Diolch yn fawr, Llywydd. I would like to take this opportunity to wish the Friends of Aberdulais Falls a very happy thirtieth birthday. Members may already know about this well-loved hidden gem in my region. It was opened in 1584—maybe it’s only Neil Hamilton who can remember that, mind—to smelt copper for coins to pay for warships to fight the Armada. It went on to be used for milling, but by the nineteenth century it was a major tinplate works, employing, unfortunately, children as young as eight. Its product was sold across the world until the US, protecting its own young industry, placed huge tariffs on imported tinplate and the fate of that particular works was sealed. The National Trust took on the site from the local council in 1980 and have been restoring the site ever since. It now is home to Europe’s largest waterwheel, which creates green energy, and the woodland around the waterfall is home to a colony of Daubenton’s bats, which pleases me immensely as one of the Assembly’s bat champions.

The Friends of Aberdulais Falls themselves came together in 1987. In their recent event to celebrate the anniversary, at which many founding members were present, chairperson Bethan Healey paid tribute to the visions of pioneers like Ivor Thorne, who was clerk to the old Neath Rural District Council, and Councillor George Eaton. In 1989, the friends made its first donation to the trust—£1,200—but since then they have raised £213,000, which has been spent on work on the site. As well as the social value of the friends, many of them contribute directly to that work by improving site presentation, maintenance, exhibitions, and even working in the tea room, which is my own personal experience of volunteering with the friends. Thank you.