[Music]
[Music]
from the land of storytellers this is
the story of the land itself and of the
peoples who've shaped it
[Music]
it's majestic it's thrilling it's a
story that tells us who we are where
we've come from and where we're going
it's a tale that's been thirty thousand
years in the making it shows our country
in ways we've never seen it before from
the Ice Age to the Information Age this
is our story the story of Wales
[Music]
to begin at the beginning we need to
come here to the western end of the
Gower Peninsula and we need to take a
walk along the cliff top we're following
a path taken by a geologists back in
1823 William Buckland scrambles down to
a cave you can only get to at low tide
inside he finds the bones of a single
human being stained by a red tint he
thinks they may be those of a Roman
prostitute and he gives her a name a
name that sticks the red lady of pavulon
but the real tale is a little different
and it starts 30,000 years ago our story
begins in a time when these cliffs are a
ridge above a river plain and the sea is
more than 50 miles away
[Music]
the earliest truly human occupants of
the land we know as whales are burying
one of their dead with the body they
place ivory rods that they've carved
from the tusks of mammoths and other
treasures that will lie undisturbed
until Buckland finds them thirty
thousand years later a mammoth skull and
a necklace of seashells but the person
they're laying to rest isn't a woman as
Buckland thought he's a young man in his
twenties his is the earliest known human
burial in Western Europe
[Music]
the loss of a single human life counts
for something
even back then the red lady of pavulon
does seem very distant from the story of
Wales and the Welsh as we've come to
know it and yet the way we think of that
single life and death can set the tone
for the whole of our history of Wales
one version of our past would see these
people as sad and isolated in a dark
space of their own but I'm determined to
remind us that they're much more
connected than that
sharing a whole way of life with others
across an entire continent that's how
they know that this special pigment red
ochre will stain the bones of the Dead
and that's how they know that this is
the way to one of the Dead burying them
with beautiful things they've made these
people are tough soon they'll be facing
the challenge of huge climate change
[Music]
surrounded by mammoths and rhinos hyenas
and lions these Stone Age hunters know
how to fight to survive
[Music]
so as we trace our ascent from cave
dweller to modern citizen I want us to
keep in mind that Wales has always been
home to people who take their chances at
the cutting edge of change people who
are open to new ideas and find ways to
move forward without forgetting to honor
those who've gone before the story of
Wales is the experience of each and
every one of us in Wales of anyone who's
ever lived in this country from the red
lady of pavol and buried in this cave on
the Gower Peninsula tens of thousands of
years ago to you and me today we are all
part of the story of ways
[Music]
[Music]
the climate changes people are driven
away from Pavel and and everywhere else
in ways a wall of ice 40 meters thick
comes as far south as the Gower
[Music]
for thousands of years the whole of
Britain is deserted
eventually the melting ice begins to
shape the coastline we know today
the great four brings back plants and
animals people follow slowly
[Music]
the trees grow an ancient forest
stretching across much of what we know
as Wales there are just a few gaps in
the woodland where the deer eat out
glades or people set fires to make
clearings
about 6,000 years ago agriculture
reaches Western Britain the farmers
begin to clear parts of the forest to
grow primitive wheat and to keep sheep
and goats cattle pigs and dogs gradually
over the course of a thousand years the
people who live on this land the land we
called ours today start to adapt they
start to cut through this vast natural
forest and start to tackle the
challenges of the world around them
[Music]
[Music]
this is the age of the great religious
monuments like Petra even in
Pembrokeshire they bear witness to cults
of the dead and fertility rituals these
people are farming and thinking about
the meaning of their lives
[Music]
brynne Cassidy on anglesey
the tombs passage and chamber are
perfectly aligned to receive the first
rays of the midsummer Sun so these are
people who understand the changing
seasons and the spinning earth they live
on and we know because of the
distinctive way that they decorate this
monument but they're trading goods and
ideas with communities as far away as
Orkney and Portugal the people who
inhabit this land are making some big
statements here in Wales we've
discovered the largest timber
construction anywhere in Europe from
that age thousands of trees are cut down
in order to build it and it tells us
that these are people with complex needs
people want to make their mark on the
world
[Music]
the hind well enclosure is long gone but
from the post holes left behind in the
soil we can imagine how it dominates the
stone-age landscape
it covers almost the whole valley floor
you could fit the Millennium Stadium
inside eight times over the wooden posts
more than 1400 of them stand six meters
tall
and it's all built with stone and wood
tools
[Music]
there are other signs of ancient human
settlement all over the Walton Basin but
it's the enclosure which sends a message
far and wide here are people who've
organized themselves on an epic scale
[Music]
the enclosure isn't a defensive wall
under space this big isn't for penning
animals experts believe it's used for
feasts and celebrations a hundred
generations later you can still see the
curved footprint of its perimeter
determining the path of this country
road as it crosses the basin
[Music]
just a few centuries after the building
of the Walton Basin enclosure the world
changes
[Music]
humanity emerges from the Stone Age
[Music]
these days this is what Llandudno is all
about it's about relaxation and
enjoyment and this great tramway which
takes us all the way up the Great Orme
tells us so much about the Victorian
heyday Shan did not is all about leisure
this is where people come to escape the
grime of heavy industry and what a
contrast to the world of 4000 years ago
when the heavy industry is right here
underneath this mountain there's a
revolution going on I'm talking about
metal and the Great Orme is where it's
happening
[Music]
the arm pan ago Garvin Welsh is still
one of the great vantage points on the
North Wales coast but what lies under my
feet is even more impressive than the
view and that is saying something
because under here we have something
that is world-changing it is copper now
copper is a very beautiful very valuable
metal but it's not very hard-working
it's quite soft and here's the magical
part if you mix copper with tin you end
up with something that is harder and
much more useful and that is bronze
[Music]
less than 30 years ago we knew nothing
about the copper mines of the Great Orme
and their place in the Great Leap
Forward of the Bronze Age they were
discovered by chance when a new car park
was being excavated Sean James began
work as a tour guide here and found the
mines so fascinating that she's gone on
to make a full study of them as an
academic archeologist well that's quite
breathtaking what are we looking at
we're in one of the large chambers and
this used to be full of malachite of
copper ore but the miners are digging
out dig it out with little tools little
implements bone tools stone hammers
nothing really more sophisticated than
that about 30,000 animal bones have been
discovered from the mine is a huge
number it is originally these are all
thought to be food waste probably with
other miners but I'm not sure you'd
actually want to be eating down here my
research over the past few years
suggests that these are all linked in
with the mining itself I'm sure people
will be interested in what exactly
they're digging out because I know that
we've got an example here yeah just tell
us what we've got here this is malachite
this is the main copper ore people think
a copper today is this lovely orange
metal but this is how they'd have
probably first seen it if you smelt it
to a charcoal thousand degrees
centigrade and suddenly you get this
wonderful orange metal so you've got
five miles of tunnels what does this
represent worldwide this is the largest
per start copper mine anywhere in the
world and we've probably only discovered
about 10 percent of it so far
you see some of the little tunnels going
off which are terrifyingly small what
kind of working conditions would there
have been are people in there digging I
think possibly children are in some of
those areas we're talking maybe five or
six year olds
[Music]
just surprises everywhere you look one
of the most exciting things shown is to
think that this place was making a
product which wasn't for sale locally it
was going much further afield enough cop
that came out of here to make about 10
million axes so we're not talking
domestic trade this is meeting some sort
of demand maybe internationally we're
saying the fund did not copper was being
exported and used as weapons thousands
of miles away yes four thousand years
ago four thousand years ago but that is
an eye-opener
it is the industrial scale of the Great
Orme enterprise demands a really
sophisticated support network to feed
the workforce to smelt the copper and to
ship out the end product by contrast the
basic tools of the trade are ingenious
but very simple this is what this is a
stone hammer that they've just gone down
to the beach picked up for a suitable
stone brought it up here ready for
digging with you know that's a very
basic kind of tool isn't it simple but
very effective you've got something
there which is a little more delicate it
is more delicate but still very
effective these are two cattle bones
that we found from the mind they're both
tools this one's a rib bone rounded on
the end and would you be news for sort
of chiseling out digging out the
malachite and then this one
it's a humerus bone so that's the front
leg and that is the perfect shape for
just holding and digging out handle
chiseling out the malachite well know
that that chopping action you've done
brings me to this because this for me is
the most surprising thing of all you
think of three and a half thousand years
ago and there's a level of
sophistication here which I have to say
took me by surprise so talk us through
this yeah this is one of the pole stave
axes that they would have used in the
Bronze Age would have been made in a
two-piece mold but this is bronze so
this is the copper which would have come
from here and then tin which would have
to go to coal more probably to get
that's something that was held three and
half thousand years ago yeah that's
quite a thrill it is
[Music]
just one look at this ancient gold cape
will tell you how much industrial wealth
is being generated here discovered in
flincher in the 1830s and beaten out of
a single gold ingot the mold Cape is an
astonishing piece of workmanship fit to
adorn the slender shoulders of a queen
[Music]
it dates from a time when Egypt is
building the pyramids North Wales has
riches to rival the Pharaohs
people here are exchanging goods and
ideas with mainland Europe but who
exactly are their trading partners and
how do they reach them the latest
research points west to the open
Atlantic this is the trading
superhighway of the ancient world
through it we may be able to trace our
Celtic roots much further back than we
ever imagined and one of the pioneers of
this new line of thinking is Professor
John Kok John it's an intriguing thought
as we looked at the sea here today on
the coast of North Wales to think that
this channel this transport by sea which
frankly lots of people would never have
imagined was more sophisticated more
advanced to be ever in my ever thought
it was probably easier to get around by
sea than it was over land the land was
heavily forested before the Romans who
were here there weren't good roads it
was probably easier to maintain and
create long-distance connections by sea
as soon as metals come into the picture
and particularly copper and bronze most
especially you need the long-distance
connections just to keep the new economy
going you're saying we should think of
Wales in a much bigger world that's
right it's always certainly it's always
been connected to the rest of Britain
but there's another sign to it and we're
looking at that other side of it now
it's the western ocean if John is right
which links whales to the Celtic world
of the continent and it's not the story
we used to be told
the idea of hostile forces sweeping in
from the east in a series of sudden
invasions from the continent well that
idea is wrong for professor the
links have always been to do with trade
not invasion they go way way back in
time and all the way down the Atlantic
seaboard his evidence points to Celts
from the West it's a major change of
perspective for those of us who grew up
with a history that talks about whales
and its eastern neighbors and it's it's
something very exciting about the way
we're telling the story now John which
is that it is an outward-looking whales
we're talking about all those years ago
no it's a very different perspective now
you now have evidence for a diversity of
very ancient Celtic languages on the
continent of Europe all of this new
evidence is constantly turning up new
connections with the Welsh language
names of people names of gods and so on
so that there has always been this
long-distance maritime connection
and this goes right back through the
Iron Age the Bronze Age Copper Age right
on back as far as you want to go for
human beings being here
the trading links go deep into history
but the technology is moving forward
there's a big change coming and we can
understand a lot more about it because
of a chance discovery a century ago 100
years ago workmen were here at the foot
of craig earth in ragazze creating a
reservoir for their people are from that
just over the hill and in the course of
clearing Pete's and vegetation they made
the most fantastic of discoveries
what they found was a hoard of weapons
and tools from the Late Bronze Age
two bronze cauldrons so big that you
can't get your arms around them
carpenters tools chisels and gouges and
some of the finest decorative horse gear
ever found in Britain but there's
something else to an iron sword probably
made in eastern France this superbly
grooved it's just part of a sword the
grooves on the blade telling us that hmm
this isn't just the first time
blacksmiths effort with iron because
2700 years ago 2,800 years ago iron was
something really new new and valuable
too valuable to have been left here
without thought
from similar finds in bogs and rivers
and lakes experts believe their
offerings to a local goddess but how do
these gifts to the waters come to be
here in Wales in the first place are
they evidence of trade or war perhaps 50
years ago an archaeologist looking at
this claim file collection might say
that the foreign sort from the continent
meant that an invader carried it here by
today many of us believe it was trade
gifts passing through many hands
[Music]
most intriguing of all there's evidence
here in the L shaped iron sickle and the
short spearhead that local Smiths are
transferring their skills in bronze to
work in this even more useful new metal
[Music]
here is our bronze Smith somehow being
introduced or experimenting with iron
ores that you can find in the geology in
the rocks behind this here of the South
Wales coalfield experimenting with
smelting forging the iron and creating
new metal objects in the old style
we're heralding we're in the cradle of
native ironworking not just in Wales
because these are the oldest native made
iron objects in the whole of the British
Isles an island fantastic story
[Music]
the fein peninsula in the northwest
corner of Wales is another location that
opens our eyes to the nature of life
here in this new age of iron
[Music]
in the centuries before the Romans
arrived the population of Wales may have
been around 80,000 there are no towns
but there are hill forts more than a
thousand of them
just think this entrance has been here
for 2,000 years and it still tells us a
story
we may be on top of an exposed peak 450
meters above the sea but this is a major
Iron Age settlement Trier kiri is one of
the best-preserved and most densely
occupied hill forts in Britain behind
its ramparts you can still see the
shapes of more than a hundred and fifty
stone houses
but he'll fort is a misleading term the
people of trail Kerry are formers not
fighters and from their homes they can
look down on the fertile land below so
what does this mesmerizing place tell us
it tells us that long before the Romans
arrived there was a sophisticated
society here trading not just in a local
area but much further afield and don't
be fooled it may look as if it's been
built to withstand an invasion from a
distant enemy not the case it's all
about local power and local control so
by two thousand years ago a pattern has
emerged the ancient peoples of Wales
have settled into a group of separate
tribes from what's about to happen to
them we can distinguish their
characteristics and even give them names
the fierce allure is in the southeast
the order witches led by the Druids of
Anglesey in the north
[Music]
each tribe is many thousands strong with
its own royal family and priests and
rituals they squabble on the skirmish
but they speak a common language and
they know each other's customs and gods
this is their home
forty-three ad they're confronted by the
most efficient killing machine in the
world
the Roman army sweeps across Britain
many tribes surrender without a fight
others try guerrilla tactics to ambush
and surprise the invaders
[Applause]
across the many straights inspired by
the Druids the order veatch's put up
some of the strongest resistance in the
south the saloon raised take the battle
to the Romans
[Music]
this land rolling down towards the
Severn Estuary
is the power base of the Solaris and
power is the right word they're strong
they're fierce they're not the kind of
fighters who hide in the hills and
launch the odd raid they're in the
business of making full frontal attacks
on the Romans according to one story
they demolished three Roman units in a
single day and then they followed that
success by almost wiping out an entire
Legion
[Applause]
Roman generals come to hate them they
swear to sweep the salaries off the face
of the earth
[Applause]
but that's not so easy particularly when
the salaries are joined by one of
ancient Britain's most skillful warlords
his name is Caractacus or Caradog as
he's known in Welsh it takes an epic
struggle to capture him but he's such a
catch that he sent for trial to the
Emperor himself
when he gets to Rome Caradog is
condemned to death but for some reason
the emperor claudius allows him one
final plea for his life and the Roman
historian Tacitus sets down the words of
that plea what we have is the first
speech in history credited to someone
who's lived in Wales there's quite a
speech
[Music]
noble emperor and people of Rome I face
humiliation while you have glory I had
horses men weapons are you surprised I'm
sorry to have lost them just because you
want to rule the world do you think
everyone else is happy to be made a
slave if I had surrendered without a
fight no one would have heard of my
downfall or your triumph if you kill me
they will both be forgotten but if you
spare me I shall stand forever as a
symbol of your mercy
[Music]
the words work Galactica's is freed but
he never returns to britain and history
records no more of him what we can say
is that the ancient Britons are a bit of
a handful to put it mildly
and that's certainly the case here in
Wales were at the very edge of the Roman
Empire and Rome realizes that it needs a
very powerful military presence if it's
to keep things under control
so what do the Romans decide that they
have to do well they decide to build an
immense fortress here at carillon and
they call this place
ESCA this is where thousands of soldiers
are fed and watered housed and trained
trained to put the locals down and keep
them down
[Applause]
thirty years after the Romans invade
this amphitheater is where a whole Roman
legion is entertained as well as put
through its paces
but iske it turns out isn't just a big
army camp whilst we've been filming this
series archaeologists have been digging
here on a large area between the
military site and the river ask their
extraordinary new findings give us a
completely fresh understanding of this
place
ty de Leon is a Roman city and a major
port
what we can see here is a a new
reconstruction that we've had done it's
still in the development stage but it
shows what this part of Killeen might
have been like at the end of the first
century AD as we imagine it around about
100 you can see a river ship coming up
the Usk
from the seven estuary bringing men and
materials into kellian here we have the
key side which would be an excavating
here where all the materials and the men
would have been offloaded and then we
have a fly-through of the Roman
buildings that we've been uncovering
including the very large courtyard
complex a series of buildings that we
think of the marketplaces that include
bath houses here we can see the
amphitheater and then we fly through the
fortresses Westgate into the center of
Ischia where we can see barak blocks and
store buildings the commanding officers
house and headquarters and client's
famous bath house where the Romans would
have kept themselves clean and then we
flying through the main street out
towards the civilian settlement on the
other side and it really gives a
tremendous sense of how big some of
these buildings were and how imposing an
important they must have looked at the
time
one of the new riverfront structures
discovered by dr. guest is more than 100
meters long and a hundred metres wide
big enough to fit the amphitheater
inside its central courtyard it's just
part of this port complex which is
changing our view of how cuddly on
connects Britain to the rest of the
Roman Empire we're in one of the
excavation trenches that's closest to
the river esk and in this trench we
think we have the remains of the Roman
port here this wall we think is the key
side wall that the Romans would have
constructed outside the fortress of
Killian which would have allowed ships
and boats to more on the river esk and
for men and materials and other goods to
be offloaded and then taken into the
fortress and into the other parts of
Roman Wales one of the things the Romans
brought to Britain nearly 2,000 years
ago was the use of writing this is a
Roman brick that you can see here which
has a stamp on it which records the fact
that this tile was made by the second or
gustan Legion and this is a particularly
special fine than it has parts of three
letters on it and a you can see the
crossbar of the a there a V or a U and
then what is either a C or a G Roman
inscriptions particularly Imperial
inscriptions often record the imperial
titles of the Emperor one of which was
or Gustus the Romans were very keen to
make sure that you knew as you came to a
place like this that it was now part of
the new civilized world and that they
people who had done the civilizing were
the soldiers with a second or gustan
Legion but they were doing it in the
name of the Emperor and presumably if
we're lucky we may well find more of
this inscription which might tell us
which Emperor that was so the
discoveries made by doctor guest and his
team allow us to seek a de Leon in a
much much broader way than we've ever
done before it's the first and only time
that we in Britain became part of a
Mediterranean world
[Music]
Kilian was a major access route so the
wine that Romans like to drink will the
olive oil that they like to put on their
food for example came in an three in
large storage vessels and it's not just
the material things but also the new
gods that Romans brought with them the
new languages the new ways of dressing
and thinking about the world these would
also been brought into Western Britain
presumably at places like this so we now
have a better idea of the true scale and
purpose of iske the Romans clearly want
Cara Leon to be a major city a great
city an integral part of the Empire and
they want all the benefits of Roman
civilization to apply right here in this
new province of theirs so what we're
talking about now is not just a military
battle it's also a battle for hearts and
minds
[Music]
just down the road from carolien at the
door of this church in car went is a
relic of Roman times which shows just
how quickly the native Britons embrace
all that Rome has to offer it's a stone
tablet with the Latin inscription a kind
of operating license for Civitas salut
Rome the self-governing council of the
Solaris the Romans have built a whole
new town for the tribe themselves to
rule and govern just a generation after
fighting to the death to defend their
land
the salary's have accepted Roman rule
and agreed to pay their taxes in return
they're enjoying all the benefits of
Roman civilization they even get their
own Assembly Building you could say it's
the first time devolution comes to Wales
[Music]
[Music]
and it's not just in the south that the
Romans secure their grip the mountains
are no barrier to them
they build a whole network of roads
military camps and towns stretching from
Kalyan and CAD went to commanding in the
West and Carnarvon in the north
the Roman occupation of Britain is a
massive enterprise it ties up the
Empire's military resources and
personnel for decades
just imagine the logistics involved in
building and maintaining this one fort
SIGINT IAM in Carnarvon at the end of
the roman supply chain so why do the
Romans come here and stay here
one reason is prestige conquering
Britannia brings the emperor claudius a
lot of glory it tightens his grip on
power and never discount the importance
of PR in the politics of ancient Rome
but there are good practical reasons to
be here to this island is a breadbasket
and Rome can tax its farmers and enjoy
the fruits of their labor on the land
and then there's the most valuable
resource of all people while some
Britons enjoy all of the benefits of
Roman civilization many more of them are
traded as slaves all living tools as the
Romans call them and they're put to dig
out britannia's mineral wealth like the
gold at dough like coffee in West Wales
many other slaves are shipped off to
Rome to serve its politicians
philosophers and army veterans
life for many is nasty short and brutal
but others do thrive on Rome's bounty
any well speaker will confirm just how
comprehensively the tribes of Wales
adopt the benefits of Roman civilization
the language proves it some of the words
used here at Sur Ghanshyam 2,000 years
ago are still being used on the streets
of Carnarvon today pont for bridge
finished for window these are latin
words which now form some of the nuts
and bolts of the welsh language and
there's something else that rome leaves
behind here christianity
at first the Romans persecute the new
faith but then they embrace it in the
year 306 when he's on a military
campaign in Britain Constantine the
greatest proclaimed Emperor he is the
first Christian to rule Rome
[Music]
the Romans ruled Britannia for 350 years
there are Imperial soldiers here right
up to the Year 400 but in the end with
their empire under threat
the Romans march out of our history and
leave Christian Britain to defend itself
[Music]
towns are abandoned those living in the
ruins of empire have to deal as best
they can with new threats Irish Pirates
and Saxon invaders
David and Bracken yagh are overrun by
the Irish Guinard is invaded probably by
tribes from north of Hadrian's Wall and
then come the angles and the Saxons
from the Year 400 these Germanic peoples
push eastwards from the continent
smothering the old Celtic and Roman
culture in lowland Britain forcing it
back into the hills and the mountains of
the West
the anglo-saxons don't share the
Christian faith that Rome is brought and
it seems that Britain's Roman legacy may
be eclipsed completely these are
mysterious times filled with battles
against the odds something in them
sparks the Celtic imagination the hard
facts are scarce but the struggle to
keep the faith alive inspires some of
the greatest stories of Wales
there is a world of difference between
history and legend but when you come to
a magical place like this deep in the
heart of the Welsh countryside they seem
to come together
[Music]
[Applause]
in this land of mystic waters and sacred
Springs it's a time for tales of heroes
whose exploits have cast spells on the
world ever since I'm thinking especially
of king arthur the great defender of
christian britain and of course of his
resident magician the mighty merlin
[Music]
in one story written down more than a
thousand years ago by a Welsh monk known
as Nennius it is Merlin who predicts
that the red dragon the native Britons
will eventually defeat the white dragon
the invading anglo-saxons
these are tales of conflict and heroism
they set up the notion that this land is
embattled read around by dark forces and
legend has it that Arthur and his
warriors are still waiting somewhere in
the deepest countryside ready to come to
our rescue the fact is that the Arthur
industry if I can call it that built
around Camelot sword in the stone the
knights of the round table all of this
is invented at a much later time but
these inventions are based on some
intriguing fragments of historical
evidence in one account of a great
battle with the anglo-saxons said to
take place in the year 516 Arthur
carries the Christian cross on his
shoulders for three days and nights
before leading the Britons to victory
all over Britain there is an epic
struggle going on
and because the Celts from Cornwall in
the south to Central Scotland in the
North speak a language that's an early
form of Welsh we can still get a sense
of the drama and turmoil if we know
where to look this is the book of an
airing in the National Library in
Aberystwyth and it contains the record
of a battle from around the Year 600 we
arrived catcheth I fry Faithie glass
where they hang Quinn a Gwen win vie the
men who marched a Catterick were a swift
war band their drink was Mead it proved
to be poison they're very famous lines
they're taken from the earliest
surviving Welsh poem written by a poet
living in Edinburgh and what's striking
is that it is still possible for a Welsh
speaker to get the gist it tells the
story of an army of soldiers going into
battle against the angles in the north
of England and what we get in all of
these stories is a gradual recognition
of our identity as a people we are the
Kumari the compatriots the broth on the
8th the Britons the way lass the Welsh
that's the anglo-saxon word for
strangers or more precisely those
strangers who used to live in a Roman
world
[Music]
part of Rome's great legacy is
Christianity but now Wales produces its
own Christian leaders
[Music]
they're determined to make the faith on
these shores more rooted and much more
outward looking
[Music]
between the years 400 and 600 they
managed to defend and strengthen
Christianity in the teeth of anglo-saxon
aggression this is the age of the saints
some focus completely on the spiritual
life away from the turmoil of war that's
all around
it's a search for remoteness and
isolation for the kind of spiritual
peace that can still be found along
paths of the Welsh coastline these are
people who want to withdraw from the
world and who take as their example the
Christian Hermits of the Middle East
thousands of miles away we're on the
edge of Europe here but we are in the
mainstream of Christianity other saints
chose a different path engaging with the
lives of ordinary people around them
they build communities which shelter the
faith in the troubled times of
anglo-saxon attack the most important is
the settlement a tannish did vow Santu
it major as dr. Juliet wood explains to
me this is where a remarkable man called
if did turns his back on a soldier's
life and builds what we believe to be
Britain's first-ever center of learning
[Music]
we don't have a lot of written records
from this period but we do have the
saints lives and you do have stories
about mythical figures now these were
always sort of done much after the
historical period you kind of have to be
careful with them but they do tell us
what was important to the culture and
certainly with the interested stories
you're getting this image of a powerful
cent a saint who taught other saints a
saint who carried forward this notion of
the Christian message instead starts out
as a warrior rather than a rather than a
monk he was raised as a Christian he's
not a pagan he was raised as a Christian
Billy decided he was going to be a
warrior and then he becomes converted to
the monastic life the Church of Saint if
did dates from long after the original
monastery but it's built on the
tradition that if did sets up a
powerhouse of learning producing a
thousand graduates some sources claim
that both Saint David of Wales and Saint
Patrick of Ireland are pupils of if did
[Music]
the Celtic crosses at the church door
date back almost as far as the age of
the Saints one of them bears the name of
if did himself and several of his chief
followers they are men who cling to
faith and learning in a time of war
prayer and study are their weapons but
the violent times they live in mark them
with a steely determination to fight for
the faith the Welsh Saints are quite
different Bunch there are no martyrs
they're quite touchy
they really blast their enemies there's
strong figures so you get these
wonderful legends which tell you what it
is about a welsh saint that we ought to
emulate if dudes focus is on the world
outside in church terms san twit major
is what we call a class monastery
that's a flexible settlement linked to
the local chieftains who were also
determined to defend their patch it was
a time when Wales was beginning to think
of itself as different but it wouldn't
have been all of Wales in the sense that
we now think of this so when we think of
a story of Wales you're really dealing
with a mosaic which is eventually going
to come together and insted himself
taught a number of very important welsh
saints and they went out and they
founded their own class monasteries
[Music]
the mosaic of Welsh life isn't yet
complete but the picture is filling out
in the five hundreds and six hundreds if
ditch disciples build small communities
all over Wales
[Music]
the physical evidence of their existence
is long gone but the religious
enclosures the timber churches the small
buildings the cemeteries all inside a
protective wall they've certainly left
their mark in every part of ways
if you want to find lasting traces of
the early Wells Church just look at a
map because the old Welsh word for
enclosure is channel and there are
hundreds of Welsh place names which
combine the word Han with the name of
the saint we've already been defunded
not the Han of Saint tib no destron bad
on the fan of same pattern there's
Llanelli of course the hand of st.
earthly there are slightly more complex
ones
Sancho sent the fan of three Saints
plant pimp site the clan of five Saints
and then of course there's the most
exotic one of them all the one that
talks about Saint Mary and Saint Cecilia
and lots of other things too and yes I
can say it can via Putin get go Garrick
we're in Robotron de Sciglio go go go
how's that
the Welsh st. certainly leave their mark
in every corner of Wales and they do
more surrounded by Saxon enemies who
don't share their faith they managed to
break out to inspire others
their impact is immense
crossing the Celtic seas they nurture
the Christian life of Ireland and
Scotland Cornwall and Brittany
the traditions they establish give us
masterpieces such as the illuminated
manuscripts of faraway Lindisfarne
[Music]
but not all of these spiritual Giants
are travelers the best-known figure of
the age stays at home here in Wales and
he builds a wooden church in this
sheltered tranquil spot in the Far West
on the coastline today it is the site of
this magnificent stone built cathedral
which exudes power and certainty it is
of course the Cathedral Church of Delhi
Sant our patron saint Saint David every
schoolchild in Wales knows about the
miracles of Saint David of the ground
suddenly rises under his feet so that a
crowd in plunder we breve can hear him
preach oh I have to say it's a mystery
to me why you'd need to create a hill in
karategi on of all places and then we
learned that this gentle soul on his
death bed urges people to be faithful to
the little things it's a comforting
image it's a reassuring image st. David
emerges as a bit of a softie
don't believe a word of it
David's nickname was aquaticus
the water man people used to think this
was because water was the only thing you
drink
but experts now believe it's because
he's given to testing his faith by
standing for hours
in ice-cold pools
we have very few facts about him but the
way we see Derry is important because
his name is tradition a part and parcel
of a distinctive Welsh form of the
Christian faith one that tries to hold
on to its independence for 500 years to
come
and it's that tenacity that
determination which earns Derry his
place as our patron saint and as a
national figure head
[Music]
so people have learned to live and to
thrive in this landscape it's challenged
them and they've left their mark on it
[Music]
they innovate they trade they deal in
objects of fabulous Worth and beauty
[Music]
they faced the armies of Rome and they
benefited from all that mighty Empire
has to offer
[Music]
now they're fighting for their place in
the world and for the way they want to
live
so the Welsh have arrived there are
force to be reckoned with and the battle
to strengthen and defend that identity
is about to begin
[Music]
the Open University has produced a free
booklet for you to learn more about the
history of the people of Wales
you can call Oh eight four five three
six six oh two five three or go to BBC
co dot uk' slash story of wales and
follow the links to the Open University
[Music]
and there's more from the story of Wales
here on BBC HD at the same time tomorrow
next this evening stay with us for a
batch of bicky's all fired from the
remaining great british bakers
[Music]