Llanyrafon Manor Rural Heritage Site. Cwmbran.

After an amazingly relaxing morning out yesterday at local arts centre, my friend and I ended up at 'The Raspberry Tea Rooms' at Llanyrafon Manor. The autumn sunshine was warm enough for us to sit outside and we had a beautifully prepared and presented Welsh Rarebit for lunch. This was followed by home made cake and preservative free ice cream. Delicious! This is not the first time I have visited this lovely old Manor House (which is being restored to it's former state) where I had been for a cream tea previously. The standard has not dropped, if anything it has improved! All this within five miles or so of where I live. You have to count your blessings sometimes.
 

 

I have now become interested in this lovely place and discovered through reading and research that it is run, not too dissimilarly, along the lines of the Nantgarw pottery project.

 

I discovered that if it weren’t for a group of local volunteers who gathered together in 2006 with a view to saving the building, the Manor would not be there, in it's preserved state, as it is today. These campaigners became the Llanyrafon Manor Community Group (LMCG) and it was this group that secured various funding streams which covered the refurbishment of the Manor and its consequent opening.



They have been heavily involved in the restoration and re-use of the Manor and Torfaen County Borough Council retained their pro-active involvement in planning for its future. Well done to committed people like this who are looking out for, and succeeding in, preserving local history.

NATO Conference

Whatever we may think of this NATO conference it's here... here in Wales, on my doorstep.  The disruption to date has not been too bad.  The media have hyped it up far more than it actually is.  We cannot help but be aware of it, but what is it all about?

Probably they will discuss the wars in Islamic countries.  Russia's increase in spending on military weapons, sanctions against Russia and so on. But why doesn't someone set out a possible agenda for the British public to help them understand what is happening and why all this public money is being spent.

A TV program perhaps, explaining the NATO beginnings and it's continuing role in world affairs, probably needed today as much as ever.  There is an argument that we should all know these things I suppose, but why? The only way the public can be educated on such issues is if they are told. Information has been scarce on the significance of NATO discussions, but the disruption much evident and costings staring us in the face.

Perhaps if we knew more about what they stand for and why their venues and debates are causing such public expense, there would be more enthusiasm coming from ordinary folk like the people of Newport.