The Cilfrew Pipeline story
It has been a long time since I walked out of Court in London after accepting a £7,000 settlement offered to me by Neath Port Talbot CBC for costs owed after fighting to stop a pressure reduction station being put in one of the most beautiful areas of my village. Our peace was shattered, our safety was compromised and my faith in the system we lived under destroyed. I have continued my journey since that day and have concentrated on the positive side of the energy divide and attempted to show how we should not be importing all this energy but learning to live with less. Yes I am a salmon, but being a salmon is what I have learned to love. I am now attempting to document what did actually happen in those years when for the first time in my life I stood up for myself, not against a person but against a multi national corporation and a local authority. It taught me a lot, but mainly it taught me not to fear anything but death, anything other than that is never final.My first task will be to upload photographs of our fight in Cilfrew against National Grid and then I hope to map together documents and court decision to intersperse with the pictures much as I did with the Cilfrew "Monks to Millennium" book.
Many people have asked me for these photographs so I am hoping to put a facility whereby these photographs will be able to be downloaded by those who wish to have copies of them. This is a tentative start to a large operation which is going to take some time. I have lots of patience, I hope you will find some too.
Two views of our magical March Hywel mountain before the gas plant came. This mountain holds a special significance for the indigenous people of this area. I believe it must be the highest mountain in this area as it is the one which all children used to climb on Good Friday every year with their hot cross buns wheich they would then proceed to roll down the mountain. This is the remains of a pagan festival where the people would go to the top of the highest mountain on this day to watch the sun rise and offer bread to the gods in the hope of a good harvest that year.
The LNG pipeline being laid on March Hywel Mountain.
This mountain also has burial mounds from a battle long ago which is believed to be the battle of Hirwaun Gwrgant and the name March Hywel means Hywel's Stallion, the farm overlooking the site of the gas plant being opriginally called, Coll hi'r March - yearning for a lost horse- then we have spirit stream and valley of tombs to complete the historic record of a battle fought on this mountain.