Blogs
An Interview With Proprietors Jamie and Sheena Corry
AmeriCymru: Hi Jamie and Sheena and many thanks for agreeing to this interview. How would you describe The Forge in a few words?
The Forge is an off-grid glamping retreat venue based just outside Corwen, in Denbighshire, North Wales.
AmeriCymru: When did you begin working on The Forge project and what inspired you?
AmeriCymru: Our idea for The Forge was hatched over 15 years ago when Jamie and I first got together and had this dream to find somewhere where we could raise our children, grow all our own food and run courses in sustainable living. It took us a long time of working hard, saving all our money and searching for just the right place. In the summer of 2014 we eventually found it when I was heavily pregnant with my second child. It took us another couple of years to get everything in place and we eventually launched The Forge in the spring of 2018.
AmeriCymru: What accommodation does the venue offer and how would one go about booking?
We have five large luxury bell tents which can sleep up to 20 people, plus a vintage gypsy caravan which can sleep a further two adults. We can also put up extra tents and guests are welcome to bring their own tents and campervans if they are booking out the whole site. When we first started out we mainly focused on individual bookings for as little as one night at a time. As time has gone on however, we discovered that people have a much richer and more immersive experience when they come to stay on one of our retreats, or when they hire out the whole place with other families or groups of friends and get involved in some of the activities we have on offer here on site. These include fire lighting, axe throwing, bread making and wild food foraging. We take most of our bookings online, although we do have a very high number of repeat customers. It seems that once people have been to The Forge once, they can’t wait to come back and stay again!
AmeriCymru: You also feature a vintage gypsy caravan amongst your accommodation options. Care to tell us more?
We bought our much loved bow top caravan from a very good friend of ours who is a member of the travelling community here in North Wales. The caravan has been lived in by a traveller family and has even been to Appleby, the UK’s most well-known annual gypsy gathering. There is very ornate painting and inscriptions on the side, which features a ‘WB’, as we are told that our caravan was originally built for William Boswell, a very prominent member of the Gypsy community. You can find out more about the secret history of our gypsy caravan here: Gypsy Caravan
AmeriCymru: You are both passionate about rewilding. Care to describe your efforts in that direction? How many trees have been planted?
After studying Biology at university, Jamie started out his career working for the Loch Lomond and Trossachs National Park in Scotland and from there with the Hampshire and Isle of Wight Wildlife Trust in the south of England. Through his conservation work he became fascinated by the positive impact on wildlife and biodiversity of restoring habitats to their original state. Having grown up on a small holding in North Wales, Sheena too always had a very strong connection to the land, which has deepened as she has become a passionate trail runner and wild swimmer in remote parts of the country. When we bought our piece of land one of the first things we did was seek a grant for us to plant 3000 trees. These trees were only knee high when we planted them in 2017 and are now towering above us. We’ll be planting another 600 this week as we continue to increase the amount of woodland we have here. It has been incredibly rewarding to see the different species coming back to our land. We have a family of barn owls who have successfully raised two broods of chicks and happily live alongside us. Our wildflower meadow is becoming more abundant each year and we’ve seen lots of rare butterflies and birds since we arrived, including spotted fly catchers, reed buntings and goldcrests.
AmeriCymru: What activities can guests at The Forge expect to enjoy?
We have so much to offer here at The Forge, whether you are keen to try wild swimming retreat, would like to make your own bow and arrows, or would simply like to relax in a hammock by the campfire. We have some great walking directly from our door, and lots of fantastic partner organisations nearby who can offer everything from white water rafting to husky dog sledding. We run lots of different retreats throughout the year, both ourselves and through other companies who hire our place. We work with lots of yoga and Pilates businesses who combine core strength with meditation and mindfulness, and this year we are thrilled to be welcoming two experienced leaders from the Jivaka Wellness Center in Elkins, West Virginia to The Forge to run a Sensory Retreat. This won’t be the first time we have welcomed experts from the US to The Forge. In April 2019 we were lucky enough to have Sara Bir from Marietta, Ohio run a foraging course for us as part of her UK book launch tour.
AmeriCymru: What catering arrangements do you offer?
All our tents come with a very well equipped camp kitchen so guests can create their own outdoor feasts, either over a gas hob, or ideally over the campfire if they are feeling adventurous. Our large cabin has a big catering kitchen which we use for our retreats, plus we have a Big Green Egg barbecue which is ideal when we rent out the whole site to large groups of friends and families. We can also provide catering if people are not that up for cooking themselves: we have two woodfired pizza ovens, we can provide barbecues, and we can also spit roast venison, pork or lamb. On occasion we have also cooked for groups using an underground pit oven, or ‘hangi’.
AmeriCymru: You also publish a lively blog about the venue. Care to tell us some of the highlights?
Before we set up The Forge I started writing a blog called Cockerels and Dreams (a riff on Cocktails and Dreams for any of you old enough to remember the 1988 Tom Cruise film!) Cockerels and Dreams . This was really a way of staying sane while I negotiated the delights of two children under three, a field full of farm animals and trying to launch a new business. Once The Forge was up and running I started a new blog which was more around helping people to understand the difference between camping and glamping and to highlight the activities we have on offer here. There is probably a disproportionate focus on wild swimming and wild food – my two big passions!
AmeriCymru: What's next for The Forge? Any new developments in the works?
We are just about to launch our newly designed website which will focus much more on running retreats ourselves and with partner businesses. I’ve got lots of ideas about doing more work with people suffering from burnout as I believe this is the true epidemic of our age and not enough is being done about it. Having had a corporate career in the City for 20 years, I can empathise with what a lot of people are going through, stuck in demanding, all-consuming jobs, whilst also trying to balance family and caring commitments and increasing financial pressures. What we have to offer here at The Forge can provide the perfect antidote to this pressure and give people the time out they need to address the symptoms and causes of their burnout to try and break the overwhelming patterns of behaviour. I’m also really excited about expanding our wild swimming courses so that we can start to offer qualifications as part of certified programmes, plus we’ve got plans to potentially open up our site to small, rural weddings. Lots of ideas and never enough time!
AmeriCymru: Any final message for the readers and members of AmeriCymru?
If any of you are ever in the North Wales area, please do pop in and say hi! We love welcoming people from all over the world and I have a particularly soft spot for the US, having worked in Chicago and Houston on and off for over 12 years. My dad’s best friend was also a well-known Welsh character who ran a sheep farm in Burlington, Vermont and hosted his own radio station (which specialised in Scottish reel music!) there for many years in the late 1970s and early 80s. If anyone knows of Tony Turner then please get in touch!
Sheena Corry
Website: https://theforgecorwen.co.uk/
Facebook: @theforgecorwen
Twitter: @ForgeCorwen
Instagram: @theforgecorwen
Red Telephone brand new single 'Waiting For Your Good Days' out friday 20th January
By Ceri Shaw, 2023-01-19
Debut Album 'Hollowing Out' released 31.03.23
Cardiff post-punk outfit 'Red Telephone' are set to release their highly anticipated debut album 'Hollowing Out' on the 31st March 2023. The only single taken from it 'Waiting For Your Good Days' is out on the 20th January.
Hailing from Cardiff, Red Telephone’s richly layered alt-rock could have emanated from a club in Blade Runner's dystopian LA - combining angular guitars, Krautrock-inspired rhythms and New Wave-tinged synths with infectious pop sensibilities. Drawing on post punk and synth pop influences, the band has been catching the attention of DJs across BBC 6 Music, BBC Radio 1, Absolute Radio and Radio X; with comparisons to the likes of MGMT, Super Furry Animals, Mitski and Berlin-era Bowie being drawn. The band have recently appeared at BBC 6 Music Fringe Festival, Focus Wales, Swn Festival, Other Voices and Llangollen Fringe, supporting Warmduscher. With previous single releases on Welsh-based labels Libertino Records and the Popty-Ping Recording Company, the band's highly anticipated debut album is set to be released in March 2023.
“Very nicely layered. Has a bit of early 80s melodrama; a sort of Pet Shop Boys croon and a Krautrock halo.”
– Steve Lamacq, BBC 6 Music
“Something brilliantly dark about this, with their synth psych noir with a pulse. Real potential to go big.”
- Chris Hawkins, BBC 6 Music
“Great Welsh psych!”
– Amy Lame, BBC 6 Music
"It's a stunning sounding single from Red Telephone, my artist of the week”
– Huw Stephens, BBC Radio Wales
“This direction pegs Roxy Music/Sparks playfulness to their neo-psych and Suede-aping past selves, turning it into something thoroughly intriguing. They have the skills to match the ambition.”
– Under the Radar Magazine
“Veers between being a paranoiac industrial rock hammering and shimmering, escapist 60s psychedelia.”
– Gigwise
“That sounds momentous to me. The imagination is bubbling over the sides of the recording, it cannot be contained. I love the way the singer sounds a little bit like Marc Bolan, he’s got that real sense of wonder and playfulness in his voice.”
– Adam Walton, BBC Introducing Wales
“A lot of splendid noises packed into just under three minutes.”
– Gideon Coe, BBC 6 Music
Junior Bill are back with ‘BOYS FROM JUNGLE’, lashing out with wit and riffs against injustice for refugees.
By Ceri Shaw, 2023-01-09
The angular, textured hybrid punk of Junior Bill is set to re-emerge into the spotlight this year. ‘ Boys From Jungle ’ is the first song released from their upcoming debut album ‘Youth Club!’. The track details the bleak fates of asylum seekers after their arrival in the UK. The song’s catchy new wave tunefulness makes for a juxtaposition to the incisive, cynical social comments that spill out as a collage of slogans and thrown away official observations. After airplay on BBC Radio Wales, Adam Walton said that Junior Bill have an “ability to cross pollinate cultures and musical styles but make them entirely their own … they’ve got their own spirit and defiance to them … they’re clearly brilliant”
Cardiff’s Junior Bill is the project of frontman and songwriter Rob Nichols. The band has been thrilling audiences through the small venues, pubs and festivals of the UK & Ireland since 2013. From teenage beginnings rehearsing in Cathays Youth & Community Centre, they have since self-released a string of EPs, singles and an ambitious, award-winning live concert film called 'Above Your Station' in 2017. In the live music scene they’ve made a lasting impression, opening for Supergrass during their reunion shows after a supporting tour with drummer Danny Goffey, then last year making their debut at Glastonbury Festival.
Much of Nichols's writing reaches into the lives of other people with an unusual intellect and an open empathetic spirit. Gigwise said "it's a political maturity set against a childlike honesty that makes Junior Bill so intriguing. " The band are also known for their well crafted concepts with artistic relish surrounding releases. 2017’s self-titled EP saw a guerrilla marketing campaign surrounding the fabled “Wolf In Grangetown” which ended up capturing the imagination through a series of national headlines.
" Boys From Jungle 's jolly sound is a smokescreen for the bleak realities expressed in the lyrics.” says Nichols “It’s a story about the depressing fates that often await those who’ve risked life and limb to make it to the UK. I wrote it years ago after reading a WalesOnline article exposing the grim conditions of an overcrowded hostel for asylum seekers near where I live in Cardiff. The lyrics were intentionally written with bad grammar to evoke a hastily written report."
More singles from their brilliant new album ‘Youth Club!’ are set to follow, culminating in the album’s release later in the year. Pre-save ‘ Boys From Jungle ’ now at
https://distrokid.com/hyperfollow/juniorbill/boys-from-jungle
LYRICS
Omed said got boys from Jungle
Came through sleet and storm and thunder
Young, black skin and came on boat
Now have found a cold, hard sofa
One boy has got family down here
Waiting for mum to get visa
Paying for sister's education
What about mum well he can't just leave her
One got in a case needing legal aid
Two years now just going in circles
Only three of the boys got papers
Many waiting four years later
Round here people don't believe
Back home he used to be a doctor
Some will have to go to Swindon
Too much people, poor condition
Got to get a wristband if you wanna get fed
Keep your mouth shut for the council inspection
One boy tried to break away
No one else there spoke his lingo
Found him disappeared one day
Smashed the sink and the bathroom window
Omed said got boys from Jungle
Came through sleet and storm and thunder
Young, black skin and came on boat
Now have found a cold, hard sofa
Omed said got boys from Jungle
Welsh alt-pop quartet 'Safari Gold' re-emerge with their latest single Last Chance Addict, released on January 6th 2023.
Lead vocalist's Morgan and Danny - "The song plays on general morality and the less glamorous side of thrill seeking. An up tempo song for the deeper soul'd out there."
'Last Chance Addict' is taken from their forthcoming Album 'The Years Between Dog And Wolf' which will be released on the 20th January 2023.
In the shed of my late father
mortality raises its gentle
terrifying reminding head
among the stilled working
the colonising cobwebs
here in this inner sanctum
of a man’s married years
lie the abandoned hobbies
the casualties of affordability
and changing health
golf clubs beginning to rust
and accrete DIY liquids
transforming into new uses
a club is always a club
no matter how it is wielded
no matter where it is
or how tamed one is
a complete bathroom window
frosted
its opening obedient to a key
that hasn’t turned for decades
a trolley of peeling paint
and complaining metal
castors still compliant
a primitive vehicle from my childhood
upcycled then repurposed
to shelve rough materials
soon to be upcycled again
I was sent there by my father
to find a tool I could never retrieve
today everything is uncovered
in the light of vacating
Georgia Ruth - Week of Pines 10 Year Anniversary Edition. Out 01.03.23. PRE-ORDER NOW
By Ceri Shaw, 2022-12-09
“Mae ‘Week of Pines’ yn albwm am hapusrwydd. A dod adre. Ac ail ennill pethau y credwyd eu bod wedi mynd ar goll. A gras ar ôl gwneud camsyniadau: mae’r elfen o faddeuant a thawelwch wedi bod yn rhan annatod o’r record yma.”
Georgia Ruth - Week of Pines 10 Year Anniversary Edition. Out 01.03.23. PRE-ORDER NOW
“The Welsh harpist Georgia Ruth is a rare talent, able to transcend borders of language, style and age with apparent ease ... A dazzling debut, rich with sweet pain and joy.”
- Andy Gill, The Independent ****
“while Sandy Denny, Bert Jansch and Van Morrison all linger on the horizon, Georgia Ruth comes over as more of a true original than most of the young hopefuls roaming these isles” - Songlines ****
An interesting basic factual account of Welsh history in the Viking era. Part 1 of this series can be found here: Celtic Britons: the Origins of Medieval Wales - YouTube
The channel features several videos on the history of the Celts in Europe and Britain. Click here for a complete listing.
Ritual Cloak's sublime new 'Shell' single out now via Bubblewrap Collective
By Ceri Shaw, 2022-11-23
Following on from their second album (Divine Invasions), collaborations with Welsh poet Autumn Juvenile and Polish Artist Michal Iwanowski, plus an R.E.M cover, electronic post-rock duo Ritual Cloak are back with a brand new single. ‘Shell’ will be released on 23rd November across all digital platforms.
Bethan Lloyd unveils hypnotic 'Cutting Circuits' single via Soulpunx Berlin
By Ceri Shaw, 2022-11-21
Bethan Lloyd is a Welsh artist whose trance inducing vocals expand over an ocean of rave inspired production, harmonic layering and otherworldly ecstasy. Working within the unseen realms, Bethan has engaged deeply in the art of relinquishing control.
Cutting Circuits is a celebration of relinquishing control, both internally and externally. Changing the pathways of one’s life and opening up to genuine and powerful experiences of awe. This song is a blueprint for cutting the circuits of control and returning to true purpose, to the web and to the void.
(For Owain Ddantgwyn
our Owen of the white tooth
in battle a bear
Arth/Ursus/Arthursus/Arthur
to his family a comfort
to his kingdom
a worthy leader
warlike as the age demands)
so meet me at the forum
in old Viroconium city
that vacated shell we fitted
like a glove of mail
of might
of shade of light
those men of Rome left in a hurry
and tonight we can have our fill
from their amphora
so have a glass with me
a toast for declining empires
in the morning we will sharpen
our minds and our blade edges
ready for the latest wave of pagan invaders
to imprint the sand of our beaches
with such heavy footfall
and cruel design
we will meet them at the heights of Badon
and claim a hopeful victory
split wrong heads asunder
in a war that we will ultimately lose
and which will be forgotten
as those who will subjugate us
in turn will kneel in obedience
and kiss the ring of their oppressor
leaving us to be onlookers
in our own isle
sulky in our ale
liminal
in the far margins
the unforgiving terrain
where seed fails to shine
in the harshness of our tears’ rain
not knowing that scant numbers
of dreamers and word launchers
will meditate on our time
in their leaderless day
believing as we did
that they are near to the end of all time
