REVIT Heritage Report.pdf

Torfaen County Borough Council
REVIT: A Review of the Conservation of Industrial Heritage Assets on Brownfield Sites
• Pontypool Museum
4.2.34 Initiatives to encourage tourism to the Blaenavon WHS have had some level of
success and take two main forms:
• encouraging cultural tourism; and
• encouraging outdoor pursuits.
4.2.35 Cultural Tourism is augmented by Blaenavon Partnership’s initiative to sponsor
the town’s specialism as a second-hand book shop following the success of
other towns like Hay-on-Wye. The idea is to provide a draw to the town which
is not dependent wholly on the seasons, and which could draw on the town as
an historic backdrop without requiring the major re-development of individual
buildings. This function would also reinforce the educational potential of the
site and provide a draw for small business to the town without destroying the
historic character of the area. In other words, if successful, this venture would
provide a very effective means of sustainable economic regeneration. The
initiative has so far been in action for only two years, and although not without
teething troubles, a sustained impetus over a number of years will be needed
to judge the effectiveness of this project.
4.2.36 Big Pit ('Pwll Mawr'), which incorporated the Coity Colliery and Kearsley's Pit
opened in 1880, has been converted into a working museum which is a central
visitor magnet for the area. This is one of Wales’ most successful industrial
tourist attractions, receiving over 140,000 visitors per year. The Big Pit
museum has also benefited from a grant for applied to the coalfields areas by
the Heritage Lottery Fund.
4.2.37 Other developments in the areas include the railway line currently operated
from near Big Pit to Whistle Halt, Garn-yr-erw by the Pontypool and Blaenavon
Railway Society. This has been proposed for extension southward to the old
Blaenavon station and possibly to the highest station in England and Wales at
Waun Afon. Other impressive industrial structures like Pwll-du tunnel have
been proposed for restoration and opening to allow access to visitors.
4.2.38 Blaenavon has some similarities to another large-scale industrial landscape,
the Rhur in Germany. Work there suggests that tourists do visit these sites
although there are also many locals who use the area as a recreational facility.
However, even such local “tourism” can provide one objective of sustainable
regeneration by providing a better quality of life by increasing health and
education.
4.2.39 Within the Rhur, in order to get outsiders to visit the new green Ruhrgebiet, an
umbrella tourist organisation, the Ruhrgebiet Tourismus GmbH , was set up in
the late 1990s to coordinate all the tourist offices in the individual towns and
cities. The organisation has gradually developed its role beyond industrial
heritage and now promotes other attractions. In addition most museums
provide information in English, as well as German, and there is detailed
information on all the sites in the Industrial Heritage Trail. There are also
DVDs in German and English on the trail and guides to the Ruhr available in
English and Dutch.
4.2.40 The Rhur has also been very adept at looking at the whole concept of
industrial tourism by planning and integrating these attractions as a whole, not
simply as a range of piecemeal attractions. This means that existing
attractions need to signposted and to be linked into existing roads, cycle paths,
river and other routes wherever possible. Alternatively, in a relatively isolated
area like Blaenavon, it may be necessary to extend accepted tourist routes into
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