Field reflections written by Zac, Jack, Chris, Josh and Finn, students attending the University of Surrey’s BSc in Environment and Sustainability degree programme.
What have you been working on?
Since the 1980s, the valleys have been widely impacted by the coal mine closures, impacting not only local communities but also the surrounding wildlife. Cwmtillery, a village in South Wales, is a good example of this. It was built on a former coal mining site, a brownfield site, and its development has destroyed little if any local natural ecosystems. But brownfield sites, such as these, are often contaminated with chemicals, causing far-reaching consequences. For example, acidic iron-rich minerals from the derelict coal mining site have flowed into the streams of the Pelenna River in the South Wales Valleys and turned them orange often killing off the local aquatic wildlife.
On the 9th of April we set out to conduct semi structures on stake holders of the Pentref Tyleri community project, in the South Wales valleys to explore the environmental, social and economic impact associated with the regeneration projects in Cwmtillery. Each interview aimed to be 20 minutes long and was set out as follows:
- Icebreakers and background
- Community regeneration
- Social, economic and environmental considerations
- Future outlook
These sections covered a wide range of topics about the project allowing for us to gain a greater understanding of the wider impacts of community regeneration within the South Wales Valleys.
Why is this project important?
Cwmtillery (South Wales) has suffered poorly from the closure of the mines which had a social and economic impact on the wider community. Often in deindustrialised communities, like Cwmtillery, this can lead to a lack of infrastructure improvements, reduced resilience to natural disasters (the storm Bert floods in 2024), as well as the migration of young people as they move to larger cities, such as Cardiff, for their careers. The Pentref Tyleri community and eco-tourism project has helped in this regard, giving many young people from the village jobs as well as providing wider benefits to the community:
- The project has allowed many young individuals to work outdoors and add something to the community and shows great progress within the community.
- The project has also created a café which will boost community engagement and funding for future projects.
- The team have worked hard to create a 600m2 wetland outside the community centre in a bid to attract the native wildlife back to the site like water voles and reed warblers. They have planted an astonishing 2,000+ native trees! Most of these are in native hedgerows. When the leaves of these native trees fall to the ground in the autumn, or wetland plants like frog orchids die, they will decompose the form a sludge suitable for composting.
What are the future implications of your field project?
Overall, the Pentref Tyleri community project has greatly impacted the local environment, economy, and social life:
- For the economy, it has provided many jobs, and the cafe that so there helps to bring in extra money for the community.
- For the social aspect, this project has provided an outlet for the children in the area, and although they have had problems with them in the past, this has been resolved.
- Finally, this project has been very successful environmentally, as they have created a wetland area providing a natural habitat for local species, as well as created a herb garden and compost area for the local community.
As one participant interviewed could not emphasise enough the importance of listening to the opinions of the people affected by a regeneration project and reinforced this by advocating for a bottom-up approach to regeneration, not top-down!
Overall, the Pentref Tyleri community project has been a great success and has had many positive benefits for the community.
For more information
Visit the website for more information about the Pentref Tyleri project.
