Y Borth Community Story

Your Story

To understand the thirteen villages, the Shaping Places project provided opportunities for local residents and groups to share their stories about their places, understanding needs, challenges and ideas.
A mixture of opportunities was provided through face-to-face sessions as well as making comments through this digital portal.

Working across the thirteen community councils, local county councillors and local halls/venues, community drop-in sessions were organised. This was promoted through the use of social media, printed posters across the community and through email networks.

The format for the events was centred around:

• Asking attendees to rate their village against place-based criteria
• Placing flags in a large map of the village to identify key issues and ideas
• Making other comments and suggestions
• Meeting the three artists and engaging with them to talk about their village and sense of place

Using art-based methods and creative engagement the workshops sought to explore questions around sense of place and local distinctiveness with the aim of uncovering and showcasing the issues that matter most to the community. The artists’ focus has had a particular emphasis on capturing a future vision and focus for each place, exploring place recognition rather than solely place-making. This project recognises that the 13 rural service centres—villages, homes, communities—within this project are not “new.” They do not need “making.” They already hold identity, character, stories, and meaning, alongside hopes, ideas, and aspirations.

Further information on the artists, Meinir Mathias, Hattie Morrison and Heledd Wyn can be found here.

In Words

During the community sessions, Hattie Morrison invited everyone to share their stories in a simple yet meaningful way: by writing them on cards. People noted down dates and details of their most treasured memories—sometimes just one, sometimes many. The only guideline was that each memory belonged to that place. Alongside these reflections, Hattie encouraged people to imagine their hopes for the future. As people wrote, they talked, and Hattie listened; the act of writing memories opened up into rich, personal stories deeply connected to place.

Each card was placed into a large, clear box, providing a shared experience and creating a striking display of amassed, collected stories—a living archive of voices and moments.

From these cards and conversations, Hattie wrote a monologue for each village, blending cherished memories, stories and local folklore with lived experiences, hopes and aspirations.

Mowing Lawns, Lawn Atgofion is a literary work by Hattie Morrison. It interlaces the stories, memories and aspirations of local community members with myths and folklore, creating a personal and contemporary reflection on the enduring significance of place in shaping identity and belonging.

Each monologue ebbs and flows from English to Welsh, Gymraeg i Saesneg, echoing the linguistic rhythm of the conversations and encounters that shaped the work, and reflecting the lived reality of everyday bilingualism.

Read your village’s monologue here.

Listen to Hattie read your village monologue here.

In Art

Meinir Mathias brought creativity and connection to the heart of the community sessions, using visual art as a way to explore what the place means to people—the spaces they value and their hopes for the future. Meinir fostered a safe and welcoming space for people to reflect on their community through a creative yet low-key process. Some sessions welcomed organised primary school groups, while others invited members of the public to join in. Each session adapted to the size and energy of the group, with two creative elements at its core.

First, participants worked together on a large-scale paper mural—a vibrant visual map of the area, built through shared colour, shapes, and mark-making. This collaborative artwork captured the essence of each place as it stands now; making its inherent qualities more visible and valued.  The murals highlight key landmarks and meeting places alongside deeper meanings woven into each community.  Primary school children also designed their own village coat of arms, using symbols, colours, and motifs to express identity and pride.

The process was documented through time-lapse footage and still photography, with video reflections filmed by fellow artist and filmmaker Heledd Wyn—capturing not just the art, but the voices and stories behind it

View the flick book of all 13 murals here.

Watch the time lapse of your village’s mural being created below.

In Film

Heledd Wyn set out to collect stories, memories, and local myths from across the 13 villages, recognising them as important expressions of cultural identity. These were recorded through short interviews and combined with atmospheric images of the local areas to create compelling films.

To enrich these narratives, Heledd interviewed local community members as well as local historians, ecologists, archaeologists, entrepreneurs, and farmers, to create films that connect memory, folklore and lived experience and expression into vivid portraits of each place.

Heledd was supported by students, Gethin Day and Meilyr Lynch at Aberystwyth University.