Tredegar Town Clock
The Circle (Blaenau Gwent CBC)

Discovering places

19 March 2010

ViTCC, Tredegar

Bringing local people and professionals together to investigate urban character

Flyer and booking form (pdf) Booking form (Ms Word)

£50 professionals / Free to voluntary sector and individuals who are not employed in the heritage, built environment or planning sectors

Further information 02920 343336

This event is a little bit different…

It provides an opportunity to discover different ways of studying places and their history in a way that helps to define what makes them special, and gives their communities a sense of identity and pride in place.

• It will engage professionals in planning and conservation at the same time as members of the voluntary sector.
• It will bring people in Blaenau Gwent and beyond who recognise the importance of our shared past in creating future communities that are better places in which to live, together with professionals in conservation, planning, architecture and urban design who want to develop their skills in working with community groups.
• It will address a practical purpose: a better understanding of how places start, grow, evolve and change through time, and how present day communities experience and relate to their surroundings.
  

Urban characterisation is a proven means of analysing the significance of places and their components – buildings, streets, parks, open spaces – in a way that can influence planning, the control of development, and help shape the process of physical and social regeneration connecting the past with the present and future.

Too often, characterisation is top down. But heritage policy in Wales recognises the opportunities to empower professionals and community interests to work together to understand our towns, our communities, and the values we connect with the places where we live and work.

Two workshops will focus on the discovery of place through maps and historical documents, focusing the investigation on the evolution of Tredegar.

The third workshop will provide the opportunity to explore Tredegar itself in the company of specialists in architecture and archaeology.

Presentations on the relationships between place, historic built environment, and local identity and distinctiveness will be linked to the workshops.
Judith Alfrey (Cadw) will discuss the way in which work of this kind contributes to urban characterisation studies.
Lise Brekmoe (The Civic Trust) will talk about the outcomes of her work with community groups in the Rhondda, relating people’s stories and memories to their sense of local pride.