THE latest community news from Harlech

Llyn y Felin play park

HARLECH Community Parks Group has announced that the play park, alongside the castle in Upper Harlech, is ready to open.

A park inspection is required and, providing this is successful, the grand opening will be on Friday, 25 August, with celebrations running from midday to 4pm.

A fun, picnic day for families to enjoy together is planned, so get your picnic baskets out and join in.

There will be face painting, hair colouring or braiding, glitter tattoos and bubbles.

A number of local businesses have agreed to donate produce and items.

The park has been closed for over three years since work commenced on renovating and developing Harlech Castle and the surrounding area.

The extensive works prevented access to the park not only for play, but also for upkeep and in turn the play space and the surrounding area became unkempt and fell into disrepair. Once access became possible, upon inspection, the operators were advised the play area was unsafe and must be closed.

Since 2015, the Harlech Community Parks Group, with the support of the community council, has been lobbying CADW to revamp the park.

Following discussions, a grant offer was made in February 2017 by CADW which would allow the required work to take place.

This offer was accepted by Harlech Community Council and the group, enabling new turf to be laid, new seats and picnic tables to be installed, disabled access to be secured and thus ensure the play area was a safe and pleasant place to be.

Concert

THE latest concert of summer music in St Tanwg’s Church will be held at 2pm on Thursday, 31 August.

A harp ensemble called Harpistry, comprising six harpists, will be performing. They will be joined by a violin player and a troupe of young dancers.

This is a free concert and there will be a retiring collection to support the church and its development plans.

A Welsh tea party will be served in the church after the concert for which there will be a charge.

Historical Society

THERE was a great turnout for the society’s Cwm Croesor walk on Saturday and though it was cloudy and blustery, the rain held off.

The first stop was the Croesor lido where a well-informed local man called Tudur told members about the famous people who have lived in Croesor, including EP Thompson and Eric Hobsbawm. He also filled the pool for the group but they hadn’t brought their costumes!

After a brief pause at Ael y Bryn to pay homage to local legend Bob Owen (1885-1962), they headed up the valley, along the route of the old tramway.

Many thousands of tons of slate were hauled out of this little valley during the relatively short working lifetimes of the four quarries that were served by this tramway.

Two of the quarries, Rhosydd and Croesor, were producing some 6,000 tons of finished slate each per year during the height of production.

Despite the millions of tons of spoil it’s now difficult to imagine how busy and noisy it must have been during those years between the mid-19th century and the 1930s.

The sounds the group heard were the peregrines, choughs and ravens and the rushing Afon Croesor.

A lovely afternoon was pleasantly rounded off with some welcome refreshments in the charming little Oriel Caffi.

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