Heartlands tours on offer to the local community

Local people are being reminded that guided tours are taking place on a monthly basis around Heartlands in Pool.

The next monthly tour will leave Pool Health Centre on Friday 6th March at 2pm and the group will have the opportunity to learn first hand how the site will be transformed into an inspirational cultural landscape.

The group tours will be an opportunity for people to see how work on the site is progressing. The tours are being conducted by Heartlands Community Project Manager, Kirsty Davies.

Kirsty will be able to answer any questions people may have about the project and give commentary about key milestones whilst leading the group around perimeters of the 7.5 hectare site.

Kirsty said: “The feedback we’ve had from the tours I’ve already done has been really positive. The tours are another opportunity for local people to hear first hand from a member of the project team about what’s going on at the site and stay up to date with the project before work officially gets underway.”

Pool School students get creative at Heartlands

Art students from Pool Business and Enterprise College are using their creative talent to help make elements of Heartlands become reality.

The year-nine students are working closely with one of Heartlands’ commissioned artists, Nicky Neate, to carve their own designs on 20 wooden poles, which will form the outline of the smaller outdoor performance space on the site.

‘Plain an Gwarry’, which means ‘playing place’, will be set in the heart of the unique landscape, and host workshops and visiting theatres groups.

The students spent time at the Heartlands site in Pool gathering artefacts to inspire their designs on the 20 poles. To help capture the sites memories the students were given a first hand account of the area’s history from ex-miner Peter Hughes and were also given a tour of the Engine House, situated at the centre of the project in Robinson’s Shaft.

Cllr Carolyn Rule, Kerrier District Council’s portfolio holder for economy and regeneration, said: “Creativity and people are at the heart of Heartlands and this is a great example of just that. The young people have been a strong part of our inspirations for Heartlands from the beginning and it’s great to learn about how they are now helping make the project become reality and making their mark on what will essentially be an area for them to use and enjoy.”

Nicky Neate, one of the commissioned artists working on the Heartlands Project, said:” The students have been involved with Heartlands since the early days so despite the weather the students really enjoyed themselves. We tried to make the session as fun as possible the students wore wigs and performed a dance around the ‘Plain an Gwarry’ performance space where their designed poles will eventually be placed.

“People and creativity are at the heart of Heartlands and by combining the two it is our aspiration that the community has a sense of pride and ownership over the project.”

Scott James, Heartlands Programme Director, said:” The design of Heartlands has been subject to extensive consultation with the local community and students from Pool Business and Enterprise College played a large part in helping to inform the design process. It was great to have them on site, especially at such an exciting time as works are now well underway to prepare the site for the major site works to start.”