Welcome to Treorchy Park

For the Community, By the Community…

Our group was formed in 2016 with the aim of improving Treorchy Park and its surrounding area. The Ystradfechan recreation area was given to the community by the Ocean Coal Company just after the First World War and is a wonderful resource for the locality. We want to see its facilities improved and to encourage more families and children to make use of this fantastic amenity.

To help us raise funds and build awareness of the park and its facilities, we hold numerous events in the park and each year we host an Easter Egg Hunt, ‘Teddy Bear Picnics’ and on the evening of each Halloween we have a wonderful ‘Spooktacular’ night called “Park in the Dark”. These events are very popular and we have great feedback giving us great enthusiasm to continue.

Paddling Pool

In 2017 we entered discussions with the council’s asset transfer team, and we decided that our primary focus was to reopen the paddling pool. In 2018 that is exactly what we did, and it was a great success, but it cost us over £10,000 and involved a tremendous amount of volunteer hours. This did not put us off however as we did it again in 2019 and hope to open the pool every year! Of course, the pandemic halted our plans for 2020.

We have a great group of volunteers and have trained some to be lifeguards attaining NPLQ accredited qualifications. We have lots of volunteers who have also completed their emergency responder training courses and food hygiene training to enable them to help out in our food van. Friends of Treorchy Park is an entirely volunteer-run organisation and without its members, we would not be able to achieve anything!

Fundraising

We have many fundraising events and have raised thousands over the years. This, together with help from Penycymoedd and the council’s enabling fund allowed us to re-open after it was closed in 2013. The yearly cost of opening the pool however is between £5,000 and £10,000 and we are constantly looking at ways of raising funds. We knew that we needed to find a way of becoming self-sustaining and to that end, we registered as a ‘Food Business’ and are now the proud owners of a food van! This is sited at the paddling pool for the full six weeks that it is open in the summer and we hope that this will help us open the pool year on year.

The Future…

In 2020 we became a registered charity and have some great ideas for the park, but it is one step at a time. We want to introduce a skate park or pump track and support improvements of the surrounding areas such as the Ystradfechan field where we are working in partnership with the local tennis and cricket clubs to build indoor training facilities and public amenities. We want to improve the paddling pool too by introducing water features such as water jets and fountains to create a kind of paddling pool / splash pad combo! We are also looking at installing lots more benches in and around the park.

Treorchy is a great place to live and work. This hails from the days of coal mining in the valleys and the incredibly tight-knit community that it nurtured. We want to continue the ethos built around ‘The Miner’s Next Step’ and provide great facilities at our park for today’s children and future generations.

They are Penygraig and Maerdy. Just a line to wish them all the best and to let residents know about them.

From your Friends of Treorchy Park