GWENT LEVELS 26
GWENT LEVELS CAMPAIGN
Robert Minhinick
Ten days before Christmas, 2023, I went with writer and artist Laura Wainwright to explore parts of the ‘Gwent Levels’, at Uskmouth.
It was my first visit, although Laura sometimes takes her children walking there.
‘The Reen’ was written for the Gwent Levels campaign, occurring at the same time as the ongoing struggle between Israelis and Palestinians in Gaza. I found combining the situations in Gwent Levels and Gaza, entirely natural. Thus ‘The Reen’ was used in an exhibition for Friends of the River Wye by Eamon Bourke, displayed in the Food Hall, Hay Festival site.
It is available on-line from ‘Modron’, and features in ‘Thrall: Poems & Art’, a collection of art and poetry by Minhinnick and Wainwright, Seventh Quarry Press 2025.
The weather proved raw , but we were both delighted to encounter immediately some of the very particular wildlife that inhabits the area.
I saw my first ever reed bunting, and keen-eyed Laura identified a heron on the Severn mudflats, and thus we are writing, painting and sketching our expedition highlights.
We went because the area is increasingly threatened by various developments. Only in the last four years has the Welsh government rejected plans for a new extension of the M4 motorway through parts of these wetlands.
But pressure to erect new solar farms on the Levels is stronger than ever.
Readings and RSPB talk:
7pm Tuesday, January 27, 2026, at ‘Le Pub’, 19, High St., NEWPORT NP20 1FW.
