BLAENAVON will be awarded a lottery grant worth £1.6 million which will see Welsh mountain ponies bought back to the landscape.
The pledge of more than £1.6 million will be made by the Heritage Lottery Fund (HLF) to Blaenavon Forgotten Landscape Partnership today.
Feral ponies which are often found around the Keeper’s Pond area will be removed and cared for by a charity rest home and Welsh mountain ponies will be bought back.
Planning Officer for the Forgotten Landscapes Project, Steven Rogers, said this is an important part of the project because Welsh mountain ponies is the preferred choice of the local commoners who have the right to breed ponies on the land.
He said they currently fear their horses could be mated with the wrong type of horse or pony grazing illegally on the land.
Mr Rogers said this risk means some people will not put their ponies to graze on the land and this is a problem on common land across the whole of the UK.
The lottery money will also allow the project to restore historic wetlands and return traditional breeds of cattle to the area around Blaenavon's World Heritage Site.
The money will be used to restore buildings, post-industrial features and ancient monuments.
The Partnership aims to involve local people by providing training in countryside skills and boosting tourism and the local economy.
The project will recruit volunteers to act as guides on trails and walks and educational projects will see school children take part in photography projects and oral history activities.
Blaenavon was designated by UNESCO in 2000 as a World Heritage Site of rare and historic industrial heritage.
Since then several HLF grants were made to the area and the Blaenavon Forgotten Landscape Partnership is seen by many as the final piece in the jigsaw of the area’s regeneration.
Other sites in the Blaenavon area which have received Heritage Lottery Funding include: Big Pit, the National Mining Museum of Wales - £5.4 million St Peter’s Church - £104,500 St Peter’s School, Blaenavon World Heritage Centre - £1.3 million
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