91Èȱ¬

One of the most notable pieces of industrial architecture in Wales was, for many years, the famous . From the day that work began until the moment it was finally demolished in the 1960s, people flocked to Crumlin to see this wonder of the modern industrial age, the highest railway viaduct ever built in the United Kingdom.

Situated at Crumlin, some four or five miles to the west of Pontypool, the huge viaduct spanned the valley of the Ebbw River and was opened on Whit Monday, 1 June 1857.

By the middle years of the 19th century there was something of a 'coal rush' going on in Wales as entrepreneurs rushed to take advantage of the Welsh coal fields. A network of railways was built, most of them running from north to south, to take coal from the pit heads to the ports of Cardiff and Newport.

However, by the early 1850s it had become clear that there was a need for another railway line, this time running west to east, to join up the Taff Vale Railway in the west with the Newport, Abergavenny and Hereford Railway in the east. The line was to be known as the Taff Vale Extension. Parliament gave its approval and work began.

One of the big problems for the railway engineers was how to cross the Ebbw Valley. Initially a stone bridge was suggested but the technical difficulties and the vicious nature of the winds up and down this narrow, steep sided valley were too great a risk. There was also the matter of cost. And so building a bridge or viaduct made out of wrought iron was considered the thing to do.

Thomas Kennard submitted a proposal that called for a viaduct of 10 iron trusses, supported by a number of high stone piers. The proposal was accepted and in the summer of 1853 work began. Foundations were bored into the valley floor and slowly but surely the iron trusses edged out over the valley.

The viaduct was 200 foot high and ran across the valley (across two valleys, in fact, the Ebbw and the smaller Kendon) for 1650 feet. Built by Kennard, construction took several years to complete. It was a difficult and dangerous process. Despite this, there was only one fatality during the whole construction process, when a girder slipped as it was being hoisted into position.M

All of the iron used in the viaduct was made at the nearby works of the Blaenavon Iron and Coal Company and most of the labour came from the local area. Kennard even built himself a house - Crumlin Hall - and lived in it while the viaduct was being built. By the time the work was completed the whole project had cost £62,000, a not inconsiderable sum for those days but considerably cheaper than the cost of a stone bridge.

Finally, on 1 June 1857 opening day arrived. Speeches were made, the first train inched across the structure and upwards of 20,000 spectators came to watch the event. Cannons, set up on the hillside, fired off volley after volley of celebratory shots throughout the day, the noise of the explosions reverberating across the valley and town. It was a day of great celebration and the tiny Welsh community achieved instant immortality. Even the London papers sent reporters and artists to cover the event.

Crumlin Viaduct survived the closure of the Taff Vale Railway, even the amalgamation of the Great Western into British Rail in the years after the Second World War. But it could not survive Dr Beeching and his infamous cuts. By the early 1960s the line was barely used and the decision to close was made.

The last train rumbled over the viaduct in 1964 and, despite proposals to save the unique structure, it was decided that it was in too bad a state of disrepair. Demolition began in 1967.

Even then, however, fame would not leave the viaduct alone. As the demolition began, a film company arrived to shoot scenes for a film, called Arabesque. The stars were Sophie Loren and Gregory Peck . Nowadays the film, the stone abutments on either side of the valley and pictures of the viaduct on the Crumlin Mural in the centre of the town, are all that remain of this incredible piece of architecture.

Crossing Crumlin Viaduct must have been a wonderful experience but, like so much of our heritage, it has now long gone. The town of Crumlin can be proud, however, of the fact that it once boasted the highest railway viaduct in the country.

David Lloyd George was the only Welshman to have become Prime Minister of Great Britain. By the time of his death on 26 March 1945, his glory days were long past and although still a member of Parliament during most of the war years, he rarely attended the during that time and took no part in the debates.

David Lloyd George

When the offer of an earldom came from Winston Churchill on the morning of 18 December 1944, Lloyd George was, at first, undecided as to whether or not he should accept. He had, after all, always regarded himself as a man of the people. After sleeping on the problem he finally cabled back the simple message "Gratefully accept." He was to become 1st Earl Lloyd George of Dwyfor but, in the event, did not live long enough to enjoy the honour.

Lloyd George and his second wife, Frances, had moved into his house Ty Newydd outside Llanystumwy in September 1944. He was old and ill, clearly suffering from cancer. He had, in effect, come home to die.

David Lloyd George had been born in Manchester on 17 January 1863. The family moved to Pembrokeshire when David's father, William George, became ill and, after his death, moved again, this time to Llanystumdwy in north Wales. Here the young David fell under the influence of his uncle Richard Lloyd - so strong was the relationship that the young man even added his name, Lloyd, to his own.

He qualified and worked as a solicitor and, almost inevitably, moved into the political arena. On 13 April 1890 he became Liberal MP for Caernarvon Boroughs, winning the seat by just 19 votes. He made his political name by his opposition to the Boer War, being instinctively on the side of any small nation that was in danger of being oppressed by a larger one.

Soon the Liberal Party realised that it was safer having this charismatic and wonderful orator on the inside, rather than waiting on the fringes where he could cause any amount of political carnage. Consequently, he was brought into the Cabinet, becoming President of the Board of Trade in 1906. When Herbert Asquith became Prime Minister, Lloyd George replaced him as Chancellor of the Exchequer.

Lloyd George, of course, is famous for his People's Budget of 1909. Contrary to popular belief, he did not introduce old age pensions (that had already been done by Asquith) but he was responsible for the introduction of state support for the sick and infirm. During World War One, he was, by turns, Minister of Munitions, Secretary of State for War and, finally, in 1916, . In each of those roles he was hugely successful, a dynamic and thrusting leader who, by his example and energy, did much to actually win the war.

He had much to contend with during his years as leader of the wartime Coalition Government, not least representing Britain at the Versailles peace talks of 1919. It was, in no small degree, thanks to him that the Treaty of Versailles was not a great deal more vindictive in its terms. Desperate to achieve peace in Ireland, Lloyd George also presided over the Anglo-Irish Treaty when, along with Michael Collins, the Irish Free State was created. In hindsight it was a flawed solution but in the immediate post-war years it is hard to see what else could have been done.

Lloyd George's political life was one of huge success and a fair degree of scandal. He was accused on "insider dealing" during the , when he was, at best, economical with the truth in his responses to Parliamentary questions. And, of course, the taint of selling honours in return for funds for the Liberal Party followed him to the grave.

As the 1920s progressed Lloyd George and a Liberal Party that was, in no small degree due to the man himself, split into warring factions, gradually lost power and influence. By 1944 he was clearly "yesterday's man" as the growing Labour Party pulled away so many working men and left wing intellectuals. Always something of a ladies man, however, Lloyd George retained his charisma and appeal right to the end.

Barbara Jones was, in 1944 and 1945, a Wren, serving in the naval base at Pwllheli. On their days off she and her friends would go to the river close to Llanystumdwy where they would sit and throw stones into the river:

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"Sometimes this rather short man with grey hair would come and chat to us, ask us where we were from and what not. He used to wear a black trilby and a black cape - it had seen better days, that cape. He was our little old gentleman. Then we heard that Lloyd George had died. All the photographs were in the papers and we thought 'Oh gosh, that's our little old gentleman.'"

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It had been announced, in January 1945, that Lloyd George would not be present in the House of Commons for some time because of a severe case of the flu. He was 82 years old and the announcement fooled very few. His cancer was growing - it could only end in one way. On 26 March it soon became apparent that the end was near and, with his family by his bedside, Lloyd George slipped into unconsciousness and died.

The funeral was a memorable affair. Lloyd George had always said he did not want to be buried in a cemetery or church yard and the spot chosen was the bank of the River Dwyfor, a place he himself had selected back in 1922. As Barbara Jones remembers:

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"Those of us who used to talk to him went to the funeral. The coffin came up on a farm cart, pulled by an old dray horse. It had trails of leaves coming right over the cart, coming down over the coffin. I remember the colours because on the other side of the river there were two fields and they were a mass of colour. People were singing hymns. It was absolutely gorgeous."

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Lloyd George was far from a conventional politician. He made mistakes but he achieved much during his long lifetime. And he is still the only Welshman to have ever risen to the supreme post in the British political system.

Anybody visiting the Italianate village of Portmeirion in north Wales cannot fail to remember the 1960s cult TV programme . For a few years it was essential viewing and even now has a dedicated band of followers, many of whom regularly take trips to the strange but enchanting village where the series was filmed. Yet few people know much about the creator of that village, the English born, Welsh-based architect Bertram Clough Williams-Ellis.

Portmeirion (Photo by Siany)

He was born at Gayton in Northamptonshire on 28 May 1883. His father, however, was Welsh - possibly being related to and descended from Owain Gwynedd - and when Williams-Ellis was just four years old the family moved back to north Wales to live. The young boy was educated at Oundle School and, later, at Cambridge where he studied natural sciences.

He left Cambridge without taking his degree, however, and being interested in architecture and buildings, began working for the Architectural Association. He only stayed there a for a few months before gaining more experience with a private company of architects. But when he was just 22 years old he decided it was time to 'bite the bullet' - he set up his own architectural business.

It was a brave move. Clough Williams-Ellis was not trained in architecture and was entirely self-taught. Fortune certainly favoured the brave because the young man never looked back.

He became one of the most popular and most innovative architects of the 20th century. He believed that it was entirely possible to create buildings that were in tune with the environment, that you could build houses or even a whole series of them without destroying the site on which they had been built; an unusual stance or viewpoint in the 1920s and 30s.

In 1908 Williams-Ellis had inherited a country house, , from his father. He began to re-model and re-design it (practising on it, in fact) and spent the rest of his life working on what became a long-term project. In 1915 he married the writer Amabel Strachey, daughter of the owner of The Spectator magazine, and had a distinguished war career in the Welsh Guards. He was awarded the Military Cross for bravery.

He began to build Portmeirion in the 1920s, opening it to the public in 1926. The village was far from completed and he continued to design and build more phases until the 1970s. However, some of his other buildings did not elicit quite the same level of approval as Portmeirion.

He also designed the café and summit building on Snowdon, a creation that was later to earn the disapproval of Prince Charles. The Prince called it "the highest slum in Britain" - although, to be fair, the building he saw was not the one designed by Clough Williams-Ellis. It had been vastly altered and redesigned by others in the 1960s.

One building of his that was well received was Lloyd George's house at Llanystumdwy, . The house, now a writer's centre, still boasts a long room with a wonderful curved ceiling that seems to pick up sound and transmit whispers at one end to listeners at the other: a remarkable piece of engineering and architecture.

Bertram, Clough Williams-Ellis was awarded a CBE and knighthood in 1972. He died on 9 April 1978, renowned as one of the most important architects of his day. And anyone who visits the village of Portmeirion will testify to that fact.

One of the great Victorian entrepreneurs, the name of Solomon Andrews has now largely disappeared from public knowledge and view. Yet this amazing man, someone who literally rose from rags to riches, epitomises the Victorian ideal of 'self help'. He was a man who carved out for himself and his family one of the great financial success stories of the nineteenth century.

Born in Trowbridge, Wiltshire, in 1835, Solomon Andrews came to Cardiff equipped with just a wooden tray to sling around his neck and a stock of trinkets and sweets to sell in the street. This was in the year 1851 and Cardiff was just beginning to grow and develop. It was the ideal place for a young, ambitious individual and within 10 years Solomon Andrews was virtually a millionaire with interests in transport, draperies, coal mines and property.

The energy and drive of this dynamic man can only be imagined. Despite starting with almost nothing, by 1856 he had amassed enough capital (and nerve) to lease a shop and set himself up in the bakery and confectionery business. Eight years later he had expanded his interests and branched out into running cabs and horse brakes. By 1873 he was running 35 buses and coaches through the streets of Cardiff.

In 1872 Andrews bought a coach building works and began constructing his own vehicles. Within a few years he was operating buses in places as diverse as Portsmouth, Plymouth, Belfast and London. Something of a 'transport war' between him and the other owners of buses and trams in Cardiff soon erupted and there are stories of Andrews' buses deliberately driving along the lines of the tram cars in order to slow down the competition. Quite what the passengers thought of these tactics is not known but the tales seem to sum up the vibrant nature of Victorian society.

Eventually the 'war' came to an amicable conclusion and Solomon Andrews sold his transport interests, retaining only the routes between Cardiff, Penarth and Llandaff.

Andrews built houses and business premises all over the country. The Market Buildings in St Mary's Street, Cardiff, opened in 1884, were just one of his major concerns, as were the shopping arcade in Penarth and many of the grander buildings along Windsor Road in the town. He opened the David Evans Department Stores in Cardiff and Swansea and even had business concerns in Australia.

In the early twentieth century he was instrumental in developing the north Wales town of Pwllheli. On holiday in Llandudno Andrews heard of land available in the town on the south coast of the Llyn Peninsula, and immediately laid plans to create a holiday resort. His enterprises within the town included the Promenade, a public bandstand, a golf course and the West End Hotel.

He bought Glyn-y-Weddw house to the west of Pwllheli and then built a tramway along the sand dunes to run out to the place. The house was converted into an art gallery - in which guise it still runs - and a ballroom was created out of the old stable yard. Evening dances at Glyn-y-Weddw remained popular for many years.

Solomon Andrews remains the archetypal Victorian self-made man. His fingers reached into many different spheres and areas and he created a dynasty which remains to this day, perhaps not as obvious as old Solomon himself but one that is, in its own way, equally as successful.

Joseph Parry was arguably Wales' greatest composer. When he died in 1903 his funeral procession was so long that the hearse carrying his body was only just arriving at the church door as the last members of the procession were leaving his house, a distance of over a mile.

Parry's composition Myfanwy features in the repertoire of many Welsh male voice choirs

In a lifetime devoted to music Parry composed six operas, three oratorios and dozens of songs and anthems. Yet this man of immense talent and ability was born into poverty and spent several of his formative years working in coal mines and ironworks. His was a true case of rags to riches.

Joseph Parry was born on 21 May 1854 at 4 Chapel Row, Merthyr Tydfil. He loved music, excelling at performing and composing from an early age, but the family - seven children in all - was often in dire straits.

Joseph had to leave school to help support them, starting work down the mines at the age of nine. In due course he moved onto work in Cyfarthfa Ironworks, all the while continuing to play and compose music in the evenings and at every spare moment he could find.

Then, in 1854, when Joseph Parry was 13 years old, his father decided to move to America. It was a chance for a better standard of living, better working conditions, and although Joseph was at first reluctant to leave Merthyr, he eventually decided to accompany the family on what was then a wild and dangerous crossing of the Atlantic.

For the children - and their parents - it must have seemed like they were moving to a different galaxy. They settled in Pennsylvania where there was a large Welsh community and Joseph and other members of the family began working in one of the areas many iron foundries.

He soon became well known in local American-Welsh circles, regularly performing at the eisteddfodau and other musical gatherings. His fame grew steadily as he began to win music competitions both in America and in Britain.

After a while Parry's desire to study music overwhelmed everything else in his life and he returned to Britain where a public subscription gathered together enough money to enable him to go to London to study at the Royal Academy of Music. From this point on music - and the study of music - became almost the only thing that mattered in his life.

Joseph Parry won major prizes at the National Eisteddfod in 1863 at Swansea and in 1864 at Llandudno. A few years later he was elected to the Gorsedd at the National, taking the bardic name of Pencerdd America.

In 1873 he became Professor of Music at the , an amazing achievement for a man who had begun life in such unpromising conditions.

Joseph Parry remained at Aberystwyth until 1880. Then he moved back south, first setting up a private college in Swansea, then lecturer in music at the newly created university in Cardiff.

In 1888 Parry settled in the small seaside town of Penarth, moving into a house in Victoria Road that he bought with the aid of a Testimonial Fund. It cost £630. He became organist at , playing on Sundays to a packed congregation, and taking the train into Cardiff to work at the University every week day.

His best known works, now, are the haunting tune Myfanwy and what has been called the greatest hymn tune ever written, Aberystwyth. Both of them have, for many years, been staple elements in the repertoire of all Welsh male voice choirs.

According to legend there was a real Myfanwy in Parry's life, a girl by the name of Myfanwy Llwyellyn. Like Parry himself, she moved to America where she became successful as a singer. The story says that when they met, 30 years later, Myfanwy Llwyellyn snubbed the Welsh composer and he wrote his famous tune, full of pathos and yearning, as a result.

During his lifetime, however, his opera Blodwen was perhaps his most successful composition, being performed no fewer than 500 times between its début in Aberystwyth in 1878 and the end of the century. The opera Saul, commissioned for the 1892 National Eisteddfod at Rhyl, was almost as popular.

The writer immortalized Parry in his novel Off To Philadelphia In The Morning, the story of his struggle for artistic achievement and recognition. It has been made into a film, a suitable tribute to a remarkable man. The greatest tribute the composer could ever have been given, however, lies in the fact that his music is still recognised and still played. He would have wanted nothing more.

Joseph Parry was buried in the churchyard of St Augustine's Church in Penarth. His grave, surmounted by a pedestal and a carved harp, dominates the graveyard, a fitting reminder of a man who grew from abject poverty to become the greatest composer Wales has yet seen.

Arguably, children - more than any other section of society - should have been aware of the nation's preparations for war during the 1930s.

Children listing to the radio in 1939

They watched the newsreel features, usually pushed in between the first and second features at the cinema, and read comics that told stories about conflict and the bravery of soldiers.

They collected cigarette cards showing things like war planes of the world and Air Raid Precautions. And yet they, like everyone else, were stunned when war finally broke out in 1939.

Welsh children reacted by doing what they did best - they carried on playing. Not, in those days, on computer games or television. Such luxuries lay well in the future.

Games for children, in cities like Cardiff or Swansea and in rural areas such as Pembroke and Ruthin, were invariably what you could make up in your head:

"We had hopscotch and rounders, marbles and 'Mob.' For 'Mob' you shut your eyes, counted to 20 and then you had to find your friends. Indoors, at night, we played games like Snakes and Ladders or Ludo and Snap. We got around by bus or bicycle. Or simply by walking. There was no being picked up by cars... Once a year you might have a real treat, to go by train to Barry Island for the day."
(Sylvie Bailey in Wales at War)

British toy manufacturers soon cottoned on to a growing or developing market. In pre-war days, many of the best diecast toys had tended to come from Germany, from firms like Bing who had been making them for years.

After the outbreak of hostilities such toys or models were no longer available and British toy makers had no alternative but to produce their own.

In the early days of the war a whole range of tanks, warships and aeroplanes were produced, many of them from manufacturers in places like Merthy Tydfil. It was only as the war went on that materials for such luxuries became scarce and from 1942 onwards such toys were in very short supply. Children were forced to jealously guard their old and, by now, rather battered models.

No matter. For the children of Wales there was always the great outdoors. Racing across the fields, building hides and dens, even playing in the wrecks of crashed aeroplanes, these were what mattered. To the mind of a child, the destruction going on overhead or overseas meant very little. The imagination was all-powerful.

Even the impedimenta of war provided the opportunity for play. Gas mask cases made excellent goal posts while the masks themselves were sometimes the source of unexpected fun, as one man from Newport remembered:

"Every now and then the teacher would call out 'Gas,' in which case we had to get our masks out and put them on. We soon realised that by blocking the intake and then blowing, air was expelled from the sides of the mask. And very realistic farting sounds were made. You'd hear the muffled laughter from inside the masks."
(Bryan Hope in Wales at War)

Shrapnel collecting was one of the most popular activities, particularly in places such as Swansea and Barry, towns that - once France had fallen and, therefore, the range of German bombers extended - were heavily attacked on a regular basis.

On the morning after a raid, parties of children would roam the streets searching for the largest or most interesting pieces of shrapnel. Sometimes the shrapnel - the odd pieces of anti-aircraft shells or bombs that were scattered across the place - was still hot. Shrapnel collecting was an activity that both boys and girls enjoyed and long and intense were the discussions in the school playground over who had acquired the best bits.

Many children belonged to organisations such as the Boy Scouts and Girl Guides. During the war years these groups quickly turned their activities towards helping children and young people do their bit for the war effort.

Collecting metal to turn into planes and erecting Morrison Shelters - steel tables in living rooms for people who had no room to build a shelter out in the garden - were just two of the many tasks that the scouts carried out. The creation of the Air Cadets soon offered another outlet for activity and ATC Squadrons came into existence right across Wales.

Above all, however, there was the cinema. During the war years the popularity of cinema going reached its zenith as men, women and children queued around the block to watch the latest Hollywood epic and the cartoons that were universally adored.

To lose yourself in a cowboy film or a classic like Gone With The Wind was an opportunity, brief as it might be, to forget the troubles of the war for a few short hours. It was something that everyone enjoyed.

It would be wrong to say that the children of Wales - just like children across Britain - enjoyed the war years. But they endured them and, quite simply, made the best out of a very bad job.

An innovative 91Èȱ¬ project that aimed to document everyday life has been revitalised.

The 91Èȱ¬ Domesday Project was created in 1986 to create a picture of life in Britain 900 years after William the Conqueror's original Domesday Book was completed.

At the time the project used the cutting edge technology of the day with the data eventually being presented on Laser-Disc.

Schools and community groups surveyed over 108,000 square km of the UK and submitted more than 147,819 pages of text articles and 23,225 amateur photos, cataloguing what it was like to live, work and play in their community.

91Èȱ¬ Wales News features an article on the Welsh contributors to the original 91Èȱ¬ project Domesday project.

One contributor was drama teacher Annelie Williams-Sheaf, 38, who was then a 12-year-old pupil at Bishopston Comprehensive in Swansea.

She wrote at the time about a "lot of British people out of work," adding that she was living in an age full of "videos".

Visit the Domesday Reloaded website to find out how you can explore images and articles from the original project and how you will be able to update the 1986 project.

The long-running 91Èȱ¬ television programme Antiques Roadshow will be holding a valuation day on Thursday 9 June at Aberystwyth Arts Centre, Aberystwyth University. The doors open at 9.30am and close at 4.30pm, and entry is free.

Some of Britain's leading antiques and fine arts specialists will be on hand to offer free advice and valuations to visitors, who are invited to raid their attics and bring along their family heirlooms, household treasures and car boot bargains for inspection by the experts.

People with large pieces of furniture or other big items can send details and photographs of their objects to: Antiques Roadshow, 91Èȱ¬, Whiteladies Road, Bristol BS8 2LR or e-mail them to antiques.roadshow@bbc.co.uk. It may be possible to arrange to look at the item in advance and organise transportation to the venue.

Speaking about the programme, presenter Fiona Bruce said:

"Presenting the Antiques Roadshow is, for me, one of those rare and very lucky coincidences in television when you get to work on a show that you already love to watch. Exploring the human story behind every object is what makes Antiques Roadshow so fascinating. And everyone loves the agony and ecstasy of the 'what's it worth? moment. The AR isn't just about antiques - it's history, beauty and drama all wrapped up in one.'

The last series included some great finds such as an Egyptian stone head dug up in a garden worth £10,000, a medieval ring found on a farm and valued at £20,000 and a Meissen cup and saucer bought at a car boot sale for £2.50 which was worth £5,000.

Among some of the stranger items brought along were uneaten pieces of royal wedding cake and a life-sized model of a lion once used in a TV series.

More information can be found on the Antiques Roadshow website, and information on other valuation days is on the 91Èȱ¬ Shows site.

Many people - in Wales, England, all over the world - are familiar with the lines:

"What is this life if full of care
We have no time to stand and stare."

Some may even be able to quote the whole poem. Yet probably very few realise that the man who wrote the poem (Leisure, to give it it's proper title) was someone who spent several years as a tramp or hobo, riding the freight trains of America.

Often he would be forced to beg for a crust, just to survive, and sometimes he would deliberately get himself caught for minor crimes, knowing that a warm prison cell was far more preferable than freezing to death on the barren prairies of the American Midwest. He was also a Welshman.

WH (William Henry) Davies was born in Newport on 3 July 1871, and was brought up by his grandparents in the Church House Inn in the Pill area of the town.

He was a wild, ungovernable adolescent whose school life came to a rather abrupt end when he was 15 years old. Caught shoplifting, he was sentenced to 12 strokes of the birch. Thereafter his grandmother decided it was high time William left school and the young tearaway was apprenticed to a frame maker in Newport.

Davies found the job boring and had a hankering to try life in America. He quit his job and worked his passage across the Atlantic on a cattle boat. This was in 1893 and for the next six years he wandered across America, jumping the freight cars on the American railroads and scratching a living how and when he could.

His descriptions of these adventures, later published as The Autobiography Of A Super Tramp, make fascinating reading and, even if they are only a quarter true, give an insiders view of life on the road in the final years of the 19th century.

Needing to earn a little money, WH Davies crossed and re-crossed the Atlantic several times, working on cattle boats and once with a cargo of sheep. It was an experience he vowed never to repeat, and commemorated the trip in a poem called simply Sheep. He wrote:

"They sniffed, poor things, for their green fields,
They cried so loud I could not sleep:
For fifty thousand shillings down
I would not sail again with sheep."

In 1899 disaster struck. Heading for the gold fields of the Klondike, Davies slipped while trying to jump a train at Penfrew, Ontario. His leg was crushed by the carriage wheels and later had to be amputated below the knee. For the rest of his life he wore a wooden leg. It was a useful begging tool but sometimes it caused more than a little confusion.

Soon after he achieved fame as a writer he somehow managed to break the leg. Fellow poet (and fellow Welshman) Edward Thomas drew a sketch or diagram and asked the local carpenter to make a new one. Decorum prohibited him saying what the contraption actually was and when Thomas received the bill it was made out for "a curiosity cricket bat."

After his accident WH Davies returned to Britain where he lived rough in doss houses and hostels for several years. He had always been an avid reader and now took to composing poems in his head, only putting them down on paper later, when his fellow inmates had gone to bed.

They had to be simple in style and format, otherwise he would never have remembered them, and it is by this simplicity or straightforward style that he is now remembered.

He borrowed money and typed up his poems, hawking them from door to door in the style of old ballad makers. When the enterprise failed he burned the sheets in a fit of temper. Within a short period of time, however, Davies had managed to borrow a lump sum from his allowance - a pension given to him by his grandmother, something he kept well hidden from the other tramps - and paid for a book to be published.

This book, The Soul's Destroyer, was well received, Davies taking the unusual step of sending copies to well-known people and asking them, if they liked it, to send him half a crown in return. Among those who sent money were the journalist Arthur Adcock and the famous playwright George Bernard Shaw.

Within months WH Davies was being lionized by the literary elite of Britain, his poems praised for their simplicity and refreshing beauty. A tramp-poet was certainly unusual but people were also quick to see that there was real talent and skill in Davies' deceptively simple creations. Soon his poems were appearing in the influential anthologies of the Georgian Poets, most of them, like Leisure, praising the wonders of nature.

Among his friends were people such as Rupert Brooke, Edward Thomas and Joseph Conrad. Thomas even rented a cottage for Davies, close to his own home in Sevenoaks, Kent - no more doss houses for WH Davies.

World War One destroyed the pastoral idyll of the Georgian poets and cut away many of Davies' friends, men like Brooke and Thomas. By 1918 he was rather a lonely and forlorn figure but in 1923, to the amazement of everyone, he met and married Helen Payne. Davies wrote a book about their relationship, Young Emma, revealing - amongst other things - that she was actually pregnant when they met. The book was not published until after the deaths of both Davies and his wife.

WH Davies never returned to Wales to live, but he did move close. He and Helen rented a number of houses in various parts of the country before finally settling at Nailsworth on the English-Welsh border.

In 1938 he went back to Newport for the unveiling of a plaque on the wall of Church House Inn but by then he was already ill. It was virtually his last public appearance and in September 1940 he died, aged just 69 years. He would undoubtedly have said that it was a life well spent.

is to present a memorial plaque to Air Chief Marshall Sir Frederick Rosier at a ceremony at the Grove Park campus of the Yale College in Wrexham.

Sir Frederick Rosier

Air Chief Marshall Sir Frederick Rosier was one of 'the few' who served his country with distinction and the bravery of the man was well known within the RAF. He was shot down and badly burned at one point during World War Two, recovering to take to the air again fighting through to the end of the Battle of Britain.

In February 1942 he was awarded the DSO medal. He was awarded an OBE in 1943, a CBE in 1955 and a CB in 1961, followed by a KCB in 1966 and GCB in 1972. Sir Frederick died in 1998.

The ceremony is to take place on Friday 27 May in Yale College's Rendezvous Restaurant on their Grove Park campus.

Read the Wales History blog on Aces on film which investigates Welsh pilots in the Battle of Britain.

Most people in Cardiff know of Whitchurch Hospital. The huge and elegant buildings lie alongside one of the main roads into the city and, while many of those who come to Cardiff to work or shop may never have entered the place, they will certainly have seen the buildings from the upper deck of their bus or from their cars.

Copyright: Literature Wales / John Briggs

The idea for Whitchurch Hospital, formerly the Cardiff City Mental Hospital - or Cardiff City Asylum as it was sometimes known - was first mooted at the end of the 19th century.

Even though it did not formally open until 1908, Whitchurch was undoubtedly a product of Victorian Age thinking and medical practice. Arguably this is something from which it has suffered ever since.

There was very little provision for people who were mentally ill during the early part of the 19th century, mental illness being closely associated - in the minds of the general public - with poverty and crime. The wealthy could afford to hire doctors or nurses for members of their family who had mental health problems, could even place them, if necessary, in private hospitals or asylums.

For the poor, however, there was little provision - just a small scattering of public hospitals or, inevitably, the workhouse. As the Industrial Revolution changed the make up of society the problem of vagrancy and of paupers with significant mental health problems became significant. As a result county asylums were created, places where "pauper lunatics," as they were known, could be conveniently herded - and forgotten.

Cardiff saw an enormous rise in its population as the 19th century unfolded. In 1851 it was 18,351 - 20 years later that figure had risen to nearly 40,000. Inevitably there was a growing need for mental health provision.

By the closing years of the century there were 476 Cardiff residents "boarded out" in the Glamorgan Asylum, and a further 500 to 600 being held in hospitals in places as far away as Chester and Carmarthen. The need for a specific provision, for the town of Cardiff alone, was clearly apparent.

Whitchurch Hospital took 10 years to build and cost nearly £350,000, an amazing sum of money for those days. The main hospital building covered nearly five acres and was designed to accommodate 750 patients.

Banded brickwork and the 150 foot water tower dominated the site which consisted of 10 hospital blocks, five for men and five for women. A self contained farm was to be an important feature of the hospital, providing food and therapeutic work for patients.

There was much controversy over this farm, which was originally intended to cost some £4,000. The plan was castigated in the Welsh press, with cartoonists in particular having a field day. The proposed plans were soon altered and the cost reduced to £2,000.

The first medical superintendent was Dr Edwin Goodhall and the first patients arrived at the hospital on 1 May 1908. By the end of June more than 600 patients, mostly male but a large contingent of women as well, had been admitted.

Within a few years Whitchurch Hospital had acquired a remarkable reputation at the forefront of mental health care. This was down to the quality and commitment of the nurses and medical staff and, in particular, Dr Goodall. Concern for the welfare of patients went beyond simple custodial care and there was a very real desire to help people with their problems and, if possible, to assist them in taking a place in society, however limited that involvement might be.

During World War One the hospital was run by the military as a general medical and surgical institution, its patients having been disbanded to other mental hospitals around the area. In 1919 things returned to normal, patients returning from their enforced stays elsewhere.

During the 1930s the hospital constantly received good reports, a high proportion of the nurses being qualified in both general and mental health nursing. Until the late 1930s, however, those nurses worked a 60-hour week, living in the hospital where their private and social lives were stringently governed and controlled.

Research into the causes and treatment of mental illness was always a part of Dr Goodall's programmes, and Whitchurch was well equipped with laboratories and research equipment. The number of patients discharged from Whitchurch was better than almost every other similar institution in Britain, and after-care was equally as important to Goodall and his team.

During World War Two part of the hospital was again in use by the military. Eight hundred beds were handed over to the military, making Whitchurch the largest emergency services hospital in Wales.

Unlike World War One, 200 beds were retained for civilian mental health patients. Over the six years of conflict British, American and occasionally even German soldiers were treated there for wounds and for the psychological trauma of modern warfare.

On 5 July 1948, however, the hospital was taken over by the Ministry of Health as the National Health Service came into existence. The hospital continued to be well-used throughout the 1960s and '70s, even though many were now questioning the viability of large, outmoded institutions such as this.

Care in the community was considered preferable in many cases and, as a consequence, Whitchurch came to be seen by many as little more than a last ditch resort where containment was more important than care and treatment. It was an emotive point and the hospital retained many ardent supporters. Even so, it was clear that the physical environment - perfect, perhaps, in the 19th century - was somewhat limited for modern medical needs.

In the early years of the 21st century plans were made to close the old hospital with its echoing corridors and looming shadows. A combination of day care, specialised provision at nearby Llandough Hospital and a small, purpose-built set of wards on the site of the old Harvey Jones Adolescent Unit would be in the best interests of patients and staff.

However, financial restrictions prevented the plans from going ahead and, for the moment at least, Whitchurch Hospital survives. It has a wonderful history - the task now is to make sure the future is equally as impressive.

Phil Carradice is lead writer for the a creative writing project that encourages the production of people's written (patients, ex-patients and staff) and oral memories relating to Whitchurch Hospital.

This Saturday, 14 May, there is the opportunity to attend a guided walk in the Brenig valley. The walk is designed to appeal to all those who enjoy upland scenery and are interested in knowing more about ancient sites.

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The archaeological exploration of the uplands of Wales has been under way for the past 20 years as part of the . The uplands are an important archaeological resource rich in remains of all periods. Site survival is generally good due to low population and isolation from intensive land use in recent centuries.

The north Wales uplands, and in Denbighshire in particular, have featured strongly in the project. As fieldwork has progressed and a survey of recognisable upland blocks is completed, a programme of publication has begun. The first in a series of books on the upland heritage of Wales is Mynydd Hiraethog/The Denbigh Moors.

An important component of the area is the Brenig valley which has been the focus of human activity for many thousands of years. The valley is well known for its Bronze Age burial and religious monuments which were excavated in the 1970s and most have since been restored to form part of a waymarked archaeological trail. More recently it has been the subject of detailed survey work carried out by the commission to complement the publication.

This walk will be a tour around the cemetery, taking in sites of later periods and presenting the results of recent fieldwork.

The walk will be around 4 miles and of moderate intensity, graded 'C' by the , and will be led by professional archaeologists who have been studying the area.

If you would like to attend the walk you can register your interest by contacting Jane Durbin on 01970-621234 or jane.durbin@rcahmw.gov.uk.

When you think of the Civil War, the great rebellion against the crown that took place in the 17th century, you tend to think only of famous men like Charles I and Oliver Cromwell. Yet the war was organised and fought by dozens of less well-known individuals, all of whom contributed, in lesser or greater degrees, to the success or failure of the war.

Pembroke castle

In Wales there was one man in particular who seemed to symbolise the turmoil of the age, supporting first parliament and then the king. He was the mayor of Pembroke, .

Initially, at least, Poyer was devoted to the parliamentary cause. He was a rumbustious and temperamental man who, unfortunately, created a large number of enemies for himself in his relatively short life.

As well as being Pembroke's mayor, in the years running up to the outbreak of war he also commanded one of , the groups of ordinary citizens who made up most of parliament's forces during the early months of conflict.

Parliament needed people like Poyer and his Trained Band because by 1642 all of south Wales had come out in favour of the king - apart from the towns of Pembroke and Tenby.

Over the next few years the war in Pembrokeshire was chaotic with first one side gaining the upper hand, then the other. John Poyer was in the thick of it all, manipulating, bribing and fighting to advance the parliamentary cause.

Many of his actions were high handed and, sometimes barely legal. At Michaelmas 1642, for example, Poyer, his term of office as mayor of Pembroke at an end, refused to stand down.

The new mayor had decidedly royalist leanings and there was no way Poyer was going to let him take control. He duly retained and held the position of mayor for the next six years.

Pembroke castle and town, under the command of Poyer and General Rowland Laugharne, quickly became a serious thorn in the side of royalist forces in Wales. So serious was the threat that the local royalist commanders declared that when they captured John Poyer they would put him in a barrel pierced by nails and roll him down hill into Milford Haven. John Poyer merely shrugged and commented that they would have to catch him first.

Thanks to the military skill of and the adept political manoeuvring of Poyer, the parliamentary forces in Pembrokeshire were ultimately successful and in May 1646, with the surrender of Charles I to the Scots, the Civil War came to an end. Parliament had clear control of the country and now, it seemed, men like Poyer could enjoy the fruits of victory.

In Pembrokeshire, however, bad feelings continued to simmer. Poyer was called to London to answer charges of appropriating land and property in the county, to the value of £6,000. The charge eventually came to nothing but John Poyer was incensed that he should be called to task by parliament, the very people he had risked his life to champion.

For some time Laugharne's soldiers - like many other armies across the length and breadth of Britain - had been refusing to disband until they were paid arrears in wages.

Sir Thomas Fairfax, general of all parliamentary forces, now ordered Poyer to appear once more before a committee of accounts and to give up control of Pembroke and its castle. Poyer, an unruly and, probably, very dishonest man, refused and used the excuse of the unpaid soldiers. He would vacate the castle, he declared, when Laugharne's men had been given the wages they were owed.

And so the country slipped towards a second civil war. There were many other causes of this second eruption of civil war but men like Poyer and Laugharne - who had been solid supporters of parliament - now declaring for Prince Charles, the king's son. When parliament sent a large force under General Horton to deal with the south Wales rebels John Poyer simply declared:

"He, who feared neither Fairfax, Cromwell or Ireton, would be the first man to charge against Ironsides." (Quoted in Pembroke: For King And Parliament)

Unfortunately for Poyer and Laugharne, their army was defeated at the Battle of St Fagans on 4 May 1648 and the pair fell back on the fortress of Pembroke to lick their wounds and to take stock. Parliamentary forces soon appeared outside the town walls and a seven-week siege began. Soon no less a person than Oliver Cromwell himself arrived to take command of the besieging troops.

Poyer, like Rowland Laugharne, was tireless in the defence of the town, appearing on the walls, leading out sorties against Cromwell's troops. But inevitably, food and water began to run short and at the end of July the town surrendered. John Poyer, along with Laugharne and Colonel Rice Powell who had garrisoned Tenby against Cromwell, were sent to London for trial as traitors to the state.

A military court sat from 4-12 April 1649 and, at last, returned a guilty verdict. All three men were condemned to death for their part in the rebellion.

However, the council of state decided on leniency - only one man must die, his fate to be decided by a child who would draw lots to discover who would face the firing squad. Perhaps inevitably, the unlucky man was John Poyer.

Poyer had certainly created his fair share of enemies over the years and whether or not it was a rigged ballot will never be known. But it does seem strange for Puritans, who hated all forms of gambling, to be playing a game of chance with that most precious of commodities, a man's life.

Poyer's execution took place at Covent Garden on 25 April 1649.

Led to the place of execution by two troops of horse and three companies of foot, he made a short speech, confessing to having led a "loose life" but insisting that his loyalty to parliament had never changed. He was then shot, dying with the same courage and spirit he had displayed all his life.

John Poyer was a charismatic, contradictory and self destructive character. His final words were later taken by his family and used as a motto - "Son est contra me" (Fate is against me). It was a suitable epitaph, even though it could be argued that Poyer's fate was, ultimately, controlled by no-one other than himself.

Today's Daily Post carries an interesting story on the scrapping of a re-enactment of the English storming .

The event, organised by the town's Chamber of Commerce, was due to take place on Saturday 4 June to mark the 610th anniversary of the English forces' successful taking of the stronghold.

However, , the division of the Welsh Assembly responsible for heritage have opposed the event because it was "out-of-line" with their own version of events.

Last month, there was a successful re-enactment of the taking of Conwy Castle by Owain Glyndwr.

The decision to cancel the event seems to have puzzled some of the town's residents.

According to the newspaper article, one local businessman is quoted as saying: "I have heard some people were very upset by the thought of the English retaking the castle.

"I was told that although it is historically correct, it doesn't need to be celebrated. It's a shame as I think it's political correctness gone mad, I'm staggered."

Read the .

In these days of easy commercialism and clear scepticism in all matters theological, it is hard to conjure a picture of Wales in 1904 and 1905 when, for many months, the whole country was gripped by a religious revival that swept like a tidal wave across the land. The man at the head of that revival was a young trainee minister called Evan Roberts.

Evan Roberts

In the autumn of 1904 Evan Roberts was 26 years old. He came from Loughor, some six or seven miles west of Swansea, having been born in 1878. He left school at the age of 11 to work down the coal pit with his father. It was a job he kept for 12 years before becoming an apprentice to his uncle, a blacksmith, in Pontarddulais.

Evan Roberts might have been, in the eyes of the public, an ordinary labouring man but he had been a committed Christian for many years. He regularly attended Moriah Calvinistic Methodist Church in Loughor where he was a renowned Sunday School teacher. Indeed, his whole life consisted of work, studying the Bible and contemplation and consideration of the words of God.

For many years Roberts had felt a 'calling'. Always a spiritual man, someone who would sometimes stay up all night engaged in deep communion with God, he knew that his life was not meant to be lived down the pits or at the blacksmith's forge. And so, in 1904, he enrolled at a grammar school in Newcastle Emlyn to help improve his educational standards, prior to taking up a place at theological college.

Just two weeks after arriving at the school Evan Roberts took part in a convention at Blaenanerch and there underwent what he called "a fresh baptism of the spirit." Instantly the young man was transformed into a revivalist who felt instructed by God to share his vision and his views with others.

On 29 September 1904, at Moriah Church in Loughor, he rose to his feet to make four pronouncements. He wanted people to confess their known sins, to get rid of any doubts they might have about the significance of God in their lives, to obey the Holy Spirit and to confess publicly that they would follow Christ. He continued to preach and urge people to join him.

By the end of the first week 60 people had repented their sins and Roberts promptly undertook a whirlwind tour of the Welsh valleys. At revivalist meetings in each of the mining towns, Evan Roberts and his brother Dan preached and a small choir of five girl singers accompanied them. The movement began to gather real force and impetus and within a year over 100,000 converts had joined the church - thanks to Roberts and his party.

Quite simply, a firestorm had hit the churches. Roberts appealed to young and old alike - but particularly to the young who were in desperate need of direction in their lives. He gave them fire in their bellies and hope in their hearts. As Evan Roberts and his followers journeyed all over Wales the effect of his "missionary journies" were astounding.

Quite apart from the converts who had suddenly found purpose in their lives, there were also clear social benefits. Crime rates dropped wherever he came to preach and huge numbers of people gave up alcohol. Pubs, hotels and inns all over the country reported major losses in trade. And the movement spread. Soon cities in England were holding revivalist meetings and religious fervour even spread across the Atlantic to the United States of America.

Of course, it could not last. A movement like the 1904 revival depended on one man, one individual, for its success. A charismatic leader was essential but by 1906 Roberts was ill. He had, almost literally, worked himself into the ground and duly suffered a physical and emotional breakdown. He went to Leicester to recuperate and in his absence the revivalist movement lost its way and its momentum.

Evan Roberts accepted it as God's way. As he said: "The movement is not of me, it is of God. I would not dare to try to direct it."

Nevertheless, the revival had been an amazing experience for everyone who had seen it or taken part. Evan Roberts lived on for another 45 years, dying on 29 September 1951. His 1904 revival had been, probably, the last great outpouring of Christian values and belief. Who knows when there might be another.

Take a look at the history of religion in Wales on the Wales History website.