Pembroke Town Walls Trust is now pleased to announce a grant it has received from the UK Government through the UK Community Renewal Fund. The fund is managed in Pembrokeshire by the County Council.

An exciting project is underway to plan the long-term restoration and management of Pembroke’s medieval town walls, to invest in skills, community and place, local businesses and to support young people into employment.

Pembroke Town Walls Trust is more than just the walls. The project will develop a new and linked social enterprise, to deliver training in heritage stone masonry and work with local stone masons to restore the walls and offer work experience and apprenticeships.

The training was successfully piloted in 2019 with students in construction skills from Pembrokeshire College, managed by Tywi Centre in Carmarthen. There will be two courses, each two weeks long, the first held in the construction department at Pembrokeshire College, and the second week practical work on the town walls themselves.

Oliver Coe of Coe Stone Ltd will lead the training and work with Cyfle Building Skills to offer work experience restoring the west wall of the Civil War gun platform.

Pembroke is a historic town still very much on its medieval layout with long narrow burgage plots leading down to the outer walls. This is rare and needs to be conserved.

This project will work closely with the owners of six of the properties along the Mill Pond Walk, which are either scheduled ancient monuments or listed heritage structures. A ground-breaking innovative approach to dealing with the complex issues involved with multiple private ownership of historic structures will take a three-way approach.

The Trust will adapt a model lease for each owner to enable funding to be found and work to be carried out on their walls. Secondly, they are working with Cadw to deliver the first Heritage Partnership Agreements in Wales. Finally, the Trust will establish a means for owners, the community and local businesses to have a stake in their work for the long term through the sale of shares.

An important part of the project is to commission research for a Masters’ student at Cardiff University to explore a broad method for valuing heritage assets which will extend the current envelope of methods employed to value heritage within Wales.

Young people from the Tanyard Youth Project’s Postcards & Podcasts project are also involved by filming the training to make a documentary and they have made a film about this project called More Than the Walls.

Guided walks around the walls will be offered each month for local people and visitors to learn about their history and the plans to restore them.

The project is being externally evaluated by Jake Elster-Jones and a management plan will be written and delivered to guide the Trust over the years to come.