Category Archives: Restoring Pen Y Cae

How we got here

Thank you …..

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Pen y Cae couldn’t have risen from the ashes without help – a lot of help.  

I suppose that the first mention should go to those in Natural Resources Wales (NRW) who had the foresight to realise that the building shouldn’t be left to rot and that with a bit (OK, a lot) of TLC could be made a useful resource and who then helped out when negotiations bogged down.  So, thanks to Mike, Brian and Mike for transforming our lives for the last 6 years!

TLC has a habit of requiring a lot of £££.  We were so fortunate to have found others who had the vision that Pen y Cae could be a wonderful local resource. 

First and foremost, the Bannau Brycheiniog National Park Sustainable Development Fund, who have supported us from the start, through thick and thin, ups and downs, Covid and price rises.   Thank you, we couldn’t have done it without you. 

Further funding came from:

Awards for All

Natural Resources Wales, People & Places

Welsh Water Community Fund

Monmouthshire Building Society Charitable Foundation

Monmouthshire LEADER

Black Mountains Land Use Partnership 

Llangattock Green Valleys Community Fund

John and Elizabeth Gibbs

Sue and Ian Mabberley

Dominic Shorthouse and Amanda Rudman

Christopher and Yvonne Larkins

Cath Larkins

Camilla Newton

Oliver Fairclough

Deb Checkland

Vicky Jones

Charlotte Ennis

It also couldn’t have happened without the time and skills of residents of the valley and others who became involved due to their determination to make Pen y Cae happen.  Particular thanks to Andy Schultz for his pro bono work on the legal aspects, Emma Drabble (and family) for two lovely videos and  Simon Thomas, Coed Farm for donating the first load of firewood.   And Cath Larkins without whom none of this may have happened.

It also couldn’t have happened without the excellent contractors we had, who were willing to work miles from anywhere and sometimes not in the best of the weather.  Many also gave us generous discounts as they realised how important the project is. 

FWT for the water installation

Pro-Fit Energy for solar, internal lighting (and sleeping on the roof!)

Rowan of Wind & Sun for the solar design

Dave Harries for the plumbing

Stoves & Stacks for the Esse installation

Woodhouse Engineering for the security shutters

Ivor Prentice for building works and internal woodwork

Walters Heating Services for the gas cooker installation 

Mick Petts for the tables and benches

And even Thomas Waste Management for letting me persuade them to take a skip into the middle of a forest!

Not forgetting members of the Grwyne Fawr Community Interest Company and the Pen y Cae Working Group for cleaning, decorating, building works, buying bits & pieces and (lots of) meetings. 

Finally to all those who attended our Open Days and the like which gave us the impetus to carry on. 

Nearly there..

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We now have the majority of the refurbishments completed and Pen y Cae is getting closer to being available for rent.

We now have a functioning wood-burning stove-cum-waterheater (affectionately known as Bessie), a kitchen sink unit with hot and cold running water, two showers, three toilets, lighting and fire alarms in every room, two fantastic tables and four benches (made from Ash from the valley) and a gas cooker for rustling up a quick meal on arrival.

upstairs sleeping (or activity) area at Pen y Cae

So, just a bit of tidying up, strimming outside and interior painting and we will be ready to invite potential users for an open day. Keep an eye on this website for more details.

We are still a little bit short of funds so have set up a crowdfunding page at https://www.crowdfunder.co.uk/p/pen-y-cae-outdoors-1/ that will be a lovely place to drop off any spare cash that you haven’t found another use for!

Nearing our funding goal

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Following the huge rise in the cost of materials following COVID and other matters, our original budgets for Pen y Cae had to be widely reworked. 

I’m very pleased to announce that we have been successful in attracting a further £4000 from the National Park’s Sustainable Development Fund (SDF), £3000 from Dwr Cymru / Welsh Water’s Community Fund and £1000 from the Llangattock Green Valleys community fund.

Huge thanks to all three, but we still need another £5-6000 to make sure we finish the refurbishment properly.

If you or anyone you know has access to funds – however large or small – please do get in touch.

Here’s hoping Father Christmas brings us a lovely present!

Overnighters at last!

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Things are starting to move ahead at long last up at Pen y Cae. First we had a new water collection tank installed and last week the solar PV stuff was being installed.

The three guys doing the PV were so taken by the position of PyC that they asked if they could stay the night. No problem. I know one slept on the scaffolding on the roof, but not sure about the others.

Next will come the new security shutters and doors, then it is connecting up the water inside and adding the filters etc.

Slowly, slowly, but we are getting there!

At last!

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Who would have thought on that day in April 2018, when we spoke to the NRW Manager, Mike Cresswell, about Pen y Cae, that we would soon be posting back the signed Lease just a mere four years later!

The two Ians post the lease documents.
The two Ians post back the lease documents

Yes, it really has been four years since that fateful conversation, but now it finally looks as though we’ll have to start getting our hands dirty in bringing the building up to scratch. There’s plenty to do; fix the water supply, sort out a solar power system, get the wood burner up there and fitted, get the gas cooker up and fitted, reglaze the broken windows, get new padlocks for the doors and a few coats of paint won’t go amiss either.

Put it another way- the hard work starts here. Although to be fair there’s been a lot of hard work involved already; negotiating the lease (big tanks to Andy Schultz), getting funding (big thanks to Sue Mabberley) in particular.

Finally, a big Thank You to Helen and Barbara at the National Park for being so patient having approved the funding such a long time ago and looking after our money whilst we waited for the legal proceedings.

UPDATE:

It took the solicitors and NRW another three and a half months to do their end of the signing the lease, but now we think we have it all sorted out!

There’s posh!

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We might be still waiting for the Lease, but another part of Natural Resources Wales (NRW) has really come up trumps and has helped us to be ready to go on Day One by supplying us with kitchen utensils, a cooker, sleeping mats, nature books, binoculars and these magnificent tables and benches.

Lovingly crafted from donated valley Ash timber by Mick Petts, these two tables and four benches will be more than sufficient to accommodate future users. The Ash is courtesy of the nasty Ash Die-back disease, so some good has come from the loss of these lovely trees.

It was a bit of a monster job for Mick to turn out both these and some further pieces for kitchen shelving and work-tops in little over a month from the raw-material being obtained. First Simon Thomas transported the trunks to Ian Mitchell’s for them to be roughly cut into planks by Martin Fraser’s mobile sawmill, then allowed to dry just enough for Mick to be able to work the planks without them twisting as they dry out completely.

So wonderful that timber from the valley can be used to equip Pen y Cae, just like they would have in the original days of the building. Well done, Mick, and “Thanks” to Sarah Tindal at NRW for having the vision to fund it all.

We’re in the money!

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We learned on Wednesday that we have been successful in our first major bid for funding for doing up Pen y Cae.

The Brecon Beacons National Park’s Sustainable Development Fund has deferred a decision on our bid back in September whilst they asked for more details on a couple of points.

This time we were able to join the ‘meeting’ to answer directly any concerns they had. Sue and I joined from a wet Grwyne Fawr and Cath Larkins from lock-down in sunny France! The wonders of modern technology!

We joined the meeting just in time to hear Pen y Cae being described in rather downbeat terms by one of the panel members, but it turns out we just missed his very glowing memories of using the centre in the 80’s and 90’s.

We were pleased to note a number of friendly faces around the screen, people Sue and I have worked with in the past and present, so hoped that would be a good omen.

It turned out they were the ones who asked the more awkward questions, while one member of the panel sat stroking his cat like a certain villain out of a James Bond movie!

Fortunately, we had come armed with all the information they needed and Cath was able to quote some of her learned dissertations on child welfare which seemed to bring out nods of approval.

Then with a few quick Thank You’s from the Chairman and we were summarily cut off!

A quick phone chat with Cath and we felt we were probably onto a winner, and fortunately the confirmation arrived via e-mail only an hour or so later.

We have yet to see the full offer, but we assume it is for the full £21,300 we applied for.

Now we await a decision on the next bid at Awards for All for their maximum of £10,000.

Pen y Cae on Sea???

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Amazing weather on Sunday, with clear sunny skies on the tops and thick mist in the valleys, makes Pen y Cae look like it’s by the seaside!

I suppose on a VERY clear day and standing on a tall step ladder with a good pair of binoculars, you MIGHT just see the Bristol Channel, but in truth Pen y Cae remains a mountain get-away rather than a seaside chalet.

The good news however is that the Brecon Beacons National Park Sustainable Development Fund have accepted our funding bid for just over £21,000 and so we now await the decision from Awards for All to match fund the SDF.

Watch this space!

Update on Pen y Cae

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The recent COVID problems have set us back a little in getting Pen y Cae up and running, but things are now starting to move ahead again.

Firstly we are now deep in discussion with Natural Resources Wales (NRW) who are the de facto owners of the building. With the help of our legal expert, Andy, who lives just below Pen y Cae, we are working through the various factors which will inform the wording of the final lease. We hope to finalise matters in the not too distant future.

Alongside this we have recently applied for funding from the Sustainable Development Fund (SDF) of the Brecon Beacon National Park Authority. Unfortunately their request for more detail on a couple of points means that we may not get a decision until November, but we are hopeful that they will support us. We are also working up a bid to the Awards for All funding stream and hope to get that sent off in the near future.

Finally with funding from the Black Mountains Land Use Partnership (BMLUP) we have been able to make a wonderful video about the history of Pen y Cae that can be used both for promotional purposes and as a teaching resource once we begin to welcome groups to Pen y Cae. Big thanks on this to Emma, Emma’s children, Cath, Judith and Oliver – there are others but their names escape me!