Latest news with #Tenby
BBC News
11 hours ago
- General
- BBC News
Endangered moon bears arrive at wildlife park in Tenby
Four critically endangered Asian black bears, also known as moon bears, have arrived in Wales for the first from poor conditions, Martha, Irene, Gigi, and Coco arrived at Manor Wildlife Park in Tenby, Pembrokeshire, on 27 June to enjoy a custom-built habitat complete with pools, climbing frames, and a arrival highlights global conservation efforts, supported by the wildlife park and the charity Free the Bears, which has rescued more than 1,000 vulnerable black bears from across Ryder Richardson, owner of Manor Wildlife Park, said she looks forward to visitors meeting the "magnificent" bears and learning about efforts to protect the species. Critically endangered due to habitat loss, poaching, and the illegal wildlife trade, more than 10,000 moon bears are still believed to be held in bile farms. Native to 18 countries, Asian black bears are known for their V-shaped chest markings and white patch on their females typically weigh between 65kg (143lb) and 90kg (198lb), with a life expectancy of up to 25 there are no current plans to breed the bears, the Manor Wildlife Park said it may do so under guidance from the wider breeding programme. Ms Ryder Richardson said the park is "beyond thrilled" to welcome the moon bears."These charismatic creatures, with their striking crescent-shaped chest markings and playful personalities, have already stolen the hearts of our team," she Ryder Richardson said their arrival marks a new "exciting" chapter in the park's mission, with more animals expected this summer in the tiger and red panda enclosures, she also explained in a "world first", two tunnels will link the new Asian black bears enclosure to the tigers', allowing species to swap spaces for enrichment. Chief executive of Free the Bears Matt Hunt said the charity works across Asia to raise awareness of the wildlife trade and support enforcement efforts to combat it. He added that, despite challenges, they remain committed to "protecting, preserving, and enriching" the lives of bears worldwide, alongside partners such as Manor Wildlife Park.
Yahoo
2 days ago
- Sport
- Yahoo
Council warns of public transport and road disruption during Long Course Weekend
Advance planning will be needed for journeys this Saturday and Sunday. (Image: Western Telegraph/Gareth Davies Photography/M. Bearton) Pembrokeshire County Council is advising residents and visitors of road and public transport disruption as The Long Course Weekend returns to the south of the county. The three-day event - 'billed as Europe's biggest multi-sport festival' - gets underway on Friday, June 27. Advertisement The sporting extravaganza is organised by Activity Wales Events and is expected to attract over 11,000 athletes. It features Friday's LCW Kinder children's races and Wales Swim; Saturday's Wales Sportive and Sunday's Wales Marathon. Each discipline offers a variety of distances for athletes of varying abilities, with those completing all three long distances qualifying to receive the coveted Long Course Weekend medal, Pembrokeshire County Council has posted on Facebook: "A number of roads around the wider Tenby area will be closed or closed one way by organisers during the Wales Sportive on Saturday, 28th June. Advertisement (Image: Activity Wales Events) ""The A40 and A477 are not closed for the event. The A478 Narberth to Kilgetty is also fully open. "There are also road closures planned around Tenby to Pembroke during the Wales Marathon on Sunday, 29th June. These road closures are on a rolling programme between 9.30am and 4pm. (Image: Activity Wales Events) "Full and updated details are available on the Long Course Weekend's website "Further information for carers needing access to their clients in the areas affected is also available online, with vehicle passes distributed by care organisation managers. Advertisement "For emergency access on the day - please call Long Course Weekend organisers on 01437 765777." Changes to local bus services will be in place due to the Long Course Weekend road restrictions. Friday 27th June – NO CHANGE Saturday 28th June 351 (Tenby-Kilgetty-Amroth-Pendine) – NO SERVICE 381 (Haverfordwest-Narberth-Kilgetty-Saundersfoot-Tenby)– NO SERVICE Tenby Coaster (Tenby-Saundersfoot) – NO SERVICE 349 (Haverfordwest-Neyland-Pembroke Dock-Pembroke-Tenby) – Unable to serve Pembroke to Tenby until after 1pm. 356 (Milford Haven-Neyland-Pembroke Dock-Pembroke-Monkton) – Unable to serve Pembroke Commons and Monkton until after 1pm Advertisement Sunday 29th June 387/8 (Coastal Cruiser) – Unable to operate until 11am. 387/8 (Coastal Cruiser) – NO SERVICE Tenby Coaster (Tenby-Saundersfoot) – Will be rerouted along the A4218 (Broadwell Hayes) instead of Marsh Road and Heywood Lane.
The Sun
3 days ago
- The Sun
UK's best-loved holiday park reveals their favourite beach – with a 19th century chapel on the seafront
TENBY is one of the UK's most beautiful coastal towns and one holiday park said it has the best beaches too - one of which has its own chapel. St Julian's Church sits on the very edge of the Harbour Beach, it's surrounded by colourful houses, and visitors say the "peaceful" chapel is worth a visit for all holidaymakers. 5 5 Bluestone National Park Resort has picked its 'Top 10 Pembrokeshire Beaches', and Tenby has bagged one of the top spots - because it has four. The two main beaches of North and South, are at either end of the town while Harbour and Castle Beach is the nearest to the town centre. You'll find St Julian's Church on Harbour beach. It was built in 1878 as a fisherman's chapel to replace their original one on the pierhead. The old pier and chapel were demolished in 1840 when the harbour entrance became too narrow. The fishermen worshipped at St Mary's further into town, but the smell of their clothes was offensive to others in the congregation. To keep them away, St Julian's Church was constructed in the late 1870s The church is still active with couples having weddings there and the holding of Sunday services. One visitor to Tenby wrote on Tripadvisor: "You wouldn't expect such a small, well-maintained chapel so close to the harbour." Another added: "Worth a look. Lovely quaint little chapel. Lots of history to it. inviting and well kept in such an amazing location." Others describe it as being "peaceful" and "full of history." The Cabin, Tenby 5 Tenby is a popular spot for British tourists looking for a coastal getaway - it was named as one of the UK's Most Beautiful Coastal Towns in 2024. Local Matthew Evans, who runs Coastal Cottages of Pembrokeshire with his wife, also said Tenby was one of the best places for a Wales trip. He previously told Sun Travel: "There are four epic sandy beaches and a picture-perfect harbour paired with idyllic cobbled streets, plenty of seaside activities, and independent bars, restaurants, and cafes." One of the most popular attractions is The Dinosaur Park inside is a mile-long trail with over 30 life-sized dinosaurs. There are also rides like the Tubey Run and Go Karts, and engage in activities such as fossil hunting and mini-golf. Most tourists make sure to travel to Caldey Island, which is a 20-minute boat ride away. Along with a shop and lighthouse, there is an island monastery. 5 It has the golden sand Priory Beach, which is the best place to watch the boats arriving on the island. It was announced earlier this year that Tenby's Town Hall will be transformed into a luxury hotel and spa. Plans to convert Tenby's old town hall and a former department store into a luxury hotel, spa, and restaurant complex were approved in early April 2025. If it all goes ahead, there will be a 20-room hotel located across the two buildings, including two roof extensions. The design also includes a spacious ground-floor reception, a gym, treatment rooms, a café and a restaurant. One Sun writer visited a hidden Welsh beach you can only access at low tide & it cost £38 for my whole family to stay there. And the quaint Welsh seaside town named one of the cheapest places for a UK beach break. 5
The Sun
14-06-2025
- The Sun
I was taken to UK's ‘paedo island' and subjected to horrific abuse from age 6… why I know I'll never get justice
A BRAVE victim of the UK's 'paedo island' has refused to help investigators in their efforts to improve safeguarding, fearing it is an impossible task. Caldey Island, off the coast of Tenby, Wales, has a dark past - with children being systematically sexually abused by a number of monks there for more than 50 years. 8 8 8 8 Multiple men with convictions for sexual offences have been known to have resided on the island at various times for decades. In December, a report was published following a 'thorough review' and has recommended several safeguarding measures. But one victim, who was abused for several years on the island during visits with her family, from age six, told The Sun this week: 'It's just posturing, I'm not going to take any notice. 'They say they've got this review and we're going to make it safe. Absolute b******s to that.' The victim - who previously described to us the horrors she suffered - went on to explain why she believed the systems overseeing the island would make it impossible to prevent future abuse. Mum told me not to report sick cult's abuse so I was silent for decades By Ryan Merrifield Evil monk Father Thaddeus Kotik, stationed at Caldey Island's monastery from 1947 until his death in 1992, never faced any criminal charges despite countless claims against him. However, six victims were paid compensation after a 2016 civil case found the Cistercian priest had sexually abused them between 1972 and 1987. One victim - who received a £19,000 payout - told The Sun she was advised against taking action by her mum and some former islanders who didn't want her to 'blacken the good name of Caldey'. She made the trip to the island over school holidays and was preyed on almost every day by Kotik - also claiming she saw him abuse others, including babies. The victim told us how the priest would wear Y-fronts back to front to seem harmless and naive, and 'to pretend he didn't know how it all worked'. 'We just thought, 'This is an adult who is interested in us.'' She continued: 'What I noticed about Father Thaddeus, he always abused [the children of] vulnerable families.' She described coach loads of kids from care often visiting the island for days at a time, who he would prey on as they visited the Abbey grounds, often after luring them into the garden. 'The other monks said he was a bit of a joker, a bit of a child," she explained. "They didn't take him that seriously, but they knew there was something dodgy about him.' Referring to the other monks and staff, she said: 'The whole island was like a cult, it was a feudal hierarchy. You had them at the top and then everybody else underneath.' She claims in 1990 she told her mum - who died several years ago - about the abuse but was warned not to report it or Kotik would be segregated from the other monks on the island. 'Father Thaddeus would abuse us three or four times a day,' she recalled. 'His hands were very rough, and he always stank of BO. We would get infections because his hands were so dirty.' She described how Kotik was 'so compulsive' and would invite kids to a makeshift office he had near the dairy. His myna bird would chatter and he'd offer them biscuits before abusing them. She said the Lincoln biscuits had 'lumps all over them'. 'I remember thinking they were the tears in my eyes and how sad they were. Thinking of somebody's eyes." The victim finally stopped going to the island regularly at the age of 16. By then, she had gone through puberty, so Kotik had lost interest in her. But the trauma has remained, and she was later raped by someone linked to the Catholic church when she was 15. 'I felt I didn't have any rights over my body, I didn't feel I could say, 'No, I don't want to do this',' she said. 'What I tend to do now is just avoid people because I was never brought up to have the self confidence to say no. 'What I've realised is I'd rather be busy and lonely than in a relationship. 'When a relationship gets remotely sexual I'm right there and it's too loaded and too many conflicting feelings." The probe was overseen by Former Assistant Police & Crime Commissioner for South Wales, Jan Pickles OBE. It came after Maria Battle, former chair of the Howell Dda University Health Board in Wales, had been appointed to oversee the island earlier in 2024. She is a director of the Caldey island Estate Company Ltd which has led anti-abuse campaigners to question her independence. The report - which focused largely on accusations against the late Father Thaddeus Kotik - concluded victims of sexual abuse on the island were treated in a hostile, heartless and cruel way. In response, Caldey Abbey, which commissioned the report, apologised for the suffering caused. Father Thaddeus Kotik and Caldey Island Victim testimonies from the 1970s collected by Ms Pickles suggest Kotik - who lived on Caldey from 1947 until his death in 1992 - was a 'serial and prolific abuser of children', often in 'plain sight' of others on the island. The report states there were multiple other occasions where accusations of child sexual abuse were not appropriately logged or reported to the authorities. Six of Kotik's victims were paid compensation after a 2016 civil case found the Cistercian priest had sexually abused them between 1972 and 1987. The victim we spoke received a £19,000 payout. She told us Ms Pickles' has been 'very good' but added: 'They're not going to put the right things in place.' They say they've got this review and we're going to make it safe. Absolute b******s to that. Caldey Island victim She described the island itself as still 'a very feudal society' and said her and other victims have been invited to join the board which oversees the island, to help implement new safeguarding measures. But she declined, telling us: 'I just don't really trust anyone who wants to sit on that board because it is like Sherry Arnstein's Ladder of Participation.' This refers to a framework developed in the 1960s which shows who had power when important decisions are made. 'It looks at how undemocratic inviting people to give their views is,' said the victim. HOW TO REPORT HISTORICAL SEX ABUSE This guide was produced by Operation Hydrant - a coordination hub established in June 2014 to deliver the national policing response, oversight, and coordination of non-recent child sexual abuse investigations. It specifically looks at cases concerning persons of public prominence, or in relation to those offences which took place within institutional settings. You can report to the police at any time. It can be done in a number of ways – going to a police station, dialling 101, reporting online via a police website, or even through a third party, such as a friend or relative. When you first make contact with the police, they will take an initial report, a 'first account'. The force will then make contact with you to take more detailed information. An impartial investigation will then be launched based on what you have told officers. 'It's just posturing, I'm not going to take any notice. 'They say they've got this review and we're going to make it safe. Absolute b******s to that.' She added the measures are just 'playing lip service' to 'show that they're doing due diligence… it doesn't help anything'. As part of the review, the monks are not allowed to give religious or pastoral advice to visitors, even if asked, or pose for a selfie with them. And under a 'no touch' policy will be obliged to report any accidental physical contact. The victim described the selfie ban is 'pathetic', adding: 'It's not the selfies, it's the grooming of the families who come and stay.' She said it is 'systemic' to the way the Catholic church often attempts to 'deal with things internally… they don't want to hand over the criminals to the law'. She recalled during the 1980s an article in a Catholic publication blaming paedophilia on divorcees. 'It said if people didn't get divorced you wouldn't have this problem,' she said. The review revealed that a number of sex offenders had spent time on Caldey, including Paul Ashton, who lived there for years under an alias while on the run from police. 8 8 8 He had unrestricted access to the IT system and used it to download indecent images of children. A visitor who discovered his true identity informed police and he was later jailed. When he was discovered at Caldey Island in 2011, more indecent images were found on his computer in the monastery. The visitor believed he had been operating a distribution network for indecent images of children, masquerading as a cleaning company. Two other men, Father John Shannon and John Cronin, convicted of sexual offences involving children, have also been linked to Caldey Island. Harrowing 'grooming' letter In a letter from an island resident seen by The Sun, it was alleged that a 'grooming' culture still persists and that offenders are 'protected'. The unnamed victim went on to tell us: 'If you're going to encourage people to take the vows of chastity, obedience and poverty, it's going to attract somebody, a certain sort of person, and quite likely that sort of person might be a little bit inadequate emotionally, or has something wrong.' She continued: 'I just think you've got the same situation now as you had back then. 'There's plenty of opportunity for a paedophile to groom families. 'There'll be someone on that island now who is a paedophile and it's just attracting that sort of person.' She said: 'The problem is, people turn up there who are dodgy. They are looking to run away - like any kind of grass roots community, you're going to get some people who are on the run from something. 'There's quite a lot of dodgy people there.' The problem is, people turn up there who are dodgy. They are looking to run away - like any kind of grass roots community, you're going to get some people who are on the run from something. Caldey Island victim Father Jan Rossey, who took on the role of abbot in 2023, said he'd read the review with "deep sorrow and regret" and that it was "particularly heartbreaking to hear children spoke up to adults and no action was taken. "Children and their families were failed when they should have been supported and listened to,' he said. He went on to 'sincerely apologise' to the victims of Kotik and 'past failures'. He added: "Since becoming Abbot, I have ensured that many safeguarding improvements have been put in place. These are detailed in the review.' Father Rossey said he had also reached out to anyone who came forward for the review 'offering to meet with them in person to apologise'. The victim we spoke to, who was not involved in the review, said she had not received such an offer. But said: 'I would meet him in person and I would tell him where I think the Catholic church has gone wrong - and how hollow some of these apologies are, and defensive, and not really genuine.' She added: 'I know there are people who are happy to speak about what happened but I try to have as little to do with it all as possible. 'I don't like to talk about it, I like to forget it. It's very haunting - this thing is still living with me.' 'Committed to ensuring highest standards' The Sun understands Safeguarding Officers and Trainers from the Religious Life Safeguarding Service (RLSS) have visited Caldey Island on multiple occasions since the investigation began, with the most recent visit taking place at the end of May. Melissa Andrews, CEO of the RLSS, said: "We are working closely with Caldey Island to ensure best practice in safeguarding. "Our team recently visited the island to deliver a series of training courses on-site, and we will continue to collaborate with their safeguarding lead to support and encourage their ongoing engagement." A spokesperson for Caldey island Estate Company Ltd said: "We are committed to ensuring the highest standards of safeguarding on Caldey Island. "Following the Independent Review led by Jan Pickles OBE—conducted entirely independently of Caldey Abbey—we have taken significant steps to implement all of the recommendations made. "Safeguarding matters are now overseen by an independent committee, which includes representation from victims and survivors. In line with the Review's guidance, our Safeguarding Lead is a qualified and experienced social worker who operates independently of the Island. We remain deeply committed to creating a safe, respectful, and transparent environment for everyone connected to Caldey Island, and we are grateful for the continued support and engagement of our wider community. Caldey Island spokesperson "We've made meaningful progress, much of which is detailed in the 2024 Annual Safeguarding Report, available on the Caldey Island website. "Looking ahead, the Catholic Safeguarding Standards Agency will be conducting an independent audit of our safeguarding practices in June 2025. "We welcome this review, and its findings will be made publicly available. "We remain deeply committed to creating a safe, respectful, and transparent environment for everyone connected to Caldey Island, and we are grateful for the continued support and engagement of our wider community." The Sun has also contacted Father Rossey for further comment. 8
The Guardian
09-06-2025
- Entertainment
- The Guardian
Artists, Siblings, Visionaries by Judith Mackrell review – the remarkable lives of Gwen and Augustus John
A young woman sits reading, a pot of tea to hand, her blue dress almost the only colour in a still, sandy room. Gwen John's painting The Convalescent shows a subdued yet happy moment, for this woman is free to think and feel. That, we see in Judith Mackrell's outstanding double biography of Gwen and her brother, was her ideal for living: to be at liberty even if that meant existing in deepest solitude. The quietness of a life spent largely alone in single rooms, reading, drawing, painting and occasionally having wild sex with the sculptor Rodin, is counterpointed in this epic narrative by the crowded, relentless, almost insanely overstimulated life of Augustus John. Lion of the arts in early 20th-century Britain, he was a bigamist, adulterer, father of so many children you lose track (so did he), and an utterly forgettable painter. Today, we take Gwen John's posthumous triumph over her brother for granted. While 'Gus' – as he was known in their childhood in Tenby, Wales, and to her always – was toweringly famous in his lifetime, portraitist of Lawrence of Arabia and James Joyce, he's dust now. Growing up in Wales, I liked his portrait of Dylan Thomas on the cover of a biography: curly-haired, baby-faced, rebellious. I didn't have any idea of the story behind it. As Mackrell relates, Augustus began a relationship with a teenager, Caitlin Macnamara, which she would come to see as abusive, punishing him by having a very physical flirtation with Thomas in front of him. Soon afterwards, she married the poet. Guilty and confused, Augustus would leave money in his coat pockets for the penniless couple to steal. Augustus's exploitation of the future Caitlin Thomas is the only occasion Mackrell judges him. By this time, in the 1930s, we've had some jaw-dropping antics. Gwen and Augustus both studied at the Slade, the first British art school to admit women, in the 1890s. Gus married Ida Nettleship, also a Slade student and Gwen's friend. How romantic, except he rapidly fell for model Dorothy McNeill whom he rechristened 'Dorelia', persuading his wife to accept Dorelia in a menage that was to last until Ida died after giving birth to her and Augustus's fifth child. No one in their circle complained – except Ida's mother. Gwen was no cardboard saint either. She shared her brother's belief that being an artist meant freedom from the Victorian bourgeois morality they'd been born into – Gwen in 1876, Augustus in 1878. All her life she would have sexual feelings for women as well as men. She persuaded Dorelia to sail to France with her and walk to Rome. They made it as far as Toulouse where Gwen portrayed her beautifully. In Dorelia in a Black Dress, she wears a flare of pink on her shoulder and gazes at us with unkempt hair and a subtle half smile. Even when it came to painting Augustus's muse, Gwen outdid her brother. His 1908-9 painting of Dorelia, Woman Smiling, was once acclaimed as a modern Mona Lisa but now looks ridiculous: Dorelia's grin is foolishly broad, she wears what Augustus saw as 'gypsy' garb and poses heftily in a pastiche of Rubens. It is Gwen who captures what made Dorelia magnetic. That's easy for us to say and see. In the early 20th century it was Augustus who looked like the star. One reason is obvious: he was a man. He bounded on to the art scene, a good-looking youth who learned from his elder Whistler to wear memorable hats and an artist's beard, seducing women after training himself on a Belgian brothel tour, a rebel dandy who was fascinated by the Romany. Gwen was shy, introverted, hard to know. 'I don't pretend to know anybody well,' she confessed. 'People are like shadows to me and I am like a shadow.' Augustus and Gwen had grown up together, both enthusiastic child artists, energetic thorns in the side of their widowed father. Is the contrast in their personalities the scar of gendered expectation? Mackrell goes far beyond a simplistic schema in mapping these lives. Gus is not a pantomime patriarchal villain, nor Gwen a feminist idol: they're human. The brother had a captivating generosity while his sister could be a tricky customer. Gwen complained that Augustus wasn't replying to her letters at a time when Dorelia (who stayed with him for life) was ill and his son dying of meningitis. 'There was a streak of ruthless self-absorption in her,' Mackrell writes , 'a lack of charity and self-awareness.' Gus was quite supportive, but his own life was so complex, tragically so; he got distracted. One of the siblings' worst fallings-out was over Gwen's relationship with Rodin. When she confessed she was not only modelling nude for the great sculptor but sleeping with him, her brother expressed disgust that she was being used by this old man, 36 years her senior. Rodin told her she had un corps admirable. Mackrell agrees. As a dance critic she brings an informed perspective to Gwen's work as a model, judging that her 'body, though small, was flexible and strong. She was elegantly proportioned, with small high breasts, narrow hips, long muscled legs, and a graceful neck – a woman who looked powerful in her nakedness.' That nakedness is preserved in Rodin's plaster statue of her as a Muse, looking gravely downward, for his unfinished Monument to Whistler. Gwen John had stepped into modern art. The story of these two lives is the story of British art in the early 20th century. Artists like Augustus, despite walking – and shagging – like avant gardists, just could not break out of the expectations of 'proper' painting demanded by the British public. In 1910, Van Gogh, Cézanne and other 'post-impressionists' were introduced to Britain in a show organised by Roger Fry. Augustus felt crushed by this shock of the new. Meanwhile, in her pared-down, conceptual images of women alone, Gwen in Paris was a born modernist. Her affair with Rodin was the great relationship of her life. He filled her with joy and agony, then moved on. Friends, including the poet Rilke, tried to help. But it took God to fill the void. When Gwen converted to Catholicism, Augustus was again shocked, for they had both been atheistic rebels against their Baptist upbringing. Gwen's life, from the outside, looked lonely, impoverished, eccentric, sad. She died after years of sickness at Dieppe in 1939, on a last trip to the sea, her burial site lost in the chaos of war. Yet her dedication to love, God and art seems fierce and wondrous now, her art a piercingly true autobiography. Meanwhile, Augustus is as slapdash in his paintings as his life. Biography can be a glib genre, but Mackrell approaches her subjects with an almost novelistic sensibility. What is success, what is failure? This book raises big questions about how we can judge or know others. One of Augustus's best paintings is a 1907 portrait of WB Yeats that gives the poet black, mystical eyes as if he's having a vision. I can't help wondering whether Yeats thought of him when he wrote that the artist 'is forced to choose / perfection of the life, or of the work'. This riot of a man believed he could have the two, and got neither. His sister, in her mystery, got both. Artists, Siblings, Visionaries: The Lives and Loves of Gwen and Augustus John by Judith Mackrell is published by Picador (£30). To support the Guardian, order your copy at Delivery charges may apply.
