PRESS RELEASE – Heritage Angel Awards Wales

The search is on for Wales’s Heritage Angels

People who rescue historic buildings from neglect are to be recognised as ‘Heritage Angels’ by a new Welsh awards scheme sponsored by the Andrew Lloyd-Webber Foundation. Anyone can nominate a person or project for the awards and the winners will be announced at a glittering awards ceremony in November 2018.

Wales’s Heritage Minister, Dafydd Elis-Thomas, launched the awards scheme on 16 April while visiting Hetty Winding House, near Pontypridd. The Victorian steam-powered winding house transported miners and coal up and down a 360-metre (1,181foot) mine shaft until the Great Western Colliery closed in 1983. The Great Western Colliery Preservation Trust has restored the listed Winding House to working order – ‘a perfect example’ the Minister said, ‘of the sort of project that the Heritage Angel Awards Wales are designed to celebrate’.

The Awards have five categories:

• Best Rescue of an Historic Building or Place for projects under £5m
• Best Major Regeneration of an historic building or place for projects in excess of £5m
• Best Contribution to a Heritage Project by Young People
• Best Craftsperson or Apprentice on a Heritage Rescue or Repair Project
• Best Heritage Research, Interpretation or Recording

Examples of previous shortlists from outside Wales have included a dedicated volunteer who maintains historic milestones, a group of ex-servicemen who restore canals, a stonemason who has passed his skills on to hundreds of trainees, a community group that records old chapel and churchyard gravestones, and a volunteer who has developed relaxed autism-friendly tours at his local museum.

Baroness Andrews, Chair of the Heritage Lottery Fund in Wales, has agreed to be a judge. She says “The Heritage Angel Awards are based on a simple idea.  That those who work tirelessly, and often silently, to rescue and care for the heritage of Wales should be thanked and celebrated for the voluntary work they do.   Without them, the less fashionable elements of our heritage might be lost for ever – yet these are the places which mean so much in our communities: the canals and waterways, windmills and railway stations, cinemas, chapels and workmen’s halls.   Without their selfless work, much of the character of Wales, in rural, coastal and urban Wales would be lost.   These ‘Angels’ are not used to telling their stories on a national stage, but the Angel Awards will now enable them to do just that – and to the inspiration of all Wales. HLF is very proud indeed to have a part in this national discovery of the best of our country”.

Nominating people and projects for the awards is simple: you can find full details at www.rcahmw.gov.uk/about-us/heritageangelawardswales.

Andrew Lloyd Webber, who founded the Historic England Angel Awards in 2011, said: “I applaud everyone who enters the Angel Awards and showcases their heritage rescues. I am particularly pleased that Wales is on board this year so the Angel Awards are running for the first time in all four home nations. They shine a light on the special individuals and groups who tackle difficult historic buildings and sites at risk across the UK and inspire others to get involved. I am also excited to announce that at the awards ceremony in London this year, we will be presenting a special award to the overall winner from all the Angel Award categories in England, Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales, so I encourage everyone to come forward and send in their applications.”

End

Notes for editors

Anyone can nominate people and projects for the awards.

Nomination is simple; a nomination form (plus terms and conditions) can be found on the Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments of Wales website: https://rcahmw.gov.uk/about-us/heritageangelawardswales/

Nominations are invited under five categories:

• Best Rescue of an Historic Building or Place for projects under £5m
• Best Major Regeneration of an historic building or place for projects in excess of £5m
• Best Contribution to a Heritage Project by Young People
• Best Craftsperson or Apprentice on a Heritage Rescue or Repair Project
• Best Heritage Research, Interpretation or Recording

The closing date for nominations is 21 June 2018.

Three people / projects will be selected from each category and the shortlists will be announced on 9 September 2018.

The Awards ceremony will take place in November 2018 [date and location TBC].

The overall winner from all four nations (England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland) will be announced at a gala event in London in November 2018.

The Heritage Angel Awards Wales scheme is sponsored by the Andrew Lloyd Webber Foundation:

About the Andrew Lloyd Webber Foundation
The Andrew Lloyd Webber Foundation was set up by Andrew in 1992 to promote the arts, culture and heritage for the public benefit; since inception Andrew has been the principal provider of funding for all its charitable activities. In 2010, the Foundation embarked on an active grant giving programme and has now awarded grants of over £18m to support high quality training and personal development as well as other projects that make a real difference to enrich the quality of life both for individuals and within local communities. Significant grants include £3.5m to Arts Educational Schools, London to create a state of the art professional theatre, £2.4m to the Music in Secondary Schools Trust, £1m to The Architectural Heritage Fund, $1.3m to the American Theatre Wing and over £350,000 annually to fund 30 performing arts scholarships for talented students in financial need. http://andrewlloydwebberfoundation.com/

The Heritage Angel Awards Wales are supported by a steering group made up of representatives of a number of Welsh organisations including Cadw, the National Trust, the Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments of Wales, the Heritage Lottery Fund, the Welsh Archaeological Trusts, the Council for British Archaeology Wales Cymru, the Institute of Historic Building Conservation, the Royal Society of Architects in Wales, Glandŵr Cymru – Canal and River Trust in Wales and Wales Council for Voluntary Action.

Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments of Wales are administrating the Awards in Wales on behalf of the Heritage Angel Awards Wales Steering Group.

The Heritage Angel Awards Wales scheme was launched by Wales’s Heritage Minister, Dafydd Elis-Thomas, during his visit to Hetty Winding House, near Pontypridd on 16 April 2018. Left to Right: Dafydd Elis-Thomas, Wales’s Heritage Minister, Brian Davies, Great Western Colliery Preservation Trust, and Christopher Catling The Secretary (CEO), RCAHMW.

At Hetty Winding House Left to Right: Brian Davies, Great Western Colliery Preservation Trust; Susan Mason, CADW; Christopher Catling The Secretary (CEO), RCAHMW; Dafydd Elis-Thomas, Wales’s Heritage Minister.

Contact details:

Angharad Williams, Public Engagement Manager, Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments of Wales
01970 621 237       angharad.williams@rcahmw.gov.uk

Mae’r datganiad hwn hefyd ar gael yn y Gymraeg.

18/04/2018