Creative holiday fun

To accompany our Wilding the Senses project the Green Hub will be hosting 3 family camp outs at the Workhouse during the school holidays – Friday 14th April, 2nd June and 18th Aug. Come along and camp Friday evening, make pizzas in the cob oven and drum around the fire. Star gazing free! Followed by full day of family activities Saturday. £5pp inc camping, pizzas and drumming. Please phone Tree on 07534354082 to book your pitch.

Family fun for Free at Bunkhouse at the Workhouse !

Our wonderful friends at Arts Connection have secured funding for a year long project to rejuvenate our Memorial Garden and turn it into a sensory space.  We start on Saturday 18th March at 10.30-1pm with a Story Remembering Story Telling session with local artist Helen East.

The garden already has a long history, not least the work that was done by volunteers to create the space as it is now, way back when the Trust first took ownership of the building. We want to remember …how we got to where we are now,  to help us imagine where we want to go from here.  So we’re inviting everyone to join us on the 18th March to share their memories and help us create our vision for the garden in the future.

It’s open to everyone, so people shouldn’t be worried if they haven’t got a history with the garden or the Workhouse, they can participate as well, but we hope people who have been there before will bring their stories along to share.

The sessions are free but please register with Arts Connection.

We’ll then be meeting every 1st and 3rd Saturday of the month to create something wonderful together, starting with creating a medicinal herb garden with Natalie Morris on the 1st April.

Come join in, we’d love to see you there. Please share!

Small community undertaking one of the most challenging heritage projects in Wales

Following the successful launch of Wales’s only workhouse museum last summer, the Trustees of Y Dolydd, Llanfyllin Workhouse, are taking on the restoration of the most imposing and challenging part of the historic building: the Master’s House.

This is the hub of the whole complex: the central octagon. It dominates all four courtyards, rising an extra storey, and links the four wings. But the upper rooms are currently empty and the fine roof of Llangynog slate is leaking and in urgent need of repair. The Trust has carried out much-needed maintenance in many areas and the handsome entrance range was re-roofed with the help of the Pilgrim Trust a few years ago. The Workhouse has become a thriving community enterprise with fifteen workshops currently let, a 24-bed bunkhouse, a gallery and a venue as well as the Workhouse History Centre, and the site is used for weddings, music events, ecological activities and horse shows. But the deteriorating condition of the Master’s House at its heart threatens to put all this at risk.

The immediate priority is to repair the roof and safeguard the enterprise for the future. But full restoration of the Master’s House offers exciting prospects of opening up the upper floors, not just in the octagon but much of the building, and of making them accessible to all by installing a lift. And it will enable the Trust to reinstate the fine classical cupola which once crowned the roof and was replaced in the 1960s. An appeal is needed now to finance the roof repairs, and hopefully make a start on further improvements.

A meeting has been arranged in Oriel Y Dolydd on Saturday 18th February at 10.00 a.m. The object will be to let everyone see what is being planned, obtain people’s thoughts and advice and answer any questions.  Then the Trust intends to form a team whose members can be involved in contributing ideas, applying for grants; organising fund raising events; eliciting donations or helping with publicity: some might like to join a smaller steering group.

The first and essential phase will be the roof repairs, with internal works to follow. The whole project could take several years, but the outcome will be a sound, attractive building with improved facilities for tenants and the public. A small community is undertaking one of the most challenging heritage projects in Wales.

Further information from John Hainsworth at john@rhiwarth.fsnet.co.uk or 01691 860549.