living memories. When we have got into conversation it has transpired that these are ex-policemen and women, who did part of their training as Police Cadets, in the Camp.

Because the Estate had been owned by Birmingham City, who purchased all the land draining into their proposed reservoirs, and the area which now contains Elan Village, I presume that the Camp was originally for that city’s Police Force; but, it would seem, that the Camp was also made available to other forces.
Googling the camp led me to a review by Rob Jerrard Please of a book by John Tomlinson “So You Want To Be A Policeman” published by The Memoir Club in 2004. Please writes ” Some 30 pages are devoted to time spent at a cadet camp at Elan Valley …. This was an Outward Bound type of camp as the author states, run by the Birmingham City Police. … The reviewer must now reveal a secret. He was a visitor there and over a period of some years he had the responsibility of sending cadets to Elan Valley. One thing that all returned cadets made a point of making public, was the sweeping of the football pitch with hand-brooms. This is not mentioned in the book. It does call for a little explanation. Much of the centre of mid – Wales was purchased in the 19th century, with great foresight, by the Birmingham City Council, with a view to providing water for that City by damming the valleys. … The vast acreage of grassland around the water was ideal for sheep and at one time Birmingham City Council was alleged to be the largest owners of such animals in the country. Obviously the ground at the bottom of the valleys was the most fertile and the flat football pitch and drill area was nibbled to leave a surface that would have done credit to many good club sides. There was, however a problem, namely the sheep droppings, which is where those attending the course came in. Every little speck had to be cleared. There must be many police pensioners alive today who look back with fond memories of the time they spent at Elan Valley.”

Once the Camp ceased to be used by the police it was for almost ten years leased by the Warwickshire and Birmingham Wing of the Air Training Corps to provide a base camp for cadets to undertake adventure training in general, and expeditionary training specifically. They say on their web site “The surrounding area is mainly below 1500 feet and therefore provides eminently suitable non-wild terrain, ideal for both junior cadets as well as those with more experience. It allows us to set `base camp’ routes in both Non Wild and Wild country, and is therefore appropriate for Duke of Edinburgh’s Award expeditions at all levels.

The ATC Wing had to terminate their lease in 2009 and permission was sought, by the Elan Valley Trust, to demolish the buildings, however, demolition has not yet been effected. One of the smaller buildings was demolished last winter by a tree falling on it, and generally the buildings do not look as picturesque as the rest of the village; however a considerable number of young people were able to experience the beauty of the Valley by staying in them; and, clearly it was a very special place for them as the memories still live on.

There is a style by our gate.  Once you have climbed over that style you are in the oak woods that clothe the lower slopes of Carn Gaffallt, a foot path leads through the woods to the dam above the visitor centre.  That dam, Caban Coch, is half a mile from our cottage.  The Elan flows about 100 yards from our front door.

Last week some of our family walked from our cottage the full length of the Elan dams, returning over the top to scramble down Y Foel, the hill in front of us, on the far bank of the Elan.  That is a bit more walking than we would choose to do, but the adults all enjoyed it – the children declared that walking is “boring”!

On their very first evening we were able to take them to the Willow Theatre where the Big Friendly Giant recounted snippets from all the Roald Dahl stories and his life.  The Willow Theatre is a magical place, the Globe Theatre created from living willow.

The town walk is an ideal start to a holiday in the Rhayader area, it helps to orientate, and to give some idea of the beauty and character of the town.

The Gigrin Farm visit, for kite feeding,  is an absolute essential, people travel from all over Britain to watch the spectacle of dozens or even hundreds of Red Kites being fed at the Kite Centre.  Our family also stayed on at the farm to investigate some of the other attractions there.

Both children really enjoyed a two hour visit to Rhayader Community Museum.  They completed a quest, were fascinated by the video on poaching, dressed up, as a fairy, and a  Medieval foot soldier.   They coloured in pictures and drew their own, and collated a whole list of names for a toilet!

They drove past the Elan Valley dams and reservoirs to the Aberystwth Mountain Road, and then through the Ystwth valley  to Devil’s Bridge.  They did the full visit to the gorge, which takes the best part of an hour, before boarding the Rheidol

The Rheidol Valley Railway

Valley narrow gauge railway train for the journey to Aberystwth.  It was very windy in Aber that day, so while they braved the beach we toured the Ceridigion Museum.  After the return train journey we returned to Rhayader via the A44. Warning: the train timetable is very much geared for visitors to Aberystwth to make the journey to Devil’s Bridge, do the gorge and then return, it is only in August

View from the Rheidol Valley Train

that they run an extra journey which allows travellers from Devil’s Bridge to Aber to have time in the town.  Having said that the journey is well worth while even without spending time in Aber.

A mammoth walk from the cottage, up the Elan Valley to the top dam, then climbing up the hillside to return to Elan Village across the top, finally scrambling down Y Foel.  This is only for the young and fit (well fit anyway) and took about four hours!  A bit much for us!

The Elan Valley Scavenge, is organised by the Rangers.  Children are provided with a paper bag and a  list of items to search for – a black seed, an oak leaf, a narrow leaf, something smooth, etc, etc.   All of the items can be fairly easily found in the circuit from the Visitor’s centre across the bridge below the dam and back along the low path to the Bailey Bridge.  We then took all our new treasures home and pasted down a selection onto card to make a montage.  Very artistic and rewarding.

River dipping

We made a mistake, we had seen that there was to be some organised pond dipping, and we had presumed it was at the Gilfach Nature Discovery Centre, it was somewhere else, but we had taken our own nets and bucket, and the Marteg is a broad and shallow stream at the point where a style gives access to it.  An hour plus of concentration and experiment had six confused minnows swimming around our bucket with a handful of other river life.  Once they had been returned to the wild we enjoyed ice cream and tea at the Centre, and saw that there was a Den Building event the following day.

Returning the next day for the Den Building, Susie, one of the Radnorshire Wildlife Trust employees led 20 kids with “responsible adults” up into the oak wood.

Masked den builders

This is a brilliant event, the children put in huge effort, cutting and carting bracken, building and covering structures, then, with a structure in place they were encouraged to make masks of leaves and twigs, before a Grand Tour of the new buildings.  Quite the biggest den was built 40 foot up a steep bank and all the bracken for it was enthusiastically carted by one fit 10 year old.  I imagine he slept well that night!

Apple Tree Cottage

We were so enthused we had to build a den in our garden the next day.  Interestingly we had suggested a little gathering of kindling sticks as a worthwhile activity, but that had been condemned as “boring”, but, as a part of den building, kindling was enthusiastically dragged into the garden.  Hopefully the bracken will also make good kindling once it has dried out.  Our den used the old apple tree as primary structure, so it became “Apple  Tree Cottage”, carpeted with a plastic sheet and complete with shingle table.

The Rheidol Valley Train has a cost, which for two hour long journeys through the most magnificent scenery is not too expensive, £15.00 per adult with concessions for pensioners and children, the gorge is less than £5.00 each, there is also a modest cost for Gigrin Farm.  The Museum has lost its Arts Council funding, along with just about everything else to do with the Arts in Mid Wales, so have to make a charge, and the Willow Theatre also charge for entry.  However, it could be considered that,  apart from a £2 donation towards the costs of the den building masks, many of  the best of the fortnight’s activities do not cost.  We know that our grandchildren will be very happy to come back again for another holiday, and we can’t wait for them to come so that we can do more fun things such as river dipping and den building!

The exhibition looks at the natural history of the area as well as how the landscape has changed under the influence of mankind. Rhayader by Nature, a local natural history group, has provided all the information to build a picture of the incredible biodiversity that each feature is a part of. The exhibition aims to promote awareness about our local environment as part of the International Year of Biodiversity.

Kerena Pugh, Volunteer Co-Ordinator for CARAD had contacted me last year. We had contributed to a project called “Here and Now” which looked at the Museum’s photographic archive, but also looked at the possibilities of extending it with pictures relating to the present. Kerena outlined the concept behind the planned exhibition. Would I photograph a near-by peat bog in the different seasons of the year? I knew that there were peat bogs in the Elan Valley, I had seen archive photographs of men cutting and drying peat; but how would I recognise one, and what was there to photograph? I had photographed the Elan river near our house, photographing the same stretch every time the season or the river state changed, so once I had been given a map reference for a nearby bog, I set off to get the initial shots.

Over the period of most of the next year I went, occasionally, to the bog. The bog is a flat area, surrounded by the buttresses of Cnwch and Gaffallt. There is a stunted tree standing alone in the bog, so I used that as a reference point. It gave me something to point the camera at in an otherwise apparently featureless landscape, and it changed from season to season.

New Year's Day

On New Years Day it snowed quite heavily. The local hunt was due to start from the village and we thought we might see what was going on, but, by the time we got out the hunt had moved off. We began to walk up the hill through the woods, and, having started in that direction continued up towards the valley between Cnwch and Gaffallt. My camera was temporarily out of action, but as we passed the bog we took some photos with the 3 mega pixel phone camera, which turned out to be very attractive, but, of course, the file was quite a small one.   Because of the small file we could not use this photograph in the exhibition as it pixilated when blown up, but I include it here.   We continued on a walk which turned out to be really memorable. 16 inches of snow had fallen on the top of the hill, near the Clyn, and the scenery was spectacular. The phone camera was used several times more.

I returned to the bog in what should have been Spring, but the ground was still frozen and not looking very Springlike. A few weeks later it had been planned to have a series of writer’s workshops led by Tom Bullough and Rebecca Ray, the different workshops would each concentrate on one of the five landscape features. Not really surprisingly the invitation to write creatively about something which appears as flat and uninterestingly as a peat bog did not prove attractive to anyone. I had been invited to be a part of the workshop and to talk about the bog! I could talk, for a very short time, about photographing it, but what if people started asking questions about it? Hurriedly I did a little web research into peat bogs and immediately this flat, uninteresting patch of land, a space between landscape features, began to take on character.

The bog is a place of beginnings, it is the place where water collects, is held, until it becomes a watershed. This particular bog sheds water to the north, to become the tumbling stream that passes through Phil Bennett’s farm, collecting more water from the rhos where Travis the horse grazes, to fall over rocks between the Lodge and the Manager’s House in Elan Village to join the Elan; and, it sheds water to the south to become the Dulas, flowing through Blaen-y-cwm to join the Wye at Llanwrthwl.

The vegetation of a bog is unique. Sphagnum moss holds water and is held by water. The symbiosis of sphagnum and water creates an environment unlike any other. Inside the bog, there is little life, but no rot.

Roots of more conventional plants cannot survive in it, which is why that little tree in the centre of this one is so stunted, and why, very occasionally, human bodies are found, preserved for hundreds of years in the black depths of bogs.

The writer’s workshop, now just Tom, Rebecca and I, visited “my” peat bog, I took a few Spring pictures and we talked about bogs, and looked at this one. Again the process is at first negative. Tom encouraged us to think about what is there, and what is not. This is the poem that Rebecca wrote after her visit.

I know no love
I know no sadness.
The watershed that mothered me
is one bare rising hill.
Eight times my weight in water
I hold within myself  and
do not sink.
I know this place.
I am this place
Where the transpiration of years, events,
north eastern wind – insistent wind -
I clench against
Self protecting.
Sometime aeroplane, clipping the edges of
my visible sky.
Sometime root, intruding and repelled.
Through the cycle of grasses, death and life
I am enduring
Self protecting.
Sometime corpse – animal or human – enveloped
in me.
Beneficiary of stillness.

Rebecca Ray
2010

Becky’s poem is on a panel in the exhibition, next to a wonderful stand which is peat bog, living mosses and grasses in water, my photos and an intriguing display looking a bit like zested oranges, but representing pollen grains swirling in the air, some of them falling into peat bogs and being stored for hundreds of years in its dead but un-decaying heart. Around the walls of the hall are sentences in English and Welsh that begin “In this place / … “ In the peat bog area it reads:  “In this place I hide beneath my surface a priceless record of the Welsh landscape and its people. Yn y lle hwn, cuddiaf dan fy wyneb gofnod amhrisiadwy o dirwedd Cymru a’i phobl ”

The exhibition has been curated by Carrie Canham and has been created by local people, most of whom have volunteered their time to create a beautiful, lively and thought-provoking exhibition. Volunteers of all ages have got involved in a huge range of activities, from writing poems for display to making models of pollen grains and flowers. Because of the way that the displays are created some aspects are very professional, while some have a delightful naivety, all of which adds to the emotional impact of an exhibition which touches the very core of the place in which it is set, and the people that live in this place.

Carrie Canham, Curator said “this has been an inspirational project to work on. The commitment of everyone taking part has really brought the museum into the heart of the community. It’s given me an opportunity to learn a great deal about the natural history of the area, We plan to evolve the exhibition through further events and community projects while it’s open, so that, like our landscape, it will always be changing in subtle and beautiful ways”

‘In This Place’ will be open from Friday 2nd July until 30th October, Tuesdays – Sundays
10am – 4pm.

Alan Lewis of Hafod Hardware in the town, tells us that one of the earliest Commonwealth Championships was fished in Wales, in the Wrexham area.  This year the Welsh Salmon and Trout Angling Association, working with the Angling Associations of Rhayader, Builth Wells, Clewedog and Tal-y-llyn, has created a challenge in settings that the leading world fly fishermen will thoroughly enjoy.

To mark the opening of the event there will be a parade around Rhayader, it won’t quite be up to the standard of an Olympic opening event, but it will be colourful and fun.  The parade will be led by an Ouroboros dragon and the local brass band, followed by all the Commonwealth teams with thei flags, the children from two local schools and the Rhayader Girl Guides with our community flags. CARAD, the local arts organisation have also organised local volunteers to embroider a banner with all the flags of competing nations.

You can link to Rhayader Angling via our Links page.