It has been announced the Prince of Wales and Duchess of Cornwall will visit Gwent on a couple of occasions when they make their tour of Wales at the beginning of July. It is understood that the tour will focus on the work of volunteers, people engaged in rural crafts and some important local and national anniversaries that are being celebrated this year.
The first of these will be on Monday 2 July where the couple will meet and look at displays of work of volunteer groups at the Botany Bay Campsite which is operated by Gwent Scouting. This year makes the 90th anniversary of the Gwent Association of Volunteer Organisations, the group seeks to promote volunteering and charitable activities for all age groups within the County.
Princess Charles and the Duchess will return to Gwent on the Thursday where they will begin by meeting staff and patients at the Ysbyty Aneurin Bevan in Ebbw Vale. This hospital was built on the site of the former steelworks, opening in 2010 it is the only NHS Hospital which has single rooms with en-suite facilities which improves infection control. It is also named after the Labour Minister for Health who helped create the National Health Service seventy years ago this year.
The couple will then go to Llwyn Celyn near Abergavenny, this is a Grade 1 Listed building and one of the finest surviving medieval hall houses in Wales. The building has just been restored by the Landmark Trust in association with CADW, and the Prince will meet some of the people who have been working on the restoration. Once completed the house will be available for holiday lets and then work can start restoring the threshing barn which it hopes will be used for educational and community use.
Whilst at the barn, the couple will also attend a meeting of the Black Mountains Land Use Partnership, a group of farmers and graziers who rear and graze animals on the mountainside.
