This is the Story of a Rural Success.

A fascinating Tale.

Canolfan Cae Cymro

The Canolfan Cae Cymro is the symbol of a story of three North Wales villages, who appeared to be in terminal decline, being rejuvenated into an active, ambitious and forward looking community. This rejuvenation has been recognised nationally when the community was awarded the Wales Calor Village of the Year Award in 2005. A Small rural North Wales community which was rapidly degenerating into a mere dormitory for larger nearby towns has reversed its fortunes and is now a model example of what can be achieved through vision, ingenuity and tenacity.

The community is made up of three villages Clawddnewydd, Clocaenog and Derwen. By the 1980’s the decline in the villages was accelerating. With the advent of wider car ownership the focus of the communities was moving outside to the nearby larger towns. Both the shop and church at Derwen closed, followed soon by the village school in the 1980’s. The only shop in Clocaenog closed about the same time. Clawddnewydd followed a similar pattern with post office/general store closing followed by general store/petrol station. The future of the villages appeared to be settled as mere dormitories for larger nearby towns. The Derwen Community Council (which covered the communities of Derwen and Clawddnewydd) and it’s counterpart at Clocaenog held a joint meeting in l989 to discuss the future and decided to look into the possibility of creating a joint community centre at Clawddnewydd which was the central location to the three villages.. The initial concept was quite modest and an application was made to Foundation of Sport and Arts for a grant of £50,000. A local farmer generously donated 3 ½ acres of land in Clawddnewydd on which the Canolfan could be built.

Meetings were held to establish what the local people wanted from their community. It soon became apparent that the original concept was too modest and if the “wish list” , which emerged from these meetings, was going to be satisfied a far more ambitious and challenging project was required. It is testament to the local people that they had the vision to embark on the long process of bringing this project to completion. During the period 1991 to 1993 the design, planning approval and grant application took place.  Grants were obtained.

However the project could not have been completed without a substantial amount of local fund raising. For stage one of the project a total of £70,000 was raised. Considering the total population of the three villages was no more than 500 people, this was a remarkable achievement. A great many people have put in an enormous amount of work in various fund raising activities with the aim of creating a thriving community. In 1998 the Canolfan was opened and whilst this was a cause for a celebration of fine achievement, it was only the first stage of the regeneration project. When it opened it was only a shell with a concrete floor and surrounded by hard standing. However it created the much needed focal point which benefited so many groups within the village.
Further fund raising took place and soon the car park was created and fully surfaced. The Children’s playground was also built at the same time. The football pitched was created at no cost by taking a novel approach. The sub-surface was mainly made up of a reasonable quality shale and it was calculated that the cost of creating a level pitch was going to be £1.50 per tonne. The shale was offered to local farmers at £1.50 per tonne with transportation away from the site at their cost. The top soil was re-laid after the site was levelled and a new football pitch was created at no cost to the community.

A small business unit had been created within the Canolfan when it was built. Not having  attracted any small business to take up the unit it was decided to look at the possibility of developing a community shop. There were no longer any shops open in any of the three villages and it was believed that this would meet a local need. Funding from Key Fund, Carnegie Trust together with £10,000 from local fund raising was used to underwrite the cost of operating the shop for 3 years and creating the working capital required. The shop was opened in February 2001. It has proved to be a great success and in 2003 using the lottery new opportunity fund a mobile shop was developed to visit nearly every village within a seven-mile radius of Clawddnewydd. This has resulted in numerous cottage industries emerging as a result the opening of the shop. A host of different people now make jams, chutneys, cakes and greeting cards as well as growing plants, vegetables which are sold at the shop.
 

To read and/or print the full Story(73.3kb) Click here

You Will need Adobe Reader to Access This Story

Click below to download Adobe from the web.

   Back to Top