Wales

The Welsh partner in the 'Aspirations' Project is Pathways: Inspirational Development, based in Wales near the English Border.

Here is a map of Britain showing the position of Wales

The area in which most Pathways members live is about half way (north - south) along the border. Members of Pathways live in Wales and England.

Our local towns are Newtown (Wales), Bishop's Castle (England) & Knighton (Wales - but exactly on the border - the railway station is in England).

Here is a map of Wales which shows those towns. They are on the right side of the map (the east) near the black line that marks the border with England. Mid Wales and the associated English border region is very rural with few towns. The largest is Newtown which has a population of approximately 12,000.

Newtown is in the County of Powys (marked by a dashed line, thus - - - - - , it covers most of the border region with England approximately 140 kms long and 65kms wide. In the whole area there are around 110,000 people.

There are many more sheep than people!

Here is a picture of one of the newest residents of Powys (February 2010), just a few hours old and sheltering next to its mother from the near continual snow that has occurred during the winter of 2009/10.

The Aspirations Project is focused on other inhabitants of this area - people in the parishes of Sarn (Wales) and Bettws y Crwyn (England).

The Welsh Partner actually covers an area that is both in England and Wales. As is normal in most of Wales (but not generally in most of England) the rural settlements are scattered with many villages having almost no 'centre' and though 'centres' have increased in the last two hundred years most people in this area of England and Wales live in small groups of around three houses.

The view below shows the valley in which Sarn is situated - looking north.

And a view showing the centre of the village looking North West. Most of the houses visible in the picture have been built in the last 20 years.

The hills between Sarn and Bettws - y - Crwyn have a height of around 500 metres and along the ridge on top is the English-Welsh border. The ridge of hill is known as Kerry Ridgeway along which runs Yr Hen Ffordd - 'the old road'. It is an ancient trackway probably 5,000 years old. Bettws Church is on a branch of the ridge and Sarn (which means 'paved causeway') is probably a point where another track, leaving the ancient ridgeway, crossed Dyffryn Ceri ('The Vale of Kerry').

The photo below was taken whilst standing on the border looking east into the English county of Shropshire. The hills below the ridge are known as the Clun Forest. A 'forest' was an area designated for hunting with its own strict laws forbidding hunting by anyone other than the ruler (who was usually the King!). The word is from the latin 'fora' meaning an open space . Only in modern times has the term been used to describe large areas of woodland. The Clun Forest area was largely Welsh in character and at one point was included in Wales.