The village that refused to die

Apr 22 2007 Marc Baker, Wales on Sunday

A LONE rooster crows as our Vauxhall Corsa thunders through the deserted back lanes of Brechfa.

If it wasn't for the wildlife and grazing sheep, you'd think we were the only ones here.

But this is Wednesday - market day in this remote Cothi Valley village.

And, as it only boasts a bus service on Wednesdays and Saturdays, you can forgive the locals for hopping on board for their weekly shop to Carmarthen some 11 miles away.

But behind the doors of the tranquil cottages dotted around Brechfa Forest lies a secret.

It's a secret of sheer determination as the village's 300 residents struggle to survive in the face of rising property prices and a modern society determined to rob them of their way of life.

Despite facing the prospect of losing the village school - which caters for just 27 pupils - this is one village that is determined to keep going.

And, ironically, it's the English who are leading this hamlet's revolution.

You don't have to look very far to discover why. In fact, the village shop is the cornerstone of Brechfa's remarkable endurance.

In 2004, with its former owners struggling to make a living, Bryn Stores - the only shop within four villages along the Cothi Valley - was set to close.

So retired Essex accountant David Groom and a number of other Brechfa residents held a meeting at which it was decided that the village itself should take over the shop and run it. Now, between 30 and 40 locals work there as volunteers for a minimum of two hours a week.

And this is no ordinary shop. Open from Monday to Saturday, its shelves are stacked with far more than the bare essentials; there are locally-made pickles, cheeses, ice cream and free-range eggs as well as car parts, organic beef and a box of secondhand paperbacks marked "Help Yourself".

Until 11 years ago, David, 66, was commuting from his home outside Colchester to his job at the Post Office's HQ in London.

But today, he mans the shop which contains Brechfa's only post office - a tiny counter in the centre of the store - which is mayhem on pension day.

And like the locals who depend on it to survive, David can't imagine what Brechfa would be like without it.

"You can't maintain a relatively isolated community like this without community centres," he says.

"The school is essential, the shop is essential. If you lose things you end up with a dormitory where people don't know each other, like the average suburb."

And to Brechfa vicar Gerald Sykes - who runs The Church of St Teilo - the village is no average backwater.

In fact, the Huddersfield-born Reverend has embraced the village way of life since moving here six years ago.

So much so, he's learned the lingo and often thrills parishioners by taking sermons in Welsh.

"Oh, the village may be small - but it's thriving," says Rev Sykes, who lives in the village Rectory with his Indian wife Akote and their two-year-old daughter, Enfys.

"The shop is an excellent venture for keeping the village alive.

"We have got a small school and we hope that will keep going as long as possible. We also have a busy church, church hall and they are well used by the villagers. People here are very independent spirited and environmentally aware."

Also helping to keep the village ticking are the new owners of the Ty Mawr Country Hotel - one of the oldest buildings in Brechfa which dates back to the 17th Century, Steve and Annabel Viney, who comes from Hertfordshire.

Local jugglers and hen rescuers Lucy Medill and Luke Gravett are also helping to keep the village's balls in the air with their entertainment company Jugglestruck.

Lucy, 45, and Luke, 49, moved into their 1850s house from Devon in 2005; it is now home to two pigs, two horses, three dogs, two rabbits and 16 chickens.

Trade is also good for fellow English migrant Stella Brockington, who runs the two-bedroomed Dan-Y-Coed B&B in the neighbouring village of Nant-y-Ffin.

Mrs Brockington arrived from her native Oxfordshire in 2002 after falling in love with the scenery.

And after spending the past five years in the hillside, she has now turned her hand to making traditional Welsh dolls which she hopes to sell at Eisteddfodau.

"We came to visit some friends who had moved to Wales and when we saw this property overlooking Brechfa Forest we just had to take it," said Mrs Brockington, who runs Dan-Y-Coed with her woodturner husband Martin.

"We were looking for a new home and knew it was the right one straight away. The community is fantastic. When we lived in Chipping Norton we didn't know our neighbours but here we know everyone."

The same is true for reflexologist Dinah Guilfoyle, who is helping her three-year-old daughter Madelaine learn Welsh since moving to Brechfa from London five years ago.

Her business is breathing new life into the community and locals have repaid the favour by helping her learn Welsh.

"I love it here. My only regret is that I didn't come sooner. It's amazing. I have not had so many friends. There is such a welcoming spirit here," said Mrs Guilfoyle.

Helping the Guilfoyles settle in is local blacksmith Lisa-Marie Harding Jones, who is teaching Stella Welsh so she can pass the correct pronunciations onto her daughter.

Lisa Marie, 38, moved to Brechfa 16 years ago. For the past six years, the mother of one-year-old Lona and Cadi, three, has been working in a forge adjoining her family home, along with her husband, Rod, 41, a local man who is a partner in their business Incus Iron producing decorative work.

And she is the first to admit the influx of the English has done wonders for the area.

She said: "They come here having made money selling their houses elsewhere and can afford to buy the things we make. People from round here can't afford so much."

And Lisa-Marie points out that a spirit of co-operation is natural given the village's relatively remote location.

"Because we're rural living here, you're aware that if you don't keep an eye on each other nobody else is going to."

But despite the English revolution, local Ken James is determined to keep the Welsh end up.

Still living in the remote cottage he was born in, the 52-year-old builder reluctantly admits that his village's endurance is due to the English - but says Brechfa's true Welsh spirit will never die.

"The English have come here, bought houses and done them up. The Welsh are too mean to do that," he says.

"Some come and go, but others stay and fit in. Us, the Welsh... well we'll be here until the crows die."

marc.baker@wme.co.uk