Glamorgan Heritage Coast - Green Room Celebration

P Morgan July 3, 2026

As the heatwave of late June faded, Porthcawl’s Green Room staged an evening celebration of the coast as its last event before the charity Sustainable Wales moves to new premises.

Kristian Evans read from his new book Duneland: A Year in Kenfig (Seren Books).

Porthcawl’s resident writer and poet Robert Minhinnick read an extract from his award winning collection of essays ‘Watching the Fire Eater’ as a celebration of 50 years of the Glamorgan Heritage Coast, which runs between Newton Point and Aberthaw.

Back in the 1980’s Robert was a manager of a Community Programme scheme at Dunraven Park, Southerndown. His essay ‘The Scheme of Things’ introduces a disparate group of characters brought together under the aegis of the Government’s bid to relieve chronic unemployment. Come rain and shine the group’s work proceeded intermittently on footpaths and walls as participants came and went.

A question and answer session followed the two readers and there was some reminiscing on the Dunraven Estate and in particular the missing castle. Among the audience local resident Chris Fray said that he stayed at the castle in 1960 when he was 11 years old. His parents were keen visitors to properties run as guest houses by the Workers Travel Association (WTA).

For a few brief years Dunraven Castle was leased to the WTA but its condition deteriorated and it was later demolished by the landowners. On his arrival at Dunraven, Chris recalled the warning to all children not to access the beach unaccompanied by the zigzag path. Of course this was a challenge met with relish by a group of intrepid children arriving at the beach at high tide as the waves hammered against the rocks. This visceral experience was beyond his suburban life in South London and the occasional visit to the genteel South Coast. Its memory still lingers and Chris returned to South Wales as a student in 1967 and persuaded a friend to drive him to Southerndown to explore the coast. At that time the Dunraven Estate had fallen into disrepair with the trees salt burned to a ghostly white and the castle reduced to rubble.

Further visits ensued over the years and in 1974 Chris was appointed as a planning officer with the Vale of Glamorgan Council.

Glmaorgan Heritage Coast — © Copyright Stephen McKay

Among the projects he contributed to was the preparation of a management plan for the Glamorgan Heritage Coast, one of three pilot projects trialled by the then Countryside Commission. Although the Dunraven Estate was in the adjoining Ogwr Council area a joint working party of officers identified a boundary for the pilot project and carried out public consultation across South and Mid Glamorgan, and the respective local authorities adopted the management plan some 50 years ago. Key to the work was the the enthusiastic Heritage Coast Officer, John Howden, and John Sienkiewicz a charismatic civil servant whose challenge was to improve access, remove eyesores and provide information on the natural attractions of three coastal areas: Suffolk, Purbeck (Dorset) and Glamorgan. Cooperation and teamwork were the order of the day which provided a basis for conflict resolution and positive intervention in the countryside. Heritage Coasts were subsequently rolled out across England and Wales. The work to conserve the natural undeveloped character of the coastal scenery and protect and enhance its natural resources continues to this day.

The Friends of Glamorgan Heritage Coast is a non-profit charity which helps to conserve the coastline through fundraising and volunteering. A small grants programme has been launched by the Friends and offers grants of £500-£3000 to support practical projects that protect, maintain and enhance the unique character of the Glamorgan Heritage Coast. Apply for details at email below.

Why not become a member of the Friends of Glamorgan Heritage Coast : contact@foghc.org.uk

The AGM of the organisation takes place on Saturday 25 July 11am at the Heritage Coast Centre, Dunraven Park CF32 0RP

Friends of Glamorgan Heritage coast logo

Duneland: a year in Kenfig by Kristian Evans is available from SUSSED Porthcawl

Farewell to the Green Room at James Street

P Morgan June 30, 2026

by Robert Minhinnick

Farewell the Sustainable Wales/Cymru Gynaliadwy Green Room

Our final event before SUSSED’s relocation took place June 26, 2026. It was the end of a scorching week, weather-wise, and proved a real celebration.

Fitting that we highlighted Kristian Evans’s ‘Dunelands: A Year in Kenfig’, (Seren) and 50 years of the Glamorgan Heritage Coast.

Kristian was once employed by us, and it’s satisfying to see his literary career taking off. For the Heritage Coast, Robert Minhinnick read his essay ‘The Scheme of Things’, from ‘Watching the Fire-Eater’. (Seren). Also poems and translations about the coast. New music and film were provided by M3, (Peter Morgan, Richard Thomas and David McCormack).

The Green Room always celebrated the human imagination and creativity. This surely is a vital feature of ‘sustainability’ itself.

In a world increasingly dominated by ‘data’ harvesting and artificial intelligence, what the Green Room promoted can be seen as increasingly necessary.

While regretting our change of premises, Sustainable Wales/Cymru Gynaliadwy

pledges itself to continue arts events and maintain our commitment to such.

This event, along with events from as far back as 2014, can be heard on the Green Room Podcast.

EXCITING COLLABORATION - Green Room Fri. 28th Feb. 2025

P Morgan February 25, 2025

EXCITING COLLABORATION

Friday, February 28 8pm sees Sustainable Wales’s ‘Green Room’ at 5 James St. Porthcawl CF36 3BG present a special event by Robert Minhinnick and Laura Wainwright.

This features their collaborative book ‘Thrall: Poems and Art” (Seventh Quarry Press).

This event is part of a tour for the writers, who will also visit Swansea, Newport and Aberystwyth amongst other places.

‘Thrall’ features poetry from Minhinnick and Wainwright, with the latter’s distinctive paintings and drawings.

Also, Laura will show her photographs of places which both writers are enthralled by, including Merthyr Mawr dunes and the Gwent Levels.

Robert Minhinnick commented: “Both of us enjoy collaboration and hope to undertake more joint projects in the future.

“ ‘Thrall’, also concerns subjects such as alcohol, drugs, television, personal impairment to which we might be in thrall.

“Our writing is not merely personal reflection but confronts the political world, especially Israel-Palestine.

“We believe it has a good deal to say to any audience.”

The night in the Green Room will also feature a musical performance of Minhinnick’s sequence from ‘Thrall’, titled ‘Ghosts and Hammers’.

Local writers and film makers are invited to join in the ‘Open Mic' section of the night.

£4 entry on door. Proceeds to the charity Sustainable Wales/Cymru Gynaliadwy.

Green Room 29th November - Steve Griffiths

P Morgan November 15, 2024

Steve Griffiths:

Thanks to Robert Minhinnick, an outing to read for, and with, old friends at the Green Room in Porthcawl, from this year's pamphlet 'The Gaze Met', my third in four years. I hope my fellow Clutag Press pamphleteers will read too, Robert from some new work, and Laura Wainwright - it was a great night we had a few months ago at the Wheatsheaf in London's Fitzroy. And then there'll be the music (Magic Marmalade Machine!) and the open mic, always good.