As you walk along the Tawe, on the opposite side of the river to Landore Social Club, you might cross a patch of waste ground with a small hillock in the middle.
https://www.walesonline.co.uk/lifestyle/tv/hidden-part-swansea-no-one-18998882?utm_s=
Plans to double the amount of green space in Swansea over the next decade could help the city adjust to climate change, according to the council and Natural Resources Wales (NRW).
The Smith Canal Tunnel is featured in Cynefin, to be broadcast on S4C, 8pm Sunday 17 February – https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p06zwz6m
www.walesonline.co.uk/news/wales-news/woman-goes-paddling-up-river-14920535
A woman has spoken of her horror after discovering a stretch of river near her home contains more than 70 supermarket trolleys.
What was meant to be a pleasant day on the River Tawe in Swansea turned into something of a trolley splash for Hollie Cockings and her husband Benjamin, who had hoped to enjoy the local wildlife on Sunday afternoon.
In a stretch of around 200 metres of the Tawe that runs along the Liberty Stadium, the couple counted 76 trolleys in total, and fear that there could be hundreds more along the river.
“We live near the Marina in Swansea and my husband and I decided to do some paddle boarding on the river on Sunday,” said Mrs Cockings, a lecturer at Swansea University.
“At first we noticed a few scattered around the place – some were obvious, others had been submerged and weren’t in plain sight.
“But when we got to one particular stretch, they just kept coming. So, we counted them, and we counted 76!”
The stretch of water Mrs Cockings was paddle boarding on is in the Morfa area of Swansea.
The river separates the Liberty Stadium and Morfa Shopping Park, which contains shops which house trolleys outside.
Mrs Cockings says some of the trolleys have clearly been in the river for some time, and that action is needed, quickly.
“Some of them looked new, as if they’d been thrown in recently, but some of the them were rusty so this has obviously been going on for a while,” she added.
“There must be hundreds altogether.”
Mrs Cockings added: “We were just really shocked. There’s quite a lot of wildlife in the river – there’s fish in the water and we saw a seal there once.
“This cannot be good for the environment.
“It’s bad for tourism as well. That area itself is a lovely stretch of river.
“I’m just worried that this will create a terrible image of Swansea for anyone visiting. Something has to be done about this.”
Thankfully, after the problem was highlighted on social media, is seems that something is going to be done.
A company called Wanzl operates a service called Trolleywise, which specialise in the retrieval of trolleys from shops and retail car parks all across the UK.
The company says: “Apart from the costly loss of asset, trolleys are often abandoned in roads, on walkways and in parks.
“Many are dumped in local waterways, rivers and canals where they can cause harm to wildlife and the general environment.
“This is an unwelcome hazard to the public and under UK laws can attract substantial fines.”
A spokeswoman for Trolleywise has confirmed that a team will be attending the site on the River Tawe on Thursday to carry out a “risk assessment” in the area before the trolleys themselves will be removed.
“It was such a shock to see so many of them in quite a small spot,” said Mrs Cockings.
“I’m just delighted that someone is going to sort it out.”
The Largest Mechanical Puppet ever constructed in Britain will be in Swansea on 12 April 2018. This is not to be missed!
The Man Engine
This organisation claims to retrieve over 100,000 trollies a year. Let us know if you try it.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-south-west-wales-40831659
Plans to revive an ancient ferry crossing in Carmarthenshire have received a cash boost of £300,000.
The Coastal Communities grant has been awarded to a group which wants to restore the service between Ferryside and Llansteffan.
The crossing dates back 1,000 years and was a favourite with 19th and early 20th Century tourists from the south Wales valleys during “miners fortnight”.
It was discontinued in the 1950s.
This left walkers and cyclists facing an 18 mile (29km) round trip up the estuary.
The grant will allow the group to build a “bespoke amphibious ferry boat” fitted with retractable wheels like an aircraft, to avoid the need for a jetty.
It will initially run daily for eight and a half months of the year, with the aim of an all year-round service in the future.
The project will create five jobs, including two skippers and mates and administrative posts, and it is hoped the ferry will start operating next year.
Speaking on Good Morning Wales, Les Jones from Carmarthen Bay Ferries said the Tywi estuary was a difficult place to run a ferry due to “a very high tidal range, strong currents and shifting sand banks”.
He said they had looked at using a conventional boat, but would need to “improve the jetty in Ferryside and build an extremely long one in Llansteffan”.
He said the amphibious boat “will be driven on land and will perform as a very fast motorboat when on the water”.
It is being designed by a company in Solva, Pembrokeshire.
Rob Bamford, also from Carmarthen Bay Ferries, said they surveyed both communities and found that “there was a good interest for using a ferry if one was in place”.
He said it would “bring the communities together” for both locals and tourists, and offer excursions.
The idea was the brainchild of retired Liverpool University professor Kenton Morgan.
He previously said: “It’s known there are 400,000 annual visitors to Cefn Sidan beach just along the coast, and tens of thousands of visitors to Llansteffan Castle, Ferryside Castle and Laugharne, with its Dylan Thomas links.
“If the plan is approved, the ferry itself will become a tourist attraction.”
Digital Past is a two-day conference which showcases innovative digital technologies for data capture, interpretation and dissemination of heritage sites and artefacts.
As this year marks Digital Past’s 10th anniversary, we will reflect on the exciting developments over ten years of digital heritage, the lessons learnt, and the opportunities and challenges for the sector in the decade ahead.
Digital Past 2018 will be held in the award-winning Aberystwyth Arts Centre, Wales’s largest arts centre with stunning views over the historic market town and resort – also a lively university town – and Cardigan Bay. Aberystwyth, the ‘Biarritz of Wales’, sits at the heart of the beautiful west Wales coastline, conveniently located on the mainline Cambrian Line railway.
The conference will offer a combination of papers, hands-on workshops and demonstrations to investigate the latest technical survey and interpretation techniques and their practical application in heritage interpretation, education and conservation.
We are seeking submissions from those working on innovative projects on the themes outlined below in a research or operational capacity, who can contribute to this both retrospective and forward-looking conference. Contributions can be made through formal presentations or workshops, or more informally through the ‘unconference’ session or a show stand. We welcome contributions through the medium of Welsh, English, or bilingually. Please find details of the various formats below.
The two main strands of the conference will be Digital Technologies and Digital Heritage, which may encompass digital survey (Terrestrial Scanning, Geo-physics, LiDAR, Photogrammetry, UAV’s, etc.), data processing, manipulation and analysis (including GIS & BIM), data storage and archiving, 3D modelling and reconstruction, visualisation and animation, Augmented Reality, Virtual Reality, gaming, immersive environments, 3D printing, e-publication, crowd sourcing, communities, education, engagement, interpretation and tourism.
As this is the 10th Digital Past conference, we are also seeking papers that take both a celebratory and critical look at the developments over ten years of digital heritage, the lessons learnt, and the opportunities and challenges for the sector in the decade ahead.
Other topics may include but are not limited to:
20 minute papers presented in a conventional arrangement of presentation and PowerPoint format. Each session will consist of 4 such papers, with a 10 minute question and discussion period at the end of each session. Due to the tightly packed schedule, a strict adherence to time will be followed.
To be held on the morning of the 8 February. Workshops can offer practical, hands-on demonstrations or training in a particular aspect of digital technology with heritage applications. Workshops may be either a single session of 90 minutes or two of 40 minutes.
To make a submission for any of the above, please send a short outline (100-150 words) of your proposed presentation/seminar discussion/workshop to digitalpast@rcahmw.gov.uk together with details of your name and organisation.
A series of 15 minute sessions which can be booked by any delegate attending on a first-come, first-served basis. Booking will be available from 9.30am on the first day of the conference only. These sessions will allow for presentation on any project, research or issue relating to the use of digital technology in heritage. Presentations may be pre-prepared using PowerPoint, or purely in response to other discussions/issues raised during the event.
A limited number of exhibition stands will be available for a two-day booking. Larger stands are available at a cost of £215 or a Poster stand at a cost of £165 and include the cost of one conference registration (prices are not subject to VAT). Booking will be available when conference registration is opened.
The deadline for the submission of papers, seminars and workshops is Friday 29 September 2017. Decisions will be made after consideration of the merits of the individual submissions and their fit into the overall programme, and applicants notified by Friday 13 October 2017.
Free registration for the event will be extended to those presenting a paper or workshop. Please note that while we are happy to have submissions which include more than one speaker, we can only offer one free registration per submission. We regret that no further expenses can be offered.
We welcome contributions through the medium of Welsh or English, or bilingually.
For overseas applicants, presentation of papers via live-web streaming may be considered.
For further information or any questions please contact Susan Fielding at digitalpast@rcahmw.gov.uk or on 01970 621219.
The Digital Past Team
#digitalpast2018
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-north-west-wales-40717410
A long-closed Anglesey mine that has deposits of gold and other metals worth about £206.5m could be reopened, a report has said.
There have been a number of attempts to restart work at Parys Mountain, which closed almost a century ago.
Its owner Anglesey Mining commissioned a scoping report, which estimated values of zinc, silver and copper.
The company called it a “viable project” and is now looking for financial backers to help restart work.
It would cost $53m (£40.5m) to reopen the site for mining 1,000 tonnes a day for eight years, the scoping report says.
The estimated annual output would be 14,000 tonnes of zinc, 7,200 tonnes of lead and 4,000 tonnes of copper, while gold would also be recovered.
This would provide metals worth US$270m (£206.5m).
Mining at the site is thought to date back to the Bronze Age and it yielded more than 300,000 tonnes before its closure.
In 2006, Anglesey Mining planned to sell shares to pay for a feasibility study to reopen the site.
Two years later it was nearly sold to an Australian mining company but the deal fell through.
Anglesey Mining’s chief executive Bill Hooley believes the project now has fresh impetus, saying: “We think there is support for us. There is a shortage of zinc in world market.”
The company has had planning permission since 1990 and Mr Hooley believes about 120 jobs could be created.