Prince of Wales and Duchess of Cornwall to open Senghenydd’s Aber Valley Heritage Centre

The Prince of Wales and The Duchess of Cornwall are to officially open the Aber Valley Heritage Centre in Senghenydd next month as part of their official summer visit to Wales.

With a theme of “Celebrating Wales, Past, Present and Future”, the Royal couple will also visit Usk to celebrate innovative technology, successfully manufactured in Wales.

Every summer, Their Royal Highnesses spend a week at Llwynywermod, their Welsh farmhouse near Llandovery in Carmarthenshire, and carry out a series of visits to different parts of Wales.

The Prince and Duchess will pay tribute to Wales’ coal mining past during a visit to Senghenydd where they will first attend a short service and lay a wreath at the foot of the Welsh National Mining Memorial, before touring and officially opening the Aber Valley Heritage Centre. The museum has exhibits relating to a number of mining disasters, as well as artefacts which document the wider history of the Welsh Valleys.

The visit to Senghenydd will take place on July 3.

This year’s annual stay in Wales begins with visits to three successful Welsh family businesses – Cnwd food company and Caws Cenarth cheese factory in Carmarthenshire, and Melin Tregwynt Mill in Pembrokeshire.

The Prince and Duchess will celebrate Wales’ rich history during a visit to Llantwit Major, in the Vale of Glamorgan where they will see for themselves the newly restored Galilee Chapel which holds one of the most important collections of Celtic Christian stones in the UK.

At the Edwardian Dyffryn House and Gardens, The Prince will celebrate the 25th anniversary of the Welsh Historic Gardens Trust, of which he is Patron. His Royal Highness will travel on to the Sony factory at Pencoed near Bridgend, which has been providing employment in the area consistently for 40 years. Founded following a suggestion from The Prince that Sony should invest in Wales, the factory is once again at the cutting edge of technology, producing the highly innovative ‘Raspberry Pi’ credit card sized computer.

The Duchess of Cornwall, meanwhile, will visit the Welsh National War Memorial in Cathays Park, Cardiff as part of the charity’s In Memoriam 2014 campaign to mark war memorials at risk of damage or theft with “SmartWater”, before undertaking her first visit as Patron of Arthritis Research UK, at the Biomechanics and Bioengineering Centre at the University Hospital of Wales, Cardiff. Their Royal Highnesses will then host a reception at Llwynywermod to mark the centenary of the birth of Dylan Thomas. His Royal Highness is Royal Patron of the Dylan Thomas 100 Festival.

The award winning town of Usk will welcome The Duchess of Cornwall as she visits a number of locations which are taking part in the ‘2014 Britain in Bloom’ competition. The competition, which is in its 50th year and is run by the Royal Horticultural Society, has nominated Usk as a finalist in the ‘large village’ category. Her Royal Highness will meet local school children, business owners and members of the community.

As Patron of the Landmark Trust, The Prince of Wales will visit Llwyn Celyn, in Crucorney Fawr, Monmouthshire, which is a rare surviving example of a Grade 1 late 15th century farmstead, recently acquired by the trust.

At Crickhowell in the Brecon Beacons National Park, The Prince of Wales will meet John and Margaret Morris, who produce various varieties of organic Welsh farmhouse apple juice.

The Prince of Wales will end this year’s summer visit in Brecon, where he will see the magnificent Victorian interior of the Plough Chapel, which has recently been restored.

A Clarence House spokesperson said: “The Prince and Duchess are looking forward to a busy week celebrating the unique heritage of Wales, from Celtic Christianity to Dylan Thomas. Their Royal Highness also want to highlight modern Welsh success stories, such as the production of the Raspberry Pi at Sony in Pencoed and the quality foods made by artisan producers throughout the country.”