If you are regularly travelling around the south Wales valleys you have possibly seen presenter and property expert Martin Roberts wandering down the pavement filming for BBC's Homes Under The Hammer, visiting Welsh properties that are up for auction.
But filming for this popular daytime property show is not the only reason 2024 will see Martin crossing the border, and not even his charming, renovated Rhondda farmhouse airbnb will be the main reason for regular visits for the foreseeable future. For more property stories sent to your inbox twice a week sign up to the newsletter here
In 2022 Martin ‘accidently’ bought The Hendrewen hotel and pub in Blaencwm without even telling wife Kirsty. Now he is knee deep in architectural drawings and rubble in a renovation project that will see the building be transformed into a hub for the village, as well as a destination restaurant and hotel for visitors; Martin has big plans for the building and they sound very exciting.
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Martin is an ideas man, but he backs it up with reality, having already committed around £500,000 of his own money to buy the hotel and pub building, which is now well on the way to being transformed from its stripped down ‘back to bricks’ stage to the realisation of his amazing plans for its revival.
Although it’s not the first property renovation project Martin has dived into, for viewers of Homes Under The Hammer the switch in roles for Martin from presenter to renovator is an intriguing one so, of course, we asked him the classic phrase from the show, ‘what’s the budget and how long is it going to take?’”
Martin is amused by the question. He is happy to admit that the budget has ‘gone out of the window' and adds: "To cut a long story short we were supposed to be open by Christmas 2023 but we are looking to open now in the summer."
Thinking about the role reversal Martin chuckles, saying words he usually says as the presenter of Homes Under The Hammer: “Can Martin do it for another £500,000 and within six months, or is his plan just pie in the sky? Find out later in the show if Martin has managed to totally mess this up!”
The first phase of the transformation of the building is to create a restaurant and hotel with an additional live music space on the ground floor and eight ensuite bedrooms on the first floor. The second planned phase is to add an extension that includes an information centre for tourists to the area, disabled access accommodation, bike and all-terrain wheelchairs hire, and provide a base for people visiting the stunning landscape to explore the Rhondda Tunnel.
The drive to assist Rhondda Tunnel Society to get the historic tunnel reopened is the wider context for the second phase of the development of The Hendrewen, which is still awaiting planning permission, and it is a key point of the project that Martin is keen to expand on. He did not randomly buy a village hotel and pub, the purchase came with a bigger purpose, and it's a cause that he believes is of vital importance to Wales.
Martin explains: "I became the patron of the Rhondda Tunnel Society about a year ago and since then I've been trying to get more people to notice what they are trying to achieve and what the tunnel, when opened, will mean for not just for the Rhondda but for the whole of Wales.
"It's not just about tourism, it's about health and well-being, it's about cutting down on travel, it's a tick box for everything the Welsh government have said they want to achieve from this kind of project. We want to reposition it in people's minds that it's not just something quirky, you cannot underplay how big it would be for the area and for the country if it reopened." Find out more about the Rhondda Tunnel here.
Martin is now fully immersed working with the society to get the tunnel open again, and as part of the fundraising effort and awareness campaign is organising and hosting a charity gala at The Village Hotel, Cardiff on Saturday, February 24.
The event is a celebration of the area’s talent too, including live music, a three-course dinner, charity auction and dancing. There’s a chance for guests to mingle with the stars as Martin has delved into his contact list and invited a number of his celebrity friends to attend. You can find out more details about the gala here.
As well as juggling the significant amount of work needed to organise a charity gala, filming for television, and running the Rhondda Fawr airbnb, Martin is still fully involved in the development of The Hendrewen, with his clear vision for the building’s future continuing to come into focus as the renovation work progresses.
Martin is well known for advising buyers of auction properties on Homes Under The Hammer to consider knocking down a wall or two during a renovation, to open up a space and create something extra special. But at The Hendrewen he has taken his own advice to the extreme.
He laughs, “It’s a joke, it’s like I've taken my own Homes Under The Hammer advice and super-sized it! I've taken out every single wall, bar one, in the downstairs but then I had to put all these big beams up, they are beasts. I've paid the price for my own enthusiastic removal, but what it's created is this extraordinary space that you can now fully see.”
Part of the renovation process has been working with the Youth Engagement and Participation Service (YEPS) 16+ Support Team, Communities for Work Plus, and ARC Training on a scheme called Realskillz Project. For a week young adults from the area could work at The Hendrewen site to give the opportunity to gain valuable skills and knowledge in the construction industry working towards a formal qualification and an apprenticeship scheme.
Inside the original building, Martin is going to create an exciting mix of country style pub and a local music venue. He says, “There will be cosy log fires and a place where you can be with your dog and sit and enjoy a coffee or a glass of wine, and then the other side is going to be very much about live music with a stage and equipment.
“We’ve had the first fix electrics done and because it's going to be super eclectic inside, there's going to be lots of things hanging from the ceiling, so the lighting is going to be really interesting, including a lighting rig over the live stage and dance area; we're using about 150 miles worth of cabling.
“We are obviously just doing stuff that we are permitted to do, we haven't got all the planning for the extensions and the new disabled access block yet, so we are just doing a refit at the moment inside. But we've got all the bedrooms laid out how they will be, so I can see what the bedrooms will look like, and that's really exciting.”
But the transformation of The Hendrewen is not just a standard renovation project as Martin is very keen that the live music area and the restaurant both offer more than just entertainment and tasty food. This imaginative man, who seems to have no ‘off switch’, wants the building to become a hub for education too.
“The delays in time renovating it has given us a real chance to enhance things,” Martin explains, “So we are now putting in a teaching kitchen where local kids can come in and learn cookery skills with Nick from Cleverchefs. It is also going to hopefully be a teaching kitchen at the weekends, where we can have people come and stay at the hotel and do a cookery course.”
Music education is another function of the completed building that Martin is keen to explore. He says, “There will be equipment on the stage that kids can come in and have a go, and be involved in open mike nights too. At other times we might even have local musicians coming in and giving some lessons."
During the renovation process at The Hendrewen Martin and his team worked with the Youth Engagement and Participation Service (YEPS) 16+ Support Team, Communities for Work Plus, and ARC Training on a scheme called Realskillz Project, which gave young adults from the opportunity to gain valuable skills and knowledge in the construction industry working towards a formal qualification and an apprenticeship scheme. It's a site that is embedded in the community and Martin wants to ensure this remains the case.
When The Hendrewen is finished there will be a memorable opening night but, until then, it’s a case of local people just sticking their heads in through the windows to see what’s going on. Martin says, “I don't think they would recognise it, I'm pretty sure they wouldn't, but I'm really happy with how it's all coming together.”
Martin Roberts and Rhondda Tunnel Society charity gala is on Saturday, February 24 from 6pm to past midnight at The Village Hotel, Cardiff and includes live music, dancing, charity auction, and a three-course meal. Tickets are £65 and available online now from rhondda-event-soulutions.eventcube.io
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