Eddie Butler traces the history of Pontypridd in this new series featuring important towns and cities in Wales. A relative newcomer dating back only 250 years, Pontypridd has more than made up for its late start. Originally a crossing point on the pilgrim route to Penrhys, its stylish bridge of 1756 first put the town on the map. Then it was only a few cottages, but with the industrial revolution Ponty started to grow. First to open was the Brown Lenox chainworks which made anchor chains for the biggest British ships of the 19th century. In the 1870's the sinking of deep coal mines saw the town's population rocket from just 5000 to over 40,000 by 1911. But perhaps Pontypridd's biggest claims to fame are musical. The Wesh National Anthem, Hen Wlad Fy Nhadau, was written there by father and son Evan and James James. Tom Jones grew up there as did opera singers Geraint Evans and Stuart Burrows.
Eddie Butler explores the story of Cardigan. Today it's a quiet market town, but it has a rich and turbulent history dating back over 900 years. The town first made its mark in the 12th century when Rhys ap Gruffudd ousted the Norman invaders and built his own castle there. In celebration, he held a festival of music and poetry - the first ever Eisteddfod. In the early 19th century, Cardigan became Wales's busiest port and a centre for shipbuilding, employing a thousand men in its maritime industry. The railway ended Cardigan's heyday as a port, but the town continued to prosper with its stylish Guildhall and busy market. In the 21st century Cardigan has struggled like many small towns, but a 10 million-pound grant to restore its castle will hopefully give the town a new lease of life.
Eddie Butler tells the story of how saints, scholars and slate shaped the city of Bangor. He discovers the longest high street in Britain, walks halfway to Anglesey on a Victorian pier and wonders at the riches in the biggest private house in Wales.
Eddie Butler returns to the town of his birth to trace the story of Newport through 1,500 years of history. He'll show how a hamlet round a church on a hilltop became a booming port at the heart of the industrial revolution, and finally achieved city status in 2002. And he'll discover a fascinating cast of characters...from Welsh saints to punk rockers.
Eddie Butler tells the story of Barry and its island in this new series of Welsh Towns, once the biggest coal port in the world and a day trippers' paradise. But there's more to Barry's history than coal wagons and chip shops. Eddie discovers the story of the sixth-century saint who gave the town its name, finds a Tudor mural and hears about the American soldiers who camped there in the lead up to D-Day. He also learns how the series Gavin and Stacey has given Barry a new lease of life.
Eddie Butler discovers Carmarthen's hidden history of riots, crime and sporting magic. Once the largest town in Wales, Carmarthen has seen it all, from amorous Americans and cross-dressing rebels to farmers who bathe in milk.
Eddie Butler travels to Merthyr Tydfil to explore its rich, and at times, surprising history. Once the largest producer of iron in the world, Merthyr is best known for the role it played in the Industrial Revolution. But Eddie discovers another side to Merthyr, full of radicalism and innovation. From the world's first steam locomotive, to Wales's first red flag of revolution, from the seeds of the Labour Party to the birthplace of Dr Joseph Parry. Eddie reveals the events and people that have shaped this Welsh valleys town.
Eddie Butler visits Wrexham, the birthplace of football in Wales and home to the oldest international stadium in the world. Eddie discovers that Wrexham made the first successful lager in Britain and was drunk by General Gordon's troops in Khartoum. He visits a stately home to find out how another sort of butler worked and meets one of the last people to remember the tragic Gresford mining disaster of 1934. He also learns how the traditions of football and brewing are being revived.
Eddie Butler uncovers extraordinary tales of tragedy, triumph and everyday spirit in Welsh towns that were changed forever by World War One. In Swansea he meets the daughter of the first Welshman to win the Victoria Cross during the conflict and tells the inspiring story of the munitionettes, the women who risked their health and even their lives making shells for the war effort. Eddie explores the terrible toll that war took on the town's football and rugby teams and learns about the sufferings of the Swansea Pals, the town battalion that was torn apart at the Battle of the Somme. He reveals the hopes and fears of ordinary people living in extraordinary times, in a community that welcomed Belgian refugees with open arms but shunned and persecuted German families already living in their midst.
Eddie Butler uncovers extraordinary tales of tragedy, triumph and everyday spirit in Welsh towns that were changed forever by World War One. In Porthmadog he learns of the sea captains marooned in German ports with their cargo of slate and discovers how the quarrying industry in nearby Blaenau Ffestiniog was nearly wiped out as Britain turned itself into a war machine. He reveals startling footage of the sinking of a Porthmadog ship by a German U-boat. And he meets the grandson of former premier David Lloyd George, the local boy made good, who became known as The Man Who Won the War. Eddie visits the Trawsfynydd home of Hedd Wyn, the Poet of the Black Chair, who is a symbol today for the suffering and loss of a generation of young men. But he also celebrates the unsung foot soldiers who fought and died at the Western Front or at Gallipoli on the Turkish coast. And he unearths a unique collection of photographs taken in Porthmadog in 1918 that depicts a society on the cusp of a transformation.
