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00:04Echoes of the past are all around us.
00:08Every ruin has a story to tell.
00:12Ways of life that have vanished.
00:15I'm on a journey to discover the lost landmarks of Wales.
00:20Historic sites that have disappeared from our landscape in living memory.
00:25The heritage that was on our doorstep,
00:28where we lived.
00:30All those people who are now forgotten.
00:33Worked.
00:33It was an end of an era, really.
00:36And played.
00:37I'm not sure why we didn't save it.
00:40So much has been swept away.
00:43Places that are lost in time.
00:47Yeah, sad.
00:51It's a poignant journey.
00:53The house that they lived in is now underwater.
00:56It was a lovely place to work.
00:59Now there's nothing left.
01:00It created a lot of joy for a lot of people.
01:04These are the remarkable stories of a vanished Wales.
01:22You'll find remnants of the past in the most unlikely places.
01:28Like here, in Buckholt Woods, just outside Monmouth.
01:35Under this thick canopy of trees, there was once a thriving community that lived and worked right here.
01:43Families made their home in this woodland.
01:46And if you know where to look, you can still see traces of a bygone way of life.
01:56These are the eerie remains of a cottage.
02:00It formed part of a wider woodland community.
02:04In fact, people were living here right up until the 1940s.
02:12Archaeologist Katie Churchill has been uncovering the history of this intriguing site.
02:20Katie, we're standing in a hidden gem.
02:23Tell me about this place.
02:25So this cottage is wonderful.
02:26I love being here.
02:28It feels really evocative.
02:30We've got these three rooms.
02:31We've got other buildings.
02:33We've got gardens.
02:34And it's right off the edge of a trackway.
02:36And the trackway is a medieval trackway.
02:38And we know that it links to several other cottages.
02:43So can you tell me a little bit more about the community that would have been here?
02:46What were they doing?
02:48Lots of woodland activities like charcoal making, wood cutting, quarrying,
02:52as well as in the agricultural fields just below.
02:56So it seems to be quite a thriving community based on what we've found.
03:01And that continues right up to the 1940s when this is abandoned.
03:06Most likely because it's difficult to access.
03:09You can't get a vehicle here.
03:11Yeah.
03:11So it's thriving when they're using horse and carts.
03:14But as soon as the motor vehicle comes in, it's not.
03:19This was one of the first things that drew us to this site.
03:22It's this fantastic fireplace with a bread oven alongside it.
03:26But we found some things in here that indicate that this isn't just your standard hovel.
03:32We found this beautiful pendant.
03:34So it's Mother of Pearl.
03:35And it's Victorian.
03:37And it most likely belongs to one of the children that we know were living here.
03:41But this shows that they had money.
03:44But I can imagine that she really got told off for losing.
03:47It's amazing.
03:48Look at the quality of this.
03:50It's stunning.
03:53Not many people look at these woodland communities.
03:57They're normally neglected in archaeology.
04:00So to be able to come here and find the things that they've left behind is absolutely amazing.
04:07Most of the cottage is covered in these stone flagstones.
04:10And they are fantastic.
04:11They're huge.
04:12But then we end up with these tiles on this side.
04:15And what's unusual about these, pick them up and we found this cross.
04:20Oh, wow.
04:20On the underside.
04:21So they've been placed upside down so they look plain.
04:25But they've been reused.
04:26And we know that they're from the Welsh Newton church because there's still a couple of these in the porch.
04:32Oh, wow.
04:32So in the Victorian period, when the church was renovated and they ripped them out, the people who were living
04:38here went and took them.
04:40Whether they were given them or they snuck in and out, we don't know.
04:46We were asked by the landowner, the Buckholt-Bringer CIC, to do an archaeological dig as community engagement.
04:54So we were very kindly given funding by the National Lottery Heritage Fund and we set up a dig.
05:00And it's been absolutely amazing.
05:02We've had 375 people digging.
05:04Oh, brilliant.
05:05It's a really exciting time for this woodland.
05:08We're bringing it back to life again.
05:18Mm-hm.
05:19I was interested in archaeology and my friend was like, oh, there's this dig going on close by.
05:26Would you like to come with me?
05:28And so I decided, yeah, let's go.
05:33So this old cottage, it's in Monmouthshire, which is where you grew up.
05:37Yeah.
05:38What does it feel like for you being so close to history?
05:41Well, there was no information on this beforehand.
05:44Like, in school you don't really get taught about the history of your area right around you, like Monmouthshire.
05:52So it was nice being able to find something about, you know, where I grew up, where I lived.
05:57That there is history around here.
06:00And such a history, right?
06:01Yeah.
06:01I mean, you can pass along here and not even know that this existed.
06:04No.
06:05Like, when I first came here, I walked along and I thought, oh, I missed it because I didn't see
06:12it down here.
06:14I'm holding something that maybe hasn't been held for maybe decades, centuries.
06:19You never know.
06:20Yeah.
06:20This is part of history.
06:22I'm helping out.
06:24Yeah.
06:25To unearth it, literally.
06:27Yeah.
06:32Everything that we've found so far has been from the 18th century onwards.
06:36But we have this massive tree alongside us.
06:40Yeah.
06:40And this yew tree could be about a thousand years old.
06:43And they normally indicate a special place.
06:46Yeah.
06:46So something was going on here before the cottage that we've yet to find.
06:50Mmm.
06:51And it's really exciting.
07:00From Monmouthshire, I'm heading to Cardiff.
07:03And this retail park on the city's Newport Road.
07:08There are countless examples in the Welsh capital of modern buildings that have replaced old, family-run businesses.
07:16There used to be a factory right here.
07:19And it employed hundreds of people.
07:21As for its products?
07:23Well, they were mouth-watering.
07:27Smelling nuts!
07:29Hard nuts!
07:31You'd walk past and you'd smell the nuts roasting.
07:35Nuts!
07:36Oh, yeah.
07:37It did.
07:38It did smell the nuts.
07:39It was lovely.
07:42The only thing that I don't eat.
07:44The only thing.
07:46Peanuts.
07:49This was the Snack Pack Factory.
07:52A family-run business that turned salty snacks into wads of cash.
07:57Nuts!
07:58It began in the 1950s.
08:01And Clive knows the story inside out.
08:05Because it's also his story.
08:07Hard nuts!
08:08I've got nuts!
08:10How did this wonderful nut empire start?
08:13Oh, well.
08:15It started with my father and his brothers.
08:19They had a restaurant in Cardiff.
08:22The business was a bit, after the war, you could imagine, a bit quiet.
08:27And at that time, they were still rationing.
08:30I'm nuts!
08:31Because of that, they started making snacks in a pack with the cheese and biscuits.
08:36Uh-huh.
08:37Yeah.
08:37I'm nuts!
08:38My dad then started experimenting with roasting peanuts.
08:43And, um, they tasted quite nice.
08:46You know, quite good.
08:47Oh, they'll be nuts!
08:50Oh, nuts!
08:51My father visited the pub with his sample.
08:54They weren't that keen on taking on any sort of food lines, but then they came up with the idea
08:59between them.
09:00If they put salt on them, maybe they can sell more beer.
09:04Demand grew for it.
09:071957, towards the 60s, they developed the first stage of the factory in Newport Road.
09:17So, it grew from supplying peanuts to the pubs in Cardiff, to the pubs in Wales and England, and eventually
09:26exporting the products around the world.
09:32Paul and Linda met at Snack Pack back in the 70s.
09:37They tied the knot, and they're still together today.
09:43I saw this young lady walking back and forth, and I remember remarking to friends of mine, she had a
09:51good pair of legs, and that was the initial spark.
09:56And, every day, he'd sing to me over the phone.
10:03I don't remember that.
10:08I worked at the back of the factory, with all the crisps and the nuts, but you could smell it.
10:14You could smell the factory.
10:15Just a peanut smell.
10:18It was a business which was growing.
10:20As a result of that, we were always at peak demand.
10:24I can't remember many times when we were in full-on five days a week, 16 hours a day production.
10:30300 tons of shelled raw peanuts were processed into finished bags of salted peanuts on a week-to-week basis.
10:39A public reflection is remarkable to think what we did.
10:43As the company grew, it expanded its food range.
10:48Soon, another savoury staple would become its bread and butter.
10:54Snap Pack was selling the Smith's Crisps from their vans in the pubs in the area.
11:01And that's how they developed a rapport with Smith's Crisp, because it made sense to have, you know, one supplier
11:08of the pub foods.
11:10I remember as a youngster and family members, most of the family members, they'd try in salt and vinegar crisps
11:17for the first time ever.
11:19What did you think of it when you tried it?
11:20It was quite nice, yes.
11:26Snap Pack eventually changed its branding to a brand called Big D.
11:32And the Big D was short for Big Diamond.
11:36It became a leading brand and is still available today, but a long way from the family now.
11:43But it started here in Cardiff.
11:50Sheila worked at the company in its very early days. She's the oldest living Snack Pack staffer.
12:00I started on working packing cheese biscuits.
12:06After I started there, I enjoyed my time at Snack Pack.
12:13It was very, very friendly. It was like a family, you know.
12:20We worked, but you felt satisfied.
12:26I think of Snack Pack sometimes if I go out there to the, where else by there.
12:32You know, you think, oh, Snack Packs used to be there. Seems a long time ago.
12:40Yeah, a long time ago.
12:46What happened to the factory?
12:49Smith's Chris got taken over by a big American company called General Mills.
12:55The factory was running for a number of years after that.
13:01All of a sudden it was empty and then all of a sudden it was gone,
13:05which was a great shame because I always remember it was such an iconic place.
13:12How do you feel about your family's legacy? You know, what they made and the impact they had?
13:17I've always been very proud. Even when I was a kid, you always knew someone who worked in Snack Pack.
13:23It seemed like almost everyone did.
13:27And I'm proud of my dad and his brothers.
13:29They managed to develop a cherished brand, which, you know, many people enjoy the products and everything.
13:36I'm very proud of it indeed.
13:42Coming up, the engineering scheme that changed a valley. The old homes underneath this lake.
14:02I'm on a journey across Wales, exploring the hidden histories of our lost landmarks.
14:11My next stop is Paris, and this seven-mile-long reservoir near Llanetlois.
14:19The dam was built in the 1960s, and that meant flooding the Clouadoc Valley.
14:25But it came at a cost.
14:27There were once cottages and farms here, and those homes are now underneath that lake.
14:52The Clouadoc Reservoir was a vast engineering project.
14:59Construction began in 1963, and it was the tallest dam in Britain.
15:08Hugh saw it rise from the ground, and he remembers this landscape before the reservoir.
15:20I can picture it now.
15:23It was a very quiet valley and farming.
15:27Funny feeling, really, isn't it?
15:29When you remember it as it was.
15:34How do you feel when you see it like this?
15:42Well, it was very nice weather as it was, I think, wasn't it?
15:45But the water started to build up, and it was all drowned.
15:51Mm.
15:52There's a lot of history under these waters.
15:56There is.
16:00Not many people are aware of what happened at Clouadoc.
16:04A lot of people drive along its banks without realising there was anything below there.
16:10You know, there's no sign there, for example, even today, to say what was there.
16:15There were a number of farms dotted along the valley.
16:18There was a cluster of three in one area in particular.
16:23At the time, about a hundred people living there.
16:28Pasture land, a mixture of sheep farming and cattle.
16:32And the river Clouadoc flowed through it.
16:35It was beautiful, stunning.
16:40Britain always needs water.
16:42Water is always scarce.
16:43So what happens, you have population increasing dramatically in cities.
16:47Liverpool, Manchester, West Midlands in particular.
16:51And then they need a fresh source of water, urgently.
16:54So they were looking for a suitable location to do that.
16:58They had their sights in Mid Wales, as they often do.
17:02And they came to Clouadoc, and they noticed the shape of the land.
17:06The valley itself was very suited to it.
17:08High rainfall.
17:10Water was needed to be extracted in places like West Midlands in particular.
17:15That's the reason it was built.
17:17So there was an Act of Parliament in 1963.
17:20And once you have an Act of Parliament, passed in Parliament, there's not a huge amount people can do then.
17:26You can fight as much as you can.
17:27You can protest.
17:28But ultimately, it's very, very difficult to overturn anything decided by an Act of Parliament.
17:38Here, they're building the Clouadoc Dam.
17:41It'll be the biggest in Britain.
17:43And when it's finished next year, in July, this giant concrete wall will hold back some 11,000 million gallons
17:50of water.
17:51The Clouadoc Dam.
17:58My family moved there to live in 1947.
18:02They were there for 18 years in a little farm called Búlchagla.
18:09Do you have any memories of that house?
18:11I do. I must have been very young.
18:13But I do remember going with my grandmother and taking cold tea out for my uncles and my grandfather who
18:21were out making hay.
18:23They were forcibly evicted from the house.
18:27They had letters from the authorities to say they had to move.
18:31They actually refused to accept the letter.
18:35And they stayed till the very last moment the police, the bailiffs came and literally manhandled them out of the
18:44house.
18:45Oh, my gosh.
18:46Yeah.
18:47Very, very sad and unnecessary.
18:51If you go there now, you'll see a sign which says Búlchagla.
18:55But actually, where the house once stood, just wasteland.
19:02My grandfather felt very angry that the company actually knocked down at the house when they needn't have knocked it
19:10down.
19:11Because it's actually the other side of the dam wall.
19:16I try and be pragmatic and practical about it.
19:20But I think emotionally, I think I still feel that sadness that the valley has been drowned.
19:32The farmers and the landowners generally were compensated.
19:36Some had new farms to go to, but they had lost land as well.
19:41So you can't really compensate for that as such, because that stays with you for decades, doesn't it?
19:54I'm realistic to know, of course, that a lot of people over many decades have had the benefit of this
20:00water from Chloedug and still do to this day.
20:03But the impact has been significant for the valley, for individuals, for farming individuals, for the community generally.
20:23My grandparents moved there in 1941.
20:28They lived in a farmhouse called Aber Bigga, which is the northern side of the reservoir now.
20:36They were there for about 23 years until, of course, they had to move out in 1964.
20:43And it was quite a shock of a system.
20:45They were very happy there, you know, raising the children up there and everything was going so well.
20:50But there was always talk about this reservoir because there were so many flooding down the valley, you know, Newtown,
20:59Welshpool and further afield were having really, really bad floods, you know, and something had to be done.
21:05The reason of that made it a little bit easier to take than just losing a valley for water.
21:13But it was still quite a sad occasion for them to move out.
21:18Have you seen the foundations of the house being gradually revealed as the water levels drop?
21:24Yes. The first time I went there was back in 1990. I was about 16 years old and my father
21:32took us there to see Aber Bigga.
21:38And when we went there about three years ago, when I took my children there, there was a lot more
21:44silt.
21:44And you couldn't see the foundations quite so clear as they were, well, nearly 30 years before then.
21:51So it makes you think the next time perhaps we go there, perhaps there'll be nothing there.
21:59There was an old cutting bar, cutting bar to cut hay.
22:04It was still exactly where it was.
22:07Something to remember that there was a farmyard and a farmhouse there.
22:12It becomes a pilgrimage in a way.
22:16It does, yes.
22:18That's the legacy.
22:19That's the legacy, yes.
22:33Next time, the scattered ruins of a vibrant village.
22:38The power station and its historic neighbour.
22:42And the community that kept its culture alive.
22:46It was the厲害 have cerc cargo.
22:58It was great for you to separate the sounds of this city that were with.
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