Brecon and Radnor Express and Powys County Times


Advertising: Tel: 01874 610111 E-Mail: production@brecon-radnor.co.uk Circulation: Tel: 01874 610111 Fax: 01874 624359 www.brecon-radnor-today.co.uk


NewsNews Mine’s a lime and mortar, says Prince


The Prince pictured with the 35 students as well as all the Ty-Mawr crew Even the Prince himself learn,”


THE last time Prince Charles was in Powys he tried his hand at being a barman, now it seems he could be looking at a another career as a thatcher. The Prince of Wales arrived in Breconshire on


report


by Matthew Jones matt@brecon-radnor.co.uk


Thursday for his second visit in a month, the first to Llanwrtyd Wells and this time around to Ty-Mawr Lime Ltd,


building materials for the conservation of old and historic buildings. The Prince was on site to meet with students from


around the world participating in the Prince’s Foundation for the Built Environment Summer School, his own initiative which was being hosted this year by the owners of Ty Mawr Lime, Nigel and Joyce Gervis at their home and business base in Llangasty. The Prince laughed and joked as he mingled with


students undertaking workshops in four different areas of the built environment, including thatching, dry-stone walling, lime plastering and decorative plasterwork and timber-framing - even taking time out to have a go himself. A total of 35 students spent two weeks working at Ty-


the prime manufacturer in Wales of lime-based


joked, saying: “It’ll me too long to


take


before laughingly adding that “it’s OK me doing it here on the ground but what about when you’re on the bloody roof!” First on the Prince’s


PW9768-39


Thursday, August 5, 2010


nervous about meeting the Prince than the students’, despite the fact that the Pembrokeshire based tradesman thatched a barn for the Prince of Wales at his Llwynywermod home close to the village of Myddfai, near Llandovery. Alan, 55, has been honing his craft for over 30 years


tricky thing to master but he walked straight in and did really well, I thought he showed great promise.”


but even he was impressed with how quickly the Prince seemed to take to it after offering him the chance to try his hand at thatching. Alan told The Brecon & Radnor Express: “It’s a pretty


architecture and the building profession and spent their first week in the classroom before gaining some hands on experience in the second week. Master thatcher Alan Jones admitted being ‘more


Mawr and staying in nearby Brecon, coming from as far afield as Canada, Jamaica, India and even Afghanistan and St Helena, as well as the UK and Europe. All


those on the course had a vested interest in


the Traditional Building Co, said: “The students have been a really good bunch to work with and they’ve done an absolutely fantastic job, I’m very happy. “They’ve been learning years of


about 1,000


agenda was a visit to the timber yard where students were helping Hay-on-Wye contractor John Munroe build a new oak-framed lean to, which he had designed with Nigel Gervis. John, 30, who owns


Prince Charles takes a walk with Nigel and Joyce Gervis and their six-year-old son Harvey to admire the dry stone-walling efforts


PW9768-31


Prince Charles closely inspects a gift bestowed upon him


traditional building evolution over the week so obviously they’ve crammed a lot in. “They’ve really been getting involved and I think


with Bronllys based builders Tom Jones and Finn Fraser. The two 26-year-olds have been operating as Jones


made wooden peg, which will be used to pin the beams of the lean to in place, much to the delight of the Royal visitor who joked: “Ah, it’s just what I wanted.” The Prince also popped into a plastering workshop


and Fraser Ltd for a year and specialise in the restoration and renovation of period and listed properties using traditional building techniques and materials. Finn said: “Teaching hones our skills and the guys


have been doing really well this week,” Tom adding that, “it’s been nice being listened to for once.”


they’ve enjoyed getting their hands dirty.” One of the students presented the Prince with a hand


PW9768-11


farm in Llangasty on the edge of Llangorse lake in 1993 as their family home and life-time restoration project. Unable to source lime mortars and plasters in order to restore the building sympathetically and in-line with its archtectural heritage, the couple began making their own and in 1995, Ty Mawr Lime Ltd was born. Joyce, a former Powys County Council employee, told


the B&R: “We started out just Nigel and I and a bath! “Now we have over 10,500 orders a year and a business


unit on the edge of Brecon.” The couple, who have three sons Henry, 10, Harvey,


6 and Cai, 3, are hoping to make the summer school a permanent fixture at Ty-Mawr.


grinned. Joyce and Nigel Gervis bought Ty Mawr as a run-down


right day for birthday boy Tom. “Perhaps he came to wish me happy birthday,” Tom


The Prince, meanwhile, had definitely come on the


Prince Charles proves to be quite the thatcher, under the watchful gaze of master thatcher Alan Jones


PLAnet 2010


BRECON and Radnorshire MP Roger Williams is urging local communities to nominate young people who’ve made a difference in their area for an award. The Philip Lawrence Awards


Network (PLAnet) is looking for groups of young people who have made a difference in their community to


awards. Roger Williams MP has met


with many groups of young people and is well aware of the positive difference many of them make in our community, whether through volunteering, campaigning, getting involved in positive activities, or helping others. He is urging local people and


enter the 2010


organisations to nominate young people, giving them the chance to win a coveted Philip Lawrence Award and £1,000 to invest


continuing their work. The PLAnet awards were set-up


in


in memory of head teacher Philip Lawrence, who was killed outside his school in 1995 after going to the aid of a pupil who was being attacked by a gang. The awards are open to groups of


young people aged 11-20. For more information, and to


enter the awards, visit www.philipl awrenceawards.net. You can also read about previous winners, watch videos of


work, and engage with the network through Twitter and Facebook.


their


PW9768-15


The Prince was in good spirits as he shares a joke with a student


PW9768-8


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