Adrian

My father took over the estate from his father in the 1970s. He was inheriting a place my grandfather had never really wanted; he had been a professional soldier. When my dad took it over, you had maybe 30 people still here. It was a place that felt like it had lost its purpose. My father set about taking on the farming operation and restoring houses in the village to make it a more liveable space with a new purpose. A community like this didn't register on any regional development plan; he had to drive the rebirth himself.

While my brother continues the farming operation, I'm furthering the work of my father, overseeing a development of new houses and workspaces in the village, building on parts that had become derelict, including the old family farm. We have a festival we stage here, The Big Retreat, which is a well-being, adventure and discovery gathering, all rolled into one. We had about 3,000 visitors in total over the course of the festival's run this year and it's growing.

There are around 140 people living in Lawrenny now, about four times the size of the place when my father took it over. Most significantly, the number of businesses that are here is extraordinary. People have a 24/7 connection to their village, as they might have 100 years ago... that is why the place works and supports a shop, pub, church, sports club and so on. Among the two dozen or so businesses currently operating in the village, there are software game developers, designer businesses, landscaping services, tree surgeons, bakers, and solicitors. The village attracts new residents and businesses largely through word of mouth. Over the next decade, we will see the population double at least. We are planning a central village square, which we don't have now, bringing old and new together.

If we want to create a Britain in which everyone has a place that works for them - and, indeed, has a job to go to if they need and want one - we need to think about how regions like rural Wales redefine their purpose in a way that works both socially and economically. However, the issue we have in Wales is a government that is heavily grounded in the southeast, urban parts of the country. Either we get treated like an irrelevance or must suck up policies that are framed for towns and cities. But places like this are so critical because they have a big role to play in the future of Wales. I am worried about how rural and coastal economies are overlooked and misunderstood.

My dad is someone who invested in these spaces because it was right to. He just got on with it. People love what Lawrenny has become and what it represents. We need to celebrate the doers in society. When I was a kid, we learned about and celebrated people like Isambard Kingdom Brunel. You know, people with vision who built things. We don't celebrate that spirit anymore. If anything, we smother it.