I did promise this posting so here we are. No prisoners.
The story of my involvement starts about 10 years ago when the then owners of Cwmystwyth Mines, Crown Estate (CE) decided to block off all underground access as part of ongoing safety work. A lot of people were aggrieved about this and Welsh Mines Preservation Trust (WMPT) were among the various organisations that protested against it. The various entrances were eventually grilled off and then followed the expected tug of war between those who wanted access with their hacksaws, and the Crown. I believe that there was even a thread running on it on here, ?is cutting the grills justified? or similar.
A possible solution was mooted whereby the mines could be sold to WMPT as a way of CE disposing of what was obviously a liability to them. However WMPT felt that it would be too much of a burden and interfere with their other ongoing work.
I have a background of business and forming and running companies and offered to look into the feasibility of forming a limited company for the purpose of acquiring the site on behalf of the mining history and exploration community.
As such I entered into negotiation on this through the CE mineral agents, Wardell Armstrong, who were extremely helpful. Unfortunately in 2010 I was quite poorly, it was actually the worst year of my life, and everything ground to a halt.
Getting better towards the end of the year I picked up the reigns on this and we pushed the matter forward. A stumbling block was the state of surface buildings which were unfenced and unsafe; the remaining single story of the old barracks was spilling debris onto the council road. As a result CE embarked on a consolidation and fencing initiative and actually spent ?117,000 on the site before proceeding with the transfer.
Things were also moving in other areas, we were now into 2013 and the annual NAMHO field meet and conference had hit stumbling blocks but was saved by Peter Claughton stepping forward at the last minute by making arrangements to host the conference through Metal Links (RCAHMW) and me offering to arrange the field trips through my newly incorporated Cambrian Mines Trust (CMT)
Trips were offered into Henfwlch, Alltycrib, Temple Mine, and of course Cwmystwyth, with me being confident that the sale would be through by the date of the event.
The first setback was the loss of the first two above names trips because permission could not be obtained. Temple Mine was successfully arranged through the very kind help of the Coed Rheidol Nature Reserve manager however.
Next setback was the realisation that the transfer of the land at Cwmystwyth was becoming protracted due to a game of ping pong between the various solicitors, every time the ball went ?ping? a cash register somewhere would go ?ching? and all the while NAMHO was getting closer.
Eventually the matter was resolved and the sale completed, - a mere fortnight before the NAMHO event, but all the entrances scheduled for the trips were covered by metal grills.
The day was saved by Dave Tyson who turned up with some other helpers and he having benefit of a petrol driven angle grinder was able to reopen all of the main entrances.
Moving on to 2015, the Craig y Dinas mineral estate which included the Upper Silica Mine came up for grabs and I registered Natural Amenities Ltd to take possession.
In the same year there was a meeting of the Ceredigion Mines Forum at the Halfway Inn at Pisgah where after the main meeting finished I went into another meeting with Stuart France. We got kicked out of the pub, as they needed to close and continued on a picnic bench outside with all our paperwork spread out over the table. I believe we went on until about half past five. If Stuart reads this I bet it produces a chuckle. Anyway, Stuart had pick up the reigns after the unfortunate demise of Elsie Little with regard to an access agreement for mines on land which has previously been owned by Forestry Commission Wales. With devolution these lands became the property of the Welsh Government (WG) but are managed by Natural Resources Wales (NRW) on their behalf.
Stuart was keen on us working together due to my experience in setting up companies for this kind of purpose. I offered on the spot to be the co director of any new company formed for this purpose and Stuart readily agreed. In effect there were two separate agreements as Temple Mine belonged to Countryside Council for Wales, now part of NRW. The agreement relates specifically to mines, as per a schedule of sites which we can have added to following appropriate assessments.
I was very keen as I had personally done a lot of work already in Parc Lead Mine and Alltycrib, and had not forgotten the NAMHO 2013 affair.
Once everything was done and dusted we had some discussion about expanding our board of directors, and I suggested Dave Tyson who I had not forgotten for saving the day back in 2013.
So there we are.
So.
CMT is a company limited by guarantee with objects carefully drawn so that we qualify to include the word ?trust? in our title, its called a ?sensitive word? we can also dispense with the word ?Ltd? in our title. As original subscriber I own the company for as long as I live. The company owns the land at Cwmystwyth and as such I could literally wrap the place in gates, chains and padlocks. My signature at the bottom of this posting explains my attitude on this.
I believe that the duty of any access body is to make access as easy as possible for bona fide cavers and mine explorers. This view is shared by my fellow CMT directors. We are not democratic, we don?t do democracy and as such don?t support company hijacking. The wording of our articles supports our attitude on access.
NAL is a one director company, me. And same attitude to access
CAL, again, we as a board believe in making access as easy as possible
My purpose in posting the above somewhat lengthy story is to attempt to explain how things evolved, and I have attempted to be as open as possible. I believe that Stuart wrote about his side of things in another thread.
