Pen y Cymoedd Wind Farm Community Fund awards £24,900 to Cymoedd Creadigol CIC for innovative heritage project
The Pen y Cymoedd Wind Farm Community Fund is pleased to award £24,900 to Cymoedd Creadigol CIC to support the delivery of Twn Pychs, an ambitious community-led creative project that will celebrate and preserve the living heritage of the upper Rhondda and Cynon valleys.
Running over an 18-month period, Twn Pychs will bring together people of all ages through a programme of free workshops focused on digital creativity, traditional arts and crafts, local history, storytelling and the Welsh language. Participants will have the opportunity to learn skills including videomaking, oral history recording, 3D scanning, archive research and game design, while documenting the stories, memories, landscapes and traditions that make their communities unique.
The project builds on the success of a pilot supported through the Pen y Cymoedd Micro Fund, responding to strong community demand for opportunities that combine creativity, heritage and digital skills.
A unique feature of Twn Pychs is that the material created by participants—including oral histories, films, artwork, 3D scans and Welsh language content—will be transformed into an interactive open-world video game, creating a living digital archive of the area’s cultural heritage. The project will also produce a documentary film and culminate in a public showcase at Parc and Dare Theatre in Treorchy.
As well as preserving local heritage, the project aims to improve wellbeing, reduce social isolation, strengthen intergenerational connections and equip participants with valuable creative and digital skills that can support future learning, volunteering and employment.
The Pen y Cymoedd Wind Farm Community Fund is proud to support projects like Twn Pychs that celebrate local identity, invest in people and create lasting benefits for communities across the fund area. We look forward to seeing the project develop and the positive impact it will have across the Rhondda and Cynon valleys.
“After a really successful pilot project we’re excited to be able to expand Twn Pychs and work with more communities across the upper Rhondda and Cynon valleys. This is a genuinely new way to experience local living heritage and capture stories and memories before they’re lost forever. If any people or groups want to get involved, whether that’s videomaking, local history research, games design or just exploring the area, then we’d love to hear from you!” – Cymoedd Creadigiol CIC.
The Fund was established by energy company Vattenfall to benefit the communities hosting the Pen y Cymoedd wind farm across the upper Neath, Afan, Rhondda and Cynon Valleys. It exists to support local people, groups and organisations to invest in themselves, their ideas and their communities.
The Community Fund has a substantial annual budget that is index-linked, meaning it increases in line with inflation. As an example, this equated to around £2.5 million in 2025. The Fund will continue to support communities until 2043, creating long-term opportunities for growth, resilience and positive change.
The Fund is managed by an independent, locally based not-for-profit Community Interest Company. It is overseen by a Board of Directors with strong local connections and delivered by a small but dedicated staff team with extensive community engagement experience. We are here to help ensure the Fund delivers on the vision and priorities of local communities.
Over the next 10 years, the Fund is focusing on investment in people, places and businesses — helping the Valleys to thrive, driving bold ideas, supporting transformation and creating lasting impact for current and future generations.