One day, two shows: Llanarmon-yn-Iâl and then Ruthin Flower Show.
The weather was thankfully kind and there were good attendances at both events.
Bumped into my constituent Judge Ian Trigger, who has had rather an interesting week. He is a good man, and I’m always pleased to see him.
Take another look at the antique photo of Colwyn Bay’s Station Road that I posted yesterday.
Elegant, isn’t it? Taken from a vantage point somewhere near the site of the present railway station, it shows a tree-lined avenue essentially unchanged from the newly-paved street of today.
What has changed is the foreground. What appears then to have been an attractive, open square is now a very undistinguished paved area and the station car park. It is enlivened only by the exuberant clock, gifted to the town 20
years ago by Mr and Mrs Stanley Fraser, in memory of their son, Andrew. Otherwise, the area is, frankly, a bit of a mess and gives a very uninspiring first impression of the town to visitors.
A couple of days ago, I had a meeting with representatives of Colwyn Bay’s very active Civic Society. They showed me plans illustrating their vision of a grassed piazza to replace the current area of concrete and tarmac.
With regeneration money apparently coming Colwyn Bay’s way, there is now an opportunity to carry out lasting improvements to the town’s streetscape. The Civic Society’s plans deserve serious consideration.
There are, of course, a large number of property interests that would have to be brought into any improvement scheme, principal among which are those of Network Rail and Arriva trains. I have therefore written to both companies with a view to arranging an early meeting to discuss the Civic Society’s proposals further.
Three Davids: DIJ, David Scruton and David Shiel
This afternoon, Sara and I visited the 66-acre Moel Findeg nature reserve at Maeshafn, near Llanferres, on the easternmost edge of the constituency; in fact, the constituency boundary forms part of the boundary of the reserve itself.
The Friends of Moel Findeg were formed as a charity in 1996 and purchased the land in 1999. The site is managed by Denbighshire County Council as part of the Clwydian Range Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONB).
We were shown round by David and Ann Scruton, who have been involved with the Friends since their formation, and David Shiel, Senior Warden of the AONB. David gave us the astonishing statistic that half the heather and heathland in the world is situated in the United Kingdom, with a large chunk in Clwyd West; Moel Findeg is therefore in essence an important natural ecosystem that merits conservation.
Pre-Christian des res
The Friends are currently attempting to negotiate the purchase of Big Covert, an area of beech and conifer forest close to Moel Findeg. They took us on a tour of the covert and showed us a cave (pictured above) that was used as a habitation in pre-Christian times.
Maeshafn is an attractive village in a particularly beautiful area and I can thoroughly recommend a visit.
View of Maeshafn
My profound apologies to the ancient yew tree of Llangernyw.
In yesterday’s post on the Petryal Festival, I reported that the yew was over 3,000 years old and one of the oldest living organisms on the planet.
Yesterday evening, Sara and I attended a concert at St Digain’s church, given by young musicians from the Hereford Cathedral School. The standards on display were astonishingly high; I am forever amazed at the huge and diverse talent possessed by young people in this country.
After the concert, I inspected the tree more closely; in fact, it is so enormous that it would be impossible not to. A slate plaque has been erected informing the visitor:
“Cyn belled ag y mae rhywun yn gwybod, yr ywen hon yw’r goeden fwy hynaf yng Nghymru ac yn un o’r pethau byw hynaf yn y byd. Fe amcangyfrir ei bod dros 4,000 o flynyddoedd oed.
“This yew tree is the oldest living tree known in Wales and is one of the oldest living things in the world. Its estimated age is over 4,000 years.”
This means that the tree, incredibly, was a seedling sometime around the date of completion of Stonehenge. According to Wikipedia (yes, I know about the health warnings), it is, jointly, the third oldest individual tree in the world.
By understating its age, I had unwittingly demoted it to only the tenth oldest. An abject apology is therefore due.
This is shaping up to be an extraordinarily ecclesiastical weekend; I expect to be visiting five churches in three days.
Yesterday, I attended the opening of the Petryal festival, a celebtaion of sacred music and other activities in the churches of St Mary’s, Llanfair TH, St Sannan’s, Llansannan and St Digain’s, Llangernyw (notable for its 3,000 year-old yew tree, one of the oldest living organisms on the planet).
In the evening, there was a concert at St Mary’s given by the choirs of St Peter’s Collegiate Church, Wolverhampton; a sublime experience in the ancient church, beautifully decorated with flowers (see above).
This area, the catchment of the River Elwy, is one of the loveliest parts of the constituency. If you don’t know it, I strongly recommend a visit.
Being a North Wales MP is a job that has its compensations.
I visited a farming constituent near Nantglyn this morning and stopped on the way back to take these photos.
The gorse, in particular, was magnificent.
To Ruthin this evening, and the Christingle service at St Peter’s church, which was full, with equal numbers of adults and children.Everyone was given an orange, the candles were lighted and the entire congregation processed around the church, singing the Christingle carols. Then home, through a still Vale of Clwyd, the dark outlines of the hills dotted with pinpoints of distant light, twinkling from farmhouses and cottages.
This Christmas will be unlike any that most of us have known; many of us are worried about our own, or our families’, futures. There is real, palpable anxiety about what the New Year will bring.
Nevertheless, it IS Christmas, with all that that means. I hope that everyone who reads this blog has a happy and peaceful festive season.
A happy Christmas to you all.
Recess doesn’t start until Tuesday, but already the round of summer events has begun.
Last Friday was the annual exhibition of the Denbighshire Arts Society in Colwyn Bay, which is one of the highlights of my year, not least because it invariably coincides with the last weekend of the Parliamentary term. This year, the standard was as high as ever. The Rose Bowl was won by Christine Garwood (pictured), for her evocative, atmospheric painting “Llech Derfyn” (“Slate Boundary”), while the prize for originality was won by Carl Hodgson, who has won it every year for as long as I can remember.
On Saturday, we visited the Ruthin Flower Show, this time held under cover at the Farmers’ Auction, which was just as well, because the heavens opened mid-morning. I admired the exhibition by the Ruthin Camera Club and took advantage of the special half-price offer to become a member. The same afternoon, we went to a garden party at Woodfold retirement home, Rhos on Sea. By this time, the weather had cleared up, and it really felt like summer.
Today, we attended Llanddulas and Rhyd y Foel civic service at St Cynbryd’s, whose churchyard, rescued from neglect by local volunteers, grows weekly more beautiful. There was a slight hiccup when the Royal British Legion hall, which was providing the after-service refreshments, was found to be locked, and numerous bechained civic dignitaries were obliged to wait in the car park until someone arrived with the key.
Travelling back tonight for the last couple of days at Westminster and have just learned from thetrainline.com that Virgin have given me a very considerate end of term present by scrapping the through service to Euston after only a few weeks of operation, meaning changes at Crewe and Stoke. Wonderful.
I’m not half looking forward to the recess.
Posted in Clwyd West
Doing my bit as part of British Tourism Week, I visited the beautiful Hiraethog area of my constituency. Under the friendly direction of master butcher Alun Jones, of Cig y Llan, Cerrigydrudion, I made a string of sausages (much harder than it sounds), feeling a bit like a contestant in the Generation Game.
Then on to Hafod Elwy Hall, where we were treated to a magnificent buffet (including the sausages) and took in the impressive vista of the snow-capped foothills of Snowdonia.
An interlude in the week as far away from the frenetic pace of Westminster as one could imagine.
Yet it is for this place and its people that I am there. Coming back and doing stuff like this (corny as it sounds) makes it all worthwhile.
Posted in Clwyd West
There is no doubt that rural people feel increasingly out on a limb, and at the mercy of a distant and unfeeling government. There was genuine anger about Gordon Brown’s plans to increase taxes on 4x4s and a feeling of helplessness about large-scale retail developments in towns such as Ruthin, where the decisions are made, not at a local level, but at Cardiff.
It is always a huge pleasure to entertain visitors from the constituency at Westminster. They, after all, are the reason I am here. I try never to forget that. It was a good day.
The report’s findings will be analysed for a long time, but already commentators are coming forward with varying theories as to why the UK’s young people experience, both subjectively and objective, the lowest levels of wellbeing – or, put more starkly, the highest levels of unhappiness – in the developed world.
I believe a key pointer to the core of the problem is the section of the report headed “Young People’s Family and Peer Relationships”. Here, the UK, by a very long chalk indeed, achieved the lowest ranking overall.
There is no doubt that the pattern of family life has changed over recent years. Many more children are brought up by single parents, where financial and work pressures are magnified. But even in traditional two-parent households, increasing affluence has brought its own problems. Children often spend hours alone in their bedrooms with their PlayStations; microwave cookery means that families frequently eat their meals apart. People don’t talk to one another as much as they used to.
Whatever the cause of what is unarguably a crisis, it has to be addressed. Government – of whatever political colour – must take the lead. Government policy must encourage family life and the taking of responsibility for one’s own children. Too many children who featured in the Unicef report said that their parents “were not there for them when they needed them” or that they “did not make them feel loved and cared for”.
Tellingly, the report also cited a relatively high percentage of young people who did not regularly eat their main meal of the day with their families. The importance of eating together was highlighted to me yesterday evening, when I attended a supper at St Paul’s church hall, Colwyn Bay. The event was hugely over-subscribed and more than 100 people sat down together, to enjoy an excellent meal and entertainment.
Most importantly, we chatted and we laughed; people of at least three generations, from toddlers to octogenarians, in a hubbub that filled the hall. We enjoyed just being together, and for that reason as much as any other, the evening was an enormous success.
