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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.
00:57It 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.
01:15While I'm far away from you, my baby, I know it.
01:23The beautiful Dharan Valley in the county of Catafilly.
01:29Its days of heavy industry are long gone.
01:33But there are hidden reminders on the hillsides.
01:38These ruins, standing alone in a field, used to be a school canteen.
01:43In fact, the landscape all around me was once a vibrant village where families lived, worked, and worshipped.
01:55This is the lost community of Pennebank.
02:00It stood proud from the 1800s right through to the 1960s.
02:08Like many villages in these valleys, Pennebank was created for coal.
02:14In this little valley, there was five collieries in this short distance, deep mines.
02:21So, what was Pennebank like?
02:24Well, it is their own community.
02:26They had the chapel, the school, the hotel.
02:30There was carnivals, parties.
02:33It was a very close community.
02:35Everybody knew everybody, you know.
02:36Yeah.
02:37Also in Pennebank, the Newport to Brecon Railway Line used to run through here.
02:42Used to sit up on that mountain, but then watch the steam train coming up the line here.
02:47You know, it's something special, isn't it?
02:58At the heart of Pennebank were two rows of houses, 22 homes in all.
03:05And they were full of life.
03:10Carol and Diane were born and bred in the village.
03:16It was lovely.
03:18Everybody was friendly.
03:20Yeah, best place to be.
03:23What made it special for you?
03:24Well, it was just so peaceful.
03:26Nobody bothered you.
03:27You could go, we'd go up the mountain and you could have a good play.
03:31It was just a lovely place to be.
03:33And it was our home from the time we was born until we was adults.
03:37So that's all we were used to, really, was this community, like this place.
03:42Yeah.
03:43We used to have a big bump for years, didn't we?
03:45We did a big bump for years, yes.
03:46Yeah.
03:47Set the electric cables on.
03:49A big bump for years.
03:49Yeah.
03:50We did, yeah.
03:51Yeah.
03:51Okay.
03:52Yeah.
03:53Sounds a bit risky.
03:55Yeah, yeah.
04:01These ruins are all that's left of the chapel at Pennebank.
04:07This photograph was taken just before its demolition.
04:13The building played a big part in Amy's life.
04:17She was one of the last people to get married there.
04:24We always went to chapel.
04:25We had to go.
04:27We did have to go to the chapel.
04:29But we enjoyed it.
04:31And then we went to Sunday school.
04:33I knew the Bible because we didn't have any other books to read.
04:40We were poor.
04:41We didn't have much.
04:43But we all clung together.
04:45We worked together.
04:46There were so many children and everybody was loved.
04:56It would have been a sad day when they were told they'd have to move.
05:00You know.
05:00And why were they told they had to move?
05:03Well, there was damage coming in the houses.
05:04It was from underground workings.
05:08From mining, I suppose.
05:09Mining, yeah.
05:10Yeah.
05:11Which made it unsafe.
05:17Pennebank closed in 1967.
05:19It would be classed then like slum clearance, really, isn't it?
05:23You know.
05:24A lot of it went on at that time.
05:28The houses just buried.
05:32That must have been quite something to take them down, though,
05:35because there's none of it really left, is it?
05:37No.
05:38When they go, they go and it's sad.
05:41It's not this.
05:43I don't know.
05:45But it's still a lovely place.
05:48Houses or no houses, it's still a lovely place.
05:54I don't think we had a say in it, did we?
05:56No.
05:57In them days, they didn't ask you whether you wanted to go on or do they?
06:01Mm.
06:03So...
06:03You just had to...
06:04You just had to go.
06:05Yeah.
06:05Yeah, yeah.
06:07It's a tricky route, really, didn't it?
06:09To see it like this.
06:10Yeah.
06:11Yeah, yeah.
06:14Everybody went their separate ways.
06:16OK.
06:17And I lost track then.
06:19Yeah.
06:20But we loved it there, you know.
06:23Mm-hm.
06:23If I could have a house built there, I would.
06:28It would be nice to see it all over again.
06:38From the Darren Valley, I'm heading to Abarthor in the Vale of Glamorgan.
06:44This landscape is brimming with history.
06:47And there used to be a building here that dated all the way back to the early 17th century.
06:52It's a tale of wealth and intrigue.
06:55And it all came crashing down in the 1980s.
07:01In the shadow of the now defunct Abarthor Power Station stood a structure that was one of a kind.
07:11This was Marsh House Farm.
07:15It was built during the reign of King Charles I and was still in situ at the time these photographs
07:22were taken in the early 80s.
07:27It may have seen better days, but it was the only one left on mainland Britain.
07:36It's difficult to imagine now, when you drive through Abarthor, if you blink, there's a chance you might miss it.
07:41Because you've literally got a couple of cottages, a pub and a farm and that's it.
07:45But this was the economic hub of the Vale of Glamorgan, really from the 15th right the way through to
07:53the 19th century.
07:56When it really started to take off was when trade with the West Indies started.
08:01And at the heart of their activity was tobacco.
08:09Marsh House Farm was built in the 1630s by Thomas Spencer, a local merchant who earned a fortune importing goods
08:18from the West Indies.
08:20He set up a huge tobacco plantation in Jamaica.
08:25Meanwhile, back in Wales, his home was converted into a warehouse to safely store his money-making cargo.
08:34These things have to be protected because this area was absolutely notorious for pirates and smugglers and bandits of all
08:42kind.
08:43The house went to being a warehouse to eventually becoming like a mini fortress to protect all the cargo from
08:53being stolen by some of the ne'er-do-wells who operated in the area.
09:00As the centuries rolled by, Marsh House Farm fell into ruin.
09:06But it remained a local landmark and was a source of excitement for John, who played in the ruins as
09:14a child in the 50s.
09:18We're standing in, what was your childhood playground? What was it like back then?
09:24It was a big open marsh and you walk down to this walled area, which was a superb fortress.
09:34And as we were all kids who used to play bows and arrows and build ourselves bows and arrows and
09:38various other bits, that's what it was.
09:40It was a barn with a fortress attached to it.
09:43Oh, wow.
09:44We went in there. If it was raining, it was great. It was somewhere to shelter. You know, you were
09:50out all day, so we had to go somewhere.
09:51Yeah.
09:53It was a great place to explore something unique.
10:02The landscape surrounding Marsh House Farm changed completely when Abathor Power Station came online in the 1960s.
10:12For a while, old and new happily coexisted.
10:17But by the 80s, the Central Electricity Generating Board had its sights on the 17th century structure.
10:25The power station was coal fired and nearby land was needed to act as an ash tip, one big dumping
10:34ground for all that waste.
10:37Marsh House Farm was in the way.
10:43In 1982, Matthew, an academic and heritage champion, was passing through Abathor just as demolition was starting.
10:55I was coming back on the bus to where I then lived in Lantwick Major, going through the village and
11:00I saw a red JCB operating on the marsh and I could see wall collapse from the southeast wall.
11:08I actually got off the bus, got down onto the marsh, didn't take me long, bit of running.
11:15So rather out of breath, I interposed myself between the blades of the JCB and the structure waved what looked
11:23like an official warrant card and said, you can't do that, squire.
11:30Despite the efforts of Matthew and a host of heritage groups, Marsh House Farm was razed to the ground.
11:42We've lost a memory of the past, we've lost something which could have been preserved, could have been conserved.
11:51It wouldn't have required much imagination to make sure that it was looked after.
11:59Opportunity lost, I'm afraid.
12:05So what do you think Wales has lost?
12:08I think it's lost an absolutely fascinating building.
12:12It's a mini fortress that is run by civilians.
12:17And to be honest, that is what makes it so unusual.
12:20I cannot think of any more examples of that.
12:23This was more than just a strong bonded warehouse.
12:25This was a fortress.
12:27And as far as I'm aware, that is absolutely unique in Wales.
12:31And for us to have lost it, and to have lost it in the way that we lost it, is
12:36absolutely mad.
12:44Coming up, a home away from home.
12:48The post-war camp that shaped a generation.
13:02I'm on a journey across Wales, exploring the hidden histories of our lost landmarks.
13:11My next stop is the village of Penly, near Wrexham.
13:17Up until the early 2000s, there was a settlement here that was home to a very special community for almost
13:2460 years.
13:26There was a school, a cinema, a chapel, and most importantly, a hospital.
13:32It was a village within a village.
13:37This industrial estate and those nearby houses were once Penly Polish Hospital.
13:55Opened in 1946, it was home to hundreds of families who forged a new life,
14:02anchored by old traditions.
14:08This footage offers a rare glimpse of daily life at the hospital.
14:12It was filmed in the 1960s by Andy, who was just a teenager back then.
14:20He lived on the site.
14:23And his father ran the hospital for over 20 years.
14:29Andy, you have foundational links to Penly.
14:34How did it start?
14:35It was an opportunity for the Polish immigrants who came over from World War II to establish a Polish community
14:44here in Wales.
14:49Originally, this hospital was established to have facilities available for American soldiers returning from D-Day.
14:56All modern equipment, which fortunately were only used for a few months, and then the Americans went back home.
15:03So it was an ideal place for the Polish army's hospitals to locate them.
15:10They brought over their patients, they brought over their staff.
15:13In Penly, here in the early 50s, we had up to 1,000 staff and 1,000 patients.
15:22Very strangely, the NHS at that point funded an entire community, which accommodated its staff, fed its staff, then started
15:34to build out recreational facilities.
15:36There was a shop on site. There was a church. It built out.
15:43And then, of course, in my generation, sort of born in 49, I was almost the first in Penly.
15:50Another generation started to grow up.
15:53And about this time, the hopes and wishes of the Poles who had arrived here, that actually communism would disappear
16:02and the Russians would disappear,
16:03it was quite obvious they were in for the long term.
16:08The Poles realised that they were not all going to go home, that what they would do is make their
16:14home here in Wales.
16:26Two children who also grew up on the hospital site were Henrik and Jaja.
16:36There was no fridges, there was no washing machines, there was no television, there was no cars, because the only
16:43people that could afford a car was maybe the doctor.
16:46You know, everything was just, I don't know, sort of just the way it should be.
16:51I think they sort of called it Little Poland, because that's what it was.
16:55It was like a mini version of an old-fashioned Poland, not modern Poland.
17:01Yes, I wanted to ask about that.
17:02Because when you're sort of displaced, you know, you kind of carry these things and they kind of remain intact
17:08in a way.
17:08Yeah, because when, what they all brought was the old Poland.
17:13That's right.
17:13Not the new Poland.
17:16And the old Poland has lots of religious traditions.
17:20You know, the Polish church culture is very much geared around festivals.
17:26And those would be carried out to a T.
17:32My parents would make beautiful Polish traditional costumes they used to wear during these festivals.
17:39There was no influence from anywhere else that would change that.
17:44So it was very much a sort of an old-fashioned mini Poland with everything.
17:55Dad used to run the Polish kitchen here.
17:59And when my father came here and my mother, you know, they're part of the Polish forces.
18:03So when they came here, they could practice sort of to do what they did in Poland.
18:11What was it like growing up here?
18:13I remember a story.
18:15The lady was called Mrs. Datsko and she had like a tattoo on the hand.
18:20And I say, what's that on your hand?
18:23And she said, oh, so I don't forget my telephone number.
18:25Well, what it actually was, I found out later on that it was a concentration camp number.
18:31So, you know, and then as you grow up, you remember these things.
18:35But we weren't told a lot when we were youngsters.
18:38Obviously, you found a lot more in later life.
18:41So, you remember the adults carrying a lot of trauma.
18:46Yes, very much so.
18:48But also trying to make the environment a happy one for you.
18:52Yes, yeah, for the future.
18:55That memory was still there, that you had to be strong and do the best you could.
19:01I think it was built into us.
19:09We would take patients in from the whole of the British Isles.
19:13Because there were a lot of patients.
19:14There were mental patients with, you know, ADHD after World War II and a lot of illnesses.
19:20And it got whittled and whittled down.
19:24So, of course, as the original inhabitants kind of waned.
19:29Yes.
19:29The need became less, I suppose.
19:32That's correct.
19:33And that's why the hospital towards the end of the century ended up being less and less wards.
19:44It wasn't cost effective to run it.
19:46I mean, as you ran down to just tens or dozens of patients, all you needed was a single small
19:53unit.
19:56And so what does it feel like now?
19:59Because that camp was such a major part of your upbringing that it's not here.
20:05Definitely a sadness.
20:07But I think that in the head, in the brain, it's there forever.
20:20This place had some great significance in the history of, you know, how communities can come together and work together.
20:30For me, it's still those values of what life is really important, you know, that it is about community.
20:39It is about helping each other.
20:41It isn't about money.
20:47I came here on my own when I knew the hospital was closing.
20:51I just came to say a prayer.
20:55Yeah, sad.
21:00My parents passed away here.
21:02So when it closed, I found out that it was closing.
21:06So I just came just to have a look and went away with some happy memories.
21:16The Polish camp is unique.
21:18It was so unique.
21:21As time goes on, it's very sad that a lot of people forget, don't they?
21:34It hasn't always been possible to save our heritage.
21:40In every corner of the country, you can still sense those echoes of the past.
21:50Each year, I make a journey across modern Wales, uncovering the incredible history that's buried beneath our car parks, supermarkets,
22:01office blocks.
22:03You can watch all the previous series on ITVX.
22:07Just search Vanished Wales.
22:11And if you have a lost landmark you'd like us to highlight, you can email us, vanishedwales at ITV.com.
22:22There is so much that has been lost.
22:25So much that's been forgotten.
22:27It's easy to miss the crucial role that we play in preserving our past.
22:33Each of our stories matter.
22:35We are the living archives of those who've gone before.
22:40People
22:59And I neverädiced
22:59Be
23:00Words
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