Draft:Norma Procter

Norma Catherine Procter MBE (née Turner) is a British environmental campaigner, local historian, novelist, poet, and heritage writer based in Gwaelod-y-Garth, Cardiff, Wales. In 2011 she was appointed a Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE) for services to the environment and to the community in Gwaelod-y-Garth, Cardiff.

Norma Procter MBE.

Early life

Procter was born in Horsham St Faith, Norfolk, England. After studying at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama she moved to South Wales, when her husband Tom Procter was hired as musician with the BBC Welsh Symphony Orchestra (now known at BBC National Orchestra of Wales). She was a part-time lecturer in voice at the Welsh College of Music and Drama.

Environmental and heritage activism

Procter has been active for several decades in environmental and heritage issues affecting Gwaelod-y-Garth and the surrounding area including the woodland, as well as campaigning against an Asphalt plant in the local area. For the campaign a public meeting on Friday, 22nd April 1994 was organised by Procter in the community hall for residents to be able to raise questions.

As reported by Isobel Bretherton, Procter's home become the Headquarters for the campaign and where multinational company Redlands Aggregates met to hear the community’s arguments on 23rd May 1994, receiving a 140 page document prepared by Procter and the Action Committee. The next day Redlands decided to shelve their application for the new plant.

Procter’s work was associated with the campaign to protect the historically significant Elizabethan iron ore workings at Garth from destruction from quarry extensions that would mean taking down the whole rim the wooded Lesser Garth mountainside, home to an ancient beech forest. She led a campaign to inform the local community about the area’s rich heritage.

The area gained significance when director Christopher Monger, from nearby Taff's Well, wrote the well-known 1995 film The Englishman Who Went up a Hill but Came down a Mountain.

David Keys archaeological correspondent for The Independent wrote an article about the area's significance, noting that the prehistoric archeological cave and a series of spectacular underground caverns and caves, are the remains of an unique nineteenth century iron-ore mine where there is evidence of neolithic occupation and possibly a burial site, as well as late Bronze Age and Roman occupation having been found in the caves.

The success of the campaign was acknowledged in a letter from Clarence House conveying the message that the Queen Mother was pleased that the ancient woodland had been saved from an extension of the quarry.

Garth Hill, Gwaelod y Garth

MBE

In 2011 Procter was awarded an MBE for her services to the environment, including running a successful 20-year-long campaign against proposals to extend a quarry near her home in Gwaelod y Garth.

Due to ill health she could not attend the formal ceremony in Buckingham Palace. Instead, Lord Lieutenant of South Glamorgan Peter Beck made the presentation in her home.

In the citation from Buckingham Palace, as read out by the Lord Lieutenant of South Glamorgan, and quoted by Kathryn Williams in the South Wales Echo Procter was noted as a “Great champion of green spaces and environmental safety” in an area of Wales which is under considerable development pressure. Beck went on thank to her "dedication, ingenuity and vision."

In the article, Williams goes on to mention that the award recognised how she had consistently been approached by people in the area to help with causes, including the halting of the installation of an Ashphalt plant within the Lesser Garth and the prevention of GE (then Amersham) discharging radioactive material into the environment.

Artist, Author & Campaigner

Procter puts her local knowledge of Gwaelod y Garth village into various campaigns, including a memorial service in association with the local primary school, to honour victims of an 1875 explosion at the Llan Colliery. The village’s drift mine once supplied coal to the iron works at Pentyrch and brick works to the outskirts of Cardiff.

This memorial work and the dedicated work of Procter was cited in the Welsh Parliament (Senedd) in the 90-second Statements on the 3rd December 2025 at 15.10 by Member of Parliament Rhys ab Owen to mark the 150th anniversary of the mining accident.

On discovering that Abraham Phillips, who died in the explosion, lived in the cottage where she now lives, Procter began extensive research into the mining history of the area, resulting in a non-fiction book.

Publications

Amongst various books in 2012, The House of Abraham Phillips a historical novel based on the Lan Colliery disaster of 6 December 1875. The narrative follows the family of colliery owner Abraham Phillips and explores themes of industrial responsibility, guilt, and the social consequences of catastrophe including how the inquest into the accident led by William Galloway changed mining practices and introduced the practice of damping the air to help prevent explosions.