Coronavirus Clearups: The Merthyr Synagogue and the Fernhill Abandoned Allotments

Over the course of the last few weeks, Valleys Underground have carried on our community clear-ups – both in Merthyr Tydfil, and in Fernhill.

In Merthyr, you may remember our campaign to help clear the site of the Merthyr Synagogue – Wales’ oldest, and one that’s been left in dissaray and disrepair for over 15 years.

Our first public campaign since our founding nearly a year ago, we were fortunate enough to have later support from the Foundation for Jewish Heritage, who had purchased the building not long after we started.

Since then, we worked closely with the Foundation on clearance, until a few weeks ago – when the Foundation were able to finally start renovations on the building itself.

As a result, we organized our last clearup – aiming to clear the surrounding site entirely prior to the Foundation’s arrival.

Hiring a moving van, and clearing over 30 bags of waste – we were quite emotional seeing our project finally come to an end. Thankfully, the building will be a Museum of Jewish Heritage in Wales – and not another property development!

“The building is of local and cultural importance as it is a rich part of Merthyr’s multi-cultural history. It was a great day helping maintain a part of our past to serve the local community in the future.” said Nick, one of our Members who took part in the clearup.

Following this, our next activity was to be the Fernhill Allotments, long overgrown – used as a flytipping site in the area.

The clearup here, one in which Valleys Underground were contacted specifically about, was an opportunity to try out some of our new tools – including an industrial hedge-trimmer.

We were also happy to welcome members of the local community into our clearup – including a small battalion of 10 and 11 year olds!

Although we’ll need to go back to the Allotments to clear up the last remaining debris, we were thankful for the various local members of the community who were keen to get involved, or to offer their support for the project.

If you would like to know more, or would like to get involved, either message us here, or consider Joining us!