In 2009, the Cambrian Mountains Society organised a walk and a picnic at Nant Y Moch Reservoir in Mid-Wales, in protest against plans to desecrate this beautiful spot (that includes the Artists Valley) with 105 giant wind turbines |
2011 updates: new website, telling you how to object to this wind farm: http://www.nonantymochwindfarm.co.uk/ David Bellamy's blog Tom Hutton, Photographer link to Cambrian Mountains Society website |
This is my record of the
event on Saturday June 20th 2009 (Christine
Lovelock). This photo is of the power lines coming from the Bryn Titli wind farm. We passed under them on our journey. As you can see they are not very impressive, so we wondered how much electricity is produced by this wind farm. |
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A view of two of the turbines on the Bryn Titli wind farm, between Rhayader and Llangurig. It was built in 1994 and has 22 turbines, and an installed capacity of 9.9MW. These are small turbines, nothing like the newer ones now proposed, but they looked large enough when we stopped to have a quick look at them. |
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Nant-y-Moch
Reservoir,
with dark clouds massing overhead - and 105 turbines
threatened as well See the first video, on YouTube a little wobbly but it shows the panoramic view and the crowd of protestors beginning to gather. |
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Some of the crowd, braving the rain. Ann West, Chairman of the Cambrian Mountains Society and organiser of this event, is on the right of this photograph. Following the picnic (in the rain!) several people spoke to the crowd, including David Bellamy, the artist, who lives with his wife Jenny in Miid-Wales, Geoffrey Sinclair, who has represented many campaign groups at Public Inquiries, and had lived here at Nant-y-Moch in the past, one of his sons having been born here, and the archaelogist, Stephen Briggs. This page on the Cambrian Mountains Society's website links to a pdf of a paper by Stephen about the archaeological importance of the site. See some of David Bellamy's speech, on YouTube |
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More
than a hundred people came, despite the
weather, the remote location - and
the midges, which chose this day for a picnic too. In the centre of this photo, holding the flag, is Wyck Lohman, who came with his wife Toey and showed us the route for the walk. David Bellamy and I were supposed to be leading the walk, but while a photographer was taking our photographs, the walkers were so excited and keen that they had gone on without us, leaving us to play catch up. This was fine, especially for me, as a former athlete I always loved running relays where you had to chase those ahead of you. As we hurried after them, we met local Liberal Democrat MP Mark Williams who also came to show his support. He had not been able to come any earlier, but it was great to see him arriving. |
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This is
a good place to add that while I am not Welsh, Wales has
always been one of my most favourite countries. I once
worked on a farm in the hills near Ystrad Meurig, not
very far from Nant-y-Moch, and I also used to
compete in events like the Welsh Games and the Nos Galan
midnight races ( a long time ago now!) Nothing has shocked
me more than the discovery that this most unspoilt area of
Wales is being vandalised. As we did our our catch-up, artist David Bellamy and playwrite Henry Lewis, stopped briefly so that I could photograph them, holding a poster that expresses their feelings. David had deferred the first day of his holiday to come here, and Henry had come by train and taxi all the way from London. David Bellamy's website Henry Lewis |
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Below Drosgol, on the walk.
This video on YouTube shows Wyck Lohman
pointing out some of the various locations for the 105
proposed turbines. This map on the Cambrian Mountains Society website gives you an idea of where we are, and the extent of the windfarm. Also from their website, more about Cwm Einion, the Artists Valley |
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David Bellamy took this
photo, so that I can prove I was there, having been the
one taking the photographs most of the time.
The painting of the turbine on the poster was done by another artist against wind farms, George West, whose paintings of Galscwm Hill (Mid-Wales) and Coast Path near Morwenstow (Cornwall) are in the Gallery. |
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Another
view of the Reservoir. One reason for having a website
such as this is to show that pictures can speak better
than any amount of words. |
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back |
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Text from a poster
advertising the event: CAMBRIAN MOUNTAINS SOCIETY: MAGNIFICENT NANT UNDER THREAT JOIN US ON THE NORTHERN SHORES OF NANT-Y-MOCH RESERVOIR ON SATURDAY THE 20TH JUNE, AROUND NOON FOR A PEACEFUL PROTEST. BRING A PICNIC. There will be speeches and a short walk to Drosgol to see the full impact of these horrendous proposals. Artists David Bellamy and Christine Lovelock (daughter of James Lovelock) will be amongst the leaders of the walk." |