Episode 1 Gower

The Gower Peninsula.

70 square miles of raw, natural beauty.

Only minutes from the industry and commerce

of Swansea and Port Talbot,

the wild beaches and country lanes

are a magnet for over 3 million visitors a year.

There's an island mentality here.

Gower people don't like to be told what to do and what not to do.

Traditional farming is dying out

and land owners have to adapt to survive.

I do miss the flocks of sheep and the sheepdog and all that,

but times have changed and you've got to go and seize the opportunity.

The Gower Society is dead set on conservation...

If we don't respect it, we may as well kick it into touch totally

and turn the whole of Gower over to some sort of theme park.

..But locals say Gower shouldn't become a museum either.

We're not slagging anybody off on here. We're just promoting...

But at the end of the day,

local people have to have local work and money.

And people here can be fiercely private.

But as a year on the peninsula unfolds,

we are witness to events both everyday...

When does it have to be made? Is it the same morning?

-Because cucumber gets...

-Soggy.

-..Soggy.

..And highly personal.

Cos it was Dad, I really panicked.

I really thought he was dying.

This land inspires conflict in those who want to make a living here

and those who want to conserve it.

But everyone agrees Gower is both extraordinary and unique.

When we think of Gower,

we think of long summer days and events like the Gower Show,

where the great, the good and everyone else gathers once a year.

We think of sunny beaches and warm seas.

But our story starts six months earlier, in December.

Gower was the UK's first Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty.

Gower Society members are the self-appointed custodians

of the area and its environment.

Today, Gordon Howe, Planning Monitor,

will be flying overhead, taking digital photographs.

We want to go straight across to Penclawdd

and then we're going to go anti-clockwise round Gower

and we'll end up back, you know, doing the usual run

all the way back down into Parkmill.

But this won't be an ordinary fight.

It's a surveillance mission

and some people think they're being spied on.

If they aren't doing anything wrong, there's nothing to worry about.

HE LAUGHS

-Right, come on.

-OK, then, Gordon.

Gordon will carefully check his aerial shots

and compare them with past photos of all the camping and caravan sites

and local businesses to see if anything has changed.

There's one obvious difference to the landscape.

Farmers have been forced to think of new ways to use the fields

that once held livestock.

It's a very busy time at the moment.

Whereas this field would have been full of sheep, it's full of...

trees, you know?

And it will be for the next eight years, really.

Rob's family have been sheep farming in Three Crosses in North Gower

for many generations and the problems facing farming

have taken a terrible toll on the Morgans.

The sheep have long gone

and Rob's new crop is just one of the diversifications

changing Gower's landscape.

I think the tree you're putting in now is number two...

200,764 or something.

You should plant them all by hand!

On Rob's fields, the work goes on year-round.

But it's all geared to just one day.

Merry Christmas to you! Ho-ho-ho-ho!

Oh, look, there's a sheep there.

It almost nibbled my fingers off!

So this is the nastiest elf you've ever seen? No-one gets past her.

-She is...

-People tried sneaking in.

See in the bag there? There's pepper spray.

THEY LAUGH

Planting Christmas trees instead of crops

and breeding an arguably more appealing kind of livestock

didn't come easily.

It did take a lot of persuading for my father to give me a field.

You know, we had 2,000 store lambs on the place then

and every bit of grass was precious, to be honest, as it still is now.

But, no, we planted, I think it was about 5,000,

the rabbits ate most of them, I...

I killed most of them with fertiliser and I thought,

"This is never going to happen, this is never going to happen."

Despite their early attempts at diversifying,

the stress of traditional farming had already done its damage.

The sad thing is my father isn't here now,

because he passed away through farming.

And, you know, that...

That's probably spurred me on into making a success of this

and hopefully he's looking down on me proud,

together with my great-grandfathers, to be honest.

Rob's father took his own life in 1999.

That's the only drawback of it all, is not seeing my dad here.

SEAGULLS SQUAWK

Given their surroundings,

it's no surprise that families like to stay in Gower for ever

and pass on their businesses to their children.

It's not always an easy transition, though.

-Morning.

-Morning.

-I'm here to pick up some turkeys.

-Right.

Philip will get them, now he's in charge of the poultry here.

They got me stuck behind the counter

and told me that I'm to stay here and not interfere.

At Paul and Philip Tucker's butcher shop in Penclawdd,

Christmas Eve is one of the busiest days of the year.

But there's a power struggle going on between the old ways and the new.

Busy days are probably better, because there's less time to...

disagree.

Chalk and cheese is probably the best way to describe us.

Well, the weather is terrible. Look at it. It's pouring down.

It took three years for us to start taking credit card payments.

That's how long it took for me to persuade him.

How big is your turkey? Is one going to be enough?

-Yeah, I got some. Wanted to try...

-Yeah, that's right.

Paul is well-known all over Gower

and he's been an independent councillor for Penclawdd and Swansea

for eight years.

Nice to see you. Merry Christmas!

Hey, and don't forget, when I see you, it's your turn to buy the beer.

-Bring your wallet with you.

-This afternoon or tomorrow.

All right then, that'll do.

Philip is desperate to make his own mark,

but Paul is very much hands-on in the business.

I want to stay old-fashioned, Philip wants to go modern,

but it's got to be a compromise.

I tend to look after the older customers, more traditional,

and Philip will do the modern-style cutting.

The old customers are dying off and the new ones are the future, so...

they need to be looked after.

Philip's been revamping the order system,

but it's harder to revamp his dad.

I've always done the Christmas orders,

always in a book.

Philip now has got it all on these spreadsheets,

the modern way of doing things.

But...there we are, I've got to move with the times.

Whether it's right or wrong.

He takes some orders in the pub as well.

When he forgets to put them in the book,

that can cause a bit of a problem.

But they usually work out all right.

But it doesn't matter where the order has come, as long as you take them.

When I'm out socialising,

if somebody wants to take an order, I'll take the order there and then.

But there's always a problem remembering to write it in the book

the following morning.

Philip's trying to drag the shop, and his father,

into the 21st century.

But he's not going to go quietly.

Well, I've been here now 27 years,

so I reckon I'll be another 3 years until I've done 30 years.

That will make me 57.

So if I can hand over to Philip now, in three years time,

I'll be very pleased.

Easier said than done.

There's more chance of him going out in a box, I think.

There we are.

Thanks to its special status as an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty,

you won't see any high-rises or big modern developments in Gower.

Something that everyone agrees is a good thing.

The Gower Society is made up of volunteer conservationists,

but locals are often angered by their views.

Gareth Howells owns Hillend Caravan Site in Llangennith.

Like many landowners, he's had a few run-ins with them.

Since I've been running this site, 16 years,

I think I've probably put in

10 applications to the planning authorities

and I think every one has been objected to by the Gower Society,

so I don't really see where they're coming from.

We've often been accused

of saying that we're trying to sort of keep Gower

and we don't like any development.

Well, that's not true. We've all got to accept change.

I think they've lost sight of what they set out and intended to do

in the first place, which was protect Gower,

but they seem to want to protect it for protection's sake, really.

I think they want it to be...

you know, kept in the '50s.

We are criticised, I know we're criticised

and we're not idiots, we know what we're criticised for

but, equally, we don't preach anything

that is not covered in current legislation.

They don't seem to see the balance between development and jobs.

They're certainly no friends of people like ours.

Battles with the Gower Society aside,

Gareth has more pressing matters on his mind.

He has only three months

to get the site ready for the opening of the season,

Easter Bank Holiday.

It is a race against time, because everyone expects their new unit

to be on and fully commissioned by 1st March.

Once we finish with the caravans,

which we always aim to do by the end of February,

we then have to turn our attentions to the campsite.

The weather impacts on everyone in Gower.

Gareth knows he needs to have it on his side.

Pete Jones, known as PJ,

is watching the forecast for a different reason.

He's one of Gower's best-known surfing heroes,

a British and European champion.

He's on the water every day of the year,

and appreciates the perks of being so close.

Living by the beach is a gift,

so I can change within 400 yards of the beach.

All the other guys are down there in the back of their cars,

easterly winds freezing their balls off

and I'm here, in the heat.

And when I come out, I get in the shower.

Pete runs the Surf Shop with his wife Carol

and his children James and Lucy.

He's one of Gower's best-known characters.

I'll see you later, love.

Sorry to leave you in the shop to work all day, but...

It's all right, I'm going to leave James there today.

She's a great woman. She lets me go surfing all the time.

-Right.

-I'll get my own back.

HE LAUGHS

-See you later, Lu.

-See you.

-Bye, bye.

Yes, he's gone!

Peace and quiet!

We can all do what we want now!

Pete's escape from the world is surfing,

but for son James, it's also cycling, swimming and running.

He's training for the Ironman triathlon.

The roads could do with being resurfaced in a few places, but...

it's great, really, for training, the Gower,

because it's hilly, its undulating...

you get crosswinds, headwinds,

it changes all the time.

I used to do triathlons when I was younger

and I always wanted to do a big distance,

but never really had the mental strength, I think.

James finds that strength

by reflecting on some of the family's toughest times.

My dad and my wife have both been airlifted by the air ambulance

over the last few years, so...

I thought I'd do it for charity, so it gives me a bit of,

you know, motivation that way as well.

So, hopefully, when I'm struggling,

that will give me a bit of a lift to push on.

James witnessed the surfing accident which nearly killed his father,

but all Pete can remember

is the beginning of what seemed like an ordinary day.

I went over to Blue Pool,

it's only four of us, cos it's super cold,

and I remember riding a wave all the way in on my long board

and, yeah, I kick out...

Great, you know, smiling, that's the last thing I can remember.

What Pete didn't know was that a stray surfboard

had smashed into his head,

driving seven splinters of bone into his brain.

It feels like it went really quickly.

It didn't feel like, even though we were on the beach for 40 minutes,

it didn't feel like it was 40 minutes.

Because I wasn't there and I didn't see anything, I felt...

sort of a bit like, "Our dad's had a bump, but he'll be all right."

I didn't really take it in that it was quite so serious.

It hit me sort of the day after, really,

or that evening and the day after,

but, you know, it's just one of those things. We'll all go at some point.

He's always felt that he's indestructible

and can go on for ever and ever,

but he can't.

Showing his usual determination, Pete has now recovered

and he's back in the water whenever he can escape the shop.

A little bit out of breath,

but not bad.

HE CHUCKLES

Not bad.

Over at Hillend Caravan Site,

Gareth and his right-hand man Gary plan the week ahead.

A new chalet is arriving,

the largest ever to be delivered.

Did I tell you that that twin unit was arriving on Wednesday morning?

Who's putting it in? Is it our boys or theirs?

It's not being craned in. They've seen the pad,

they know what they're up against and they're going to be...

Well, they say it's no problem,

but if you just keep an eye on them, if I'm not here.

But early February brings disastrous weather.

There's a flurry of snow and frost

which has affected journey times

and the chalet is hours behind schedule.

On the morning it arrives, the sun is shining again

and the wind has dropped,

but there's another problem.

The chalet is too big to get through Gower's winding lanes.

There's a little wall on the back-left side,

that they're going over by about two inches,

so it should be just clear of the wall now,

they've had to jack it up just to get it over that wall.

The delivery is causing chaos in the village.

We are blocking the whole road now so people can't get out,

and people can't get in.

The first half of the chalet gets through,

the second gets stuck on the bridge.

But the biggest hurdle is ahead

actually siting the chalet on top of the frozen beach burrows.

Happy to see it come in one piece,

they normally knock gutters off when they come down here,

down that lane.

Mind you, they haven't got it on the plot yet.

That'll be a job for them.

We've just got to see how long it takes now just to get things right,

if we can get that first half up here and, to be honest,

it might be better to try and pull the next one up tomorrow,

once the ground has refrozen again.

The light, though, is fading fast.

I was hoping both halves would be here this evening,

but that ain't going to happen.

Time just goes by, and you have to get the job done

and that's what it's all about.

So, I'd better ring my wife and tell her

I'm going to be late for tea!

HE LAUGHS

It's a long night

and early morning for the team.

But the chalet is finally on site.

However, there is a bigger problem looming for Gareth

Everyone's short of cash,

and caravans just aren't selling like they used to.

It has hit everybody, the last couple of years

and we're no exception.

Thought we might ride it out

but, you know, we normally sell all our units,

we've never got anything left by the end of the season

but I think the difference is normally

you could sell each unit 10 times over.

Last year, we found we could sell each one once

and I think that will be the same this year.

The economy will also be high on Paul Tucker's manifesto,

as he canvasses for the forthcoming local elections.

-Well, hello, how are you?

-All right, how are you?

-I am out canvassing for May 3rd.

-All right, nice day for it.

That's my leaflet, all about me.

Back at the shop, Philip is quite happy to be in charge for once.

He should be flat-out now

on his door-to-door,

pounding the pavements.

Oh, nobody home?

So, two leaflets through the door.

And he's anxious to know whether his dad gets re-elected

so he can get his hands on the shop.

Well, I'd like to think he'd get in. He obviously does enjoy it.

I think he enjoys it a bit more than he does being in the shop.

It's like I say, he could take a back step in the business now

and let us get on with it, so to speak.

I'd better shut the gate in case the horses or the sheep go in there

and I'll certainly lose a vote then.

'It is not for me to tell him what to do,'

cos, at the end of the day, it's his business

and he's got to make the decision himself what he wants to do.

I can rely on your vote?

-Yes.

-Good, that's all right then.

HE CHANTS

So long!

At the Poundffald farm in Three Crosses,

Rob is going about his early morning chores.

A typical Gower gate, they call this.

Held up by string and not on its hinges.

As they say, it's... Whoops!

He's spending some quality time with his latest attractions.

This is my next big thing,

my prodigy, the next big bull.

He's been picked on by everyone this year, but next year

he's going to grow the biggest set of antlers and be the boss.

This is probably the Bluestone holiday camp for reindeers,

but, no, it's great to have them around the farm,

it's nice to see them on a frosty morning.

Right, we'll go and see what the tree pruners are up to.

Rob's business, like so many in Gower, is a family affair.

His uncle Howard is part owner, and a well-known local figure.

His sister Cath works for them all year round.

I think the government should bring out a subsidy where farmers get

paid to employ their family members because it's far more stressful

than employing someone like Paul who hasn't worked here before.

It's never-ending, there's not enough hours in the day.

I could be here 12 hours a day.

You go into one field and you think, "This is going to take

"a couple of days," and you're there for days and days.

But would you work anywhere else again?

We have had moments, family business.

I can't talk to Rob on Christmas.

I get called some very nice names around Christmas time

off my brother.

Nothing ceases to amaze me.

Like Rob and Cath,

other families can find the winter a little testing...

..especially when they're stuck inside.

He doesn't watch longboarding, because he's a shortboarder.

And he's not interested in style. James, are you going to watch it?

-Dad, shut up!

-Just cos you can't do it very well,

you don't want to watch it.

You can only do a shortboarder.

Ups and downs of a family business.

You don't know when to be business

and you don't know when to be family!

Hello, PJs?

Well done, you've done some work.

We've got to keep the place warm.

'Yeah, who's calling?'

OK, hang on a second.

It's a good way of saving money on power.

If we all put our wetsuits on,

then we don't have to spend money on electricity or coal.

See what we have to put up with?

Me and Mum just switch off.

We just nod and agree with them

and let them think that we're listening!

When the family is on top of each other,

Carol loves to sneak a quiet moment to herself.

It's refreshing to have...

To be married to somebody who is constantly...

..cracking a joke,

when you've been brought up

with quite a sort of a grumpy father figure.

And the children?

The children have got his sense of humour, as well.

He probably just wants to know what I'm talking about.

If you love somebody, and that is what they want to do, have an affair,

that's great, let them have it.

My dad said that about my mum.

So, I'll check and I'll call in there

when I've been swimming on Monday.

-You haven't had an affair, have you?

-No.

I've only had...

..12.

You have had an affair with that woman down the road.

Which woman is that?

The one that's... blue and wet and cold.

-The ocean.

-Yeah.

I see the white light.

But I let you go off and have your affair whenever you want.

You do.

Now go and do the peanuts now.

I'll do the peanuts.

Can I come in through the back,

will you let me through the front?

You have to have a special password to get back in here.

HE LAUGHS

Come on, then.

On the edge of sanity!

I don't know quite sure which side we're on that line sometimes.

The sun has finally started shining on Gower,

and the lads at Hillend have got a chance

to get stuck into sorting out the fields for the campers.

Now we've had four, five days of this weather, it's made

a huge difference, it's dried the fields out, it means we can get

on top of them rolling them, cutting the grass.

Although they look good at the moment,

it'll take a heavy shower and then we're back to square one but,

no, I'm pretty pleased. I'm pretty pleased.

HE CHUCKLES It always seems to work out.

I always panic at this time of year,

but somehow it always seems to work out so I'm pretty happy, yeah.

It's Easter weekend

and their hard work has been wasted.

Gales and heavy rain have kept all

but the most determined campers away.

And it's a bitter blow for Hillend.

You spend so much time and effort getting them looking good,

getting them flat, rolled out, cut.

You get a few days of this

and if you get some of the heavy camper vans in,

you end up having to pull 'em out,

the fields get messed up.

It's a typical end to a bank holiday, it's...

It's one of these things with camping that you just have to take,

you know, with the weather as it is.

Just a lot of grass cutting next week.

Think the best thing to do is go to the pub

-and come back tomorrow, is it?

-That's a bloody good idea!

HE LAUGHS

It's been said that Gower

is a secret that people hug to themselves

and it's true that everyone who lives here

has their own personal haven.

Paul's special place is slightly different, though.

Beaches are no good to me, I don't like the beach.

This is where like to escape. I've just finished work,

I come up here for a couple of hours and enjoy.

I've been 40 years now, doing this,

so it's a nice break from all the work.

It's a month till the elections

which will decide Paul and Philips' fate.

Philip's still hoping to get his hands on the shop

if his father's successful.

I've got to win the election first, but at the end of the day,

the members of the public in Penclawdd,

they vote whoever they want and whoever wins will win, that's it.

All fed for another night.

Down now for tea.

Away from the fields and the business,

Christmas tree farmer Rob finds his inspiration on Llangennith Beach,

in the shadow of the Worm's Head.

It probably energises me more than relaxes me.

Obviously I'll go back with a smile on my face,

all the way home now. And I have a smile on my face every day

when I know I'm coming here for a run.

It keeps me motivated. I probably work harder, knowing I'm going

to come to the beach in the evening and have run and see all this.

But Rob's father is never far from his thoughts.

Maybe something good has come out of it.

I've put my heart and soul into everything I do on the farm

and I can't get stuck in the past,

but he's with me every day of my life and this helps

and on an evening like this, it's just soothing,

puts everything in perspective and hopefully he's looking down

and is proud of what he can see, obviously.

But, yeah, it is a very difficult time.

Away from the waves and the shop, Pete's escape is his music.

(HE SINGS)

Playing the guitar, in this space, you're on your own again,

it's like being in the sea, really.

You can do what you want. You can feel your energy, I suppose.

Maybe my accident made me not think about money any more,

at all, really, because when I started with the surf shop

I had no money. I was just as happy then as when I did the surf shop,

I've got plenty of money in a way, I suppose. I've got a lovely house,

I live in a beautiful place, but if I had to sleep in a camper van

on the beach, with my guitar in my hand,

I'd be just as happy.

# When I get older, losing my hair

# Many years from now

# Will you still be sending me a Valentine

# Birthday greetings Bottle of wine

# If I've been out Till quarter to three

# Would you lock the door?

# Will you still feed me?

# Will you still need me?

# When I'm sixty-four? #

I'm actually 62 now, so I've got a bit of time!

Next time in Gower,

it's D-Day for Paul.

Stay cool. Stay cool.

A local business comes under threat.

If they take this marquee away,

they'll take 30 years of my life away.

And a killer is on the loose.

I like to see a fox,

but if they are taking the lambs and doing a lot of damage, well,

you like to see them dead, perhaps.

Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd