St Andrew's Church, Narberth, taken over by herd of goats
A spokesperson for Narberth Town Council said: 'Narberth Town Council is continuing its work to enhance the grounds of St Andrew's Church as part of our ongoing biodiversity and environmental improvement programme.
'To support this, we are trialling a natural and chemical-free method of managing overgrown areas by introducing Bio Goats – an eco-friendly solution for controlling brambles and invasive vegetation. These goats will help clear excess growth around gravestones and across the site, enabling us to implement a longer-term ground management plan.
'The goats are GPS ringfenced to remain within a designated area, and daily welfare checks will be carried out to ensure they are healthy, safe, and well cared for throughout their time on site.
'We kindly ask all visitors to support this initiative by:
Avoiding the goat-grazing area while they are at work
Keeping dogs on a lead at all times in the vicinity
Ensuring children are supervised and kept a safe distance away
'We understand that children may be curious and wish to see the goats. However, we respectfully ask that this is discouraged, as human interaction may disturb the animals and interfere with their natural grazing behaviour.'
The rummaging ruminants themselves come from Clynderwen-based Biogoats 2 Rent, run by Richard and Dawn for the past six seasons, who said the goats were already on-site at St Andrew's, and are expected to remain there for two to three weeks.
Goats from Biogoats 2 Rent, believed to be the only business of its type in the UK, have already been used to provide an eco-friendly service for Pembrokeshire County Council, the national park, and for other local churches.
'They're most recognised down at Canaston Bridge,' said Dawn, explaining they were used as a eco-friendly way of clearing natural set aside areas on the Robeston Wathen bypass, and had also been used at Tenby's St Mary's church, with plans to return there later this summer.
Rather than using collars, the goats are kept in their designated areas using GPS satellite technology, a process recently shown on Clarkson's Farm, TV star Jeremy Clarkson's farming programme.
'I think he stole the idea from us,' joked Richard, adding: 'We're the only company in the UK to do this; we get enquiries from all over the UK, but the travel costs can make it unviable for the customers from further away.'
They finished: 'We enjoy what we do and meet some nice people along the way.'
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
The Guardian
10 hours ago
- The Guardian
Andrew Saint obituary
In the introduction to his book The Idea of the Architect (1983), Andrew Saint wrote: 'We are at present in the midst of a widespread transformation of 'architectural history', with its emphasis on aesthetics, design and authorship, into 'building history', which has broader social and economic preoccupations.' Continuing this shift was his life's work, and Saint, who has died of lymphoma aged 78, also inspired and influenced several generations of writers on buildings and their social contexts. His first book was Richard Norman Shaw (1976), a brilliant monograph on a late Victorian architect – effectively a doctoral thesis, begun while he was a lecturer at Essex University. The years 1850 to 1914 remained his focus and he had a lifelong involvement with the Victorian Society. He completed the book after joining the Greater London council (GLC) in 1974 to work on the long-running Survey of London project. Originated in 1894, the survey researches London buildings by district, and has so far published 55 volumes. The experience of working on the survey was formative for Saint, who recalled how Francis Sheppard, then its general editor, had recently begun to 'treat areas of London in a holistic way, drawing urban development, architecture and social and economic history together'. In the final decade before the GLC was abolished in 1986, Andrew and others from the survey made lasting alliances with members of the council's historic buildings division, then flexing its muscles to win conservation battles by the quality of its research and advocacy, notably over Covent Garden, which was under threat of redevelopment. Saint's research then took a different turn. Admirers of Stirrat Johnson-Marshall, an architect dedicated to public service who died in 1981, were keen to celebrate his memory and that of a like-minded generation. Saint accepted the task of writing up the story, for which the GLC gave him six months' leave. Knowing individuals such as David and Mary Medd, famous for their role in the Hertfordshire schools building programme, gave Saint an exemplar of interdisciplinary collaboration through the chain from patronage and innovative construction to the grace notes of murals and sculpture. He organised public reminiscence sessions at the Architectural Association in 1984 that reunited many involved in Hertfordshire schools, as well as projects such as the Festival Hall, the Alton estate in Roehampton and the rebuilding of Coventry. Published in 1986 as Towards a Social Architecture, the resulting book showed how technical and humanist aims were integrated in such projects. A year later came the first listing of a post-1945 building and the instigation of the '30-year rule' that allowed buildings in England to qualify for listing on reaching that age. Once the GLC was dissolved, its historic buildings division remained under English Heritage. Saint moved across, joining old friends such as Robert Thorne, and new recruits, including Elain Harwood, Roger Bowdler and Steven Brindle, and setting the pace for the team researching threatened buildings. Monday morning team meetings always ended in the pub. At the start of the 1990s, the minister for the environment, Baroness Blatch, encouraged a more active approach to listing postwar buildings and an innovative study programme was established with an expert committee. Martin Cherry of English Heritage, who directed the research, said that Saint's 'commitment to it was important in providing confidence to senior policymakers that it was worthwhile and had substance: his academic reputation helped, but also his ability to demonstrate that postwar building, particularly housing and schools, was a force for good'. Taking a quote from Auden, A Change of Heart, as a title, Saint wrote the text for a pamphlet that launched the project in public in 1992. In 1995, he was headhunted for a newly created chair at the University of Cambridge School of Architecture, where he experienced a less congenial working culture. His belief that architects were not as important as they thought themselves was strengthened, and he began work on his longest book, Architect and Engineer – a study in 'sibling rivalry', published in 2007, that sought to understand their different characteristics. At Cambridge, he struggled to persuade colleagues to publish for the new Research Assessment Exercise, but became a notable supervisor of doctorates, with students including James Campbell and Timothy Brittain-Catlin, who have altered the Cambridge course to become more grounded and practical in ways he desired. Saint was happy to take voluntary severance from Cambridge in 2006. He returned to the Survey of London as general editor, invigorating the research and publishing programme by completing work already in hand on Clerkenwell and, with colleagues, adding volumes on Woolwich, Battersea and South Marylebone. He personally undertook most of the volume on Oxford Street before stepping down to half time and then, in 2015, to retirement, by which time the survey was being administered by the Bartlett School of Architecture at UCL. Saint continued to be active as an author and editor, with a book on late Victorian London published in 2021, and editorship of the Victorian Society's journals and its series of monographs. A book on Waterloo Bridge and its Surrey side hinterland awaits posthumous publication. Born in Shrewsbury, Shropshire, Andrew was the younger son of Elisabeth (nee Butterfield) and the Rev Arthur Maxwell Saint (known as Max). The family moved to Cheltenham, where Andrew went to Dean Close junior school, and then to Christ's Hospital school, Horsham. Andrew relished Latin and Greek, singing and playing the cello, while hating sports, and made strong friendships. His interest in architecture came from 'church crawling' with his parents, from the Aston Webb buildings of his school, and later from Oxford, where he studied classics. When his father became chaplain of Guy's hospital, he lived in London for the first time and loved the abandoned feeling of the Southwark riverside. Taking Oxford entrance a year early, he got an exhibition to Balliol College, and spent time in Italy at the British School at Rome. A master's degree at the Warburg Institute in London on Ruskin led to his first part-time teaching job in the art department at Essex University. From the early 1970s until the late 80s, Saint was the partner of Ellen Leopold, an American architect and academic, and they had two daughters, Lily and Catherine. After the relationship ended, Ellen, Lily and Catherine settled in the US, while Saint remained in London, living in a Duchy of Cornwall terrace house in Kennington. He had another daughter, Leonora, from a relationship with Annachiara Cerri. In later life, his partner was the Dutch art historian Ida Jager. He is survived by Ida and his daughters. Andrew John Saint, architectural historian, born 30 November 1946; died 16 July 2025
Telegraph
17 hours ago
- Telegraph
Dear Richard Madeley: I'm feeling guilty about spending my son's inheritance
Dear Richard I am a divorced man in my early 80s. I had two children, one of whom sadly died childless a few years ago. My surviving son and his wife have no children, and live in a small mortgaged flat in east London. Both of them are university educated with good, if not particularly well-paid, jobs. I am lucky to have a good occupational pension which keeps me going through my normal day-to-day life. However, I dip into my savings for travel – I take two or three nice holidays a year – and things for the house as and when I need them. I currently have around £200,000 but I had a lot more when I retired 15 years ago I find my thoughts turning towards my eventual demise and what I want to leave my son and daughter-in-law. They are reasonably friendly to me but don't really 'do' anything for me – nor I for them, other than birthdays and Christmas. I suppose if there were grandchildren, everything would be different. My parents left me nothing, though I do realise things have changed in the past half century. If I have to reside in a care home for any length of time, of course, there will be nothing left, but if I carry on as I am for a few more years – and, touch wood, I am in good health – there won't be much either. The reason I have savings is that my wife bought me out after our divorce: I currently live in a cottage belonging to my former employer at a heavily subsidised rent. I am minded to carry on as I have done for as long as I'm able, knowing this won't be much longer, but friends have made tart comments about 'spending the kids' inheritance '. Am I being selfish? –T, via Dear T No, you're not being selfish. Your 'friends', however, are being insufferable. How dare they stick their proselytising, moralising, judgmental noses into your private affairs? I feel extremely angry on your behalf. Life is for living, T. You are fortunate enough to have entered old age in robust good health. You can travel. You can explore. You can still enjoy much of what the world has to offer. Why shouldn't you? We're a long time dead, T. Why should you foreshorten your expectations and desires in the unknown years you have left so that your descendants can… well, what, exactly? Pay off a bit of their mortgage when you die? Buy a better car? Er… go on some nice holidays themselves? Or simply so that your 'friends' can nod their sanctimonious approval? Bah, humbug. You enjoy your 80s, T. And your 90s, if God grants you another decade or more of good health and activity. And yes, if paid-for care enters the frame towards the end, you are fully entitled to keep back enough cash to ensure your comfort. Oh, and tell your friends to mind their own business. Or simply to get stuffed. Up to you. I'd do both.
Western Telegraph
2 days ago
- Western Telegraph
New skate park finally opens at Lota Park, Fishguard
The skate park at Lota Park, Fishguard, had its official opening on Wednesday, July 30. The original opening date had to be delayed because of problems with tarmac at the site, including the fact that it had been walked onto the skate ramps by trespassers who breached the safety fencing. (Image: The Lota Project) Now open, the skate park is getting a lot of use by children enjoying the sunshine and the summer holidays. 'Youngsters were queuing up to use the new skate park when it opened,' said Cllr Pat Davies who has been a stalwart of The Lota Project, a group dedicated to improving the park, since its inception. 'It's absolutely brilliant. All day long there's children there.' (Image: The Lota Project) The new park includes a ledge, a quarter pipe and two fun box combinations which include a flat wedge and a grind rail. It is the culmination of years of fundraising by The Lota Project, a group of dedicated volunteers who have raised funds to completely refurbish the park over the last decade. The group has purchased new swings, a wheelchair inclusive roundabout, a new-style witch's hat and an arm rotator roundabout, a small basketball area and a teqball alongside a zipline, a large round swing, a gravity bowl, two new multi play installations, a new sea saw and springers. (Image: The Lota Project) This has been made possible due to a mixture of fundraising, donations from groups, individuals, the town council and support from Pembrokeshire County Council and the Welsh Government. Funding for the skatepark has come from a variety of sources including the Enhancing Pembrokeshire fund which is raised through the second home council tax premium. The skate park was the last piece of refurbishment that The Lota Project wanted to complete. The four committee members will now retire but are happy to hand the fundraising over to anybody who has an interest in continuing to improve the park's facilities. (Image: The Lota Project) 'This is the last thing we needed to do,' said Cllr Davies. 'We are glad to get it done in the school holidays so that the children aren't scootering or skateboarding around the town. 'Thank you to all those people and organisations locally that have helped fund the regeneration of the park. 'It's brilliant to see it getting so well used.' For more information on the regeneration of the park, or if you are interested in continuing the fundraising work, search for The Lota Project on Facebook.
