Gwynedd slate communities celebrate £2 million financial boost

A partnership set up to help Gwynedd slate communities benefit from their World Heritage Site status is celebrating after a successful bid to secure £2 million for their work.

An award of £1.7 million from the Lottery Heritage Fund along with additional contributions from Cyngor Gwynedd, Cadw, Amgueddfa Cymru, Eryri National Park Authority, Bangor University and the National Trust will finance an innovative new  project called LleCHI LleNI over a period of five years, until the summer of 2029. This project, aimed at celebrating and raising awareness of the World Heritage Site’s slate heritage, delivered by Welsh Slate Partnership, will include a wide-ranging programme of activities including:

• Outdoor activities
• Creative and cultural sessions
• Community research, and
• Activities to safeguard our heritage.

All this is a key part of the World Heritage Site’s wider effort to bring the people of quarrying communities together and maximise the potential of the status to boost economic and social regeneration, and improve communities across Gwynedd.

This latest success follows funding gained for the Llewyrch o’r Llechi major capital projects through the UK Government’s Levelling Up and Shared Prosperity Funds to undertake improvements to town centres in the slate landscape.

“This massive financial boost is great news to the slate communities and everone who lives in them,” said Lord Dafydd Wigley, Chairman of the Slate Landscape of Northwest Wales World Heritage Site Partnership Board. “It will enable the Wales Slate Partnership, under the leadership of Cyngor Gwynedd, to work with people and communities throughout the World Heritage Site areas and wider afield, giving opportunities for young people to receive training, develop skills, gain knowledge and to volunteer.

“The success we had with this bid is thanks to many years of tireless efforts by individuals and organisations to gain the World Heritage Site status.

“It really does show that the status benefits all of us, and what is important is that we seek every possible avenue of support for our communities so they can maximise the opportunities that it may bring.”

The project will also celebrate the key significance of the Welsh language in the history of the slate industry and in the towns and villages that grew around it. This was the only heavy industry in Britain that was conducted almost exclusively through the medium of a language other than English. With up to two thirds of their population monoglot Welsh speakers when the industry was at its zenith at the turn of the 20th century, the communities that grew around the quarries played a key role in the history of the Welsh language and in its survival today as a living language.

“The project will provide resources and activities to help Welsh language learners explore the World Heritage Site, learning about the heritage and improve their language skills at the same time,” said Cyngor Gwynedd’s Deputy Leader, Councillor Nia Wyn Jeffreys. “Likewise, there will be sessions with outdoor activities providers to raise awareness of Welsh names, heritage and culture.

“As the gap between young people in our communities and direct experience of our slate past grows ever wider, it’s important that we make a special effort to raise awareness and to celebrate the quarrying heritage and culture. Workshops in schools, and a scheme to twin schools with heritage partners will help us do this. Our Llysgenhadon Llechi Ifanc (Young Slate Ambassadors) initiative will provide experiences and opportunities to young people to appreciate our local distinctiveness, and training activities will enhance opportunities for them locally.

“We will also support the aims of the Sustainable Vistor Economy Strategy and encourage sustainable and community tourism that will seek to ensure respect towards the slate heritage, landscape and communities.”

Another key element in the LleCHI LleNI project’s mission will be to ensure the inclusion of all people in society, with a special effort to enage with specific groups that are sometimes harder to reach. These groups include older and vulnerable people, people with disabilities, young families, LGBTQ+ people and young people facing homelessness.

“As the name of the project implies, LleCHI LleNI is for all who live, work or enage in any way with Gwynedd’s slate districts,” said Roland Evans, Cyngor Gwynedd’s Assistant Head of Culture, Economy and Community. “Bringing people together and empowering communities will be a core component of its work, and this means a strong voice for everyone from the start. We hope there will be something that appeals to everyone, be that an opportunity to take part in community research, develop their creative skills or making a difference to our heritage and landscape through conservation sessions.”

Although LleCHI LleNI is only just beginning, a wide-ranging programme of activities have already been planned and organised, including:

• Grants – the Cist Gwynedd Community Chest small grants team will adminster a scheme to enable community groups to run their own heritage projects to encourage pride in heritage, well-being and skills development.
• Travelling exhibition and interpretation work – working in partnership to create travelling exhibitions in community spaces, including community artefacts and stories.
• Guided walks and well-being activities to link different audiences and the World Heritage Site, its landscape and biodiversity. They will include raising awareness of placenames, and vegetaition clearance sessions to encourage local biodiversity to prosper.
• Activities to safeguard the Site – sessions to highlight the importance of the site and its conservation, with the Gwynedd Archeological Trust leading community conservation activities to safeguard, record and interpret information for graveyards in the World Heritage Site.
• Artwork – members of the local community working with a slate carver to select words that represent the Site’s heritage to etch onto slate.
• Performances – Plays and music performances based on quarrying culture.
• Local history – The project will interview people who used to work in the quarries and to lived beside them in the 1980s and explore the role of women. Examples of quarrying humour will be gathered.
• Young ambassadors – Children of secondary school age will learn about slate heritage, develop skills, have social opportunites, and have a voice in the management of the World Heritage Site.
• Traditional skills – working in partnerhip to develop traditional skills locally.

Announcing the award, Andrew White, Director for the The National Lottery Heritage Fund in Wales, said:  

“Our industrial heritage has deep roots in Wales. There has never been a more exciting time to celebrate our Welsh Slate Landscape, our newest UNESCO World Heritage Site. I’m really looking forward to seeing how the future of the site unfolds and builds a legacy for the people of Gwynedd and Wales.

“We’re thrilled to award this funding and to see plans to unite communities come to life, enabled by players of The National Lottery.”

 

Notes and background information

• In February 2024, Cyngor Gwynedd, Economy and Community Department submitted and application on behalf of the Wales Slate Partnership of the National Lottery Heritage Fund for £1.7m (total project value: £2m).
• The Welsh Slate Partnership includes Cyngor Gwynedd, Welsh Government (Cadw), Amgueddfa Cymru, the National Trust, Bangor University, Eryri National Park Authority, Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historial Monuments of Wales, and Heneb Gwynedd Archaeology.
• The purpose of the application was to support communities across the Slate Landscape of North West Wales World Heritage Site to benefit from the UNESCO designation (award date July 2021).
• The six core areas of the World Heritage Site include: Dyffryn Ogwen, Dinorwig Quarry areas, Dyffryn Nantlle, Cwm Ystradllyn and Cwm Pennant, Blaenau Ffestiniog and  Phorthmadog, and Abergynolwyn village and Tywyn. In addition to the quarries and surrounding communities in these areas, some of the project’s activity will extend over the whole of Gwynedd and rural parts of the west of Conwy County.
• The project’s name LleCHI LleNI translates as ‘Your Place, Our Place’, with Llechi also being the Welsh word for slates.

 

For further information, please contact: Lucy Thomas, LleCHI LleNI Project Manager, LucyThomas@gwynedd.llyw.cymru, 07785 469867