The first Wales-only legislation for the historic environment became law in 2016, and it is an area that is of supreme importance to Wales, to our economy as well as our culture, and I take, obviously, a particular interest in my constituency of Islwyn.

Crumlin in Islwyn sits in the heart of the Gwent valleys and is the beating heart of the Valleys taskforce geography. It is a proud community with a strong industrial heritage and a strong industrial memory. The Navigation colliery in Crumlin opened in 1907 with the sinking of the mineshafts by the private mine owners Partridge, Jones and Company Limited, and it is an example of listed outstanding industrial architecture. In 1947 it was run by the National Coal Board, following nationalisation by the Attlee Labour Government, and it finally closed its doors in 1967. In the subsequent decades, this imposing edifice—. If anybody's had the luck or joy or pleasure of travelling through Crumlin on its route to Ebbw Vale, you will see a series of almost regency-styled red-brick buildings with the landmark chimney stack, now that the viaduct has gone, slowly beginning to decline into ruin, but still remaining one of the best preserved intact colliery buildings of Wales.

I welcome hugely my colleague Dai Rees and others bringing this debate to the floor of this Chamber because Crumlin is still a proud mining community that has huge economic regenerative potential to directly benefit from investment—and that's the word: 'from investment'—in its iconic, historical, industrial infrastructure. As such, I'm delighted that the transport Minister Ken Skates has confirmed that in 2020 the Ebbw Vale line that runs directly through the communities of Newbridge, Crosskeys and Risca in my constituency will serve the important Gwent city of Newport and Islwyn. And the potential reopening of the Crumlin railway station to serve this community and its attractions must, in my view, happen. We know that the opening of new railway stations is a convoluted process that is still very badly shaped and governed by UK processes, and we urgently need an ability in Wales to increase our ability to reopen stations and reuse railway lines lost to the nation from the 1960s, when the Beeching cuts devastated transport links and weakened our local economies.

So, here in Crumlin, at the Navigation colliery, dedicated bands of local men and women are committed to sustaining and bringing new life into the Navigation colliery, built to exhibition standard. It is a registered charity, working alongside the site's owner, South Wales Building Preservation Trust, to maintain and prevent deterioration of these buildings further and deliver effective renovation planning. It is made up of iconic and beautiful grade II buildings, as I've mentioned, buildings that could form the beating heart of regeneration activity within the heart of a Valleys taskforce area because the historic industrial environment and its infrastructure tell the story of Wales and tell the story of our people. They are both our legacy and our future. 

They deliver a collective memory, both fragile and precious, and we must be careful to pass on to each generation our collective memory and our cultural legacy. The reason is because we don't wish to live in the past, but because the past is part of the fabric of who we are as a people, and who we are as a nation. They tell the story of Wales, a narrative untouched in all of its glory, both good and ill, both rich and poor, of the many and of the few, and do tell the struggle of our peoples.

Crumlin, with its magnificent Navigation colliery and its famous lost viaduct and former working railway station, demands action and vision to restore them to benefit future generations, both economically, culturally, socially and for the well-being of our future generations.