When, in the late 1950s, the demand for oil – for industry, for petrol, for household usage – increased rapidly, the oil companies looked towards Milford.

The proposal to build refineries on the waterway was announced and there were immediate protests from concerned environmentalists. The National Parks Commission was horrified at the idea and renowned writers and naturalists like Ronald Lockley led the campaign but ultimately work began on the Esso Refinery near Herbrandston in 1957.

The refinery was opened by the Duke of Edinburgh in 1960 and had cost somewhere in the region of £18 million. The initial capacity was set at 100,000 barrels of crude oil a day but the refinery was soon producing in excess of 180,000.

The first tanker, the Esso Portsmouth, arrived during the first day's operations but, as if to confirm all the fears of the conservationists, disaster soon struck.

On the day after the opening, there was a fire and an explosion at the terminal and for a while it seemed as if the whole place might go up. In the event the fire was extinguished by the emergency services before any serious damage was done, but the incident certainly showed all the potential dangers of the oil industry.

The opening of Esso was quickly followed by the BP Terminal and over the next 20 years by a series of other refineries on both sides of the Haven – Regent (later Texaco) in 1964, Gulf in 1968 and Amocco in 1973. Milford Haven was transformed from a sleepy rural backwater into the third biggest port in the UK.

By 1974 the refineries at Milford Haven were producing 58,554,000 tons of oil each year, three times the combined trade of all the other British oil ports. Building the various refineries had provided employment to hundreds of local people from a region that had been classified as a 'distressed area'. When the refineries were working they employed over 2,000 people.

There were critics, however. Many people said that the oil industry was not 'labour intensive' and that specialist workers from other parts of the country took the most important jobs. And then, of course, there was the security element.

In 1984 a serious explosion on one of the oil tankers caused three deaths while in 1978 the Christos Bitas tanker ran aground just outside the Haven, causing considerable pollution and damage. The Sea Empress disaster in 1996 caused even more ecological damage, killing thousands of sea birds and spreading crude oil along the Pembrokeshire coast.

It was very much an 'occupational hazard' and there were dozens of other minor spills over the years. The Milford Haven Conservancy Board and firms like Marine and Port Services, which normally tied up the tankers when they reached port, soon developed expertise in dealing with such problems.

As the demand for oil fluctuated the future of the Milford Haven refineries was called into question. Esso ceased production of crude oil in March 1983 – although the production of petroleum products continued until 1988 when the depot finally closed. Gulf ceased to operate in 1997.

It was a time to diversify and lately Milford Haven has become home to two new liquefied natural gas (LNG) terminals. One of them was located at South Hook on the site of the old Esso Refinery, the first ship, the Tembek, docking on 20 March 2009.

Milford Haven continues to operate as an oil and gas port. The refineries might clutter the estuary banks, dominating the view whichever way you look, but they do, at least, make use of one of the finest waterways in the world.

Born on 19 May 1812, she was christened Lady Charlotte Elizabeth Bertie and grew up in Lincolnshire. Her father Albemarle Bertie, the ninth Earl of Lindsey, died when Charlotte was just six years old, and three years later her mother married a man whom Charlotte disliked.

Although Charlotte had two brothers she had quite a lonely childhood. She was passionate about literature and language, and taught herself Arabic, Hebrew and Persian. From a very early age Charlotte was also fascinated by medieval history and legends.

A lifelong diarist

When Charlotte was 10 years old she began to keep a diary, a practice which she doggedly continued until she was 79, even though she was nearly blind by that time.

Her journals were published after her death in two large, illustrated volumes by her third son, Montague Guest.

Marriage and Merthyr Tydfil

Charlotte left Lincolnshire for London when she was 21. Here she met widower and wealthy ironmaster John Josiah Guest (later Sir John Guest).

The pair were married within three months of their first meeting and settled in Dowlais, Merthyr Tydfil. John Guest was 48 years old, and they seemed to belong to two very different worlds.

She was the daughter of an earl and he was a "man with a trade" - even though his enterprise would become one of the largest ironworks in the world.

The Welsh Academy Encyclopaedia of Wales captures the global importance of John Guest stating that: "His 5,000-strong workforce probably meant that he had more employees than any other individual on earth."

Powerless women

Charlotte lived in a time when women were expected solely to devote their life to the role of wife and mother. Women had no vote, and no right to own their possessions. Generally powerless, they were not expected to hold any aspirations outside of the home.

Charlotte, however, immersed herself in the business of the iron works, as well as practically pursuing methods to improve the education and living standards of the workers and their families.

Although London society remained dismayed that Charlotte would leave the cultured life of the capital for industrialised south Wales, Charlotte embraced living in Merthyr. She had a happy life with John Guest and the couple had nine children - not unusual for the time.

In 1838 Charlotte became a baroness, and in 1846 the Guests bought the Canford estate in Dorset, where they built Canford Manor, a grand, gothic mansion. It was designed by the famous architect Sir Charles Barry, who is probably best known for his role in the rebuilding of the Palace of Westminster.

Cymreigyddion y Fenni

Charlotte lived in a time of Romantic revival, when there was a renewed interest in medieval life and Celtic history, and the Guests were founder members of the Society of Welsh Scholars of Abergavenny (Cymreigyddion y Fenni).

She naturally combined her life-long interest in medieval literature with her passion for Wales.

Charlotte had learned Welsh, and combined her love of language with Celtic legends by translating the Mabinogion tales.

The first volume was published in 1838, and by 1845 the tales had appeared in seven parts. She also wrote a Boys' Mabinogion which comprised the earliest Welsh tales of King Arthur, and translated (and often censored) a number of medieval songs and poems.

Charlotte's translations of the Mabinogion tales remained the standard for nearly a century. They were influential enough for Tennyson to base his Geraint and Enid, in The Idylls of the King - the most popular poetic work of the era - on her writings.

Sir John Guest died in 1852, and Charlotte took over the running of the business. She had a clear understanding of the operation of the iron works but it was deeply unconventional for a Victorian woman to hold such power. Ultimately it led to clashes with workers and other foundry owners.

Collector and campaigner

In 1855 Charlotte fell in love with and married her son Ivor's tutor, Cambridge academic and MP Charles Schreiber. She stopped running the iron works, and instead travelled widely and focused her efforts on amassing a world-class ceramics collection.

When she died the collection was bequeathed to the Victoria and Albert Museum. She also donated fans, board games and playing cards that she had collected to the British Museum.

Charles Schreiber died in 1884, when Charlotte was 72 years old. She dedicated her remaining time to cataloguing her collections and putting them on public view.

In 1891 the London Fan Makers awarded Charlotte the freedom of their company. She was, along with Baroness Coutts, one of only two freewomen of Victorian England.

Charlotte remained active and campaigned for diverse causes including Turkish refugees and shelters for London hansom cab drivers. She died on 15 January 1895 aged 83.

During the regeneration of Dowlais in the 1980s, a public house was named the Lady Charlotte in her honour. The Guest Scholarship fund started by Lady Charlotte Guest for the education of the steelworkers, and boosted by money saved by workers, at the Guest Keen Ironwork only closed in spring 2012.

Find out more about the Mabinogion.

Troops camped near Llanelli during the Railway Strike, 1911 (Image from Cardiff Central Library)

Ann Whittall, manager of the National Wool Museum in Dre-fach Felindre in the Teifi Valley, said: "This important exhibition is thought provoking and reminds us of the social aspect of our industrial heritage. It adds another dimension to the museum's permanent social history corner."

The exhibition is set up to provoke debate among visitors by asking some uncomfortable questions: What drives workers to down tools and strike? Are bosses always wrong and unions always right, or does the mob always cause trouble?

The events featured in the exhibition include the Merthyr Rising (19th century), Rebecca Riots (19th century), Tonypandy strikes and riots (early 20th century), Llanelli Railway strikes and riots (early 20th century), and Caia Parc Wrexham riots (early 21st century).

The exhibition also coincides with the anniversary of the burning of the toll gate in Dre-fach Felindre which took place on 14 June 1843.

Find out more about the exhibition and opening times on the National Wool Museum website.

The old ship building yards, Parys Mountain

They remain the best (or worst) example of industrial devastation in Wales. Anyone visiting the site cannot fail to be impressed at the deep gullies and crevasses that have been gouged into the land and the overall impression is not of Wales but of the surface of the moon.

There had long been stories of the Romans and even people from the Bronze Age mining in the area but nobody really knew where. From 1764, when Charles Macclesfield was granted a 21 year lease to work the area, some desultory attempts to find copper were made but it was all very low key and half hearted.

It was not until 2 March 1768 that a miner by the name of Rowland Pugh stumbled across what was to become known as "the great lode" and, as a result, serious mining began on Parys Mountain. As a reward Pugh was given a bottle of whisky and a rent-free cottage for the rest of his life - no small gift in those days.

The copper was fairly low quality but its great advantage was that it lay close to the surface and therefore did not require deep mining. It was also present in great quantity. Thomas Williams, a lawyer who originally from Llandinam, was the man who saw the potential.

He was a businessman of great acumen. Acknowledged as the country's first "copper king," over the next 40 years he came to dominate the world copper market.

Once extracted from the ground, the ore was broken up on site by hand, most of the work being carried out by the famous 'copper ladies'. These doughty women worked on the surface using large hammers, smashing the lumps of ore to extract the copper and separate the good metal from the bad. Michael Faraday wrote about them as follows:

"a large group of these, about 8 or 9 women, were working on the ground in the midst of heaps of ore, large and small; their mouths were covered with a cloth to keep the dust of the ore from entering with their breathing."

Working in long timber sheds, the 'copper ladies' were usually seated in long ranks, each of them with a block of iron - the knockstone - alongside them. On their left hands they wore a heavy gauntlet, the fingers protected by iron bands, and usually wielded their hammers with a rapidity and a strength that amazed everyone.

The port of Amlwch

The port of Amlwch - originally a tiny fishing port - quickly developed to keep pace with the production of the ore. At first the ships from Amlwch simply took the ore to places like Swansea where it was smelted but once furnaces and kilns were developed at Parys Mountain they began to transport the finished product.

The village of Amlwch also expanded into other trades. Brewing and tobacco processing were just two of these while there were numerous by-products, such as ochre and sulphur, of the copper smelting process. What had once been a tiny fishing village soon developed into a thriving town that eventually grew to be the sixth largest community in Wales.

Parys Mountain also produced its own coinage for a while, about 12 million copper Anglesey pennies being issued to workers in the mines after 1787 when coins were in short supply. The practice did not last long and the use of private coinage was made illegal in 1821.

What developed at Parys Mountain was a sophisticated and complex industrial process. The ore was kept in purpose-built ponds along with copious amounts of scrap iron to speed up the chemical process. The port of Amlwch was extended in 1793 and soon dozens of heavily laden sailing ships were leaving the place every day.

Parys Mountain dominated the world copper market during the final quarter of the 18th century and by the 1780s it was the largest mine in Europe. In particular, the copper mined here was used to sheath the hulls of wooden warships, thus making Nelson's battleships the fastest in the world as well as protecting them from barnacles and other sea creatures.

The bubble bursts

It was a a bubble that was almost inevitably bound to burst and, coinciding more or less with the death of Thomas Williams in 1802, there was a sharp decline in copper production at Parys Mountain. The more easily accessible deposits of ore had been worked out and now, if they wanted to stay in business, the mine owners had no option other than to dig deep.

It was a process that was begun but it was both costly and difficult. As early as 1799 production was down to 484 tons a year - in 1787 it had been as high as 4,000. John Vivian from Swansea took over Parys Mountain in 1811 and did, for a while, manage to revive its fortunes but by the 1830s, in the face of further difficulties extracting the ore and cheap foreign competition, the mines were just a shadow of their former selves. Closure was inevitable.

There have been various schemes and plans to begin copper, zinc, lead, even gold and silver mining once again. In the main, however, the place has become the domain of cavers, historians and explorers. When the Parys Footway Shaft was opened in the late 20th century it made several early Bronze Age workings suddenly available. From this it was seen that pre-historic mines like Parys Mountain included shafts going as deep as 100 feet.

These days it is the almost mind-blowing sight of the old craters that impresses most, the vast canyons that have been carved from the earth. The ground's rich colours - red and brown, purple, orange and black - dominate the eye. They remain an incredible and lasting tribute to what was once the major copper mines in the country.

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.

Barry Docks (from the Eric Williams collection)

The development of Barry as a port was down to two things - the rapid growth of the south Wales coal trade and the dynamic personality and business acumen of David Davies, the first Welsh millionaire.

The area around Barry has been occupied since earliest times, Mesolithic flints having been found at Friars Point on Barry Island and the remains of an Iron Age fort having been uncovered on the promontory at Porthkerry.

The Romans knew the area well, one of their retired soldiers building a villa at nearby Llandough. The raiding Norsemen named the two islands out in the estuary - Steep Holm and Flat Holm - while the Normans (themselves of Viking origin) came to settle and stay, erecting a castle at Barry itself.

The town - if it can justify such a title - was badly hit by the Black Death in the 14th century and, while the place continued to function as a small port and trading centre, as late as 1871 the population was no greater than 100. Barry Island, just off the coast, was popular with locals and visitors alike who would make their way out to the island by boat or, at low tide, via a series of stepping stones. And that was it - until the coal trade arrived.

By the second half of the 19th century Cardiff, the main coal exporting port in Wales, had become something of a bottleneck. The docks, created by the Marquis of Bute, were large enough to cater for his own exports but other coal owners found themselves having to wait - as well as pay - not only to use the docks but also to ship their raw product down the valley.

The Taff Vale Railway, the main means of shipping coal down to Cardiff, became a single line track after Pontypridd and, because of the shape of the valley, there was no possibility of extending or developing the line. Many mine owners found themselves seriously hampered by what was, in effect, a monopoly in favour of the Bute concerns.

In 1883 a group of these mine owners, headed up by the enormously wealthy and dynamic David Davies, owner of the Ocean Collieries, formed themselves into a cabal or group and sought permission to build a dock at Barry, serviced by a new railway.

The Taff Vale promptly opposed the bill and the proposal was dropped but Davies was nothing if not persistent. The following year the group was successful in gaining parliamentary permission for their enterprise.

Work began on the new dock at Barry on 14 November 1884, along with the construction of the new railway link. Everything was completed in double quick time and the dock opened for trade in 1889.

In due course, further docks were added and while exports in the first year were just one million tons, by 1903 they had multiplied to over nine million. By 1913, the year before the outbreak of World War One, Barry had surpassed both Cardiff and Penarth to become the largest coal exporting port in the country.

The docks themselves were surrounded by dozens of business enterprises, everything from repair yards and cold storage facilities to flour mills and shipping agents. Even in the 1920s, as a world-wide depression began to bite into the Welsh coal trade, there were still over 50 independent companies trading out of the docks area.

The town of Barry developed along with the docks. And, after 1884, with Barry Island connected to the mainland by a causeway, Barry became a unique combination of industrial centre and tourist destination. From the 1890s P and A Campbell ran their White Funnel paddlers from a pier in the docks and, realising the value of such an enterprise, the Barry Railway Company soon decided to run their own cruise ships from the area.

From the Eric Williams collection

Of course, it did not last. The inevitable collapse of the Welsh coal trade after the war left Barry and its docks stranded, without purpose or plan. The port struggled on, the arrival of the Geest Company in 1959, importing bananas from the West Indies, gave some degree of job security but when they moved out in the 1980s Barry, as a port, went into terminal decline.

Gavin and Stacey was filmed in Barry

These days the old waterfront has been revamped and redeveloped, like so many other dockland areas. Parts of the old docks have been used in the filming of TV shows like Doctor Who and Torchwood and, of course, the television series Gavin and Stacey was both set and, in no small degree, filmed there. Barry Island struggles on - the old Butlins Holiday Camp, centre of so much entertainment on the island, closed at the end of the 20th century but the funfair and beach remain.

Barry has a glorious history, of which its people should be proud. It faces severe challenges in the years ahead but, with fortitude and the occasional backward glance, it should be able to pull through. It is no more than the town deserves.

Flat Holm (image from Gale's Photos)

With the support of his mother Guglielmo attended the Leghorn Institute and attended lectures at Bologna University (even though he wasn't enrolled). By the age of 20 he was already conducting experiments in electro-magnetic waves.

In 1895 Marconi sent a message in Morse Code over a distance of two miles on his father's vast country estate in Bologna and Marconi duly decided he should try to interest the Italian government in his findings. After several months the government replied - they could not see how Italy could possibly benefit from Marconi's experiments and findings.

Putting aside his disappointment, Marconi visited London, using the influential contacts of his mother's family. He knew that the best use of his experiments and inventions would be in creating a messaging system between ships and England, with her vast merchant and naval fleets, seemed to be the ideal customer.

Sir William Preece, Chief Engineer to the Post Office, saw the value of Marconi's work and made sure that the weight of this important government department was firmly behind him.

Marconi needed little encouragement and was soon successfully transmitting messages between the roof of the post office in London to other government buildings and demonstrated his invention to the military on Salisbury Plain.

George Kemp, a post office employee, became his assistant. With Marconi still firmly believing that the most effective use of his invention was to send messages over water, they came to south Wales. They needed an island, a mile or so off shore, with no obstructions in between.

Kemp, being a Cardiff man, knew that Flat Holm Island lay just three miles off Lavernock Point in the Vale of Glamorgan and would provide an ideal location.

Two 100-foot masts, one at Lavernock Point, the other on Flat Holm, were erected, each with an aerial at the end. On 7 May 1897 Kemp and his nephew, Herbert, sailed out to Flat Holm while Marconi set up his equipment in a field at Lavernock Point, overlooking the Bristol Channel.

11 May was a day of near gale force winds. Watched by Sir William Preece, several spectators and a German professor by the name of Adolphus Slaby, Marconi settled over his transmitter.

"How are you?" he typed. Within minutes the printer was working, recording the return message from George Kemp. History had been made and the first radio telegraph message across water had been successfully made and recorded.

A few days later Marconi repeated the performance. This time messages were sent, not to Flat Holm Island but right across the Bristol Channel to Brean Down on the English coast, a distance of nearly nine miles.

The young Italian inventor then went on to found the Marconi Company and, in due course, become a very wealthy man in his own right.

In 1898, the Italians finally recognized that they had earlier rejected the work of a genius and the Italian Navy became the first armed service in the world to install and use Marconi's invention.

In 1901 he achieved the first radio link to America on the other side of the Atlantic Ocean and when, in 1909, Guglielmo Marconi shared the Nobel Prize in Physics with Karl Ferdinand Braun, it was official recognition for a far-sighted and brilliant inventor.

Marconi spent most of his later life in Italy, becoming friendly with Mussolini and even joining the Italian Fascist Party. His politics may have been reprehensible but there is no denying the value of his invention. And to think it all started in a field, overlooking the Bristol Channel.

Welsh miners at Tylorstown Pit, Rhondda, 1943

They might have heard stories about hymn singing Welsh miners on their way to and from the pit but where, they might ask, is the evidence?

Such is the extent of modern day de-industrialisation that in many places visitors invariably see only green hills and rugged mountains; the coal mines and iron works, the copper mills and the steel works, that once littered the valley floors might never have existed at all. And yet, as those of us who live in Wales know only too well, nothing could be further from the truth.

And yet it did not begin that way. Until the middle years of the 18th century it is fair to say that industry, where it existed in Wales, was decidedly small scale with a mixed and part-time work force.

Throughout the 17th and 18th centuries, men, women and children would labour in the fields, on the farms, during the summer months and at harvest time.

But when agrarian needs were not so pressing they would move across to the coal mines and iron foundries to earn their daily bread.

The first reference to coal in the country came in 1248 but it was not until many years later, in 1695, that Humphrey Mackworth began to use the fuel to smelt copper in the area around Neath. It was a slow beginning of a process that took years to reach fulfilment.

Two of the driving forces behind the industrialisation of the country were war and a desire for improved social environments. Conflicts such as the costly Napoleonic War demanded new weapons - guns and cannon - while better wages and living conditions in cities like London meant that there was an urgent need for more luxury goods.

From the 1850s onwards, as the Industrial Revolution began to throw up an unprecedented demand for iron, copper and tinplate that people began to realise that Wales might be the answer to difficulties such as supply and demand.

By the middle years of the 1860s the Mona and Parys copper mines on Anglesey had been created and were employing no fewer than a thousand men - and women. The slate mines and quarries of Blaenau Ffestiniog and Llanberis gave employment to thousands more.

When a copper smelting plant was established at Swansea it created a community that soon became known as Copper Kingdom, its sailing ships travelling across the world with cargoes of the precious metal.

When, at the end of the 19th century, investors like John Guest and Richard Crawshay saw that all the materials needed to produce iron - iron ore, limestone, coal and wood - were readily available in Wales, there was a rush to the valleys of south Wales.

By 1820, just five years after the end of the Napoleonic War, under the leadership of men like Crawshay and Francis and Samuel Homfray, the ironworks of Wales were producing nearly half of all Britain's iron exports.

And coal? Until the 1830s Welsh coal had been used principally as household fuel. Then came the steam ships of the Royal Navy and the burgeoning of the new railway system. And coal, its production and delivery, became an industry in its own right rather than being simply an extra, an adjunct to the smelting of iron and copper.

In 1850 the Rhondda Valleys, both Fach and Fawr, boasted fewer than 1000 inhabitants. By 1910 the coal rush - for such it was - had increased the population of the two valleys to over 150,000. People worked long hours in difficult and dangerous conditions.

Wages, although no doubt better than would have been earned on the farms of the rural homelands, were low and many workers were paid in tokens that were only redeemable in the company truck shop - where prices were, of course, very high.

Almost overnight the valleys turned black from smoke and soot and grime. The angular arches of pit winding gear and huge mountains of slag littered the hills. Houses lined the valley sides and the delicate infrastructure of the communities was simply not able to cope.

Poor housing, awful sanitary arrangements, dreadful living conditions - they brought diseases such as cholera, typhoid and typhus. And, of course, it was inevitable that, sooner or later, discontent would be sure to raise its head.

The Merthyr Riots of 1831, which saw the death of more than a dozen rioters and the arrest and subsequent execution of Dic Penderyn, were just the tip of the iceberg. Bands of men, known as Scotch Cattle, were soon roaming the valleys and hillsides, supposedly punishing those who sided with the mine and foundry owners but, in reality, stealing, looting and bullying anyone with whom they did not agree.

The Chartist movement had begun in the 1830s. It was a movement dedicated to social and political reform and its members were committed to achieving fair representation for all working men.

Their six point charter of 1838 demanded, amongst other things, the vote for all men over the age of 21, a secret ballot and payment for all MPs. In Wales, with the appalling conditions of the industrial areas clear for all to see, the Chartists were well supported.

On 2 November 1839 Welsh Chartists planned a march to Newport. Men came from all the industrial areas of south east Wales and at the town's Westgate Hotel, with feelings running high on both sides, there was a full-scale clash between the marchers and soldiers. Twenty men were killed and the Chartist leaders - John Frost, Zephaniah Williams and William Jones - were arrested and later transported.

Welsh opposition to the mine owners and the drive to improve conditions in the mines, factories, steel and iron works of the country did not end with the failure of Chartism. Men and women continued to fight for their rights but, despite terrible conditions, it was not until the nationalisation of most of Britain's industries in the years directly after the World War Two that working conditions really improved.

As the 20th century drew to a close it was clear that the industrial valleys of Wales were also nearing the end of their working life. Coal seams were petering out, cheaper fuel was available from abroad and the iron and steel industries were but a shadow of their former selves.

Visitors to the now green-again valleys might applaud the process but it is difficult to know if those who spent their lives underground or working in the blast furnaces would agree or not.

Iolo Morganwg

It was only after his death on 18 December 1826 that the truth was finally revealed - Iolo had forged many, if not most, of his manuscripts and ancient documents.

Born Edward Williams on 10 March 1747 in the village of Llancarfan, Iolo spent his childhood and early youth at Flemingston in the Vale of Glamorgan.

His father was a stonemason, a trade Iolo also followed, but the ambitious young man soon developed a love of traditional Welsh poetry and actually began to compose it himself. This was in the tradition of Welsh poetry writing where the practitioners were, largely, from the working classes.

He took the name Iolo Morganwg as his bardic name, thus commemorating his native county, and spent the years between 1773 and 1777 in London where he became closely involved with the London-Welsh clique. Returning to Wales Iolo married and, for a while, tried his hand at farming.

However, it was in the literary field that Iolo soon began to make his name. He began to produce manuscripts that proved the Welsh or Celtic druidic traditions had survived the trauma of the Roman conquest - and, indeed, the later barbarity of Edward I. Unfortunately, many of these documents had little or no relation to reality, having been conceived in the fertile mind and imagination of none other than Iolo Morganwg himself.

He developed his own rather mystical philosophy of life, helped perhaps by the fact that he was an inveterate and consistent user of laudanum. It was a strange creed, a coming together of Christianity and Arthurian legend, but it was a philosophy and a way of life that suited the lifestyle of this strange but compelling man.

Iolo even developed his own bardic alphabet, claiming that it was the system used by the ancient druids themselves. He regularly produced forged manuscripts and books, one of them being a book that he attributed to Saint Cadoc. He did find time to write some poetry of his own, a collection of his work, real and genuine, being published in 1794. After his death his son gathered together his various papers and produced them as The Iolo Manuscripts.

In 1789 Iolo published Barddoniaeth Dafydd ap Gwilym, supposedly a collection of poetry by the 14th century poet Dafydd ap Gwilym. The collection was well received but it has since transpired that the book included several poems that had no connection to the old Welsh bard. They were actually written by Iolo himself.

In 1791 Iolo went back to London and on 21 June the following year, at Primrose Hill, he was instrumental in founding the Gorsedd, the community of Welsh bards. The ceremony and the proceedings, Iolo claimed, were based on ancient druidic rites.

They were, of course, forgeries but at the time nobody seemed to notice. By the time the extent of his fabrication was discovered the traditions of the event were already far too well accepted by most enthusiasts to even consider a change.

Despite Iolo's efforts, it took time to establish - or re-establish - the Eisteddfod as a significant event in Welsh society. Not until 1819, when the Gorsedd of Bards held a special ceremony at the Ivy Bush Hotel in Carmarthen - the event is commemorated in a stained glass window in the hotel - and marched in full regalia through the town, was the imagination of the Welsh people truly caught by the idea of a celebration of art and culture.

The first modern Eisteddfod, in its present form, was held at Aberdare in 1860 and by then Iolo was long dead. Despite his forgeries but due, in large measure, to his enthusiasm it has gone on from strength to strength.

The real significance of Iolo Morganwg is not that he forged so many of his supposedly ancient manuscripts but that, when it was most needed, he provided the Welsh people with a cultural and historical re-awakening. Indeed, he is now viewed by many as one of the main architects of the Welsh nation. The Eisteddfod has survived his forgeries and so, too, has the concept of 'Welshness', something that has been an essential commodity over the years.

In many respects Iolo Morganwg was a far sighted and gifted individual. He was amongst the first to advocate a National Library for Wales - and, for that matter, a folk museum as well. He loved the Vale of Glamorgan and nearly all his activities were intended to assert the Welshness of south Wales, an area he considered had been unjustly Anglicised over the years.

Cefnyffynnon Farmhouse: home of the keeper's of the well © RCAHW

Using historical records and talking with the owner of Cefnyffynnon Farm, who is an expert on the tradition of the cursing well, the pair find out how, in the latter part of the 18th century, the well acquired a reputation as a place where wrongs could be righted.

Heledd Fychan and investigators from the Commission visit the pecked stones of Barclodiad y Gawres in Anglesey. Does this Neolithic chamber have further secrets to reveal?

 

Barclodiad y Gawres, entrance passage © RCAHW

Helen also joins Royal Commission investigator Louise Barker to explore the remains of Ystrad Einion, a metal mine near Cwm Einion in North Ceredigion. The pair also find out about a new animation project that aims to bring the mine back to life.

Hidden Histories also visits Brynmawr in south Wales. During the Great Depression, the iron town, had at that time, the highest rates of unemployment anywhere in the United Kingdom and became the focus of a project by the International Voluntary Service.

The Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments of Wales have created in-depth guides to each subject featured in tonight's programme. Read the guides on their website and view images relating to Hidden Histories on their Flickr photostream.

Hidden Histories, Thursday 3 February, at 7.30pm on BBC Two Wales.

Professor Jane Humphries

Professor Humphries also reveals in the documentary how the social conditions created a population boom amongst the poor - one which was exploited by the early industrialists. New factories were built in sparsely populated areas and their workforce was provided through the trafficking of orphans from the cities.

These children, aged eight and sometimes younger, were handed over by the Parish authorities and signed up to work for free until they reached adulthood. Without this available slave labour many businesses would never have got off the ground.

The documentary, produced by BBC Cymru Wales, uses animation created by artists from the BBC Wales graphics department and by current and former students of the Newport Animation School.

Animator: Helen Dallat, student, International Film School Wales

Animator: Dave Freeman BBC Cymru Wales Graphic Design

Animation: Sinead Oram, International Film School, Wales International Film School, Wales

You can find out more about the programme and watch clips of the animations on The Children Who Built Victorian Britain programme page.

The Children Who Built Victorian Britian, Tuesday 1 February, 9pm, BBC Four.

Snowdonia 1890 shows the hardship of tyddyn (small holding) life.

Produced by the same team that recreated life in Blaenavon in the 1920s and '40s, this new series will chart the trials and tribulations of two families in the slate-producing region of north Wales, in conditions as closely resembling the 1890s as possible.

Hard as it may be to believe, 1890 is only just over 100 years in the past, yet the differences between then and now are remarkable. There was no electricity and, in rural Wales, there were no gas supplies either. No television or radio, no motorcars or central heating - conditions were pretty primitive. Transport was by horse, if you were lucky - otherwise you walked.

Man had not yet taken to the skies, and ships had only just moved out of the era of sail. Machinery to work the slate and coal mines of the country were basic in the extreme, with most jobs being done by hard graft and by hand.

The year 1890 was a significant one for Wales. In February an explosion in the colliery at Llanerch near Pontypool killed no fewer than 176 miners, one of many such disasters to afflict south Wales. On 14 June that year David Lloyd George, later to become Wales' only prime minister, delivered his maiden speech in the House of Commons, while on 20 July Wales' first millionaire, David Davies of Llandinam, died. Only the previous year his huge new dock at Barry had opened for use.

A year later the first language census in the country revealed that 898,914 people (over the age of three) spoke Welsh. That represented 54% of the population and, of these, 30% were monoglot Welsh speaking. In the slate mining districts of north Wales those figures were considerably higher - 91% of people speaking Welsh, 69% having no English at all. Clearly, then, the effects of the new educational system and the use of deterrents such as the Welsh Not had only limited success (if success is the right word) in Snowdonia.

The slate-producing area of Snowdonia, where the series is set, offered men a combination of industry and agriculture for employment, with one occupation or job supplementing and adding to the other. Neither could really offer enough financial reward for people to survive by just one alone.

That meant that many of the men who worked in the slate quarries also ran small-holding farms. These were tiny affairs, perhaps only three or four acres in size, with fields divided up by dry stone walls. Here men, and their wives, kept cattle and sheep, bringing them down from the high grazing pastures in the winter, and tried to cultivate the unyielding land to produce extra vegetables like potatoes and beans to supplement their diet.

It was a hand to mouth existence. Work in the slate quarries was hard and dangerous but at least such work was plentiful. By 1890 there were nearly 100 such quarries in the Snowdonia area alone.

It was a situation that was replicated in many of the south Wales valleys where miners all had their gardens and vegetable plots. Open land was not so plentiful in the south so not many could run to small-holdings of three or four acres, but the need to add meat and vegetables to the diet meant that cultivating the earth and keeping a few chickens - or even pigs - was a common occurrence.

Children will experience school life in the 1890s.

By 1890 the British Empire was nearing its zenith. Britain was already the richest and most powerful country in the world but to the miners and farmers of Snowdonia there were more important issues than grabbing land in South Africa and India. For them it was a case of surviving from one day to the next - something that the two families in Snowdonia 1890 are about to discover for themselves.

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The Victorian winding engine was used to raise and lower the cages in the mine shaft at Elliot Colliery.

This museum is in a former colliery building that was originally part of the Elliot Colliery. At its peak the colliery employed around 2,800 people and produced over a million tons of coal every year.

Its Victorian winding engine was used to raise and lower the cages in the mine shaft, and these cages transported men and coal between the surface and the bottom of the pit.

On Saturday.the engine maintenance team will be on hand to answer any questions about the Victorian engine. Admission is free.

The museum also has exhibitions on the coal boom and how it changed the lives of the people of New Tredegar, as well as offering a wide range of activities, including historical talks and family fun days.

The Winding House is participating in the Open Doors initiative, which is the largest annual free celebration of architecture and heritage to be held in Wales.

Open Doors is organised by the Civic Trust for Wales on behalf of Cadw, the Welsh Assembly Government's historic environment service.

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