Cambrian Village Trust awarded grant by The National Lottery Heritage Fund to build a new atrium at Clydach Lakes, working with local arts organisations to explore local history and heritage through creative community activities.
Today, Cambrian Village Trust is announcing a £191,121 grant from The National Lottery Heritage Fund to improve visitor facilities at Clydach Lakes and help more people discover Mid Rhondda’s rich industrial, sporting and cultural heritage.
Rhondda heritage partners, the project explores the legacy of the Cambrian Combine Strike, the Tonypandy Riots, The Mid Rhondda Track, chapel culture, and the everyday experiences of local communities.
Running from August 2026 to September 2027, the project will combine oral history collection, community research, participatory arts, theatre, music, movement, and public performance to ensure that local stories are preserved and reinterpreted for generations to come. Particular emphasis will be placed on recovering overlooked narratives, including the experiences of women, migrant communities, young people, and working-class families whose contributions have often been absent from traditional historical accounts.
The project will focus on engaging schools, volunteers, families, and community groups in creative heritage activity. Through workshops and co-created performances, community members will help shape how Mid Rhondda’s history is told and celebrated.
The programme will include two public events: On 13 November 2026 at 5pm, a commemorative street performance event marking the 1910 Tonypandy Riots will take place on Tonypandy High Street, followed by a large-scale Miners’ Gala-inspired Heritage Festival at the Mid Rhondda Track in summer 2027.
Alongside the creative programme, the project will see built a new, fully accessible Heritage Atrium at the Lakeside Visitor Centre, creating a permanent community heritage hub for exhibitions, oral histories, interpretation, and year-round activity. Digital archives, film documentation, and bilingual interpretation will ensure that the heritage gathered through the project remains publicly accessible long after the funded period ends.
At its heart, the project seeks to strengthen community pride, belonging, wellbeing, and intergenerational connection by celebrating Mid Rhondda’s traditions of resilience, solidarity, activism, sport, creativity, and the collective identity of the Mid Rhondda. There will be lots of opportunities for local residents, community groups, artists and young people to get involved, learning about and celebrating our local history and opening up creativity!
Quotes
Andrew White, Director for Wales, The National Lottery Heritage Fund said:
“We’re delighted to support this ambitious community-led project celebrating Mid Rhondda’s rich heritage. Thanks to National Lottery players, local people, schools and volunteers will be able to uncover and share the stories that have shaped their communities, building pride in place and creating new connections between people, generations and the heritage on their doorstep.”
Laura Morris, Headteacher at Ysgol Nantgwyn in Tonypandy said:
“Ysgol Nantgwyn are delighted to be working as part of the Rhondda Rebellion project. Our pupils are looking forward to learning more about the history and heritage of the local area and excited to make a contribution to the local community in retelling important stories and strengthening their own Rhondda identity”
Project Coordinator Beth reflects:
“We’re really excited to be looking into Mid Rhondda’s unique history of resistance, social justice and community; not just in terms of learning about our past but considering what is relevant to us today and how future generations might benefit from this thinking. We welcome anyone interested in getting involved to contact rhonddarebellion@gmail.com and discover how they can participate in the project and upcoming events.”
Feature image: The hand-crafted red dragon made by ‘The Fetch Mask and Puppet’ with young people in Ukraine will be one of the highlights of the evening, joining the celebrations.
Image Credit: Fetch Mask and Puppet
