App is helping bring story of former coalfield to life
A MOBILE app is being used for the first time in Wales to bring the story of the former coalfield to life.
Featuring the voice of ex Maesteg miner and historian Roy Meredith, VoiceMap uses GPS technology to play audio files on mobile phones or devices as walkers reach specific points along a special route.
Roy also gives directions to help walkers navigate the trail throughout his story which is called A Voice From Underground.
The trail starts on a site, now the home of Maesteg Comprehensive School, which was once the location of an ironworks, the Maesteg coal washery and the mines training centre, where young men got their first taste of life underground.
On Saturday a group of walkers were taken along the Interactive Industrial Heritage Walk by Sarah Harris, wellbeing manager at Bridgend council, as part of the Love2Walk Festival.
The trail ends at the 9ft tall oak Keeper of the Collieries statue in the new Spirit of Llynfi Woodland, which stands on the site of the former Coegnant Colliery, where Roy, 71, spent 25 years.
Awen Cultural Trust’s arts development officer Andre Van Wyk sup- ported men’s group Shed Quarters and Strictly Cinema to develop this walk, and another treasure-hunt style walk in Maesteg town centre, using mobile technology.
He said: “I just became interested in voice-mapping technology and I have also been recording people’s social history stories in the area.
“I was thinking of how I could connect it to the landscapes and I had got to know Roy as a local historian and member of Shed Quarters, among many other things, and found it really interesting listening to Roy about the hidden history.
“I also worked with Dan Lock, of Heritage Interpretations and Sarah.”
While traces and even lumps of coal can be found around the site, a greening and redevelop- ment programme has left little else to suggest how big a part the area played in South Wales’ industrial past.
But Roy gives his ac- count of his time in the training centre, where he started on January 1, 1962, and at Coegnant, as well as other details about the area’s history.
“It’s just a completely different landscape now,” said Roy.
“There was a railway line here and the training centre was on the left hand side underneath the school and in front of what was the washery.”
Andre said he hopes the app will encourage youngsters to go on the walk too as it’ll help them to “strip back the layers of this place”.
Maesteg Town Council has funded 500 free downloads of the VoiceMap app.
On Sunday walkers formed teams and gathered at the Sawyers Arms on Commercial Street in Maesteg, in order to take part in the digital treasure hunt using the free Aurasma app around the town centre.
It uses what is known as augmented reality technology to find social and historically related content hidden in and around the town digitally ‘tagged’ to buildings.