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The 1990s was a decade of reinvention in Wales, | 0:00:04 | 0:00:07 | |
when industries were born or swept away. | 0:00:07 | 0:00:10 | |
Change was in the air, | 0:00:11 | 0:00:13 | |
and it was led by people with passion | 0:00:13 | 0:00:15 | |
who took control of their own destiny. | 0:00:15 | 0:00:17 | |
I wanted to start a strip show up. | 0:00:19 | 0:00:21 | |
I was like, what a great way to make money! | 0:00:21 | 0:00:24 | |
I'm going to do that! Kerching! | 0:00:24 | 0:00:26 | |
At that time I was so, so passionate about what I was doing, | 0:00:28 | 0:00:31 | |
I was running. I was running. | 0:00:31 | 0:00:32 | |
And the business, it literally exploded. | 0:00:32 | 0:00:36 | |
Entrepreneurial doesn't mean you've got to be bad, or greedy. | 0:00:37 | 0:00:40 | |
You can be a social entrepreneur, you know, and create wealth. | 0:00:40 | 0:00:44 | |
Wealth you know is going to be shared differently. | 0:00:44 | 0:00:47 | |
This is the story of men and women who helped to create a new world of | 0:00:47 | 0:00:51 | |
work in Wales, with their fighting spirit. | 0:00:51 | 0:00:55 | |
In the '90s, millions were ploughed into hi-tech industries | 0:01:01 | 0:01:05 | |
from outside Wales, in an attempt to revitalise the nation. | 0:01:05 | 0:01:10 | |
There was investment form the Far East. | 0:01:10 | 0:01:12 | |
MUSIC: No Limit by 2 Unlimited | 0:01:12 | 0:01:14 | |
But our future lay much closer to home with men and women who were | 0:01:14 | 0:01:18 | |
prepared to strike out on their own in new and old industries. | 0:01:18 | 0:01:23 | |
The steel industry was a survivor from the past. | 0:01:26 | 0:01:29 | |
Traditionally a male preserve. | 0:01:29 | 0:01:31 | |
Yet an ambitious young woman saw the success at Llanwern | 0:01:34 | 0:01:38 | |
as an opportunity to get a job. | 0:01:38 | 0:01:40 | |
Nicola Thomas studied engineering at college, | 0:01:43 | 0:01:46 | |
before being taken on as an apprentice there. | 0:01:46 | 0:01:50 | |
When I started it was like, "Wow, I've actually got in! | 0:01:50 | 0:01:54 | |
"I've actually got in!" | 0:01:54 | 0:01:55 | |
A woman's actually going to go in to the steelworks | 0:01:55 | 0:01:58 | |
and actually work, hopefully, on the shop floor. | 0:01:58 | 0:02:01 | |
That was my aim. | 0:02:01 | 0:02:02 | |
At the time, I wanted to be a welder. | 0:02:02 | 0:02:05 | |
I proved for six months I could weld, I was welding with the boys. | 0:02:05 | 0:02:09 | |
They didn't have an issue with it as long as I welded well. | 0:02:09 | 0:02:11 | |
Nicola got her wish when she was given a job | 0:02:13 | 0:02:15 | |
in the hot mill roll shop. | 0:02:15 | 0:02:18 | |
Here she helped with the maintenance of the huge rolls | 0:02:18 | 0:02:21 | |
used in the production of steel. | 0:02:21 | 0:02:23 | |
If you can master the hot roll shop, | 0:02:23 | 0:02:25 | |
in my mind you can master anything else on site. | 0:02:25 | 0:02:29 | |
Because the majority of heavy stuff was in the roll shop. | 0:02:29 | 0:02:32 | |
There was lots of physical work. | 0:02:32 | 0:02:35 | |
You had to do a lot of slinging, doing a lot of stretching, bending. | 0:02:35 | 0:02:39 | |
We had a lot of spanners. | 0:02:39 | 0:02:41 | |
Like with a car mechanic, you've got a small spanner. | 0:02:41 | 0:02:43 | |
We've doubled that about four, five times in size. | 0:02:44 | 0:02:47 | |
And that's what we've got to use for these big nuts. | 0:02:47 | 0:02:51 | |
I enjoyed working on the shop floor, | 0:02:51 | 0:02:53 | |
that you've got to have a lot of common sense, | 0:02:53 | 0:02:55 | |
and a lot of...wary about what's happening around you. | 0:02:55 | 0:02:58 | |
If you haven't got that, then you can't do the job. | 0:02:58 | 0:03:00 | |
Llanwern was the only steelworks in Britain that employed women | 0:03:02 | 0:03:06 | |
in its rolling mill. | 0:03:06 | 0:03:07 | |
But breaking into a man's world took a lot of determination. | 0:03:07 | 0:03:11 | |
You had to have a bit of pride, | 0:03:11 | 0:03:13 | |
because with a girl you've got to do it a bit harder and prove, | 0:03:13 | 0:03:16 | |
"Yeah, I am going to get this right." | 0:03:16 | 0:03:18 | |
If I try it four times, five times, 50 times, | 0:03:18 | 0:03:21 | |
I will do it better than what the boys are doing. | 0:03:21 | 0:03:25 | |
Because the boys were saying, | 0:03:25 | 0:03:26 | |
"I can do it once, that's it, that's me done." | 0:03:26 | 0:03:28 | |
But no, you've got to keep going and going until you've done it right. | 0:03:28 | 0:03:31 | |
You have to have a lot of confidence as well, to say, | 0:03:31 | 0:03:34 | |
"Yeah, I'm in a man's world. | 0:03:34 | 0:03:36 | |
"I'm going to work the same level as them, or go above them." | 0:03:36 | 0:03:40 | |
As long as you can work as a team, it doesn't matter if you're male, | 0:03:40 | 0:03:44 | |
female, whatever, in my mind. | 0:03:44 | 0:03:46 | |
It just took them a long time in the steelworks to get out of the habit | 0:03:48 | 0:03:51 | |
and say, "Yeah, it's a woman, so? It's not a problem." | 0:03:51 | 0:03:54 | |
In Wales in the early '90s, | 0:04:00 | 0:04:01 | |
many traditional male jobs became scarce, or non-existent. | 0:04:01 | 0:04:06 | |
Some men tried to come up with new ways to beat unemployment. | 0:04:07 | 0:04:10 | |
MUSIC: Rhythm Is A Mystery by K-Klass | 0:04:10 | 0:04:12 | |
One man in Swansea who was a bit of a Jack the Lad was Richie Rees. | 0:04:15 | 0:04:20 | |
In 1992, he and a friend were looking for work. | 0:04:20 | 0:04:25 | |
We went down the job centre, and we were going through all these things | 0:04:25 | 0:04:28 | |
and as we were going across the board, like, "Oh! | 0:04:28 | 0:04:31 | |
"Look, they want a strip-o-gram." | 0:04:31 | 0:04:33 | |
So I said, | 0:04:33 | 0:04:36 | |
"Let's go for that. Yes, come on, then!" | 0:04:36 | 0:04:38 | |
And we were sitting there, in the interview. | 0:04:38 | 0:04:40 | |
I don't know why I said it. | 0:04:40 | 0:04:41 | |
It just... | 0:04:42 | 0:04:44 | |
come out. And I said, | 0:04:44 | 0:04:47 | |
"What we really want to do", | 0:04:47 | 0:04:48 | |
and of course, the both of them looked at me. | 0:04:48 | 0:04:51 | |
Jeff was like, "We do?" | 0:04:51 | 0:04:52 | |
What we really want to do is, we want to start a strip show up. | 0:04:52 | 0:04:56 | |
Richie Rees got together with a couple of other Swansea men | 0:05:01 | 0:05:04 | |
to form a male strip group, Centaur. | 0:05:04 | 0:05:08 | |
Their shows were exclusively for women. | 0:05:08 | 0:05:11 | |
They were the precursor of The Full Monty | 0:05:11 | 0:05:13 | |
and earned about £1,000 per show. | 0:05:13 | 0:05:17 | |
It's my job to make sure you girls | 0:05:17 | 0:05:19 | |
get exactly what you came for. | 0:05:19 | 0:05:24 | |
I was basically grabbing an opportunity | 0:05:26 | 0:05:29 | |
to give my kids a better life. | 0:05:29 | 0:05:31 | |
Perhaps I should have chosen something a little bit different. | 0:05:32 | 0:05:36 | |
To channel my energies in at that time in my life, you know. | 0:05:36 | 0:05:40 | |
But at the time I had blinkers on. | 0:05:40 | 0:05:43 | |
I was like, "What a great way to make money. | 0:05:43 | 0:05:45 | |
"I'm going to do that! Kerching!" | 0:05:45 | 0:05:47 | |
You know, and it was a good way to make money. | 0:05:47 | 0:05:50 | |
Girls love a guy in uniform. | 0:05:53 | 0:05:55 | |
Uniforms are a thing. | 0:05:55 | 0:05:57 | |
You include all the women in the show as well, | 0:05:57 | 0:06:00 | |
everybody who walked into that room was included in the show. | 0:06:00 | 0:06:02 | |
Right, that's it, you're going down. | 0:06:02 | 0:06:04 | |
All over Britain, women were screaming everywhere. | 0:06:11 | 0:06:14 | |
To me, the more they screamed, I thought to myself, | 0:06:14 | 0:06:18 | |
the more money...that was there. | 0:06:18 | 0:06:21 | |
Running Centaur was a big challenge. | 0:06:23 | 0:06:26 | |
But Richie benefited from government business courses, | 0:06:26 | 0:06:29 | |
though his was not quite what was intended. | 0:06:29 | 0:06:32 | |
They said if you can find a niche in the market, | 0:06:32 | 0:06:35 | |
it has to be something that's sellable, | 0:06:35 | 0:06:38 | |
that people are not particularly doing too well, | 0:06:38 | 0:06:41 | |
or not doing at the time. | 0:06:41 | 0:06:43 | |
So, for me, everything that I'd learned came to fruition | 0:06:43 | 0:06:46 | |
with my strip show. | 0:06:46 | 0:06:48 | |
The show developed from just boxer shorts | 0:06:50 | 0:06:54 | |
to, one day, we had a discussion, going to a show in the van, | 0:06:54 | 0:06:59 | |
and it was, "Right, OK, I think it's about time now we went naked." | 0:06:59 | 0:07:03 | |
Ritchie knew he was onto a good thing | 0:07:05 | 0:07:08 | |
and set about exploiting the Centaur brand with merchandising. | 0:07:08 | 0:07:12 | |
With Centaur, now, the first thing we had, obviously, | 0:07:12 | 0:07:16 | |
was posters to put in the clubs. | 0:07:16 | 0:07:18 | |
And then we thought, "I wonder if they'd buy these posters?" | 0:07:18 | 0:07:22 | |
So we started selling the posters. | 0:07:22 | 0:07:24 | |
It's just something to remember the night with, isn't it? | 0:07:26 | 0:07:28 | |
It's that little poster they can tell their friends, you know, | 0:07:28 | 0:07:31 | |
covered in baby oil, and we'd sign the posters for them. | 0:07:31 | 0:07:34 | |
Ritchie earned good money from Centaur, | 0:07:40 | 0:07:43 | |
but though it was an unconventional line of business, | 0:07:43 | 0:07:46 | |
he was very clear why he was a male stripper. | 0:07:46 | 0:07:50 | |
I wanted to give my children everything I never had as a kid. | 0:07:50 | 0:07:53 | |
We really did struggle as a family when I was a child. | 0:07:53 | 0:07:57 | |
I had nothing. And that's what Centaur gave me. | 0:07:57 | 0:07:59 | |
But you're there to make sure these people have a good time. | 0:08:01 | 0:08:05 | |
And when you're out on stage, they matter. | 0:08:05 | 0:08:08 | |
You have to do what you do and therefore, on stage, | 0:08:08 | 0:08:12 | |
the family didn't come into it, because you are performing. | 0:08:12 | 0:08:16 | |
That was your job. That's what you done. | 0:08:16 | 0:08:18 | |
Clothes manufacturing enjoyed a long history in Wales. | 0:08:28 | 0:08:33 | |
But the recession of the early '90s | 0:08:33 | 0:08:35 | |
forced many fashion businesses to fold. | 0:08:35 | 0:08:37 | |
However, with support from local media, one young fashion designer in | 0:08:41 | 0:08:47 | |
Cardiff was bucking the trend. | 0:08:47 | 0:08:49 | |
Her name was Jane Davies. | 0:08:49 | 0:08:52 | |
I got picked up by the Western Mail, | 0:08:53 | 0:08:56 | |
and the Western Mail took me on board as a new business starting up, | 0:08:56 | 0:09:00 | |
at the start of the recession. | 0:09:00 | 0:09:01 | |
And it was great because they followed me for a few months, | 0:09:01 | 0:09:04 | |
and they were really, really fabulous with me. | 0:09:04 | 0:09:08 | |
At that time I was so, so passionate about what I was doing. | 0:09:08 | 0:09:12 | |
I was running. I was running. | 0:09:12 | 0:09:14 | |
And everything was going with me. | 0:09:14 | 0:09:16 | |
And then a fabulous shop in Cardiff approached me, and they said, | 0:09:16 | 0:09:19 | |
will you stock our shop? | 0:09:19 | 0:09:20 | |
And it was just, like, "Oh, my gosh, my stuff in your shop?" | 0:09:20 | 0:09:24 | |
And I will always remember, when I went in to deliver it, | 0:09:24 | 0:09:26 | |
it was thick gold carpet, and you had to ring the doorbell. | 0:09:26 | 0:09:30 | |
And all they had was the black polo neck, | 0:09:30 | 0:09:32 | |
classic black polo neck dresses and they used it as a window display. | 0:09:32 | 0:09:36 | |
And it just, like, blew my head. | 0:09:36 | 0:09:38 | |
In the early '90s, Jane's designs created a lot of attention | 0:09:39 | 0:09:43 | |
at the Welsh fashion awards. | 0:09:43 | 0:09:46 | |
Then, with her work much in demand, she moved to North Wales. | 0:09:46 | 0:09:50 | |
It was just a case of, | 0:09:50 | 0:09:51 | |
I was literally doing the shows all the time, | 0:09:51 | 0:09:54 | |
and the business was growing, and growing, and growing. | 0:09:54 | 0:09:56 | |
We started stocking some of the biggest department stores in the UK. | 0:09:56 | 0:09:59 | |
Then we did Europe, and the business was, literally, rocking. | 0:09:59 | 0:10:04 | |
It was beyond-belief rocking. | 0:10:04 | 0:10:07 | |
Then, in 1999, Jane Davies made a Welsh dragon dress for a niece, | 0:10:08 | 0:10:13 | |
and her career took on a whole new dimension. | 0:10:13 | 0:10:16 | |
MUSIC: Bullet In The Gun by Planet Perfecto | 0:10:16 | 0:10:19 | |
I came up with this idea of the Welsh dragon dress. | 0:10:19 | 0:10:22 | |
It started off, I think it was a 12-piece collection | 0:10:22 | 0:10:26 | |
and I took it down to Cardiff, and they literally sold it, like that. | 0:10:26 | 0:10:30 | |
So after we'd gone from literally, | 0:10:33 | 0:10:36 | |
making tens of everything, | 0:10:36 | 0:10:38 | |
to thousands of everything, the business, it literally exploded. | 0:10:38 | 0:10:43 | |
And it wasn't just the Welsh then, we just took it on board that, | 0:10:43 | 0:10:46 | |
of course, all the other nations... | 0:10:46 | 0:10:48 | |
And we did the British Isles in the beginning. | 0:10:48 | 0:10:50 | |
In North Wales we used to manufacture all the dresses, | 0:10:52 | 0:10:55 | |
the shirts, the boxer shorts, | 0:10:55 | 0:10:58 | |
we had a swimwear company in Rhyl who used to make all the swimwear. | 0:10:58 | 0:11:01 | |
And then down in the South Wales valleys then, | 0:11:01 | 0:11:03 | |
they used to make all the fleeces, and the hats, and the scarves. | 0:11:03 | 0:11:07 | |
So we had, we had an amazing amount of people. | 0:11:07 | 0:11:12 | |
And they loved it as well. | 0:11:12 | 0:11:14 | |
They loved making it. | 0:11:14 | 0:11:15 | |
MUSIC: The Key The Secret by Urban Cookie Collective | 0:11:20 | 0:11:22 | |
By the early '90s, more and more women were doing | 0:11:22 | 0:11:25 | |
different types of jobs. | 0:11:25 | 0:11:27 | |
And even when they started a family, | 0:11:27 | 0:11:29 | |
they could leave their children at a creche, or even with their husband, | 0:11:29 | 0:11:33 | |
while they went out to work. | 0:11:33 | 0:11:34 | |
But the '90s also saw a rise in the number of marriages | 0:11:43 | 0:11:46 | |
ending in divorce, | 0:11:46 | 0:11:48 | |
with many women left to bring up their family alone. | 0:11:48 | 0:11:51 | |
In such a situation, hopes of earning a living could seem remote. | 0:11:51 | 0:11:56 | |
After her divorce, | 0:11:57 | 0:11:58 | |
Linda Narberth lived with her three children in Bridgend. | 0:11:58 | 0:12:02 | |
I would be wrong to deny that I've got | 0:12:02 | 0:12:07 | |
tremendous willpower, I suppose. And determination. | 0:12:07 | 0:12:09 | |
Absolutely adamant that I was going to be an independent woman, | 0:12:09 | 0:12:16 | |
who could give my children a good life. | 0:12:16 | 0:12:20 | |
But much of Linda's time was devoted to the care of her daughter, Kelly, | 0:12:20 | 0:12:24 | |
who had a profound learning disability. | 0:12:24 | 0:12:27 | |
Kelly Louise was born with severe brain damage, she couldn't see, | 0:12:27 | 0:12:32 | |
she couldn't talk, she couldn't | 0:12:32 | 0:12:35 | |
do anything for herself. | 0:12:35 | 0:12:36 | |
She couldn't sit up. She couldn't stand. | 0:12:36 | 0:12:39 | |
But she could also giggle a lot, and smile a lot. | 0:12:39 | 0:12:43 | |
We had some good days. | 0:12:43 | 0:12:44 | |
Calling directory enquiry, which town, please? | 0:12:46 | 0:12:48 | |
Linda signed up to the government's | 0:12:48 | 0:12:50 | |
enterprise scream for single parents. | 0:12:50 | 0:12:53 | |
It offered money and support in helping to start a business at home. | 0:12:53 | 0:12:56 | |
Linda saw a niche in the market for computer training. | 0:12:58 | 0:13:02 | |
Computer training at the time was what was desperately, | 0:13:02 | 0:13:04 | |
desperately needed. | 0:13:04 | 0:13:05 | |
Every single business was changing over to proper computers. | 0:13:05 | 0:13:10 | |
Linda ran her company, Business Direct, from her home in Bridgend. | 0:13:10 | 0:13:15 | |
I thought that what was missing in the training arena was training | 0:13:15 | 0:13:21 | |
that was actually provided and created | 0:13:21 | 0:13:24 | |
for exactly what that person, or those people, needed to do. | 0:13:24 | 0:13:28 | |
So I started creating courses which allowed them to do their whole job, | 0:13:28 | 0:13:34 | |
much, much, quicker. | 0:13:34 | 0:13:36 | |
And it's certainly what built our reputation as a business, | 0:13:36 | 0:13:40 | |
providing very hands-on support. | 0:13:40 | 0:13:42 | |
Linda's business grew rapidly, | 0:13:43 | 0:13:46 | |
and in recognition of her talent | 0:13:46 | 0:13:47 | |
she was nominated for Welsh woman of the year in 1995. | 0:13:47 | 0:13:52 | |
Then, a year later, she topped this by winning at the awards. | 0:13:52 | 0:13:56 | |
But her success was even more remarkable | 0:13:58 | 0:14:00 | |
because of the time she devoted to the care of her daughter, Kelly. | 0:14:00 | 0:14:04 | |
It was always a struggle. | 0:14:05 | 0:14:07 | |
There was nothing normal about my family life. | 0:14:07 | 0:14:10 | |
It was nothing, nothing, for me to get called in the middle of the day, | 0:14:10 | 0:14:15 | |
right in the middle of work, | 0:14:15 | 0:14:16 | |
where I had to go for an emergency for my daughter. | 0:14:16 | 0:14:19 | |
I had to go in the middle of the night, | 0:14:19 | 0:14:21 | |
to maybe sort out things with Kelly, and then maybe still get back, | 0:14:21 | 0:14:25 | |
have a shower, get to work, | 0:14:25 | 0:14:27 | |
and be in work by half past seven in the morning. | 0:14:27 | 0:14:29 | |
And keep going, keep going, keep going. | 0:14:29 | 0:14:32 | |
In 1997, Linda was able | 0:14:33 | 0:14:35 | |
to move her business into its own offices in Bridgend. | 0:14:35 | 0:14:39 | |
It was one of the proudest days of my life, it absolutely was. | 0:14:41 | 0:14:45 | |
It was just unimaginable | 0:14:45 | 0:14:47 | |
that somebody who had said, "I need to get a job", | 0:14:47 | 0:14:50 | |
to not only start my own business, but to have premises as well. | 0:14:50 | 0:14:56 | |
To have training rooms, where we could train, | 0:14:56 | 0:14:59 | |
you know, six, seven, ten people at the same time | 0:14:59 | 0:15:02 | |
was just absolutely brilliant. | 0:15:02 | 0:15:04 | |
Then, a year later, | 0:15:06 | 0:15:08 | |
Linda won a major contract to provide IT training | 0:15:08 | 0:15:12 | |
at the new Welsh Assembly. | 0:15:12 | 0:15:14 | |
But she feels there would have been no success story | 0:15:14 | 0:15:17 | |
without her daughter, Kelly. | 0:15:17 | 0:15:19 | |
She just inspired me, I think, to always keep going, and always keep, | 0:15:21 | 0:15:25 | |
you know, believing that you had the strength | 0:15:25 | 0:15:28 | |
to go to get through things, really. | 0:15:28 | 0:15:31 | |
Yeah. Incredibly inspiring. | 0:15:31 | 0:15:33 | |
I think it just made me stronger. | 0:15:35 | 0:15:36 | |
Linda Narberth was now a leader of her own team of computer trainers. | 0:15:38 | 0:15:43 | |
MUSIC: Dreams Can Come True by Gabrielle | 0:15:43 | 0:15:45 | |
The '90s saw the growth of a new adventure tourism in Wales. | 0:15:50 | 0:15:54 | |
MUSIC: Sweet Harmony by The Beloved | 0:15:54 | 0:15:57 | |
For some working in factories, | 0:15:57 | 0:16:00 | |
the lure of the outward bound could be life-changing. | 0:16:00 | 0:16:03 | |
In 1990, Gary Evans left his engineers job at Ford | 0:16:03 | 0:16:07 | |
and joined his friend Nick Fitzgerald | 0:16:07 | 0:16:10 | |
to create Hawk Adventures. | 0:16:10 | 0:16:12 | |
We really believed in it. We really thought we could make that work. | 0:16:12 | 0:16:16 | |
We were concentrating on the traditional activities, | 0:16:16 | 0:16:19 | |
so climbing, caving, mountain biking. And mountain walking. | 0:16:19 | 0:16:24 | |
People wanted to be guided in the mountains, | 0:16:24 | 0:16:26 | |
they wanted to be kept safe. | 0:16:26 | 0:16:27 | |
Abseiling was one of their most popular activities. | 0:16:31 | 0:16:35 | |
For us, you know, keeping people safe | 0:16:42 | 0:16:44 | |
whilst giving them an adventurous time was our aim. | 0:16:44 | 0:16:47 | |
We wanted to show people a side of themselves they'd never seen before, | 0:16:48 | 0:16:51 | |
in a good way. And we were really focused on that. | 0:16:51 | 0:16:55 | |
The '90s was a time when many people wanted to explore the more remote | 0:16:57 | 0:17:01 | |
parts of the Welsh countryside during their leisure time. | 0:17:01 | 0:17:05 | |
There was a growing desire for adventure, | 0:17:05 | 0:17:07 | |
and Gary and Nick offered courses to meet this demand. | 0:17:07 | 0:17:11 | |
They were tasters, really, | 0:17:11 | 0:17:12 | |
they were a chance for people to try something new. | 0:17:12 | 0:17:15 | |
People wanted to come along and learn how to read a map, | 0:17:15 | 0:17:17 | |
or to understand more about what it meant | 0:17:17 | 0:17:19 | |
to go underground into a cave. | 0:17:19 | 0:17:22 | |
A lot of people came to us, they would want to go into the mountains | 0:17:22 | 0:17:25 | |
and be the only people there. | 0:17:25 | 0:17:26 | |
They would want to go underground, | 0:17:26 | 0:17:27 | |
and feel they had the cave to themselves. | 0:17:27 | 0:17:29 | |
There was much more of that, kind of, wilderness feel to it | 0:17:29 | 0:17:32 | |
in those days. | 0:17:32 | 0:17:34 | |
We started off with a lot of enthusiasm and a lot of lofty ideas. | 0:17:34 | 0:17:39 | |
And we really wanted to do the right thing. | 0:17:39 | 0:17:41 | |
I was fascinated by the idea that people could learn to be better as a | 0:17:42 | 0:17:47 | |
person, not just to learn technical skills. | 0:17:47 | 0:17:50 | |
So I think, for me, I got a heck of a lot from feeling | 0:17:50 | 0:17:52 | |
that I was helping other people. | 0:17:52 | 0:17:54 | |
And one day somebody told me that they spent a week with us, | 0:17:54 | 0:17:57 | |
and it had changed their life. | 0:17:57 | 0:17:58 | |
And I realised that we were doing something pretty fundamental. | 0:17:58 | 0:18:02 | |
MUSIC: I Can't Dance by Phil Collins and Genesis | 0:18:02 | 0:18:05 | |
Right across Wales, it was hard to find work. | 0:18:15 | 0:18:18 | |
The country was littered with the relics of past industries. | 0:18:21 | 0:18:25 | |
Clogau Saint David's, in Snowdonia National Park, | 0:18:25 | 0:18:28 | |
was once known as Britain's richest gold mine. | 0:18:28 | 0:18:31 | |
It was famous for producing gold for royal wedding rings. | 0:18:31 | 0:18:35 | |
But during 150 years of production, the seams yielded erratic results | 0:18:35 | 0:18:41 | |
and a succession of owners were forced to close the mine. | 0:18:41 | 0:18:44 | |
Then, in 1989, local millionaire businessman Bill Roberts | 0:18:44 | 0:18:49 | |
came up with a new idea for the mine. | 0:18:49 | 0:18:52 | |
I was energised by the whole prospect | 0:18:52 | 0:18:56 | |
of making this fantastic mine, | 0:18:56 | 0:18:59 | |
which has got great historical background, | 0:18:59 | 0:19:01 | |
with all the royal connections, | 0:19:01 | 0:19:02 | |
all the wedding rings that come from this very mine. | 0:19:02 | 0:19:05 | |
One of the best and largest tourist attractions in Wales. | 0:19:05 | 0:19:09 | |
My goal, at that time, was for people to think, | 0:19:09 | 0:19:12 | |
"Oh, I'm going to Wales, I must go and see the gold mine." | 0:19:12 | 0:19:16 | |
Bill Roberts bought the lease on the mine | 0:19:16 | 0:19:19 | |
and set about making his idea a reality. | 0:19:19 | 0:19:21 | |
But local people and the countryside commission were strongly opposed to | 0:19:22 | 0:19:26 | |
the tourism venture. | 0:19:26 | 0:19:27 | |
A public enquiry found in their favour | 0:19:28 | 0:19:31 | |
and Bill was left with the remnants of an old gold mine. | 0:19:31 | 0:19:35 | |
Then his fortunes changed | 0:19:36 | 0:19:39 | |
when he met an amateur geologist who knew the mine intimately. | 0:19:39 | 0:19:44 | |
His name was Jack Williams. | 0:19:44 | 0:19:46 | |
Old Jack Williams, he turned around to me, and he said, "Bill", he said, | 0:19:46 | 0:19:50 | |
"I know of three miners. | 0:19:50 | 0:19:52 | |
"Geraint, Huw, and Medwyn. | 0:19:52 | 0:19:56 | |
"And Andrew, four miners. | 0:19:56 | 0:19:58 | |
"Oh, and Raymond, five miners." | 0:19:58 | 0:20:00 | |
He said, "We could get those boys, and we could get into the gold." | 0:20:00 | 0:20:04 | |
I said, "Well, I don't know anything about mining, Jack." | 0:20:04 | 0:20:07 | |
"Don't you worry, boy. | 0:20:07 | 0:20:09 | |
"You've got the lease for the mine, I'll show you where the gold is." | 0:20:09 | 0:20:12 | |
And, to be fair, within three weeks we were into good gold. | 0:20:12 | 0:20:18 | |
Amazing. | 0:20:18 | 0:20:19 | |
Clogau was up and running again. | 0:20:21 | 0:20:24 | |
But it needed an expert eye to spot the small deposits | 0:20:24 | 0:20:27 | |
of gold in the rubble extracted from the mine. | 0:20:27 | 0:20:29 | |
I'd got absolute confidence in Jack. | 0:20:31 | 0:20:33 | |
He knew where to look. | 0:20:33 | 0:20:35 | |
I remember getting a phone call one day, | 0:20:36 | 0:20:39 | |
"Bill, you'd better come down. Have a look at this." | 0:20:39 | 0:20:41 | |
And I went down, and it was this river of orange, | 0:20:41 | 0:20:45 | |
it's in the quartz, and this river of orange | 0:20:45 | 0:20:48 | |
was coming down from about, I don't know, 15 metres high, | 0:20:48 | 0:20:52 | |
right to the ground. | 0:20:52 | 0:20:53 | |
You're just looking at this, and you're thinking, "Wow!" | 0:20:54 | 0:20:59 | |
And it just was fantastic to see this. | 0:20:59 | 0:21:01 | |
This gold shining back at me from the mountainside. | 0:21:01 | 0:21:05 | |
But as so often at Clogau, | 0:21:07 | 0:21:08 | |
the seam of gold was only three millimetres deep, | 0:21:08 | 0:21:11 | |
and once it was removed the hunt for more continued. | 0:21:11 | 0:21:15 | |
Bill Roberts was discovering the reality of gold mining in Wales. | 0:21:20 | 0:21:25 | |
His head for business told him he needed another new idea | 0:21:25 | 0:21:28 | |
to make the most of his investment. | 0:21:28 | 0:21:31 | |
Such is the difficulty of mining Welsh gold, | 0:21:31 | 0:21:34 | |
it just doesn't come easy at all. | 0:21:34 | 0:21:37 | |
And I realised there wasn't going to be a lot. | 0:21:37 | 0:21:40 | |
Although we'd got quite a bit out to start with, | 0:21:40 | 0:21:42 | |
I realised this was going to be inconsistent, | 0:21:42 | 0:21:44 | |
and there was no way that this was going to be something | 0:21:44 | 0:21:48 | |
that I could make a viable business out of. | 0:21:48 | 0:21:52 | |
So I came up with the idea of putting a small amount | 0:21:52 | 0:21:56 | |
of Welsh gold in jewellery. | 0:21:56 | 0:21:58 | |
Bill started Clogau Gold in Colwyn Bay in 1994. | 0:22:01 | 0:22:05 | |
He was not afraid to take a step in the dark if he felt it was in the | 0:22:07 | 0:22:10 | |
right direction. | 0:22:10 | 0:22:11 | |
I didn't know anything about jewellery. | 0:22:13 | 0:22:15 | |
I didn't know what 24 carat was. | 0:22:15 | 0:22:17 | |
I didn't know what nine carat was. | 0:22:17 | 0:22:19 | |
I didn't even like jewellery at that time. | 0:22:19 | 0:22:22 | |
I'm the worst person to be in the jewellery business ever! | 0:22:22 | 0:22:26 | |
But, you know, I had this determination | 0:22:26 | 0:22:28 | |
and I had this marketing flair, to take it forward. | 0:22:28 | 0:22:31 | |
During the '90s, | 0:22:33 | 0:22:34 | |
Clogau Gold expanded from selling a few pieces in | 0:22:34 | 0:22:37 | |
local shops to markets in Britain and abroad. | 0:22:37 | 0:22:40 | |
I think one of the challenges was finding people to take me seriously. | 0:22:43 | 0:22:46 | |
They thought I was a joker. | 0:22:46 | 0:22:47 | |
I'd come along, got this gold mine, I've got this Welsh gold, | 0:22:47 | 0:22:51 | |
but because I am what I am, I found a way forward all the time. | 0:22:51 | 0:22:55 | |
Looking positively at everything, and thinking, "We can do this. | 0:22:55 | 0:22:59 | |
"We can do that. Let's find out how to do this. | 0:22:59 | 0:23:01 | |
"Let's do it better." | 0:23:01 | 0:23:03 | |
That's how I built the business up. | 0:23:03 | 0:23:05 | |
In the early '90s, | 0:23:09 | 0:23:10 | |
coal mining as an industry in Wales was in its death throes. | 0:23:10 | 0:23:14 | |
The final pit targeted for closure was Tower Colliery near Aberdare. | 0:23:18 | 0:23:23 | |
But it was here that a remarkable last stand for coal was made. | 0:23:23 | 0:23:28 | |
In April 1994, it seemed a management buyout was on the cards. | 0:23:28 | 0:23:34 | |
However, it included a big cut in pay for the miners. | 0:23:34 | 0:23:39 | |
This was unacceptable to many, | 0:23:39 | 0:23:41 | |
and they reluctantly voted to close the pit. | 0:23:41 | 0:23:44 | |
But feelings were running high at a meeting with British Coal, | 0:23:44 | 0:23:48 | |
to formalise the closure. | 0:23:48 | 0:23:49 | |
Tyrone O'Sullivan, the pit's NUM branch secretary, | 0:23:52 | 0:23:55 | |
was angry at how his men were forced into the situation. | 0:23:55 | 0:23:59 | |
British Coal said you've got to sign here, Mr O'Sullivan, | 0:23:59 | 0:24:02 | |
I said, "No, I'm not signing." | 0:24:02 | 0:24:04 | |
I said, "My men have told me when I left the pit, | 0:24:04 | 0:24:07 | |
"we don't want this pit to close. | 0:24:07 | 0:24:09 | |
"Particularly, I don't. So I don't sign any forms." | 0:24:09 | 0:24:12 | |
"Well, you've got to." I said, "We don't. | 0:24:12 | 0:24:14 | |
"You do what you like now, I'm not signing no forms. | 0:24:14 | 0:24:17 | |
"You close the pit." And we walked out. | 0:24:17 | 0:24:20 | |
Jumped in the car. | 0:24:20 | 0:24:21 | |
Got onto the motorway, all of a sudden, I'm sobbing. | 0:24:23 | 0:24:28 | |
I'm the driver, I'm sobbing. | 0:24:28 | 0:24:29 | |
Tyrone's link with Tower Colliery was deeply personal. | 0:24:32 | 0:24:36 | |
When he was just 15, his father had been killed in an accident there. | 0:24:36 | 0:24:41 | |
And he started work at the colliery | 0:24:41 | 0:24:43 | |
the year he married his wife, Elaine, in 1967. | 0:24:43 | 0:24:46 | |
Tyrone would spend his entire career at Tower. | 0:24:47 | 0:24:50 | |
One of the boys, he said, "Look, Tyrone, let's go for a pint." | 0:24:51 | 0:24:54 | |
And we stopped off at a pub in Aberdare. | 0:24:54 | 0:24:56 | |
We phoned our families, I phoned Elaine and the two girls, | 0:24:57 | 0:25:00 | |
the other boys did the same. | 0:25:00 | 0:25:02 | |
There was about 30 of us there. | 0:25:02 | 0:25:05 | |
Reminiscing about those good times we had. | 0:25:05 | 0:25:07 | |
And I'm telling this story because that's the very moment Elaine said | 0:25:07 | 0:25:11 | |
to me, "Tyrone, that's when you decided to buy the pit. | 0:25:11 | 0:25:15 | |
"You boys, together." | 0:25:15 | 0:25:16 | |
When the miners of Tower colliery marched back | 0:25:19 | 0:25:21 | |
to their pit on January 4th 1995, | 0:25:21 | 0:25:25 | |
they were now the proud owners. | 0:25:25 | 0:25:28 | |
It was the crowning glory to eight months of negotiations | 0:25:28 | 0:25:32 | |
with banks and civil servants, | 0:25:32 | 0:25:34 | |
underpinned by a deep loyalty between the men | 0:25:34 | 0:25:36 | |
and their new management team. | 0:25:36 | 0:25:39 | |
Tyrone O'Sullivan, its chairman, | 0:25:41 | 0:25:43 | |
had needed to draw upon their redundancy money. | 0:25:43 | 0:25:46 | |
We then had to go back to the men and say, "Listen now, | 0:25:46 | 0:25:50 | |
"we're thinking of buying the pit. | 0:25:50 | 0:25:52 | |
"Can you all give us £2,000?" | 0:25:52 | 0:25:55 | |
And everyone in that room put their hand up and said yes. | 0:25:55 | 0:25:58 | |
And then back to the boys in the pit, I said, | 0:26:00 | 0:26:03 | |
"Listen now, boys, remember I asked you for £2,000?" | 0:26:03 | 0:26:07 | |
"Yes, Tyrone." | 0:26:07 | 0:26:08 | |
"Well, now I want another £6,000." | 0:26:09 | 0:26:12 | |
Because we've got to raise, between us, two million quid. | 0:26:12 | 0:26:14 | |
And no-one dropped out again. | 0:26:16 | 0:26:18 | |
Everyone put their hand up and said, "We are there." | 0:26:18 | 0:26:20 | |
Having won over the banks, next was the government. | 0:26:23 | 0:26:27 | |
Then, finally, just before Christmas 1994, | 0:26:27 | 0:26:31 | |
the DTI signed over the pit for an initial £1 million. | 0:26:31 | 0:26:35 | |
The day, at one minute past midnight, | 0:26:36 | 0:26:39 | |
and we waited for that one minute to pass, | 0:26:39 | 0:26:42 | |
so it became ours on one minute past midnight. | 0:26:42 | 0:26:45 | |
That was magical. | 0:26:45 | 0:26:46 | |
MUSIC: Rocks by Primal Scream | 0:26:46 | 0:26:49 | |
Tower colliery, now owned by its workforce, | 0:26:49 | 0:26:52 | |
got off to a flying start. | 0:26:52 | 0:26:54 | |
By the end of the year, it made a £4.5 million profit. | 0:26:55 | 0:26:59 | |
Tyrone O'Sullivan was at the centre of the management team. | 0:27:02 | 0:27:06 | |
It was an extraordinary transformation for a man | 0:27:06 | 0:27:09 | |
who was renowned as a flying picket at the height of the miners' strike | 0:27:09 | 0:27:13 | |
just ten years before. | 0:27:13 | 0:27:16 | |
I'm a social entrepreneur. | 0:27:16 | 0:27:18 | |
Entrepreneurial doesn't mean you've got to be bad or greedy. | 0:27:19 | 0:27:24 | |
You can be a social entrepreneur. | 0:27:24 | 0:27:26 | |
You know, and create wealth, | 0:27:26 | 0:27:27 | |
wealth that's going to be shared differently. | 0:27:27 | 0:27:29 | |
And every month I used to call a meeting, | 0:27:31 | 0:27:34 | |
how do you keep the morale up? | 0:27:34 | 0:27:36 | |
So every meeting, very quiet right at the end, | 0:27:36 | 0:27:39 | |
and the boys used to say, "What are you saying now?" | 0:27:39 | 0:27:43 | |
And I'd go like this, I'd go, | 0:27:43 | 0:27:45 | |
"We're simply the best. | 0:27:45 | 0:27:47 | |
"Better than all the rest. | 0:27:47 | 0:27:49 | |
"Better than everyone. | 0:27:49 | 0:27:51 | |
"Anyone you ever met." | 0:27:51 | 0:27:54 | |
And that song became our song. | 0:27:54 | 0:27:58 | |
It became our anthem. | 0:27:58 | 0:27:59 | |
MUSIC: The Best by Tina Turner | 0:27:59 | 0:28:01 | |
If we'd never bought Tower colliery, | 0:28:06 | 0:28:09 | |
on my gravestone would have been he was a bloody good picket. | 0:28:09 | 0:28:12 | |
Right? Now, at least, it can be put on there, | 0:28:12 | 0:28:17 | |
that he was a part of the workers' buyout in Tower. | 0:28:17 | 0:28:20 | |
And I think that alone | 0:28:20 | 0:28:23 | |
is enough of an achievement to me. | 0:28:23 | 0:28:25 | |
Tyrone O'Sullivan was made an OBE in 1996. | 0:28:27 | 0:28:31 | |
In the '90s, there was a real sense that Wales was changing, | 0:28:37 | 0:28:41 | |
pioneered by men and women who helped to carve out | 0:28:41 | 0:28:44 | |
a future for the nation. | 0:28:44 | 0:28:46 | |
As the decade closed, | 0:28:46 | 0:28:48 | |
the people of Wales could look forward to the new millennium | 0:28:48 | 0:28:51 | |
with more hope and self-confidence than ever before. | 0:28:51 | 0:28:55 |