Whitland to Swansea Great British Railway Journeys

For Edwardian Britons, a Bradshaw's was an indispensable guide

to a railway network at its peak.

I'm using an early 20th-century edition to navigate a vibrant

and optimistic Britain

at the height of its power and influence in the world.

But a nation wrestling with political,

social and industrial unrest at home.

Dressed in the colours of the Welsh flag,

I begin in south Wales

on a journey that will also take in southwest England.

At the time of this Bradshaw's, 110 years ago,

the Victorian age was over and King Edward VII reigned.

Railways, coal and the British Empire were at their zenith,

but this was not a tranquil age -

big changes were under way in technology, society and politics.

Starting in Carmarthenshire,

this journey will take me east through industrial south Wales,

passing through its major cities - Swansea and Cardiff -

before crossing the border into England.

I'll explore Edwardian Bristol,

then set a south-westerly course to take in rural Somerset

and the Devon coast, en route to my final stop in Cornwall.

This first leg gets into gear at Whitland

and continues on to Llanelli.

I'll travel to Gowerton and finish at Swansea,

the birthplace of one of the 20th century's best-loved poets.

On this journey, I burn rubber in the hot seat...

-Well, this is exciting! What speed are we doing?

-About 70.

Follow in the footsteps of the great Welsh bard...

So, I suppose Dylan Thomas came here, did he?

I don't think there's a pub in Swansea that he didn't go to!

And uncover a spiritual renaissance.

"I stir up a few friends who turn back to Jesus,

"but he will need thousands of friends in Wales."

At the beginning of the 20th century,

Britain had 20,000 miles of railways.

In south Wales, they threaded up the valleys and linked the villages.

Locomotives had exceeded 100mph,

but Edwardians who craved speed looked to a different technology.

The motor car demanded individual skill

and offered the freedom of the open road.

I'm alighting at Whitland,

a small Carmarthenshire town with a tradition of dairy farming.

But I'm bound for the coast to join the gathering crowds

at the site of what was Britain's very first

international motor rally.

It took place on the stretch of beach at Pendine Sands in 1909,

pioneering the development of modern motorsport,

and today it's still a magnet for petrolheads

and those who feel the need for speed.

-I did 98mph last year.

-Why do you do it?

Once you've raced, there isn't anything else.

I'm currently the fastest woman in the world.

-You're the fastest woman in the world?

-I am, yes. Yeah.

What was your record?

Um, the actual official record was 264.1mph

over a standing mile.

-You went at 264.1mph on a motorbike?

-Yes.

-And you're here to tell the tale?

-Yes.

-Well, I want to get the ton at least on it today.

-100mph?

-Yeah.

-And why do you wear thimbles to do that?

Ah, because it's very important to give the thumbs up to

the right people at the right time.

You know, "Yes, we're good," or, "No, we're not."

-That's what that's all about.

-What are they, then?

They're actually off my battery.

It's the covers, it's so I don't lose them.

The royal family had become accustomed to travelling

the country by rail, but King Edward VII became the nation's first

motoring monarch when he purchased a Daimler automobile in 1900.

The Pendine Museum Of Speed overlooks the famous

seven-mile stretch of sand.

-Chris.

-Hi. Bore da.

Motor historian Chris Delaney can tell me

about the groundbreakers of world land speed records.

Chris, today there's the roar of engines all around us.

How did Pendine Sands become associated with motor racing?

At the turn of the 20th century, you can't race on the roads.

20mph speed limit,

dangerous roads designed for horses, not designed for the motor car,

but this, out here, is a large area of flat, hard sand.

It's a great natural racecourse.

The glory days, when the Sands put land speed record attempts

on the world stage, came about because of the rivalry

between an English racing journalist and a Welsh engineer.

And so, 1924, Malcolm Campbell comes along in the first Blue Bird

and takes the land speed record, here, on Pendine.

And then John Godfrey Parry-Thomas, born in Wrexham, in north Wales,

comes and does it as well in 1926.

What sort of speeds?

He pushed it over 170mph, which was an incredible speed

for the time, and then Campbell came back and took it back again.

And it was in April, 1927, that Parry-Thomas came back here

in an attempt to retake his record from Malcolm Campbell.

Sadly, the car skidded, turned over.

Unfortunately, he was killed in the process.

So this is the very car in which Parry-Thomas died?

Obviously, substantially restored, but, yes, this is it.

Despite the obvious dangers of speed competitions,

the hard sands at Pendine

continue to attract thrill-seekers chasing records.

Welcome to 2017 Pendine record attempts. Are we all happy?

-ALL:

-Yeah.

-MAN:

-Very.

This event was established by former motorcycle racer Trevor Duckworth...

-Thanks, gentlemen.

-ALL:

-Thank you.

..with the aim of providing competitors

with organised conditions

in which to race safely.

So, today is straight lining?

Yeah, today's record attempt on the famous Pendine Beach...

We've got classes for all types of machines and the fast stuff

will be nudging 200mph at the end of the measured distances.

I might take a spin on the sand myself in a three-wheeler.

Any particular tips for me?

Yeah, I hold a lot of world records on three-wheelers,

believe it or not, and the thing to do is just set off nice

and gently, and then just build the speed up through the gears.

Short shift and just let it get into top

and that will give you the best speed you can have.

Maybe 130, if you're brave.

I was thinking more like 50.

TREVOR LAUGHS

My carriage is a modern interpretation of the three-wheeler

first designed by the Morgan Motor Company in 1910.

Trevor will be my instructor from the passenger seat.

-Well, this is an amazing experience for me, Trevor.

-It will be, yeah.

I don't think I've ever done anything quite like this.

Yeah, let's go, let's do it.

KLAXON BLARES

Brake.

-Whoa!

-Change...change gear.

Keep going.

Right, a bit more, a bit more.

You can feel the back end move, but it's all right. Just keep going.

Higher gear, that's it, keep going.

That's it, nice and steady.

-Nice and steady.

-Nice and steady.

-Top gear.

-Fifth gear?

-Yep, right.

-That's it. Just keep going, a bit more.

-Getting faster and faster...

-A bit more.

-I've got the accelerator down.

-Absolutely fantastic.

-We're reaching the finish point...

-A bit more.

Well, this is exciting.

-What speed are we doing?

-I think we're about 70.

-And off!

-Just let it slow down.

Right, nice and steady, we're starting to brake.

-Well, Trevor, that was amazing.

-All right? Well done.

-Thank you so much.

Fantastic fun.

"Stands the church clock at ten to three?

"And is there honey still for tea?"

The poet Rupert Brooke makes us look at the period

before the First World War through rose-coloured spectacles.

In fact, the Government was terrified of industrial strife

and of possible rebellion in Ireland

and the two came together threateningly in 1911,

when railwaymen at Llanelli went on strike,

potentially closing the rail corridor for troops

who would be needed to suppress any revolt in the Emerald Isle.

From the late 19th century, Llanelli was known as Tinopolis,

thanks to its flourishing tin plate industry.

I'll retrace the fateful events of the 1911 railway strike

with historian Russell Grigg.

-Hello, Russell.

-Hello, Michael.

-Very good to see you.

-Nice to see you, too.

So, why was there trouble here at Llanelli in 1911?

Well, essentially, because of the topography of the railway station.

So, you have a bottleneck between two level crossings,

the eastern and western crossings.

So, essentially, it was a good place for the strikers to actually

undertake their protest.

What was the strike about?

There were major concerns about the pay and working conditions.

I mean, typically, a railway worker then

would earn around 20 shillings a week, £1 a week, whereas the

average salary then was probably nearer around 30 shillings a week,

but also it's quite a dangerous occupation, or dangerous employment.

In the ten years prior to the 1907 period,

around 5,000 railwaymen were actually killed.

In the years before the Great War, disgruntled British workers

from dockers to miners were turning to industrial action.

In 1911, railwaymen joined the fray

with their first-ever national strike.

Here, in Llanelli, workers blockaded the line.

How did the strike progress?

Eventually, troops were sent here to obviously try to open the two

-level crossings.

-What happened next?

Major Brownlow Stuart went up on the bank

to try and talk to the protesters.

One report says that he got his watch out and he said,

"Look, you have one minute.

"The Riot Act will be read, one minute to disperse."

The dispersal didn't occur, five shots were fired

and we know that some killed two young men,

one aged 19 and one aged 21.

What was the reaction of Llanelli to these deaths?

Well, clearly, that was a major trauma

and there was a great deal of anger.

News travelled very quickly.

Of course, the railway workers themselves,

there were only around 500 of those,

so they were supplemented by the tin plate workers.

So that gathering numbers started to look at where

they could vent their anger and their frustration.

So, what happens next is the attention shifts

from the railway station itself towards the goods shed.

After the deaths,

what had started as a peaceful strike turned to violence.

Tracks were torn up, trains and shops ransacked,

and a freight wagon containing explosives was set alight,

resulting in four more fatalities.

This was a riot that turned really into looting, was it?

Exactly, and I think there is a distinction to be drawn,

or certainly the records try to distinguish between those

who were rioting and those who were looting, and the punishments

meted out at the end following the inquest reflected the difference.

-A painful history for Llanelli.

-Absolutely so.

The goods shed still stands in Llanelli,

one of the few surviving examples in Wales.

Robert Lloyd heads up a project committed to restoring it.

Robert, can anything be done with these fine buildings?

Yes, lots can be done to it.

I mean, it looks derelict now, obviously,

but this is an iconic building in Llanelli.

It's a Grade II listed building, built in 1875.

So, the Goods Shed Trust have been working since 2011, really,

to restore it and to get ideas for rejuvenating the place

and we intend telling the bigger picture of how Llanelli went

from a little village to this huge industrial complex,

the Tinopolis of Llanelli.

Tinopolis' unofficial anthem is Sosban Fach, or Little Saucepan,

said to have been sung by the strikers in 1911

and today by the Llanelli Male Choir.

# Sosban fach yn berwi ar y tan

# Sosban fawr yn berwi ar y llawr

# A'r gath wedi sgrapo Joni bach. #

My goodness, gentlemen, that was stirring!

Gentlemen who sing that really mean business, don't they? MEN LAUGH

Thank you.

-How do you feel, having sung like that today, how do you feel?

-Proud.

Proud?

-When Wales wins at the rugby, yes?

-Yeah!

-Is that...?

I mean, it does happen, does it? Yes, yeah.

-MEN:

-Ooh!

-LAUGHTER

When Wales wins at the rugby, what do you like to sing then?

-Amen.

-Amen!

-Could I have a moment of Amen? ALL:

-Yes!

# Amen

# Amen, amen, amen

# Amen, amen

# Amen, amen, amen. #

A new day, and I'm resuming my travels,

heading east in the direction of Swansea.

A satirical song goes,

"Have you ever been to Wales where they brew the finest ales?

"And you want to drink on Sunday but you have to wait till Monday."

And Sunday observance is still an important influence in Wales.

At the beginning of the 20th century, Nonconformists -

Methodists, Baptists and the like -

easily outnumbered Anglicans of the established church.

And according to newspapers of the day, a Welsh revival was under way,

featuring a preacher called Evan Roberts making 40,000 converts.

I must relive that revival.

Gowerton Station opened as Gower Road in 1854.

The village that it serves

is known as the gateway to the Gower Peninsula.

I'm bound for the nearby town of Loughor -

the birthplace of the leader of the religious revival

that gripped Edwardian Wales.

-Hello, Bill.

-Hello, Michael. Very nice to meet you.

I've arranged to meet historian Bill Jones.

Bill, I've been looking at a newspaper from December 1904 -

"The revival wave spreading.

"Scenes of enthusiasm.

"Great change in the habits of the people."

It was quite a thing, this Welsh revival.

Oh, this is a remarkable episode in many respects

and we're here almost at the peak of the revival at the end of 1904,

although it lasted, in many areas, right through until 1905 as well.

By this time the movement had spread from this chapel, here, in Loughor,

out towards other parts of Wales

and in many ways the revival is helped by the railways, of course.

Who was Evan Roberts?

Evan Roberts was born in 1878. He was the son of a collier,

he also had worked underground himself,

but had then decided he wanted to become a minister of religion

and, in order to do that, had become a student at the grammar school

at Newcastle Emlyn.

Just a few weeks into his studies,

26-year-old Roberts experienced a profound religious awakening

after attending a meeting led by Methodist evangelists.

He returned to his hometown of Loughor to spread the word

and his passionate preaching was well received from the start.

Roberts soon began touring Wales, addressing huge crowds.

For the next year, he was constantly on the road.

What happened to Evan Roberts?

This, of course, was an intense moment in his life

and physically and mentally demanding,

and he has what most people would acknowledge would be

some sort of a breakdown and then he retires from public life.

Extraordinary.

Wales had been swept by periodic waves of religious fervour

since the 18th century, but the 1904 revival was the biggest yet.

Lively meetings characterised by spontaneous outbursts of emotion

and rousing singing converted an estimated 100,000 souls.

Alun Ebenezer's uncle, a tin plate worker from Llanelli,

played a part in the story.

Now, tell me about your uncle.

My uncle was the main singer with Evan Roberts

and some of the other revivalists.

His name was Sam Jenkins.

Can you remember what your uncle would sing?

Yes, there was one song in particular which my uncle had

translated into Welsh and it was, um, For Saving A Sinner Like Me.

He asked for the word "sinner" to be changed to "rebel",

so it was changed to For Saving A Rebel Like Me,

and that became quite a well-known hymn during the revival.

In Evan Roberts' day,

Anglicanism was Wales' established religion,

but in 1920, Nonconformists won a long-desired victory

when the Church of England lost its official status in Wales.

By then, however, Nonconformism was in decline.

The revival led by Roberts had been its high-water mark.

"Hear, my brethren, he gave of himself.

"Hear, my friends, Jesus comes out of the grave.

"Men must keep their promise, God will come to them.

"Give him your all, all lands.

"I stir up a few friends who turn back to Jesus,

"but he will need thousands of friends in Wales."

Bill, the revival at the time did have quite an effect

on Welsh society, didn't it?

There was a significant change in sort of people's habits,

if you like. There was a decline in drunkenness, that's evident.

There was also... Undermined popular culture at the time,

particularly sports that had become very well-known.

Rugby clubs closed,

but it's undoubtedly one of the most remarkable events

in the history of modern Wales and one of international significance.

From this small town, I'll travel one stop

to Wales' second-largest city.

"I was born in a large Welsh industrial town

"at the beginning of the Great War -

"an ugly, lovely town - or so it was, and is, to me -

"crawling, sprawling, slummed, unplanned, jerry-villa'd,

"and smug-suburbed by the side of a long and splendid-curving shore."

I'm on my way to Swansea in search of the poet who penned those words,

who, in an alcohol-fuelled life, wrote like an angel.

-Excuse me?

-Yes.

Does Dylan Thomas mean anything to you?

-Um, I know he's a famous Welsh writer.

-Um, are you Welsh yourself?

-Um, I've got Welsh heritage, but I was born and live in London.

-Ah-hah.

And would you know...

..would you know any of the works that Dylan Thomas was famous for?

Uh, Under Milk Wood is really the only one I know.

-It's the most famous, I think.

-Yes.

I was just reading a tiny bit there, I don't know whether you heard it?

-Yes.

-The way he plays with the words...

-The words, yeah.

-Wonderful.

It was absolutely beautiful, yeah.

-Well, I'm going in search of Dylan Thomas.

-Enjoy your search.

Thank you very much.

Abertawe, as the city is called in the native tongue,

was a hub of south Wales' industrial revolution.

And as soon as I step off the train, my Thomas quest is rewarded.

The poet was born and raised in Swansea's western suburbs

and as a boy he played in the beautifully planted Cwmdonkin Park.

Fondly described by Thomas as a world within the world

of the sea town, the park lies a short walk from his boyhood home.

The house where Dylan Thomas lived as a child.

It's unexpected, it's comfortable,

it's prim, it's proper, it's suburban.

-Geoff Haden manages the house...

-Hello, Michael.

And welcome to the Dylan Thomas Birthplace.

-Great to see you, Geoff, thank you very much.

-Come on in.

..and conducts guided tours.

It has a very authentic period feel.

Well, I'm glad you like it, it took a long time to get it to this stage.

There was very little to go on, but we were really lucky, we found

the maid, Emily, who had worked here for five years when she was 15

and Dylan was 16, and so she was able to tell us

all about the house, the colours, the furnishings

and the layout of the house.

A maid?

So we're talking about quite a middle-class family.

Dylan himself described this house as his parents'

professional Glamorgan villa.

So that's quite sardonic.

-Did he write in this house?

-He wrote two thirds of his published work.

Um, he lived here for 23 years.

The foundation for all his work came from this house and this area.

And might I see the place where he wrote?

Of course you can, it's his little bedroom upstairs.

This semidetached house was built in 1914,

the year of Dylan Thomas' birth.

But by 2004, it was in use as student digs.

Geoff bought the house and has carefully restored it.

It is very surprisingly small.

So much creativity came out of such a tiny room.

Well, Dylan described it as a room that was so small,

you had to go outside to turn around.

Big enough for a bed, a desk, a chair.

There was a good library here?

A very good library in his father's study

and that's where Dylan was allowed

to go and read anything and everything

from Tiger Tim's Annual to Shakespeare and Dickens.

Why do you think we still feel

so much interest in this son of Swansea?

I think it's because he's a bit of an enigma.

He is, to some people, a drunk and a womaniser.

To others, he's a small, shy boy who becomes a celebrity.

He's like the first rock star,

and like so many of those rock stars, he was self-destructive.

Thomas published his first book when he was 20.

Although he's known as a poet, his vast body of work also

includes film, radio and television scripts, short stories and plays.

-Jeff.

-Sit down.

Thank you so much.

Jeff Towns is a lifelong Dylan Thomas fan.

-Well, Jeff, thank you very much.

-Cheers.

-Cheers.

-So, I suppose Dylan Thomas came here, did he?

-I'm sure he did.

I don't think there's a pub in Swansea that he didn't go to!

Does Swansea appear a lot in his work?

Particularly in his prose, really.

And there's Return Journey, a journey back to Swansea.

A Child's Christmas In Wales is Swansea. Holiday Memory is Swansea.

And we can recognise specific places in the work, can we?

You can, if you know the geography,

because he wrote a short story called The Followers,

his only ghost story, and right next to us is Salubrious Passage,

the Georgian passageway, and this is the No Sign Wine Bar,

but I think Dylan thought that those were just too Dylan-esque for him.

So, Salubrious Passage becomes Paradise Alley

and the No Sign Bar becomes The Vaults.

-He refers to Swansea as, "Ugly - lovely to me."

-Mm.

Which was it for him, do you think?

He was a little bit ashamed of his bourgeois middle-class upbringing

and he wanted to be more bohemian.

So, at times he would say he couldn't wait to get away from Swansea,

but once he went away, he couldn't wait to get back.

There's a wonderful Welsh word, "hiraeth".

It doesn't translate, but hiraeth means a love of home,

and wanting to be home, and his letters are infused -

"Swansea is still the best place.

"I want to hear our sweet town accent."

He was passionate about his hometown.

But the thing about Dylan Thomas was, he never grew up.

You know, that poem, Fern Hill, "As I was young and easy,"

his problem was that he never grew up.

And then drink was a problem.

I mean, being drunk was part of his shtick, what a writer did,

and I think, as his life progressed, it took hold of him

and by the time he was in America, drinking double whiskies,

big whiskies and getting plied with drink, it just became too much.

His was a short and turbulent life.

Dylan Thomas died when he was just 39 years old.

Spread below me is what Dylan Thomas called the sprawling,

crawling town of Swansea.

By the beginning of the 20th century,

the relentless march of technology had urbanised

and industrialised south Wales with tumultuous results.

One was the rail strike in Llanelli, which resulted in several deaths.

Another was the Welsh religious revival,

which urged the Welsh, amongst the smoke and the grime

and the pursuit of profit, to rediscover God and to give up drink.

The latter message at least was lost on Dylan Thomas.

Next time, I discover how money is made in Wales...

And when the guard opens it will come out.

HE LAUGHS

..test my sea legs and my lungs...

Oh, come down!

GROANING: Oh, come down!

..and get back on the track over 1,300 feet above sea level.

TRAIN WHISTLE HOOTS