Our Valleys Heritage People and Places in the Rhondda

www.hlf.org.uk | our valleys heritage online

Image © Google Earth

The Heritage Lottery Fund has awarded the Trust a grant of £50,000 over two years to work with people and groups in the Rhondda on the exploration and interpretation of the historic built environment. We have appointed Lise Brekmoe as Project Officer.

Growing out of the HLF's Valleys Built Heritage Initiative, the scheme will focus on enabling local people to record and interpret their heritage — looking at the layout of valleys towns, their streets and green spaces, identifying important buildings and places and documenting the significance they possess for Rhondda people today. Individual projects could be valley wide, or as local as a street, a school or a park. They could make use of photography, video, writing, oral history and will be published through a variety of media.

The initiative will be documented through its own website — and an associated blog. We aim to deepen local knowledge of the Rhondda townscape in a way that may influence planning and urban design decisions and assist environmental enhancement projects. An important aspect is to develop ways in which communities can share with "experts" their perceptions of significance and value — methodologies which should be transferable to other communities and places in Wales.

The Rhondda Leader will be reporting regularly on the project, and has published a questionnaire which asks some basic questions about people's sense of local history and identity.

A steering group is being formed drawn from local interest groups.

You will shortly be able to access the project website at www.ourvalleysheritage.org.uk.

Lise Brekmoe writes:

I originally come from Nordreisa in northern Norway. After leaving college in 1999 I decided to move to Oslo where I studied Archaeology. I decided to move back to northern Norway for my MA and studied Archaeology and Heritage Management at Tromsø University.

After graduation in December 2004 I worked as a Project Manager on Fleinvær, a group of islands off the northern Norwegian Coast. The project involved working with a fishing community and their heritage, and aimed at establishing an understanding of the value of their heritage and looking at potentials for heritage tourism. The project also worked closely with local authorities in order to ensure the protection of the heritage and the wildlife on the islands in future planning processes.

My first experience in British archaeology was through a friend who had studied at Cardiff University, and I ended up going with him to the 2002 Cardiff University excavations in Herefordshire. I returned to Britain to work, first as a volunteer, and then as a field assistant, during the 2004 and 2005 Llanmaes excavations in the Vale of Glamorgan, run by the Portable Antiquities Scheme and the National Museum Wales.

After the project in Fleinvær ended, I decided it was time for a change of scenery and to develop myself as an archaeologist and to experience something new, I moved to Cardiff in August 2005. I spent the first six months working as a field archaeologist on various projects, including the Cardiff Castle excavations run by Glamorgan-Gwent Archaeological Trust. In April, I was offered a position at the Newport Ship Project, where I have been working until starting my new job on the Our Valleys Heritage Project.

I really enjoy living in Wales, people are friendly and you have everything you need within reach. Cardiff has got a lot to offer and there are always events happening, but the city itself is still small enough to feel at home in. When I feel the need to escape the city, both the sea and the mountains are only a short drive away and I never get tired of discovering new places.

15 February 2008