0:00:04 > 0:00:08A visitor to rural Wales before the Second World War
0:00:08 > 0:00:13would have found themselves in a land that belonged to another age.
0:00:13 > 0:00:16It was world of small isolated communities.
0:00:16 > 0:00:20People lived and died in the space of a few square miles.
0:00:21 > 0:00:25I read a lot on travel. China, Australia and New Zealand.
0:00:25 > 0:00:28I like to hear how other people live.
0:00:28 > 0:00:31- Have you been abroad? - Never in my life.
0:00:32 > 0:00:35It is a world now lost to us.
0:00:38 > 0:00:40The changes in rural Wales
0:00:40 > 0:00:44and in rural areas over most of Europe over the last 50 years
0:00:44 > 0:00:47have been greater than in the previous 500 years.
0:00:55 > 0:00:59In this programme, we take a look at the stories and characters
0:00:59 > 0:01:01of that lost world,
0:01:01 > 0:01:05and we trace the revolution that changed it forever.
0:01:05 > 0:01:11Somebody living in upland Wales, at least, in the 1940s, 1950s,
0:01:11 > 0:01:16would not have been surprised at what was happening in 1500.
0:01:16 > 0:01:18They'd feel very much at home.
0:01:18 > 0:01:21Nowadays, when you describe to people in their teens
0:01:21 > 0:01:24what it was like in rural Wales in the 1940s
0:01:24 > 0:01:27it feels like a foreign country to them.
0:01:29 > 0:01:32When I talk about things when I was a child,
0:01:32 > 0:01:36these children of mine think I'm speaking about the times
0:01:36 > 0:01:40when people were living in a cave, nearly.
0:01:41 > 0:01:45The area I knew well was mid Cardiganshire.
0:01:46 > 0:01:49Upland Wales was a society
0:01:49 > 0:01:52depending upon small scale agriculture.
0:01:53 > 0:01:56There was no electricity.
0:01:56 > 0:01:59Very few people had running water.
0:01:59 > 0:02:03Virtually nobody had an inside lavatory with a flush.
0:02:05 > 0:02:09Everybody kept a pig, chickens, a few ducks and so on.
0:02:10 > 0:02:14When we used to kill a pig, we'd do that twice a year,
0:02:14 > 0:02:18the pieces of pork that wouldn't keep that we didn't salt
0:02:18 > 0:02:21we used to share with other farmers.
0:02:21 > 0:02:24The brawn and the faggots... Of course, it was nice
0:02:24 > 0:02:29because when they killed a pig, we used to have those back as well.
0:02:30 > 0:02:33We used to be quite self-sufficient.
0:02:33 > 0:02:35We used to grow all our own vegetables
0:02:35 > 0:02:39and make butter and bake bread as well.
0:02:40 > 0:02:43I grew up here on the farm, in Henblas,
0:02:43 > 0:02:46on the outskirts of Llwyngwril.
0:02:46 > 0:02:50Llwyngwril is a small village between Dolgellau and Tywyn.
0:02:51 > 0:02:56Very little English was spoken in Llwyngwril as I grew up.
0:02:56 > 0:02:59All the shopkeepers were Welsh speaking.
0:02:59 > 0:03:03And the policeman would be Welsh speaking.
0:03:03 > 0:03:07The only person I can think of was the station master
0:03:07 > 0:03:09who didn't speak Welsh.
0:03:09 > 0:03:14The period between the wars had been a difficult time for farming.
0:03:14 > 0:03:18Things were fairly desperate, there can be no doubt about that.
0:03:19 > 0:03:22Hard times breed hard people.
0:03:22 > 0:03:25And the hardiness of Cardiganshire folk was the stuff of myth.
0:03:26 > 0:03:30'Dafydd, farmer and gentleman,
0:03:30 > 0:03:34'gives a hint of what gave the Cardi his reputation for meanness.'
0:03:34 > 0:03:38Life was so hard in these parts and it paid better to go to London
0:03:38 > 0:03:42than to sell and handle milk and produce it here.
0:03:42 > 0:03:44People from here went there.
0:03:44 > 0:03:50There is a story about an old fellow who went out there.
0:03:50 > 0:03:53They were selling the milk direct to the customers.
0:03:53 > 0:03:59Someone's relatives were up so we took them to see the cows
0:03:59 > 0:04:03and after showing the cows to the people over here,
0:04:03 > 0:04:06he took them to the water pump
0:04:06 > 0:04:09and said, "This is the best cow I have,"
0:04:09 > 0:04:13and took hold of the handle of the water pump and said,
0:04:13 > 0:04:17"I only see the tail of this cow and she's the best cow I have."
0:04:17 > 0:04:21He was adding water to the milk in London at that time.
0:04:22 > 0:04:26'The jokes about the meanness of the Cardi lose a lot of edge
0:04:26 > 0:04:30'when in cemetery after cemetery in the north of the county
0:04:30 > 0:04:33'a high proportion of the gravestones
0:04:33 > 0:04:36'tell of people who died in youth and middle age.
0:04:38 > 0:04:42'They died mostly because they had to work too hard
0:04:42 > 0:04:44'on too little nourishment.'
0:04:45 > 0:04:50What was striking then is the way in which people cooperated.
0:04:50 > 0:04:55They didn't have tractors, they did have a threshing machine,
0:04:55 > 0:04:58worked by steam, which visited once a year.
0:04:58 > 0:05:03Everybody would bring their corn to be threshed on that day.
0:05:03 > 0:05:06You had to cooperate when it came to shearing.
0:05:06 > 0:05:11There'd be a day for this farm to shear and everybody came together.
0:05:11 > 0:05:16We used to have a hay harvest and carry that all by cart.
0:05:16 > 0:05:18Horses in those days, of course.
0:05:18 > 0:05:21We were very lucky being near the village
0:05:21 > 0:05:23and people always came to help.
0:05:23 > 0:05:27We used to have quite a nice big supper after finishing.
0:05:30 > 0:05:34At the end of the harvest, there would be jollification.
0:05:34 > 0:05:39This was a tee-total area, chapel people, not all that much drink,
0:05:39 > 0:05:43but in some areas, I gather they could be riotous affairs.
0:05:44 > 0:05:46All this has changed.
0:05:46 > 0:05:51That element of cooperation has become, in a sense, redundant.
0:05:52 > 0:05:56That's been replaced now by a much more self-contained family life.
0:05:56 > 0:05:59People watch their television, rather than...
0:05:59 > 0:06:02Well, one can be sentimental.
0:06:02 > 0:06:07There was a great deal of boredom in old rural societies as well.
0:06:07 > 0:06:11Rural Wales may have seemed like a relic of an earlier age,
0:06:11 > 0:06:15but events were about to catapult it into the 20th century.
0:06:17 > 0:06:19During the Second World War,
0:06:19 > 0:06:26U-boat activity made it difficult to import from the rest of the world.
0:06:26 > 0:06:29Britain had to be much more self-sufficient.
0:06:31 > 0:06:34The Government immediately grasped the importance
0:06:34 > 0:06:36of farming to the war effort.
0:06:36 > 0:06:39All available land was put under the plough.
0:06:39 > 0:06:43In Wales, for example, the hectares covered by wheat growing doubled.
0:06:43 > 0:06:46Potato growing grew massive.
0:06:47 > 0:06:49I think in the last ten years
0:06:49 > 0:06:53people have forgotten what farmers did during the war.
0:06:53 > 0:06:58Food was very, very short. We were on rations.
0:06:58 > 0:07:00The pressure was on to feed the country.
0:07:01 > 0:07:03Once the war had been won,
0:07:03 > 0:07:07it assured the status of farmers as almost heroes.
0:07:07 > 0:07:10They had contributed a great deal
0:07:10 > 0:07:14to the effort that was required to achieve victory.
0:07:14 > 0:07:18Welsh farmers were rewarded for their hard work.
0:07:18 > 0:07:21Rationing had provided guaranteed prices for produce
0:07:21 > 0:07:24and farmers' incomes doubled in four years.
0:07:24 > 0:07:29This was the start of a new age of government support for agriculture.
0:07:29 > 0:07:32The War brought not only prosperity,
0:07:32 > 0:07:35but a new wave of people to the Welsh countryside.
0:07:35 > 0:07:39'Two refugees from Poland, victims of Nazism,
0:07:39 > 0:07:45'have farmed and made a living out of 20 acres of stony soil.'
0:07:46 > 0:07:49The Welsh around here are like the Jews in Europe.
0:07:49 > 0:07:54They all keep together. They like very much the family life.
0:07:54 > 0:08:00They help each other always. They help every neighbour.
0:08:00 > 0:08:02For instance, three years ago,
0:08:02 > 0:08:07I was sick in bed and she occupied herself on the farm.
0:08:07 > 0:08:09The neighbours, without asking,
0:08:09 > 0:08:16have come and they spread the muck on the field, planted potatoes.
0:08:16 > 0:08:20They planted seeds for vegetables.
0:08:20 > 0:08:26Could I get more help from another people? I just can't.
0:08:29 > 0:08:34The spirit of mutual cooperation had survived the war intact.
0:08:35 > 0:08:38But now Welsh farmers could afford to buy machinery
0:08:38 > 0:08:41that would make them less dependent on each other.
0:08:41 > 0:08:44In about 1949, we had our first tractor.
0:08:44 > 0:08:50My father did away with the two shire horses he had then
0:08:50 > 0:08:53straight away when the tractor came.
0:08:53 > 0:08:55It changed everything.
0:08:55 > 0:09:00There was very little need for so much labour then on the farm.
0:09:00 > 0:09:05I think a lot of the farm labourers left or moved away.
0:09:05 > 0:09:08It did make a lot of difference to the local community.
0:09:09 > 0:09:14New technology was changing not only farming but also village life.
0:09:14 > 0:09:18I remember one family buying a generator,
0:09:18 > 0:09:21producing electricity, and therefore watching television.
0:09:21 > 0:09:25It wasn't surprising on a night, say, when there was a boxing match
0:09:25 > 0:09:29for something like 100 people to come to their houses.
0:09:29 > 0:09:33We happened to have a bath with taps and hot and cold water.
0:09:33 > 0:09:37I think at least a dozen young women came to have a bath there
0:09:37 > 0:09:40the night before their wedding.
0:09:40 > 0:09:43It was the first time they'd had a bath in a bath with taps.
0:09:43 > 0:09:48So that was a development which added, you might say, to sociability
0:09:48 > 0:09:54but once everybody had a telephone a bath with taps, and a television
0:09:54 > 0:09:59that tradition of cooperation disappeared.
0:10:01 > 0:10:04However, some people were never in a position
0:10:04 > 0:10:08to share this new technology in the first place.
0:10:08 > 0:10:10On Welsh hill farms,
0:10:10 > 0:10:13life went on, undisturbed by developments elsewhere.
0:10:16 > 0:10:18'Robert's progress across the wild landscape
0:10:18 > 0:10:21'takes us back across the centuries.
0:10:21 > 0:10:23'There's something biblical about it.
0:10:25 > 0:10:28'It's a happy self-sufficient family.
0:10:28 > 0:10:31'There isn't a lot of contact with other people.
0:10:31 > 0:10:35'The neighbours don't drop in casually when the mood takes them.
0:10:36 > 0:10:40'At about 11.00, mid morning, the main meal of the day.
0:10:40 > 0:10:44'Never anything elaborate, even though it's the main meal.
0:10:44 > 0:10:46'Most of the time, it's bacon and egg.
0:10:46 > 0:10:48'About twice a week, there's fresh meat.
0:10:48 > 0:10:51'It's remarkable how little they eat.
0:10:55 > 0:10:57'It looks like a hard, tough life,
0:10:57 > 0:11:02'but it hasn't in any way diminished the great charm of these children.
0:11:02 > 0:11:04'Maybe it's added to it.'
0:11:08 > 0:11:11The character of upland Wales had been preserved
0:11:11 > 0:11:15by the fact its terrain made communications difficult.
0:11:15 > 0:11:19I remember my father taking stock to be sold.
0:11:19 > 0:11:22It was either walking them or taking them by train.
0:11:22 > 0:11:29Tywyn was the nearest market and he used to sell sheep and cattle,
0:11:29 > 0:11:32taking them to the station and ordering a truck
0:11:32 > 0:11:37and walking them from the station to where the market was.
0:11:38 > 0:11:43In our village, you'd have to walk two or three miles to catch a bus.
0:11:43 > 0:11:47The bus, once a day to Aberystwyth, twice a day to Lampeter.
0:11:47 > 0:11:49And that was about the lot.
0:11:49 > 0:11:54There was a railway, within three miles, that took you to Carmarthen,
0:11:54 > 0:11:58and then it would go on to the rest of the world.
0:11:58 > 0:12:01A man from Llangeitho was going to Hong Kong,
0:12:01 > 0:12:05he reached Carmarthen and said, "The worst of the journey is over."
0:12:07 > 0:12:11This isolation would come as a shock to one early visitor.
0:12:12 > 0:12:16'Alfred Rimmer, a London, at the start of a visit to Caio,
0:12:16 > 0:12:19'a village in the heart of Carmarthenshire.
0:12:19 > 0:12:23'He'd always been a bit suspicious of Wales and the Welsh,
0:12:23 > 0:12:28'but somehow, a friend persuaded him to spend a week in Wales.
0:12:28 > 0:12:33'We met him off the bus that dropped him a few miles from the village.
0:12:33 > 0:12:36'It was the nearest point served by public transport.
0:12:36 > 0:12:39'At the time, Alf Rimmer refused to believe it.'
0:12:39 > 0:12:44- Hello. The bus for Caio. - There are no buses to Caio.
0:12:44 > 0:12:46- How do you get there?- Walk.
0:12:46 > 0:12:48- Walk?!- Yes.
0:12:51 > 0:12:54What a God forsaken place!
0:12:54 > 0:12:56I wonder if this is a place for a holiday?
0:12:56 > 0:13:01Caio, the world has certainly passed it by.
0:13:01 > 0:13:04If Queen Victoria walked down these streets now,
0:13:04 > 0:13:07she wouldn't be in the least bit put out.
0:13:07 > 0:13:10She'd think it was just as she left it.
0:13:12 > 0:13:15The mini skirt has not arrived in Caio yet.
0:13:15 > 0:13:19The women, they are big women.
0:13:19 > 0:13:23Not the petite "bird" of my walk of life.
0:13:24 > 0:13:28Statuesque, more the Amazon type.
0:13:28 > 0:13:30But they're nice.
0:13:30 > 0:13:34We knew very little about the rest of the world, especially me,
0:13:34 > 0:13:38because we didn't have a car in those days.
0:13:40 > 0:13:43Wales was about to break out of its seclusion
0:13:43 > 0:13:46and connect with the modern world.
0:13:46 > 0:13:49What the tractor had done for farming,
0:13:49 > 0:13:52the motor car would do for village life.
0:13:54 > 0:13:57With the coming of the car, you could go for entertainment.
0:13:57 > 0:14:02People would drive to dances, or even go to the sea for an afternoon.
0:14:02 > 0:14:06For the first time, people from inland Wales learned to swim.
0:14:06 > 0:14:11Most people had cars by about 1970.
0:14:11 > 0:14:16That brought far more people here, even day trippers.
0:14:17 > 0:14:20As the 60s brought new prosperity and mobility,
0:14:20 > 0:14:25Wales was marketed to tourists as a land of mystery and beauty.
0:14:28 > 0:14:30'The sea surrounds us on three sides.
0:14:30 > 0:14:33'Lying west of England and south of Scotland,
0:14:33 > 0:14:35'Wales is a country on its own.
0:14:35 > 0:14:38'We have preserved our history and our language.
0:14:38 > 0:14:42'We are the Cymry, the comrades, the Welsh people.
0:14:49 > 0:14:52'Come, stranger, invade this mountain fortress
0:14:52 > 0:14:55'whose royal emblem is the red dragon.
0:15:03 > 0:15:06'Fishing is a contemplative pursuit.
0:15:06 > 0:15:09'Think now perhaps of the Welsh people themselves,
0:15:09 > 0:15:13'with their warm hearted, Celtic friendliness.
0:15:13 > 0:15:14'Talk to them in English,
0:15:14 > 0:15:18'but listen to the music of their ancient tongue.'
0:15:22 > 0:15:26My mother kept visitors when I was quite a small child.
0:15:26 > 0:15:32That was the first time I was able to learn a little bit of English
0:15:32 > 0:15:34before I went to school.
0:15:34 > 0:15:39My parents used to move out to one of the buildings outside to sleep
0:15:39 > 0:15:42in order to keep more visitors in the house.
0:15:44 > 0:15:47Tourism brought much needed money into rural Wales.
0:15:47 > 0:15:50But there was a price to be paid for it.
0:15:50 > 0:15:55Because of the fragile nature of the communities themselves
0:15:55 > 0:16:01the effect of tourism is often to destroy the original appeal.
0:16:03 > 0:16:06'The basic values of this rural community
0:16:06 > 0:16:09'have lasted through generations of change.
0:16:09 > 0:16:13'Yet problems face its people which seem to menace their way of life.'
0:16:14 > 0:16:17This is a very close community,
0:16:17 > 0:16:21very wary of strangers and wary of change.
0:16:21 > 0:16:25When you live in a beautiful place, it's hard to keep visitors away.
0:16:25 > 0:16:28So we try our best to welcome them.
0:16:28 > 0:16:31And, of course, make a bit of money at the same time.
0:16:32 > 0:16:35Tourism is now our second industry.
0:16:35 > 0:16:38We're beginning to get to grips with it.
0:16:40 > 0:16:44I would like to make a case that this area around Bala Lake
0:16:44 > 0:16:47deserves this preservation.
0:16:48 > 0:16:51It's the bastion of the Welsh way of life.
0:16:51 > 0:16:54When everyone here speaks Welsh together,
0:16:54 > 0:17:00even the couple of English families we have welcomed into our midst
0:17:00 > 0:17:04very soon come to learn Welsh and respect the Welsh way of life.
0:17:04 > 0:17:09That way of life was threatened not only by those coming in,
0:17:09 > 0:17:12but also by those desperate to get out.
0:17:12 > 0:17:16I'm very proud to think that 30% of our youngsters from this area
0:17:16 > 0:17:20go to college or university.
0:17:20 > 0:17:23But there's nothing for them to do when they come back.
0:17:23 > 0:17:25In consequence, there is that drain.
0:17:25 > 0:17:30The best young people do not come back to marry and raise families.
0:17:31 > 0:17:36Rural depopulation made community structure that much more fragile
0:17:36 > 0:17:39and because of that there was a dynamic effect,
0:17:39 > 0:17:43as communities offered less and less to people who were left behind.
0:17:43 > 0:17:45There was less incentive to stay.
0:17:46 > 0:17:51'It's not just the lack of work that has caused people to leave.
0:17:51 > 0:17:53'Life in a country village can be too quiet.
0:17:53 > 0:17:58'Many young people complain that there's not enough for them to do.
0:18:08 > 0:18:12'The cinema is only showing films they've seen before
0:18:12 > 0:18:15'and there's no choice of another cinema in the town.
0:18:15 > 0:18:19'They end up walking the streets again, or going for a coffee.
0:18:19 > 0:18:22'For them, there's nothing else to do.'
0:18:25 > 0:18:30In north Breconshire, we lost 50% of the population in 50 years.
0:18:30 > 0:18:34The present average is about 1% per annum.
0:18:34 > 0:18:37If you go on like that, you finish up with nothing.
0:18:37 > 0:18:41While people were leaving to find work in towns,
0:18:41 > 0:18:45there were plenty of townspeople who were happy to take their place.
0:18:47 > 0:18:51I think tourism was the precursor of immigration.
0:18:51 > 0:18:55The tourists were wealthy as a result of the post War boom.
0:18:58 > 0:19:02At one time, it would be possible to sell an ordinary house
0:19:02 > 0:19:08somewhere in England, buy something fairly simple, improvable,
0:19:08 > 0:19:12with a rural setting and have lots of money left over in the bank.
0:19:13 > 0:19:15'Here, in the yard of the village school
0:19:15 > 0:19:19'is the whole population of Cwmbach in Carmarthenshire.
0:19:19 > 0:19:24'As the locals who attended Cwmbach school move to one side,
0:19:24 > 0:19:26'the large group of newcomers
0:19:26 > 0:19:29'includes wives and husbands who've married into local families,
0:19:29 > 0:19:35'and farmers, mainly from England, who've taken over local farms.
0:19:36 > 0:19:39'Cwmcoch is one of a cluster of small farms
0:19:39 > 0:19:41'at the head of the valley.
0:19:42 > 0:19:45'Another of these small farms is Llwyn Garreg,
0:19:45 > 0:19:49'where Twm Morgan used to farm before he sold it, surprisingly,
0:19:49 > 0:19:51'to a young English couple.
0:19:51 > 0:19:54'Twm Morgan is no lover of the English newcomers.'
0:19:56 > 0:19:58I'm a son of an old Welsh farmer.
0:19:59 > 0:20:03I've been living in this neighbourhood for nearly 60 years.
0:20:04 > 0:20:06And I regret very, very much
0:20:06 > 0:20:10that the English people has ever come to the parish of Llanwinio.
0:20:12 > 0:20:16For an instance, they don't seem to fit in here at all.
0:20:17 > 0:20:20They are keeping apart.
0:20:20 > 0:20:24I should like very much to see them communicate with us,
0:20:24 > 0:20:28to live among us, as we Welsh gentlemen do.
0:20:31 > 0:20:34Much as Twm Morgan may have resented it,
0:20:34 > 0:20:36the movement to the Welsh countryside
0:20:36 > 0:20:41only increased during the 1970s as the ethos of self-sufficiency
0:20:41 > 0:20:44inspired town dwellers to get back to the earth.
0:20:44 > 0:20:47This seemed like an escape for people.
0:20:47 > 0:20:52To get away from urban decline, fear of crime and so on,
0:20:52 > 0:20:56to come to what, on the face of it, looked like a rural idyll.
0:20:58 > 0:21:02Below the surface, life in the Welsh countryside was less than rosy.
0:21:05 > 0:21:08Welsh language culture was being eroded by immigration.
0:21:08 > 0:21:12Holiday cottages were robbing villages of their vitality
0:21:13 > 0:21:16and property prices were being pushed beyond the reach of locals.
0:21:19 > 0:21:24These issues exploded into the headlines at the end of the 70s.
0:21:25 > 0:21:29'Two of the holiday cottages burnt have been in isolated positions,
0:21:29 > 0:21:32'like this one, overlooking Nefyn in the Lleyn Peninsula.
0:21:32 > 0:21:35'The other two are near St David's.
0:21:35 > 0:21:39'Those cottages were within 200 yards of each other.
0:21:39 > 0:21:41'At first, there was no evidence of arson,
0:21:41 > 0:21:45'but when the fourth cottage caught fire today near Pwllheli,
0:21:45 > 0:21:47'there were signs of forced entry.
0:21:47 > 0:21:50'There have been rumours of an escalation in the campaign
0:21:50 > 0:21:53'against Anglicisation of Welsh rural areas.'
0:21:54 > 0:21:59But rural Wales also received a boost during the 70s,
0:21:59 > 0:22:02with Britain's entry into the EEC.
0:22:02 > 0:22:06With European grant aid, Welsh farmers had never had it so good.
0:22:06 > 0:22:09There's an old saying in mid Cardiganshire
0:22:09 > 0:22:13that the farmers of the Aeron Valley were getting married in English
0:22:13 > 0:22:17because they wanted to hear the word "grant" in the ceremony.
0:22:17 > 0:22:21You had a bit of a paradox. Farming became wealthy,
0:22:21 > 0:22:26but at the expense of getting on a technological treadmill,
0:22:26 > 0:22:31expanding increasingly the level of production,
0:22:31 > 0:22:37and to do that, intensifying and extending the size of the farm.
0:22:37 > 0:22:42The more you produce the milk, wheat and potatoes,
0:22:42 > 0:22:44the more surpluses arise
0:22:44 > 0:22:48and by the 1980s, what you have is quotas.
0:22:48 > 0:22:52This is particularly harmful to, say, South West Wales,
0:22:52 > 0:22:57which was the primary dairy producing area of Britain.
0:22:57 > 0:23:01The Vale of Tywi, "prosperously lactic", as Rhys Davies calls it.
0:23:03 > 0:23:06For the typical small farmer in an area like West Wales,
0:23:06 > 0:23:08the good times have gone
0:23:08 > 0:23:13and there's more at risk than the individual farmer's bank balance.
0:23:13 > 0:23:17The very fabric of rural life in Wales is being threatened,
0:23:17 > 0:23:22and that's why the complaining farmer has become the angry farmer.
0:23:23 > 0:23:26This happened when the Government announced milk quotas.
0:23:26 > 0:23:31Quotas meant dairy farmers would have to cut production by 9%
0:23:31 > 0:23:33and some by much more,
0:23:33 > 0:23:37even though they'd been encouraged by the Government to expand.
0:23:39 > 0:23:42This is a great hardship.
0:23:42 > 0:23:45Suicides, for example, among farmers
0:23:45 > 0:23:50hit by banks who'd encouraged them to borrow and borrow,
0:23:50 > 0:23:55to expand their milking parlours and so on and then a sudden closure.
0:23:55 > 0:23:57People were in desperate straits.
0:23:57 > 0:24:00I think we can use that as the marker
0:24:00 > 0:24:06for when farming prosperity really began to stop.
0:24:17 > 0:24:20Of course, the more intense farming gets,
0:24:20 > 0:24:23the more likelihood there is
0:24:23 > 0:24:25of diseases among animals.
0:24:25 > 0:24:30You had the dreadful scares in the 1990s, and the early 21st century,
0:24:30 > 0:24:33BSC, swine fever,
0:24:33 > 0:24:36salmonella in eggs, and foot and mouth,
0:24:36 > 0:24:39bringing agriculture into increasing crisis.
0:24:41 > 0:24:45Over a million sheep, cattle and pigs were slaughtered in Wales
0:24:45 > 0:24:48during the foot and mouth outbreak of 2001.
0:24:51 > 0:24:54To prevent the spread of the disease,
0:24:54 > 0:24:57the countryside was effectively closed down.
0:25:03 > 0:25:07The economic consequences were felt more
0:25:07 > 0:25:10in industries that are not at all related to farming,
0:25:10 > 0:25:14or indirectly draw on the landscape that farming creates.
0:25:14 > 0:25:18This isn't in any way to try to diminish
0:25:18 > 0:25:21the very profound and devastating effects
0:25:21 > 0:25:25of the families that had a cull on their farms,
0:25:25 > 0:25:29but the hospitality industries that have been based on
0:25:29 > 0:25:34the development of the tourism sector suffered very, very badly.
0:25:35 > 0:25:39Up to that point, everybody had assumed, more or less,
0:25:39 > 0:25:43that farming was the backbone of the rural economy.
0:25:43 > 0:25:46There is now no doubt that tourism
0:25:46 > 0:25:50is a more important industry in the countryside than agriculture.
0:25:52 > 0:25:56As tourism draws people into Wales,
0:25:56 > 0:25:58more and more of them are staying for good.
0:25:58 > 0:26:02Immigration, and the effect it can have, is on a scale twice as large
0:26:02 > 0:26:06as the migration into England from outside its borders,
0:26:06 > 0:26:10and much larger again, probably four times as large,
0:26:10 > 0:26:12into specifically Welsh-speaking areas.
0:26:12 > 0:26:17What we may have, and do have already in places like Anglesey,
0:26:17 > 0:26:20where the towns are more Welsh in language
0:26:20 > 0:26:22than the surrounding countryside.
0:26:22 > 0:26:25This influx affects more than the language.
0:26:25 > 0:26:30It also makes it difficult for those born in rural Wales to remain there.
0:26:31 > 0:26:34The time is coming when only well-heeled people
0:26:34 > 0:26:37can afford to live in the countryside,
0:26:37 > 0:26:42particularly as rural housing is more expensive than urban housing,
0:26:42 > 0:26:45a very strange development, but certainly true.
0:26:48 > 0:26:52At the start of our story, the land was not just where people lived.
0:26:52 > 0:26:54It was also their livelihood.
0:26:54 > 0:26:56All this has changed.
0:26:56 > 0:27:01People live in the country to have access to landscape, to open space.
0:27:01 > 0:27:06They can live in the countryside and work in a wide range of places.
0:27:08 > 0:27:11That change in the social composition,
0:27:11 > 0:27:14and the economic underpinning of rural society
0:27:14 > 0:27:17has brought about, virtually, a revolution.
0:27:18 > 0:27:20Life in rural Wales today
0:27:20 > 0:27:25would be unrecognisable to those living there half a century ago.
0:27:25 > 0:27:29Well, we're in a different age now.
0:27:29 > 0:27:34The young people don't value things as we were taught to value them.
0:27:34 > 0:27:39Well, take the young farm wives, if you like.
0:27:39 > 0:27:42They don't value things.
0:27:42 > 0:27:44They burn and destroy everything.
0:27:44 > 0:27:47Well, I, I, perhaps I'm on the other side,
0:27:47 > 0:27:51too much inclined to keep everything.
0:27:51 > 0:27:54As a matter of fact to you,
0:27:54 > 0:27:56I keep every number of the Cymro,
0:27:56 > 0:28:00for 35 years, I've got them all here.
0:28:00 > 0:28:05I've been a subscriber to the Farmers Weekly
0:28:05 > 0:28:08since number one, produced in 1932.
0:28:08 > 0:28:10I've got them every copy, here now.
0:28:10 > 0:28:13What for, I don't know, but they are.
0:28:13 > 0:28:17All my implements are old.
0:28:17 > 0:28:22I'm old-fashioned. I still use the horse and cart, and everything.
0:28:22 > 0:28:25Of course, I realise someday there will be a big change,
0:28:25 > 0:28:31and there will be a heavy bonfire here too after my days,
0:28:31 > 0:28:36after I've gone. Nobody will treasure the things I treasure here.