News

Cardigan Castle: A chain of coincidences

Published

9 years ago

August 7, 2015

Cardigan Castle: What oh what will the future hold? (Pic. Louise Noakes
Equinox PR)

A BLOGGER has revealed the links between those involved in the various charitable trusts and enterprises at Cardigan Castle and drawn attention to the unusual recruitment process leading to the appointment of Facilities Officer Sue Lewis.

Royston Jones, whose blog jacothenorth.net has given extensive coverage to the state of affairs at y Castell, sets out the tangled web connecting key parties.

Drawing attention to the coincidence that the Chair of the Trustees, Jann Tucker, the Trustee- Treasurer, Sandra Davies, and Ms Lewis all live in Aberporth, Jac o’ the North points out that they are all involved with overlapping organisations.

Jann Tucker, who is involved in a holiday homes rental business, is a trustee of Aberporth and District Youth Club, and also Aberporth village hall and recreation ground.

Jann Tucker joined Joined Ymddiriedolaeth Cadwraeth Adeiladau Cadwgan Building Preservation Trust (‘Cadwgan’) on March 21 2000, and Ymddiriedolaeth Cadwraeth Adeiladau Castell Aberteifi Cardigan Castle Building Preservation Trust (‘Castell’) March 28 2000. She still serves as trustee on both charities and also served as a trustee / director on Cardigan Castle Enterprises Ltd from June 15 2010 to January 28 2015.

Sue Lewis, a former newspaper editor, is chair of the board of governors at Ysgol Gynradd Aberporth and also a trustee of Small World Theatre, who have coincidentally been heavily involved in Castell Aberteifi’s re-opening and launch.

Sandra Davies, the trustee treasurer, whose description of those expressing concerns about ‘mission drift’ at Castell Aberteifi as a ‘group of bigots’ is a millstone round the venue’s neck, is vice chair of the governors at Ysgol Gynradd Aberporth.

As Jac o’ the North points out: ‘We all say, ‘It’s a small world’, but humbling phenomena like this bring home to us how true that is’.

Another figure of mystery is Jonathan ‘Joff’ Timms. We know he was born in 1945, so he’s of a ripe age, and he joined ‘Cadwgan’ November 15 2006. On the Charity Commission website he is even listed as the contact for the trust.

As if that wasn’t enough, he and Sue Lewis seem to be the only directors left standing at Cardigan Castle Enterprises Ltd. So he appears to be the one person who is a trustee for both trusts and is also a trustee / director of the trading arm.

Given the distance between Mr Timms’ permanent residence in a village nestled in the North Downs, it can scarcely come as any surprise that Mr Timms has a holiday home in Ceredigion: As it happens, in – or near – Aberporth.

The public was originally told that among the project’s objectives was that it should attract ‘visitors who are seeking leisure learning activities related to the Welsh language, culture, crafts, environment and horticulture and ‘using the Welsh language, and the cultural traditions of the Eisteddfodau, as a tool for tourism development and regeneration’.

Jac o’ the North points out: ‘This has not happened except in the most cursory and superficial manner.’

A letter to the Heritage Lottery Fund, which has bankrolled much of the development, and a copy of which has been seen by The Herald alleges: ‘In May of this year, the Gorsedd of Bards HAD AGREED to hold a Ceremony of Blessing at the Castle.. The Gorsedd Officials were KEEN to hold this ceremony and Mr Penri Roberts, of the Gorsedd Board of Officials will confirm that he was already’.

The next sentence alleges that a senior member of the Trust, not already named in this article, responded that the Eisteddfod would only visit ’over my dead body’.

The strength of local feeling is shown by correspondence shared with The Herald and with Jac o’ the North. One letter, dated June 15, reads: ‘Many people in Cardigan are very angry that the castle is being turned into an exclusive high end site with little opportunities for local people to get involved. It is scandalous that public meetings have not been held. We have at least sixty people in Cardigan who have asked to join as members but who have just been ignored’.

Cardigan Town Council is now taking an active interest in the activities at Castell Aberteifi. A council sub-committee has asked the Cadwgan Board for a copy of their constitution, as well as job descriptions of the trustees’ individual responsibilities. However the council will not now meet until September 1 because of the summer recess.

The council’s interest is likely to have been piqued by the decision to exclude the Town Council’s representative from a meeting regarding the future of suspended director Cris Tomos on the basis that it was ‘a staffing matter’.

And staffing matters have been a recurrent theme in recent months.

The post of Facilities Officer occupied by Sue Lewis since her redundancy as a newspaper editor did not exist before her appointment and was not advertised widely – not even in Ms Lewis’ former newspaper: So quite how Ms Lewis became aware of a serendipitous vacancy at a time when existing Castle staff were being asked to reapply for their jobs is something of a mystery.

Technically, the staff were on fixed term contracts which all came to an end in Dec 2014, and the staff were told that they would be welcome to apply for new posts. Sue Lewis was a member of the panel which did the interviews

The process ended around the beginning of December, and several of those who had been with the project for a long time were escorted from the premises. They included Rhian Medi, the daughter of the late Archdruid Dic Jones. Rhian was to have been education officer, but that post was axed showing a departure from the original vision for the project and a new focus on (possibly) ‘facilities’.

As a letter sent to the Heritage Lottery Fund points out: ‘Countless other interested parties along the years have been elbowed out of the project by a small group who view Castell Aberteifi as their personal property’.

The Herald emailed local Plaid AM Elin Jones for a comment. We received no reply.

An email to Mark Williams MP got only an automatic response.

Mid and West Wales regional AM Simon Thomas told us: ‘I have not been directly involved in the disagreements at Cardigan castle. As I have not been party to the emails you refer to nor talked to the parties involved, none of which have contacted me, I am not in a position to make a comment’.

Despite telling us that a statement was being prepared, the Welsh Government did not provide one before our deadline.

News

Storm Bert aborts Pembrokeshire lifeboat in search for missing person

Published

1 hour ago

November 25, 2024

Sarah Jane Absalom

A major sea search got underway on Sunday evening following reports of a missing person in the sea off Rhossili.

Tenby Lifeboat received a call shortly after 11 pm on Sunday, November 24 from the coastguards, requesting the crew’s assistance.

“The volunteer crew was soon on the water and got to Rhossili in extremely rough seas as a result of Storm Bert,” commented a spokesperson for the Tenby crew

“The crew was requested to search around Worm’s Head using lights and night vision equipment.”

But after searching the coastline for around two hours, the crew was forced to stand down.

“It soon became obvious that the conditions were too rough for the lifeboat to get in close enough to be of any assistance, so with the lifeboat unable to safely provide assistance due to extremely rough seas, the crew stood down.”

News

How local rum inspired by legendary pirate has exploded into national sensation

Published

2 hours ago

November 25, 2024

Sarah Jane Absalom

When Jonathan Williams left his desk job in Swindon way back in 2010, his mission, to many, was impossible.

This is the man who hot-footed it back to Pembrokeshire to harvest seaweed from Freshwater West which he then used to create his multi award-winning ‘Pembrokeshire Beach Food Company.’

Using only choice produce sourced from the seas around Pembrokeshire, Jonathan’s innovative (and many would say courageous) idea began tickling the taste buds of some of the UK’s top chefs and food critics including James Martin who christened Williams as ‘the crazy seaweed man’.

Fast-forward seven years and once again Jonathan began honing yet another brain-storming idea, this time inspired by the mighty Bartholomew Roberts – otherwise known as Black Bart. After setting sail from his home in Little Newcastle at the age of 13, Bart gained notoriety as the most successful pirate in the ‘golden age of piracy’ who went on to raid 400 prize ships off the Americas and the West African coast between 1719 until his death from a wound to his throat, in 1722.

And so began Barti Spiced Rum.

“Everything was ticking along nicely at the Pembrokeshire Beach Food Company, and then in January 2017, Jonathan went off on paternity leave,” explained Barti Rum’s managing director, Fran Barnikel.

“Any normal person would have been busy changing nappies, but Jonathan, being the incredible entrepreneurial person that he is, came back to work saying, ‘Ok, I’m going to start a new company’.

“He’d read about Barti Ddu the pirate, and had always wanted to bring out a spiced rum in his honour. So he’d spent his paternity leave investigating different distilleries and bottlers and slowly but surely, Barti Spiced Rum started to come to fruition.”

Because of Jonathan’s strong allegiance with Pembrokeshire seaweed, he knew from the outset that the natural product would be used in his rum.

“Jonathan wanted his rum to be vibrant in flavour, so the seaweed is infused, giving it a real depth of flavour and enhancing the other ingredients which include vanilla, cloves, cinnamon, orange and lemon,” said Fran.

The rum is distilled in the Caribbean and then exported to Cardiff where the Pembrokeshire seaweed along with the remaining ingredients are infused.

“Out first batch arrived in late summer and initially we sold only to people we knew,” continued Fran.

“But as time went on, we could see that there was definitely a market out there for expansion.

“Obviously there was a lot less niche for the rum as there had been for the seaweed, plus the gin market was picking up at the time. But we could also see that the rum market was on the increase. In many ways, it was perfect timing. So we continued riding the wave.”

Jonathan and his team shun the rum purists who cite mixing it with coke or pepsi as sacrilege.

“All we want is for people to enjoy it,” said Fran. “And this means drinking it exactly as they want. If you want to add cola or ginger beer, that’s great. But it’s also really good with cloudy apple juice and particularly now as we’re getting closer to Christmas, hot apple juice.”

The cream liqueur is also extremely versatile for cocktails, including the Manhattan, Mojito and Daiquiri.

Jonathan has steadfastly refused to add flavour varieties to his brand, adhering rigidly to the Barti Spiced.

“From the beginning, he wanted to create a strong product that would continue to do well, rather than dilute its vibrant flavour with other ingredients.”

But in Christmas 2023, Jonathan broke away from his rule by introducing a Barti Cream Liqueur.

“This was the first addition he’d ever introduced to the range and it was only supposed to last for the Christmas period. But once again, because of the feedback we’ve received from our customers, we’ve kept it going and we’re now fully stocked for Christmas 2024.”

The Herald caught up with Fran as she travelled back to Pembrokeshire from Tesco’s headquarters in Welwyn Garden City, London. Six weeks ago the company began selling their rum at a total of 58 Tesco stores throughout Wales, but the supermarket giant is now considering stocking Barti Spiced Rum throughout the whole of the UK.

Earlier this year, Barti Spiced Rum was named the best rum in the Great British Food Awards while the Barti Cream Liqueur has won eight separate awards in the World Drinks Awards including best in country, best new launch, and three golds awards in both the taste and design categories.

One can’t help wondering, given the fact that eight years ago Barti Spiced Rum had yet to be given its first pouring, whether its success has come as a surprise.

““At the end of the day, Jonathan has that incredible ability to make everything work,” chuckled Fran. “Everything that he captures tends to turn to gold.

“But we know that Barti Spiced Rum is a really strong product and something that’s very ‘Pembrokeshire-sentric’. And the support we continue to get from the local cafes and pubs has been incredible and has really helped us to move forward. The staff reach out, time and time again, with tasters and samples, and we know that they’re genuinely behind our brand. And this is so important. We are so grateful for everything they continue to do to support us.”

Crime

Pembroke Dock woman in court for failing to remove rubbish from property

Published

14 hours ago

November 25, 2024

Court Reporter

A PEMBROKE DOCK resident is due to appear before Haverfordwest Magistrates’ Court later today (Nov 25) for multiple alleged breaches of a community protection notice.

Sheena Deacon, of 13 Wavell Crescent, Pembroke Dock, faces charges under the Anti-social Behaviour, Crime and Policing Act 2014, which carries a maximum penalty of a Level 4 fine.

The charges stem from allegations that Deacon failed to remove accumulated household waste from her property on several occasions. According to court documents, the breaches occurred on September 19, September 26, October 2, October 9, and October 17 this year.

The charges indicate that Deacon, despite being issued with a community protection notice, did not comply with the requirements to clear and appropriately dispose of refuse and household waste from her address.