Wales Feed

What's cooking behind the scenes of Larkin and Dale's Takeaway Revolution?

2015-04-02T09:25:49+00:00

Assistant Producer Claire Hill writes about filming Larkin and Dale’s Takeaway Revolution.

For more than a year we have been following Larkin Cen and Dale Williams working hard to open their first Chinese takeaway.

Masterchef viewers all have an opinion on these talented Welsh chefs and when they turn up at food events or their own pop ups, people are desperate for photos.

But they are both genuine, down-to-earth Welsh boys, ready to have a laugh at themselves and each other. Plus they are impressively passionate and full of self-belief. Which is a good job really; heading into business is stressful and you need to be able to see the funny side of things and really believe in what you're doing from day one.

When we started filming the project there was an opening date for the takeaway venture which shifted quite dramatically and put lots of pressure on the cooking duo. But if you want to see why it all happened and the real story about how hard it is to open a business, you will just have to keep watching the series.

Assistant Producer Claire Hill (foreground) filming with Dale Williams

As a small two-person production team, whenever you see Larkin and Dale cooking or eating, that means Emily the producer and I are behind the camera or a sound kit trying to concentrate really hard on capturing everything on film. Some days this is very hard to do when the food looks and smells so good.

But, don’t feel too sorry for us, we generally descend on the leftovers. The food might have gone cold but it was always still really tasty. So we have no complaints and that is especially true when we headed to Hong Kong for three days – you’ll see some of the amazing food we came across in episode two. Sorry we can’t offer you all 'smellivison' or any tasters though.

After more than 12 months of being behind the scenes and seeing everything that goes into opening a foodie business, especially the endless paperwork and red tape, I wouldn’t fancy doing it myself. You’ll see as the series airs that even for Larkin and Dale it has been hard work and graft and that it isn’t all glamorous. So I’ll stick to eating the takeaways.

Larkin and Dale’s Takeaway Revolution is on Friday 3 April at 7.30pm on ��̳ One Wales.

Penry Williams

2015-04-01T15:59:00+00:00

In the early nineteenth century, the industrial town of Merthyr Tydfil was larger and more important than either Cardiff or Swansea. It was the iron capital of Wales, a role and a position that it did not relinquish for many years.

Even in the twentieth century this was the place that spawned not just highly sought after industrial products but also novelists like Glyn Jones and poets such as Leslie Norris. It was also the birthplace of one of the best-known artists of the nineteenth century, Penry Williams.

South Wales Industrial Landscape by Penry Williams c.1825. Photo credit: Llyfrgell Genedlaethol Cymru / The National Library of Wales.

Penry (or Penri) Williams was born in Merthyr Tydfil in 1802. He was the son of a stone mason and house painter and from an early age showed remarkable skill as an artist. In this, the young Penry was encouraged by his school teacher, Taliesin Williams, the son of historian and folk tale collector Iolo Morganwg.

Taliesin must have had an eye for talented young artists as he also encouraged and helped the sculptors Joseph Edwards and William Davies. Clearly, despite all its many vices and problems, the seething melting pot that made up industrial Merthyr Tydfil was fostering artistic talent at a rapid rate of knots.

By 1816 the young Penry Williams was already producing remarkable pieces like “The Merthyr Riots” and it was not long before he came to the notice of iron masters and patrons of the arts like William Crawshay and John Guest. Recognising exceptional talent when they saw it, the two ironmasters paid for Williams to travel to London where he lived and studied at the schools attached to the Royal Academy.

At the Academy school, Williams was taken under the wing of the Italian painter and teacher Henry Fuseli. He was quick and adept and responded to the teaching in the most positive way, seizing his opportunity to develop his art.

In 1821, when he was just nineteen years old, Penry Williams was awarded the Silver Medal by the Society of Arts for “drawing from the antique” and from that year on he was a regular exhibitor of portraits and landscapes at the Royal Academy and at the Society of British Artists.

In 1827 Penry Williams moved to Rome where he was to live for the next fifty years. Before he left, however, he produced a series of magnificent watercolour views of south Wales and England.

His industrial landscapes – one in particular, showing an ironworks at night – were based on sights and scenes around the industrial valleys of Wales. They were atmospheric and realistic but, at the same time, they were imbued with an artistic excellence that showed his innate ability and the quality of the art education he had received.

In 1828 Williams was elected associate of the Society of Painters and Watercolours and exhibited with them each year until he resigned in 1833. His studio in Rome gradually became something of a pilgrimage site for all visitors to Italy – Welsh visitors being particularly welcome.

Penry Williams died on 27th July 1885. Since moving to Italy he had concentrated on producing Italian views and scenes of ancient Roman life. They were invariably finely judged and well produced but to the eyes of many they lack a little of the emotion that can be found in his early Welsh views.

“The Procession Returning from the Fiesta of the Madonna Del Marco” is considered his masterpiece. The painting is carefully constructed, the figures in the foreground contrasting beautifully with the sight of Vesuvius smoking away in the background.

This painting, along with several other remarkable works on an Italian theme – works such as “The Ferry on the River Ninfa” and “Girl with a Tambourine” - were later acquired by the National Gallery. They have since been passed on to the Tate.

These days Penry Williams work can be seen at the Museum and Gallery, Cyfarthfa Castle, and at the National Museum in Cardiff. He remains one of Wales’ greatest painters, a man who came from humble beginnings in one of the most robust and formative of all valley communities and went on to be hailed as one of the greatest painters of his age.

Do visit the ��̳'s Your Paintings website for a gallery of paintings by Penry Williams.

The Rhondda School

2015-03-25T12:33:35+00:00

Wales is fortunate in being able to boast a whole range of writers, musicians, singers and artists who have achieved international acclaim.

Artistic endeavour and excellence seem to go hand in hand with the Celtic spirit and nowhere is that statement more obvious than in the mining valleys of the country. In painting and in the visual arts the Rhondda, in particular, has had a lasting influence and effect.

Pembrokeshire might have spawned Gwen and Augustus John; north Wales might have sustained the talent of Kyffin Williams. But the Rhondda, with its interwoven webs of industrial architecture and social deprivation once produced a like-minded group of painters and sculptors that soon became known as 'The Rhondda School'.

The Family, a sculpture by Robert Thomas in Churchill Way, Cardiff

The Rhondda School of artists was never an actual school, in the formal sense, and was in no way an official grouping. The members produced no manifesto or statement about their aims – they were, simply, a group of students from the Rhondda who, in the early 1950s, travelled by train down the valley each day to study at Cardiff College of Art.

The legend about these six men states that they would spread their drawings and paintings across the seats of the railway carriage – thereby discouraging anyone else from entering the compartment – and discuss painting and art for the full length of the journey. For two hours, as the old steam train rattled down the valley, these eager and dedicated men would discuss art with all of the bravado and enthusiasm that go with youth, talent and emerging skill.

The men in question were Ernest Zobole, Charles Burton, Glyn Morgan, Nigel Flower, David Mainwaring and Robert Thomas. They came from different locations in the Rhondda and so boarded the train at different times and at different stations but their aim was the same – to discuss art and artists.

Zobole had been born in Ystrad, the son of Italian immigrants who arrived in Wales in 1910. He is perhaps the best known of the group, a man whose gradual move away from descriptive painting to more abstract work reflects the general trend within the Rhondda School.

Zobole, who died in 1999, might have been the best known but all of the group were influential in their effect on art within Wales.

Charles Burton, for example, became Head of Art at the Polytechnic of Wales while it was still based in Barry, dozens of students passing through his department each year. Once he had finished his course, Burton had moved from Cardiff College of Art to London, to study at the Royal College. With no grant to support him he had to sell paintings in order to live. It was a hard lesson to learn but one which the young man took to with gusto.

These days the sculptures of Robert Thomas can be seen at many locations, in particular in Queen Street, Cardiff. They are stunning representations of Welsh life but it is probably the tall and striking statue of Aneurin Bevan, just opposite Cardiff Castle, that people will know best.

The Miner, Mother and Son, and Aneurin Bevan by Robert Thomas, in Queen Street, Cardiff

All members of the Rhondda School were influenced by the industrial environment from which they came. It was impossible not to be affected by the winding gear of the collieries, the rows of terraced houses and the slag heaps that dominated the valley towns. Nor, for that matter, the broken old men who stood silently at almost every street corner – you would have had to be pretty unemotional not to be touched by all that. And the members of The Rhondda School were keen to reflect their communities and their way of life.

As such – at least to begin with – there was a distinct socialist edge to their work. That interest may have dissolved a little as abstract art began to make itself felt on the group’s work but it never totally died away.

The School – or group, call it what you will – broke up as the artists finished their studies at Cardiff Art College and moved away to different places and different jobs. Yet the influence of the School remained strong. It is another example of the vibrant and dynamic drive for expression that existed and still exists in the Welsh valleys.

I'm a big believer that food and family should be at the centre of everyone's upbringing

2015-03-20T12:18:23+00:00

My career originated in PR so it was overwhelming when I was asked to move from behind the camera to in front of the camera - I was used to directing shoots and events, not being in the limelight myself! However, I am hugely passionate about what I'm doing right now; I'm a big believer that food and family should be at the centre of everyone's upbringing - even if family isn’t your immediate blood relatives. Everyone should be surrounded by people they love and support. It's what makes the world a happy place, in my opinion!

So doing what I do now - promoting simple food, family and community is very exciting for me. It all started with a series on C4 and our family cook book which I wrote with my sisters. Now my sisters and I are working with Jamie Oliver on YouTube, uploading free simple recipes for all to enjoy while also talking about baby weaning and feeding a family.

Michela and her sisters enjoy a picnic in the Italian sunshine

And now here I am presenting a documentary called The Welsh Italians about the Welsh Italian community for ��̳ Wales. This is a community I grew up in, in the Welsh Valleys. It's still vibrant and full of life today and again centres around food and family.

It's not always easy to get people to come on camera - us Italians are often big personalities, however we do like to keep things private too! After some gentle persuasion, I have managed to get some great stories and secrets revealed in this two-part series. It shows how happy and settled the Italians were made to feel by the local Welsh communities, and how each have become intricately linked. You won't believe how many Welsh accents you hear during August in the little town of Bardi in the hills of northern Italy!

Episode 1 of The Welsh Italians is at 6.30pm on Sunday 23 March, ��̳ One Wales.

X-Ray investigates ‘the crammed commute' from the valleys

2015-03-18T13:12:53+00:00

There are a lot of people living in the south Wales valleys who work in Cardiff. Many don’t have a choice - it’s just where the jobs are. And that means a daily commute back and forth to the capital.

The quality of that commute can have a big impact. If it’s a stress-free, enjoyable experience, you arrive in work on time and all set for the day ahead. And if it’s not? Well X-Ray has been hearing stories of some terrible train journeys, that have been causing big problems for some of our viewers.

Lucy on location at Pontypridd as she investigates the performance of train services in the south Wales valleys

If you look at the official figures, Arriva Trains Wales is doing a great job. But passenger satisfaction with punctuality and reliability is falling. And the main problem – you just can’t get a seat.

So for the programme we asked regular travellers to record their experiences of their daily commute. We’ve heard stories of rush hour trains crammed tight with people, with sometimes not enough room for people even to get on.

Lots of the people X-Ray talked to said they are just fed-up with being forced to endure what they feel is a sub-standard service.

So what are Arriva Trains Wales doing about it? Well their Customer Services Director Lynne Milligan agreed to an interview with X-Ray. I couldn’t wait to ask her why it was just so hard to get a seat on a train? Surely that’s not much for regular rail users to expect? Couldn’t they just put on an extra carriage at busy times?

I wasn’t expecting her answer. Lynne told me there are no more carriages across the network available, so they simply can’t increase capacity. So, it’s just tough luck for travellers? Pretty much. And what about delays and cancellations? Well Lynne seemed pretty happy with their record.

So if you’re a regular commuter, it looks like this is how it’s going to be until at more carriages become available – around 2017 according to Ms Milligan. If you’re stuck on a packed train that’s going to seem like a long, long time ahead.

If you need X-Ray’s help, get in touch on 0370 3334334 or email xray@bbc.co.uk. This week's programme is on ��̳ One Wales, Friday 20 March at 7.30pm or catch us on iplayer, and you can tweet us via @��̳Xray or @lucyowenwales.

Can't Read, Can't Do My Sums!

2015-03-17T13:28:37+00:00

A question for you… Is it possible for someone who’s gone through the Welsh education system to be unable to tell the time?

It’s a skill I’m working on with my 6 year old. We’ve not got to grips with the concept of how many minutes ‘to the hour’, but he can read an analogue clock and write down the numerical representation. I am playing quite an active role as a parent and am fortunate to consider myself confident when it comes to numbers. But even for those children without pro-active family members to help-out, surely after 10 plus years at school they should be able to tell the time?

WIWO presenter Rachel Treadaway-Williams helps her 6 year old with his homework

Not so for Nick Bush from New Tredegar. 23 years old and totally dependent on his friends to decipher a train timetable. Nick attended school, but when it comes to his mathematical ability he’s not the exception. More than half of the Welsh adult population have maths skills of an average 11 year old or lower.

It’s this void in basic skills that’s been Wales’ undoing in the educational PISA tests and rather than improve, we’ve slipped down the rankings following successive assessments. It was this political bombshell that prompted amongst other changes the introduction of the Literacy & Numeracy Framework (LNF). This was hailed as THE solution to our literacy & numeracy woes but on talking to those who are actually responsible for delivering it - teachers - the way it was implemented does not appear to have been A*. Rather it was landed on an already overloaded workforce without enough support, a viewpoint reflected by Estyn following their early evaluation of the LNF published in January 2015. Also a viewpoint neatly illustrated by Clair Sweet, the Maths lead, at Tylorstown Primary School who told me that the Welsh Government had only just posted examples on their Learning Wales website of how teachers might make it work in practice. This was in February 2015. The Literacy & Numeracy was made statutory for schools in September 2013. You do the maths.

Interestingly when I questioned the Minister for Education, Huw Lewis AM, about this very fact, he claimed to know nothing of it, instead wanting to flag up the NEW online work that his department were engaged in.

Clair Sweet at Tylorstown Primary also made another interesting point. She felt that the principle of embedding literacy and numeracy skills in all teaching was a good one, but didn’t feel the need for yet another formal initiative with all its red tape and paperwork. Instead, she felt it was something that good teachers would have been doing anyway. Which raises another point: are we fussy enough about who is teaching our children? I have to be careful what I say here as the daughter of two teachers; so let me re-phrase that. Is the teaching profession regarded highly enough that it attracts the best calibre candidates? In the educational powerhouse of China the President recently urged that teaching become the most respected job in the country.

It’s clearly a topic that’s been on the Education Minister’s mind and he’s welcomed the various expert reports recently published calling for a boost in the status, autonomy, qualifications and professional development of teachers. He’s recently raised the GCSE entry requirement in Maths & English for Primary School teachers from 2C’s to 2B’s. He told me we can’t just magic up mathematics specialists but on the other hand, I wonder, could he not be moving further and faster to raise this particular bar and send out a message that we now want the best to be our teachers?

Week In Week Out: Can't Read, Can't Do My Sums! is on ��̳ One Wales, Tuesday 17 March at 10.40pm.

East Moors Steelworks, Cardiff

2013-05-10T09:05:29+00:00

The steelworks at East Moors in Cardiff - "Dowlais by the Sea" as it was invariably known - began its working life in the late 19th century. The works closed in 1978 but before that, for most of the 20th century, East Moors was a major steel producing plant - and, more importantly, a significant employer in the Cardiff area.

East Moors was officially opened by Lord Bute on 4 February 1891, with production in the works commencing four years later in 1895.

Building and operating a steelworks in Cardiff was a realistic and far sighted enterprise. The directors of the Dowlais Company of Merthyr Tydfil realised that with its iron and steel plants located several miles inland, the company was at a serious commercial disadvantage when compared to other similar businesses across the world.

Iron ore needed to be imported and, once it had arrived in Wales, it needed to be transported to the various works around Merthyr - a costly and time-consuming process. Therefore the urgent requirement, it soon became clear, was for a port close to a steelworks and a railway centre.

The space to build a modern production plant was available at a green field site in Cardiff and so East Moors came into existence.

The plant itself, consisting of four large blast furnaces combined with a dozen open-hearth stoves, was modern technology at its best, putting East Moors at the forefront of steel production. It specialised in making heavy duty steel plates and sections for use in ship building.

The port of Cardiff was soon exporting steel to all parts of the world. At one time there was hope that the city would become a ship building centre to rival Belfast and the Tyne. It would have been a logical development as the steelworks that were producing the constructional sections to build the ships lay right next door to the port but, unfortunately, such hopes were never realised.

In the early 20th century the Guest Keen and Nettlefolds Company (GKN as it was soon known) was formed out of Dowlais and other steelworks in south Wales. This giant company established a virtual monopoly and made considerable amounts of money for its shareholders during the First World War when the production of iron and steel was essential war work.

The steelworks were closed for a brief period in 1930 and it became clear that, if steel working was to continue at Cardiff, some major refurbishment and re-building would be necessary. In 1935 GKN invested £3 million in the plant, a modernisation programme that soon enabled East Moors to produce three million tons of steel a year. It was a welcome move in the troubled Depression years, one that had a clear knock on effect for Cardiff Docks.

By the late 1930s, East Moors had begun to produce steel for the nearby rod mills of the GKN Castle Works and its place at the head of steel production in Wales was a matter of pride for the whole workforce.

It was inevitable that East Moors should become a target for German bombers during the Second World War. The place seemed to have something of a charmed life, however, with the only real damage to the plant coming in a late air raid during March 1944.

Despite the quality of its work and the almost revolutionary nature of its technology, in the years after 1945 East Moors began to suffer from the physical limitations of its site. There was, quite literally, nowhere to extend or develop - something that was essential if the works was going to survive and grow.

There was a gradual decline in heavy industry, right across Wales, in the middle years of the 20th century and it was no surprise when the decision was taken to close East Moors Steelworks in 1978.

The closure was a significant part of the de-industrialisation of Cardiff and, indeed, of the whole of the country that took place around this time.

Closure of East Moors was a sad day for many. It had given employment to men - in the plant itself and in the adjacent docks - for so many years and had become a familiar part of the Cardiff scene.

But once the decision was made there was no way back and by the end of 1978 East Moors Steelworks, which had dominated the Cardiff skyline for almost a century, was no more.

Trellech United

2012-11-01T10:00:46+00:00

Trellech United is not the name of a football team but the title given to the community just south of Monmouth.

It contains several small hamlets but the village of Trellech is the central and most important part of the whole community – and one that has a fascinating historical past.

Harold's Stones

The name Trellech derives from three standing stones or slabs of pudding stone in the village, known as Harold's Stones – which is something of a misnomer as they date from the Bronze Age and precede King Harold by thousands of years. There was originally a fourth stone but it was destroyed in the 18th century.

The town of Trellech – and it was, originally, a town – owes its origin to the De Clare family. It was founded with the specific intention of developing and mining the supplies of iron ore and charcoal in the region.

In effect, this small community was the main arsenal of the De Clare's, providing the base metal for their armour and weapons. These were essential ingredients for the Norman advance into Wales, which eventually led the De Clare family to establish and build the massive castle at Caerphilly.

This was not, however, a small community. There is every possibility that in the 19th century Trellech was the most populous town in Wales. Certainly by 1288 it contained 378 burgage plots, making the community larger than nearby places such as Cardiff and Chepstow. It must have been a bustling and lively place with numerous iron workings and all of the small businesses associated with such a prosperous town.

Death and decline

However, after the death of Gilbert De Clare at the Battle of Bannockburn in 1314, Trellech fell into a slow but steady decline. Many of the buildings - most of which would have been made just out of wattle and daub - had already been partially destroyed in a skirmish or raid in 1291 after a dispute over deer poaching. In 1340 the Black Death hit the town. Hundreds of townspeople died, just as they did in other communities across Britain.

The plague returned once more in 1350 and after the chaos and destruction caused by the rebellion of Owain Glyndwr at the beginning of the 15th century Trellech abdicated its previous position in both importance and prosperity.

It wasn't all a backward step as in the 17th century there were iron and wire works established at nearby Llandogo. Later, between the end of the 18th century and 1880, a number of paper making mills were also created. Llandogo Quay on the River Wye became, for a few short years, a significant trading port but, sadly, it was not to last and the area soon subsided into rural peace and quiet solemnity.

Towards the end of the 20th century, archaeological work by Stuart Wilson - a student who bought a field and went looking for the remains of the old medieval community – revealed that, in all probability, the original town stretched out along the road to Catbrook. It has now long disappeared but the ruins of ancient walls have been enough to convince most historians and archaeologists.

Sites of note

There are five churches of medieval origin in the community of Trellech United. The Church of St Nicholas in Trellech itself is undoubtedly the grandest with its wonderful spire and spacious interior that make it one of the most impressive churches in the whole county of Monmouthshire. It remains the focal point for the village and while the present building is at least 600 years old there has been a place of worship on the site for much longer than that.

The Tump is now all that remains of an old Norman motte and bailey castle in the community, in one of the fields of a local farm. Standing 40 feet high this motte has a sinister reputation. Total calamity, it is claimed, will befall anyone who ever tries to excavate the mound - Trellech's own version of the curse of the Pharaohs!

At St Anne's Well, alongside the road to Tintern on the east of Trellech, is another ancient site of note. It was once believed that the waters from this well, impregnated with the iron that had brought the De Clares here in the first place, had curative powers. Sadly, these properties were not exploited as they were at places such as Bath and Cheltenham.

The game of “What if?” is a dangerous one but, who knows, if someone had thought to make use of these magical waters, the history of the village could have been very different.

The philosopher and writer Bertrand Russell was born at Trellech and in the 1970s the drug smuggler turned writer Howard Marks lived in the village. Richard Potter, father of the children's writer Beatrix Potter also came from the area.

Trellech United is a quiet and peaceful community. The residents probably wouldn't want it any other way but for anyone with a sense of history or enjoyment of the past, it was once a place of real significance. And there is always that simple phrase - “What if?”

Porthcawl: from industrial port to holiday resort

2012-07-20T13:33:08+00:00

The town of Porthcawl on the Glamorganshire coast seems to be a sleepy little seaside resort. But in its prime the place was first a centre for the export of agricultural and industrial products and, later, one of the premier holiday destinations in south Wales.

The town that we see today sits on a low limestone headland, almost exactly midway between Cardiff and Swansea. With its first population hub based on Newton, half a mile inland from the sea, Porthcawl itself began life as a centre for the export of surplus agricultural goods from the rich and fertile Vale of Glamorgan.

Spring tide at Porthcawl (photo: Simon Turton)

The town of Porthcawl may be relatively modern but the surrounding area has always been well populated.

The lost town of Kenfig

Kenfig lay just to the northwest of modern Porthcawl and, in medieval times, was a significant centre of population until it was overwhelmed by encroaching sand in the early 15th century. Newton is an ancient community - the church boasts a pulpit that pre-dates the Reformation and, with a series of wooden carvings showing the flagellation of Christ, is a remarkable piece of religious furniture.

Coal and iron trade

In the late 1820s and early 1830s, as the Industrial Revolution began to make serious inroads into Welsh rural life, Porthcawl Point became the terminus of a horse-drawn tramroad bringing iron and coal down from the Llynfi Valley.

The trade was never as heavy or as intense as that from the Rhondda Valleys and Porthcawl was never likely to rival nearby Cardiff as a port, but it was a significant development and, for a while, it looked as if industrial prosperity had come to this part of the world.

With a view to exploiting this coal and iron trade, Porthcawl docks were opened in 1865. This stretch of coast, however, has always been notorious for bad weather and it quickly transpired that the harbour basin was very difficult to enter whenever the weather was rough.

The dock laboured on for a while but, with superior competition from nearby Cardiff, Barry and Swansea, eventually closed in 1907. All that now remains of Porthcawl's industrial past are the huge breakwater, a lighthouse and the tidal basin itself. Jennings warehouse - the oldest example of a maritime warehouse in Wales - has also survived although, at the moment, it stands empty and forlorn.

The lighthouse on the end of the breakwater or pier was the last coal and gas fired lighthouse in the United Kingdom. Operating on North Sea gas from 1974, it was only finally converted to electricity in 1997.

Charabancs and day trippers

Porthcawl had always harboured designs as a 'watering place' and as the industrial element of the town's role declined so the tourist trade began to grow. In the early days most of the tourists were day trippers as paid holidays and long periods of free time for men in the mining industry were rare. Charabancs thronged Porthcawl's roads and there was even a railway line, a spur off the Great Western Railway, bringing people from Pyle to the sea.

After World War One, however, things began to change. Men had fought for a better life, thousands had made the supreme sacrifice, and the delights of a few days at places like Barry and Porthcawl was not too much to ask for - was it? By 1921 the population of Porthcawl had risen to 6,642 and, each summer, thousands of people from the valleys flocked in to enjoy the benefits of sun, sand and water.

The elegant promenade had been built in 1887 to commemorate the Golden Jubilee of Queen Victoria, but with the popularity of the town as a holiday resort growing every year it was clear that some form of entertainment centre was required. As a consequence the grand pavilion was built on the sea front in 1932 for a cost of £25,000. It has remained a centre for concerts, dances and recitals ever since.

Paul Robeson once performed there - via a trans Atlantic telephone link - and between 1948 and 2001 the place was the home of the annual South Wales Miners Eisteddfod.

Trecco Bay and Coney Beach

The beach in the centre of town has always been dangerous and swimming was never really possible. However, Porthcawl was luckily flanked by two superb stretches of sand, Trecco Bay in the east, Rest Bay in the west. Close to Trecco Bay, at Coney Beach, one of Wales' great holiday institutions quickly developed - the Coney Beach Funfair. The attraction at Rest Bay was rather more sedate and decorous - Royal Porthcawl Golf Club, one of the greatest and most prestigious courses in Britain.

Miners' fortnight

With the advent of Miners' fortnight in the years after World War Two - two weeks in July and August when the mines shut and virtually the whole population of the mining valleys decamped to the seaside - Porthcawl suddenly mushroomed into one of the most popular holiday resorts in the country.

The fixed caravans of Trecco Bay Caravan Park offered cheap accommodation. The Coney Beach Funfair was close at hand and with the town of Porthcawl providing the usual array of fish and chip shops, ice cream parlours and pubs, everything you could want was available within the radius of a few short miles.

It was all too good to last. The 1970s and 80s saw a decline which, although not terminal, certainly mirrored the demise of other British seaside resorts in the face of continental competition. Guest houses closed and even the paddle steamers of the White Funnel Fleet - which had for many years been regular callers at Porthcawl breakwater - were finally laid-up for scrapping.

People still come to Trecco Bay for their annual holiday but Porthcawl these days seems to cater mainly for day trippers - something of a throw back to the charabanc trips of the early 20th century, in the days before paid holidays became the norm.

While there may be an air of faded greatness about the place, there is also a sense of vibrancy and excitement. Porthcawl, like many seaside resorts, looks to the future with hope and expectation.

Newport City: 10 years on

2012-03-14T14:06:58+00:00

Ten years ago, in the year of Queen Elizabeth II's Golden Jubilee, Newport was awarded city status. The 2002 accolade proved third time lucky for the Gwent town after two unsuccessful bids in the 1990s.

By becoming a city Newport joined Bangor, Cardiff, Swansea and St Davids as Wales' cities; ticking the boxes marked 'regional or national significance', 'historical, including royal features' and a 'forward-looking attitude'. Outside of Wales, Preston, Stirling, Lisburn and Newry were also allocated city status that year.

Transporter Bridge in Newport. Photograph by Jonathan Crookes, licensed for reuse under Creative Commons

Newport's bid officially got under way on 25 July 2001 with Newport Council's head Sir Harry Jones kicking off a pitch which underlined the town as the gateway to Wales and drew upon a history that stretches back to pre-Roman times.

This ��̳ Wales News clip from the day Newport received the award looks at the reactions from people and politicians across Wales, and hints at the divisive issue of city status in Wales.

The granting of city status came at a time when Newport had suffered a series of economic and industrial problems, including a number of major factory closures and redundancies, capped off by steel makers Corus' decision to close the massive Llanwern steelworks in 2001.

Newport City Centre. Photograph by Paul Dyer, licensed for reuse under Creative Commons

Newport's Royal appointment caused some heated inter-Wales rivalry with a bid from Wrexham also being proposed that year. The decision not to award the north Wales town city status reinforced what many felt was a 'north-south divide. The fourth city in Wales, Bangor, remained the only one in the north of the country until today, when St Asaph in Denbighshire was also granted the title.

Speaking a decade ago, Wrexham MP Ian Lucas said: "I am angry about this. We now have three cities in Wales on the south coast and the opportunity to recognise the conurbation in the north east in an important part of Wales has been lost."

Paul Murphy, the Welsh Secretary at the time, defended the decision, drawing upon the economic strife encountered at the time. "The past 12 months have been truly traumatic for Newport and its people," he said. "First there was the agony of widespread steel job losses as Corus closed the heavy end at Llanwern; then there was the joy that the town's Celtic Resort had won the competition to host the 2010 Ryder Cup."

In the midst of the ongoing global economic strife, the cost and validity of gaining city status is increasingly brought under the microscope. Since 2002 Newport has experienced considerable regeneration, but has it proved a change for the better since being lofted to city status?

Is there a 'north-south divide' with Swansea, Cardiff, and now Newport in such close proximity, and Bangor, the sole city of the north until today's St Asaph announcement? Does it really matter? The beautiful city of St David's in Pembrokeshire has a population of around 2,000 whereas over the border in England, Milton Keynes as a population of around 200,000 and remains a town.

Cardiff's historic Coal Exchange at risk

2012-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

The news that the company which owns Cardiff's famous Coal Exchange has recently gone into liquidation has cast grave doubts about the future of the building. 'Market forces' and the rising cost of maintenance have caused GYG Exchange to make their decision. Whatever the cause, it means that one of the capital city's most iconic buildings is under threat.

The Coal Exchange was closed for refurbishment in 2007 and despite plans announced five years later for a £20 million upgrade, little has been done. The future of the building has to be in serious jeopardy.

The building was where the leading businessmen of the south Wales area - ship owners, shipping agents, mine owners - met to fix deals, to buy and sell coal and, of course, to make themselves fortunes.

The Coal Exchange was also the place where, in 1901, the first ever £1 million deal was struck. In the closing years of the 19th century it was where every businessman with pretensions of grandeur and success needed to be seen.

Cardiff Coal Exchange

The story of Cardiff's development from small fishing village to the largest and busiest coal exporting dock in the country is well known. Such developments reached their heights in the closing decades of the 19th century when the 'black gold' of the Rhondda became one of the most prized and valuable commodities in the world.

Train loads of coal poured in a never-ceasing stream, down the valleys into Cardiff. And that was where most of the deals were carried out, a shipment bought here, tons of coal ordered there. Fortunes were made and lost every single day.

Unfortunately, in the early years of the town's prosperity there was no central point where all of the various negotiations could take place. Merchants simply chalked up the price they were offering or willing to pay on boards outside their offices and businessmen met in the quiet corners of public houses and taverns to fix prices and buy and sell the coal that was rapidly making Cardiff the greatest trading port ever seen. It was a situation that could not last.

In an attempt to provide a formal centre for the coal trade, Cardiff Coal Exchange was designed and built between 1883 and 1886. It was situated in Mount Stuart Square, within walking distance of Bute Docks, in what had previously been a quiet residential square, complete with a central garden. The design was by the architects James, Seward and Thomas and the building was formally opened on 1 February 1886.

Now, at last, Cardiff businessmen had a place to go each day. It was estimated that as many as eight or nine thousand people passed through the Coal Exchange each day with the hour between noon and 1pm being the busiest trading period.

The building was formally opened on 1 February 1886

With over 20,000 square feet available for use, this was a palatial and magnificent building. Pride of the place went to the wide oak balcony that stood like a sentinel above the main trading floor while rich wood panelling and twin Corinthian columns gave the whole building an imposing sense of grandeur.

Cardiff Coal Exchange quickly became the economic capital of Cardiff and, with the price of the world's coal being decided within its looming portals, it could truly be said that this was as important an economic centre as the Stock Exchange or the Bank of England.

The tragedy of any port or town depending on just one commodity for its wealth, however, was cruelly displayed in the years after World War One when the price of coal plummeted. In the 1920s and 1930s Cardiff Docks went into terminal decline and although there moments when it seemed as if the port had been granted a reprieve, it was not to be.

The Coal Exchange finally closed in 1958 and coal exports from Cardiff ended just six years later, in 1964. For a while the building lay unused. There was talk of using the place as a base for the Welsh Assembly but when devolution plans were defeated in the referendum of 1979 the matter was dropped. When devolution did eventually become a reality a new Senedd building was already being planned and created.

The Coal Exchange is an elegant and distinctive building. It is part of the history of Cardiff - more than that, it is part of the history of Wales. It could have and should have a role in the future, as well.

The recent announcement about the demise of the Coal Exchange's owners is not good news for a building that has always been at the heart of the community. It would be criminal to allow it to fall into ruin but, at the moment, its future remains decidedly uncertain.

The Flat Holm lighthouse

2011-12-12T14:42:54+00:00

The two islands of Flat Holm and Steep Holm are well-known to residents of Cardiff and the Vale of Glamorgan. Standing like sentinels guarding the eastern reaches of the Bristol Channel, Flat Holm, in particular, has a rich and varied history.

Flat Holm Island (photo: Gale's Photo)

The first signs of human habitation on the island date from approximately 700 BC. Legend - and it is no more than legend - says that two of the murderers of Archbishop Thomas Becket are buried there.

However, it was as a base for smugglers that Flat Holm really became famous. The best known of these smugglers was Pasco Robinson who, in the early 18th century, sailed his 40 ton sloop - complete with red mermaid figurehead - with impunity around the area.

Considering the close proximity of Flat Holm to both Cardiff and Bristol it is perhaps a little surprising to realise that, although the island was the scene of many shipwrecks over the years, it did not have a proper and effective lighthouse until Trinity House began to build their tower and light in December 1737.

That is not to say there was no previous warning beacon on the island. The Romans maintained a light there, to warn the ships of their fleet that patrolled the Channel from their base at what later became the port of Cardiff. And with a name like "Holm" - an old Norse word meaning "island in the estuary" - it is clear that the Vikings knew the place well.

Legend declares that a Viking fleet sheltered in the lee of the island after losing a battle to the Saxons at Watchet. The Vikings being such magnificent seafarers, it in inconceivable that they did not maintain a warning beacon of some sort on the small limestone outcrop.

Flat Holm became a sanctuary for St Cadoc, who apparently lived on the island for seven years. His contemporary, St Gildas, set up a base on nearby Steep Holm and the two men occasionally met up in order to say prayers.

Despite increasing maritime activity in the Bristol Channel during the 15th and 16th centuries, all attempts at building a lighthouse on Flat Holm failed dismally. It is hard to work out why this should be since there were so many terrible wrecks in the area.

On 23 October 1817, for example, 54 crew and passengers were drowned when the William and Mary foundered near Flat Holm. The victims were buried on the island.

Then, in 1736, 60 soldiers were drowned when their ship hit the Wolves, a string of rocks near Flat Holm. A certain Mr Crispe of Bristol made a proposal to Trinity House that he would pay £800 towards the cost of building a lighthouse. The proposal was readily accepted and at the end of 1737 work on building a tower to contain the light was begun. The lighthouse became fully operational on 25 March 1738.

Standing 98 feet high, the tower is actually 60 feet above sea level, making the light visible from well down the channel. It was certainly more effective than the original light which was a simple brazier in a wooden frame on the eastern end of the island.

The lighthouse keepers had a lucky escape in December 1790 when their tower was hit by lightning during a violent storm. They managed to avoid injury but a 10 foot crack was blasted into the side of the tower. Proof, if any were ever needed, of the dangers of the profession.

Trinity House eventually bought the lease of the lighthouse from its owners in July 1822. It was the last signal station in the United Kingdom to be privately operated and owned but, once Trinity House took over, a degree of modernisation and development began to occur. A clockwork mechanism - to rotate the light - was installed in 1881 and the station was operated by three or four keepers.

This lasted until 1988 when, like all of the other lighthouses around the coast, Flat Holm light became fully automated. By then, of course, there had been other developments on the island. In 1906 Trinity House built a foghorn station - a much needed aid to the increased level of shipping coming out of Cardiff docks due to the coal trade.

A sanatorium for seamen thought to be suffering from cholera - in effect an isolation hospital for the port and town of Cardiff - had been built on the island in 1896. The hospital, which had begun life in a tent, saw its last fatality at the end of the 19th century - from bubonic plague, What the lighthouse keepers thought of their unwelcome neighbours has not been recorded.

In the 1860s a set of barracks and gun emplacements had been built to protect the nearby port, one of many "Palmerston Follies" created around the coast of Wales. Although the barracks had been largely abandoned by the beginning of the 20th century, the island continued to have a major strategic value and was again garrisoned during World War One.

During World War Two a radar station was established on the island, and 350 members of the Royal Artillery were posted there to operate the anti-aircraft guns that had been installed.

The garrison commander, Major David Benger - later headmaster of Headlands School in nearby Penarth - invented an amazing device, known as Benger's Goalpost, which was designed to stop the guns traversing too low and thus blowing the top off the lighthouse. The lighthouse keepers would undoubtedly have been grateful for Benger's fertile imagination.

Although Flat Holm is now a Local Nature Reserve and home to many rare plants and colonies of gulls, its history is vibrant and fascinating. And the creation of the lighthouse in the 18th century undoubtedly helped to save the lives of many mariners.

Roman treasure's new home at Winding House museum

2011-12-05T14:20:28+00:00

A 2,000 year old Roman ring found by a man with a metal detector on Cefn Brithdir in the Darran Valley earlier this year has been returned by the British Museum for display in a valley's museum.

According to an article on the ��̳ Wales News website, the British Museum has given the ring to the Winding House museum at New Tredegar to be put on permanent display.

The silver Roman ring was found earlier this year (Photos: Winding House museum)

The gemstone is missing from the ring

Speaking about the new exhibit, Emma Wilson, principal museums and heritage officer for Caerphilly, said they were "immensely pleased" to put it on display. "We're a relatively new museum having only been open for three years," she said.

Ms Wilson praised the finder for alerting the authorities to his discovery. "He went through all the correct legal channels, realising it might be treasure trove.

The ring, from the first or second century AD, was initially passed to the National Museum in Cardiff where it was identified it as a typical Roman silver finger ring.

It was then placed in the care of the British Museum, whose officials offered it to the Winding House, a former colliery building, as the relevant local museum.

Read more about this story on the ��̳ Wales News website, or find out more about the Romans on Wales on ��̳ Wales History.

Dr William Price and the beginnings of cremation

2011-11-16T14:14:59+00:00

Wales has had its fair share of eccentrics over the years but none was more bizarre or more flamboyant than the mercurial and fascinating Dr William Price of Llantrisant.

This Chartist and republican, a man who ate no meat, drank mainly champagne, eschewed the wearing of socks and prescribed a vegetarian diet for his patients instead of medicine, has a much more significant claim to fame, however. For this was the man who, effectively, opened the way for legalised cremation in Britain.

Born on 4 March 1800 at Rudry near Caerphilly, Price was the fifth child of the Rev William Price. His father wanted William to enter the church but the young man had different ambitions. He wanted to become a doctor and was, accordingly, apprenticed to a local surgeon, Dr Evan Edwards. He was just 13 years of age and after a number of years, following the death of his father, managed to enroll himself at St Barts in London.

Price was clearly a man of huge intellect. He passed his examinations in just 12 months and became a member of the Royal College of Surgeons before the age of 22. After further study in anatomy and physiology he returned to Wales to live and work in 1821. In 1827 he moved to Nantgarw, just up the valley from Cardiff and became surgeon to the ironmaster Francis Crawshay.

A strain of eccentricity, even of insanity, ran in his family and this quickly began to show itself in his behaviour. He dressed in a white tunic with green trousers and red waistcoat and developed a liking for outlandish costume, notably a fox-skin headdress with the legs and tails hanging down over his shoulders and back. His hair was worn long in plaits and, in these early years, he had the rather disconcerting habit of racing, stark naked, over the hills around Pontypridd.

William Price had little time for many of the standard medical treatments of the day, things like bleeding and purging, believing that a vegetarian diet was far more important than anything else. He was dogmatic in his medical practice, refusing to treat patients who would not give up smoking.

An advocate of what was, in effect, an early example of the health service - he believed that patients should pay him when they were well and he would then treat them when they fell ill - Price was elected as the private medical practitioner to a group of workers at the local chainworks. They paid him with a weekly deduction from their wages.

Dr William Price was no ordinary man. He had little time for marriage, feeling that it was an institution that did little more than enslave women. He did believe, however, in free love. As if to prove his point he fathered several illegitimate children and fell out with church authorities over this issue on many occasions.

He became fascinated by the old druidic rites and even held druidic ceremonies at the rocking stone outside Pontypridd. He even began to build a druidic temple in the area, thus infuriating the local Methodists who went as far as to accuse him of trespass.

William Price was a supporter of Chartism, some accounts saying that he attended Chartist meetings in a cart pulled by a pair of goats. Having moved to Llantrisant, he was made leader of the Pontypridd and District group and, following the disaster of the Chartist march on Newport in 1839 was forced to flee to France. Legend declares that he left dressed as a woman and that a police officer even assisted him up the gangplank of his ship - unlikely but hugely entertaining.

Price lived in Paris for several years before returning to the Pontypridd area in 1846. He again fled to the continent in 1860 when a warrant for his arrest - he had refused to pay a fine - was issued. This time his exile was for a further five years.

Returning to Wales and to Ty'r Clettwr at Llantrisant, Price promptly installed his 16-year-old housekeeper, one Gwenllian Llewellyn, as his mistress. Despite his advanced age (he was then 83-years-old) he fathered a son by Gwenllian, naming him Iesu Grist, Welsh for Jesus Christ.

When Iesu died in 1884, aged just five months, Price cremated his body on an open pyre in a field at Llantrisant. Whether the good doctor was opposed to the traditional act of Christian burial or whether he was more interested in the druidic rituals of the past, is not known. However, what is clear is that, dressed in his flowing druids robes, he timed the cremation to coincide with the conclusion of chapel services in the town.

As might be expected, the local people were wild with indignation at what they saw as pure sacrilege. They attacked Price and were only prevented from assaulting Gwenllian by the pack of large dogs that Price kept at his home.

William Price was arrested and charged. However, in a sensational trial, held in Cardiff, Justice Stephens acquitted Price, a judgement and a decision that led almost directly to the passing of the Cremation Act, thus making the burning of bodies legal in Britain.

After fathering several more children, Dr William Price died on 23 January 1893. His body was cremated in front of many thousands of spectators - some estimates being as high as 20,000 - who flocked to Llantrisant to witness the event. Several tons of coal and wood were piled up underneath the corpse in order to make it burn more effectively.

They say that all the pubs in Llantrisant ran dry on the day of that cremation. Price had organised everything, even selling tickets to the event - bizarre and outlandish, right to the end!

1905: Cardiff becomes a city

2011-10-28T08:23:45+00:00

Most of us are so used to the knowledge that Cardiff is not just any old city but also the capital city of Wales, that we are probably lulled into the mistake of thinking it has always been that way. No so. Cardiff did not become a city until 28 October 1905. And it was only proclaimed the capital of Wales in 1955.

Cardiff Castle (photo: Esther Illan)

These days Cardiff has a population in excess of 300,000 and is acknowledged as the 10th largest city in the UK. However, it was not until the dawn of the Industrial Revolution that the place really began to grow and develop.

The history of Cardiff goes back many years, of course. Long barrows at outlying places such as Tinkinswood and Coedkernew show that Neolithic people had a significant presence in the area, and by the first century AD the region was largely populated by the Silures tribe. But it was with the arrival of the Romans in around 75 AD that the community which was later to emerge as the city of Cardiff began to establish itself.

The Romans built a fortified settlement on the banks of the River Taff and based a fleet there in order to patrol and protect the Severn estuary and the western sea lanes. The Roman fortress probably fell into disuse at some time late in the second century as, by then, the Silures had been pacified and, with nearby Caerleon well established and defended, it was simply not needed.

The settlement around the old fort continued to thrive and grow, however. Tradesmen established their shops and businesses and, rather than return to their places of origin, retired Roman soldiers settled down to life in the area. The remains of a villa at Ely to the west of the city, exactly the type of dwelling a retired soldier would build, seems to show that this was now quite a peaceful and settled part of the Roman province.

When the Normans came to the area in 1081 they immediately set about fortifying their newly acquired territory and built a castle within the walls of the old Roman fort. Although the castle itself was substantially altered by the third Marquis of Bute and his architect William Burges at the end of the 19th century, the remains of the old Norman keep, as everyone knows, can still be seen today inside the newer castle walls at the top of St Mary's Street.

In the Middle Ages Cardiff was a port and trading centre, with a population of about 1,500 making it a significant and sizeable community. In 1404 Owain Glyndwr burned the town and castle during his rebellion against the English crown but the wooden houses were soon replaced and in 1542 Cardiff was created a free borough.

When the Industrial Revolution began to change the face of south Wales, Cardiff - strategically placed at the bottom of the coal and iron valleys - was in the best possible position to benefit. Before long canals and railways, in particular the Taff Vale Railway, were linking this coastal community with the industrial hinterland. And with the railways and industrial development came wealth on a scale previously unimagined.

To begin with Cardiff was somewhat overshadowed by the burgeoning iron town of Merthyr Tydfil and it was only when the Marquis of Bute built his first dock in the 1830s that the place really began to develop and expand. By the time of the 1881 census Cardiff had overtaken both Merthyr and Swansea in terms of population.

These days Cardiff is not just the capital of Wales, it is also the home of the Welsh Assembly Government, the magnificent Millennium Stadium and the largest waterfront development in Europe.

A university college was established in the town - as it then was - in 1893 but while Cardiff might be able to boast museums, churches and cathedrals, it was denied the honour of hosting the National Library of Wales - supposedly because too large a proportion of the population was non-Welsh! It's a great story but how much truth is in the statement remains to be seen.

The origins of the name Cardiff are a little clouded. Most probably it derives from the Welsh/Brythonic name Caerdydd - "fort on the Taff". It has been suggested that the name might originate from the name Caer Didi, the fort of Didius, but this explanation or suggestion had been discounted and even ridiculed of late.

Edward VII gave city status to Cardiff on 28 October 1905 in recognition of the fact that it was one of the great economic and industrial successes of the age. Despite the Depression years, when the docks and the shipping lines that operated from them suffered incredible hardship, and despite the rigours of German bombing raids during World War Two, Cardiff endured.

As the largest and most significant centre of population in Wales, the city was proclaimed capital of the country on 20 December 1955. It was just in time for the Empire Games - the precursor of the Commonwealth Games - which were held in Cardiff in 1958. Now one of the fastest growing economic communities in the country it remains a vibrant and welcoming environment, of which all Wales should be proud.