The Prince of Wales has said a “holistic” approach is needed to tackle extreme flooding as he met residents of a Welsh village living with the threat of another severe weather season.
William visited Skenfrith in Monmouthshire to learn how the rural community had been affected by repeated flooding and what local authorities and other agencies were doing to reduce the risk of future incidents.
The village has experienced four major floods in six years. The most recent, last winter, had the biggest impact, after the River Monnow swept through Skenfrith following Storm Claudia, which brought a month’s rain in 24 hours to parts of England and Wales.
Speaking to residents Rod and Helen Wyatt at their garden gate, William heard how floodwater had almost reached the gravestones in a cemetery opposite their home. The couple have tiled the ground floor of the house and now live with the continuing possibility of another flood.
Mr Wyatt, who has lived in the property for 10 years, described how they eventually dealt with the most recent incident. “We had to give up really, we got two bottles of Prosecco and went to watch Strictly upstairs,” he told William.
The prince sympathised with the couple, saying the annual uncertainty must be “so demoralising”. He said extreme weather events once described as “one in 50-year” occurrences no longer appeared to fit what communities were experiencing.
“They keep talking about a one in 50-year event, it doesn’t make sense anymore,” William said. “It might be in the researching and scientific point of view – it’s happening every year now, it’s mad.”
He said a better understanding of the entire catchment area was needed so that the problem could be addressed as a whole. Among the measures he discussed were “slowing the water down” through changes to farming landscapes, planting trees and improving monitoring to identify when conditions might be worsening.
William later explored some of those ideas during a visit to Great Tre-Rhew Farm in Monmouthshire, where he met representatives of environmental charity Stump Up for Trees. The charity was founded in 2020 and aims to plant one million native trees across south Wales and the Bannau Brycheiniog, formerly known as the Brecon Beacons.
He joined volunteers collecting seeds from a field maple and planted a sessile oak, the national tree of Wales. Reaching the trees required him to climb over a barbed-wire fence with the aid of a small step. He joked that he did not want to rip his trousers and, while gathering seeds, remarked that he was “taller” than the others present.
Stump Up for Trees collected 35,000 seeds last year for use in growing new trees and hopes to raise that total to 60,000 this year. William praised the compost used at the charity’s nursery after planting the oak.
“It’s in a good spot, it has some space, it will be alright,” he said.
Jenny Knight, the charity’s director, said William had been interested in “not just the problems but the solutions as well”. Representatives from the Duchy of Cornwall also attended the visit to share knowledge about nature recovery and climate-resilient forestry and to begin a long-term partnership.
Dr Knight said the exchange of knowledge was valuable and that working across different areas could produce a greater impact. The conversation also turned to cider made on the farm, with Dr Knight recalling that William had said: “One pint a day keeps the doctor away.”
During the wider visit, William also travelled to Monkhall Farm in Herefordshire to meet 25-year-old Harry Davies, the incoming tenant of the Duchy of Cornwall’s first regenerative farm business tenancy.
Regenerative farming aims to restore soil health, increase biodiversity and improve the water cycle rather than depleting natural resources. William, who is also the Duke of Cornwall, told Mr Davies that the project could help other farmers see that the approach was “totally doable”.
The visit also produced a personal moment when Rod Wyatt reminded William of meeting him as a child at a country fair at Glanusk Estate. Mr Wyatt recalled buying a CD from a bric-a-brac stall where the young William had been selling items.
“Dodgy car boot sale, yes I remember that,” William replied, joking that he might reopen the business because it had “dried up a bit”. He later said he had “got up to a lot” at the time.
The exchange came as William focused on a more serious challenge facing Skenfrith: how to prepare a community for flooding that residents fear may return with increasing regularity.
