Cardigan Welsh Towns


Cardigan

Similar Content

Browse content similar to Cardigan. Check below for episodes and series from the same categories and more!

Transcript


LineFromTo

This town in West Wales has a history going back over 900 years.

0:00:020:00:06

Over the centuries, it's known good times and bad, boom times and bust.

0:00:060:00:11

Nowadays, it's a thriving market place,

0:00:110:00:14

proving that you can't keep a good town down.

0:00:140:00:16

It's the place where the Welsh defeated the Norman invaders.

0:00:160:00:20

It was once Wales' busiest port

0:00:200:00:23

and had some intriguing ladies of the night.

0:00:230:00:26

It's a town of horses and of power boats.

0:00:260:00:29

It has nothing to do with knitwear and a lot to do with jeans.

0:00:290:00:33

This is the story of Cardigan.

0:00:330:00:35

Today, Cardigan has a population of about 4,000

0:00:540:00:58

and is the hub of this part of rural Ceredigion.

0:00:580:01:01

In Welsh, it's called Aberteifi,

0:01:010:01:03

and the River Teifi runs peacefully alongside the town,

0:01:030:01:06

giving it much of its character.

0:01:060:01:08

In the centre of town is this - Cardigan Castle -

0:01:100:01:14

closed to the public now and propped up by these rather ugly girders.

0:01:140:01:19

It doesn't look much,

0:01:190:01:20

but wind back nine centuries and this was a very important place.

0:01:200:01:24

Cardigan was at the sharp end of the Norman invasion of Wales.

0:01:280:01:31

As a crossing place for the Teifi, it was a prized location,

0:01:310:01:36

fought over for decades and often changing hands.

0:01:360:01:40

There were an awful lot of battles here because it was the front line,

0:01:400:01:43

the frontier town, basically.

0:01:430:01:46

Because you had the Welsh very strong to the north in Ceredigion,

0:01:460:01:49

the Normans very strong in Pembrokeshire to the south,

0:01:490:01:52

and whoever controlled Cardigan controlled the frontier.

0:01:520:01:55

Finally, it was Welsh warrior Rhys ap Gruffydd

0:01:550:01:58

who sent the Normans packing.

0:01:580:02:00

In 1165, he captured their wooden castle,

0:02:000:02:03

burnt it to the ground and set about building his own.

0:02:030:02:07

What makes this castle a bit special is this. Stone.

0:02:070:02:11

The Normans had started building them to last

0:02:110:02:13

but this is the first home build -

0:02:130:02:16

a stone castle built by the Welsh to resist those Normans.

0:02:160:02:19

To mark his victory, in the winter of 1176, Rhys held a festival.

0:02:200:02:24

He invited poets and musicians from all over Britain

0:02:240:02:28

to Cardigan Castle to compete.

0:02:280:02:30

It's the first ever Eisteddfod and it all started here in Cardigan.

0:02:300:02:35

It was announced a year beforehand, like the modern Eisteddfod.

0:02:350:02:39

You had two principal competitions. One in music, one in poetry.

0:02:390:02:42

The most significant thing was the setting up of chairs for the victors

0:02:420:02:47

because unlike nowadays when we take chairs for granted,

0:02:470:02:50

the chair was a great symbol of power.

0:02:500:02:52

Only the prince or the bishop had a chair.

0:02:520:02:55

So to give a bard a chair, you know... This was a great honour.

0:02:550:02:58

And in a moment of 12th-century political correctness,

0:02:580:03:02

the chair for the poetry prize went to North Wales

0:03:020:03:05

and the winner for music came from the south.

0:03:050:03:08

Shrewd politician, that Lord Rhys.

0:03:080:03:10

And here it is, the first Eisteddfod.

0:03:100:03:13

This interpretation was painted by Cardigan's most famous artist,

0:03:130:03:16

Aneurin Jones, and his son Meirion.

0:03:160:03:19

They painted it as part of the celebrations

0:03:190:03:22

to mark the town's 900th anniversary.

0:03:220:03:24

There's the bard being chaired with the Lord Rhys looking on.

0:03:240:03:27

Aneurin Jones used the faces of townspeople today

0:03:270:03:31

to portray their forebears.

0:03:310:03:33

The story of Lord Rhys and Cardigan Castle has a rather sad ending.

0:03:330:03:37

After his death, his two sons fell out over their inheritance

0:03:370:03:42

and the castle was sold to the Normans for a pittance.

0:03:420:03:46

Kids, eh? You give them everything and what they do?

0:03:460:03:49

They give it away.

0:03:490:03:52

After the castle, the mediaeval building in Cardigan

0:03:530:03:57

is the church of St Mary's, which dates from the 13th century.

0:03:570:04:00

It lies near where the Normans built a priory

0:04:000:04:04

but the location of the church has a more intriguing origin

0:04:040:04:07

and that comes from the story of a miracle.

0:04:070:04:10

It is said that a statue of Mary with her son on her lap

0:04:120:04:16

and a candle burning in her right hand,

0:04:160:04:19

was found on the banks of the Teifi.

0:04:190:04:21

The people decided to bring it to the parish church.

0:04:230:04:26

Three or four times they brought it there, but each time

0:04:260:04:29

they found it miraculously back where they originally saw it.

0:04:290:04:34

So they gave up and decided to build the church on that spot.

0:04:340:04:38

That's why St Mary's exists now.

0:04:380:04:41

The candle on the statue was said never to have gone out

0:04:420:04:45

and so Cardigan became a key site for pilgrimage in Wales.

0:04:450:04:48

Sadly, the statue itself was destroyed during the Reformation

0:04:480:04:52

but like the miracle, it refused to go away.

0:04:520:04:55

A new statue was made, and in 1986, in front of 4,500 people,

0:04:560:05:02

it was inaugurated as the National Catholic Shrine for Wales.

0:05:020:05:06

With the loss of its original shrine

0:05:080:05:10

and with the castle no longer so important,

0:05:100:05:13

Cardigan became a bit of a backwater.

0:05:130:05:15

Here it is in 1610. This was made by the famous map-maker, John Speed.

0:05:150:05:20

You can see here, the high street

0:05:200:05:24

and the castle still recognisable.

0:05:240:05:27

But what's striking is just how small the town was.

0:05:270:05:30

Over the next 200 years, though, Cardigan was to change dramatically,

0:05:300:05:34

not because of what's here,

0:05:340:05:36

but because of what's at the bottom of the map. The river.

0:05:360:05:39

The Teifi has always been Cardigan's lifeblood,

0:05:410:05:44

a tidal river rich in fish and salmon.

0:05:440:05:46

The Benedictine monks who arrived with the Normans

0:05:460:05:49

had introduced a French form of salmon netting called seine fishing.

0:05:490:05:53

It continued right up until the 1970s.

0:05:530:05:57

In the 18th century, Cardigan started to grow as a major port.

0:06:000:06:04

Ships from the town took goods like herring, slate,

0:06:040:06:07

lead and wool around the British coast across to Ireland and France.

0:06:070:06:11

And there was human cargo as well.

0:06:130:06:15

For Welsh people emigrating to North America, Cardigan was their last sight of home.

0:06:150:06:20

By the early 19th century, Cardigan was the largest Welsh port,

0:06:200:06:25

far bigger than Cardiff, Newport or Swansea.

0:06:250:06:27

The growth of Cardigan as a port

0:06:310:06:33

led to its emergence as a major shipbuilding centre.

0:06:330:06:37

This is the Netpool area,

0:06:370:06:39

where once they made the wooden ships, the ocean-going sloops.

0:06:390:06:42

It's all changed now. It's a car park.

0:06:420:06:45

But once, this would have been alive with the sounds of industry.

0:06:450:06:49

There were once seven shipyards along the Teifi

0:06:510:06:54

but now, there's only one small boatyard which carries on the tradition.

0:06:540:06:58

Swallow Boats build award-winning yachts

0:06:580:07:01

but Cardigan's most popular craft in the 19th century

0:07:010:07:04

was a single-masted vessel called a sloop.

0:07:040:07:08

Sloops were the sort of white vans of their time.

0:07:080:07:11

They took stuff from A to B to C.

0:07:110:07:13

Each town like Cardigan would have had a boat building area,

0:07:150:07:20

which was Netpool in Cardigan, as well as typical warehouses

0:07:200:07:24

where the merchants kept their stuff as they came in.

0:07:240:07:27

If there were four ships built in one year,

0:07:270:07:30

you can guarantee that another four were in build at the same time.

0:07:300:07:34

They were quite substantial chunks and they must have taken up a lot of room on the foreshore.

0:07:340:07:39

'The shipbuilders didn't use plans, so how did they design their boats?'

0:07:390:07:44

This is a half model.

0:07:440:07:47

A typical sort of half model that a builder wood carve before he built.

0:07:470:07:53

He'd probably take it to his customer and say, "What do you think of this?"

0:07:530:07:58

When the customer would say, "Yeah, I'll go for that,"

0:07:580:08:00

he'd then saw it up, like that,

0:08:000:08:02

and make up the frames and things like that

0:08:020:08:04

in accordance with the model.

0:08:040:08:06

By the early 19th century, Cardigan was a bustling port

0:08:090:08:12

with over 1,000 men employed in the shipyards.

0:08:120:08:15

This activity centred on the area of town called the Mwldan,

0:08:150:08:19

named after the stream that runs through it.

0:08:190:08:22

There are still signs of the industry that once thrived there.

0:08:220:08:25

If you look up, you can see the clues of the shipbuilding past.

0:08:250:08:30

You can see these little pulleys up here,

0:08:300:08:33

you can see the doors for the sail lofts

0:08:330:08:36

and the warehouses further down.

0:08:360:08:38

In the 1850s, there were several blacksmiths here,

0:08:380:08:43

but there were two who specialised only in anchors and chains.

0:08:430:08:47

There were three pulley block makers to hoist those huge sales.

0:08:470:08:52

There were three sail-makers and three rope-makers.

0:08:520:08:55

It was such an important port and such an important shipbuilding town.

0:08:550:09:01

Like other notorious maritime quarters,

0:09:010:09:04

the Mwldan had a reputation.

0:09:040:09:06

There were nearly 70 pubs and all sorts of nocturnal goings-on.

0:09:060:09:10

Could you tell me what the Ystlumod y Nos were?

0:09:100:09:14

Ah, yes. The Night Bats.

0:09:140:09:17

They were, apparently, the middle-class ladies

0:09:200:09:23

just from the street above who would come down to the Mwldan.

0:09:230:09:27

They would sneak down here to meet their lower-class lovers

0:09:270:09:31

and I imagine they wore long cloaks with big hoods

0:09:310:09:34

to try to conceal their identities.

0:09:340:09:37

But as they were scurrying around these alleyways for their assignations,

0:09:370:09:42

their cloaks would billow and presumably they would look like bats.

0:09:420:09:46

What these ladies' husbands thought, nobody knows.

0:09:480:09:51

But perhaps they were preoccupied with their business dealings.

0:09:510:09:55

With Cardigan's port booming,

0:09:550:09:56

the town itself grew as a commercial centre.

0:09:560:09:59

A weekly market has been held in Cardigan since the mid-12th century.

0:10:060:10:11

The rich Teifi Valley is up there, the sea is down there.

0:10:110:10:16

Goods, produce, livestock poured in.

0:10:160:10:18

The writer Daniel Defoe - Robinson Crusoe - noted that,

0:10:180:10:22

"The whole of the county of Cardigan is said to be so full of cattle

0:10:220:10:27

"that 'tis the nursery, the breeding place for the whole of England."

0:10:270:10:31

And it is sold on 87, sold at 87.

0:10:310:10:35

The clearest sign of Cardigan's wealth and status in the mid-19th century

0:10:370:10:42

was the opening of the town's guildhall in 1857.

0:10:420:10:45

For its day, this was cutting-edge architecture,

0:10:450:10:48

built in the latest Gothic style.

0:10:480:10:50

It's still a striking building today.

0:10:500:10:52

It became a focus for all the town's civic events

0:10:530:10:57

and for 150 years has been the site of Cardigan's indoor market.

0:10:570:11:01

But there was much more to it than that.

0:11:010:11:03

Mervyn Pearce has been a stallholder here for 35 years

0:11:040:11:08

and knows all about its history.

0:11:080:11:10

It was a very important building.

0:11:100:11:13

It wasn't just a market place or town hall or anything,

0:11:130:11:17

it was the whole lot in one.

0:11:170:11:20

It was a whole complex of various aspect.

0:11:200:11:22

You had a grammar school, you had the divinity library,

0:11:220:11:26

you had a mechanics institute, you had this hall.

0:11:260:11:29

It was a very unusual building to be put up in Britain.

0:11:290:11:33

I love the notion of the merchants shouting and selling,

0:11:330:11:37

and the mechanics banging away, and in the divinity library they're going, "Sh!"

0:11:370:11:42

I can just imagine it!

0:11:420:11:44

There's one more thing that catches the eye at the guildhall.

0:11:470:11:50

Can't miss it, really!

0:11:500:11:52

It's this. This is the Unicorn, an Imperial Russian cannon.

0:11:520:11:56

The thing is, it's come to the wrong address.

0:11:560:11:59

It was sent as a gift to Lord Cardigan,

0:11:590:12:02

leader of the brave but ill-fated Charge of the Light Brigade

0:12:020:12:06

in the Crimean War.

0:12:060:12:08

The only thing was, though Lord Cardigan had the title of Cardigan,

0:12:080:12:11

he didn't have any lands in the area to go with it.

0:12:110:12:15

The charger of the Light Brigade never rode into this town.

0:12:150:12:18

So, wrong address.

0:12:180:12:20

Mind you, it would have cost a fortune to post it on.

0:12:200:12:23

While we're at it, the cardigan, the jumper with the buttons up the front,

0:12:250:12:30

is named not after the town but after that Lord Cardigan again.

0:12:300:12:35

Mind you, this one is from the town, made by people from here

0:12:350:12:39

to mark the 900th anniversary.

0:12:390:12:42

It's the history of Cardigan in wool.

0:12:420:12:44

Much of Cardigan was built during the mid-19th century,

0:12:480:12:52

using slate from the quarries at Cilgerran and brick from the town's brickworks.

0:12:520:12:57

It's still full of splendid buildings today,

0:12:570:13:00

such as the Mount Zion Baptist chapel of 1878.

0:13:000:13:04

Grand though it is, it's actually an overspill chapel for the Bethania chapel round the corner

0:13:040:13:09

that couldn't fit in the crowds who wanted to attend.

0:13:090:13:12

But one unremarkable building from Victorian Cardigan

0:13:120:13:16

has hidden its previous use.

0:13:160:13:18

The Highbury Hotel is today one of the town's B&Bs.

0:13:210:13:25

But in the 19th century it was Cardigan's jail.

0:13:250:13:28

Designed by Regency architect John Nash,

0:13:280:13:31

the punishment meted out there could be brutal.

0:13:310:13:34

Thomas Price and John Evans were hanged here right here in front of the jail

0:13:340:13:39

on Easter Monday 1822, in public.

0:13:390:13:42

And there's an even greater deterrent.

0:13:420:13:45

In line with the Murder Act of 1752,

0:13:450:13:48

they were dissected and anatomised by surgeons in public.

0:13:480:13:53

Those were the days when they liked to look inside the criminal mind, literally.

0:13:530:13:58

For most, Victorian Cardigan was busy and prosperous.

0:14:020:14:06

The railway had arrived in 1886,

0:14:060:14:09

joining the town with the main line to London.

0:14:090:14:11

But it also rang the death knell for Cardigan as a port.

0:14:110:14:14

The maritime trade had already started to decline,

0:14:170:14:20

as the new larger steamships struggled to navigate the Teifi.

0:14:200:14:23

Crucially, the railway transported goods to market in London

0:14:230:14:26

much more quickly than by boat

0:14:260:14:28

and Cardigan's port was consigned to history.

0:14:280:14:32

'The Mwldan, once the beating heart of the maritime quarter,

0:14:340:14:37

'bore the brunt of the decline.

0:14:370:14:39

'In the early 20th century,

0:14:390:14:41

'the poorly-built houses turned into slums,

0:14:410:14:44

'with poverty and disease rife.

0:14:440:14:46

'One of the last people to remember the town at this time

0:14:460:14:50

'is 92-year-old Donald Davies who grew up here in the 1920s.'

0:14:500:14:53

-Cardigan looks very respectable.

-Oh, yes.

0:14:550:14:58

But just over the back... What was the Mwldan like?

0:14:580:15:02

Was it concentrated?

0:15:020:15:05

As I said, desolate in many places.

0:15:050:15:08

The industries that had been there, all that had been left to go,

0:15:080:15:12

and it was now desolate.

0:15:120:15:13

-It's quite a sad place.

-Yes, and really the children...

0:15:150:15:20

could not afford things, for example.

0:15:200:15:23

You see, they were the ones who used to have soup kitchens.

0:15:230:15:27

There would be a soup kitchen in school.

0:15:280:15:31

The teacher would turn round and say,

0:15:310:15:33

"There'll be a soup kitchen tomorrow and Tuesday."

0:15:330:15:35

They'd be the children that were there.

0:15:350:15:37

Do you remember the children of the Mwldan? Did you mix at school?

0:15:370:15:41

In fact, they were favourites of mine,

0:15:410:15:44

because we played a lot together and you always had fun with them.

0:15:440:15:49

They could make something enjoyable out of nothing.

0:15:490:15:55

The slums of the Mwldan were finally demolished in 1937.

0:15:550:15:59

But the town continued to prosper as the principle market for the area.

0:15:590:16:04

This old home movie footage dates from the 1930s

0:16:040:16:07

and shows Cardigan busy as ever,

0:16:070:16:09

although now with cars taking over from horses on the high street.

0:16:090:16:14

During the middle of the 20th century, the town remained

0:16:140:16:17

remarkably unchanged, although many mourned the loss of the railway,

0:16:170:16:21

the much loved Cardi Bach service,

0:16:210:16:24

which was closed by Dr Beeching in 1963.

0:16:240:16:28

In the 1960s, Cardigan became popular as a holiday destination

0:16:290:16:34

and although the influx of tourists put pressure on the Welsh language in the area,

0:16:340:16:37

it still remained very strong.

0:16:370:16:40

Local farmer and poet Dic Jones

0:16:400:16:43

became an important character in the town's life

0:16:430:16:45

and one of a new generation of Welsh-speaking celebrities.

0:16:450:16:49

He could also write a poem for any occasion.

0:16:490:16:53

I well remember the time when I was up before the local magistrates

0:16:530:16:57

for having forgotten to renew my television licence,

0:16:570:17:01

of all things.

0:17:010:17:03

And I thought it might help me,

0:17:030:17:06

help my case, if I presented it in verse form, you see.

0:17:060:17:10

And I wrote an English poem,

0:17:100:17:13

a dastardly thing to do, but, still, it has to be done sometimes.

0:17:130:17:18

"I try not to lie a lot.

0:17:180:17:20

"No skilled excuse will I parrot to con the court, I cannot.

0:17:200:17:25

"So forgive as I forgot."

0:17:250:17:27

Dic Jones died in 2009

0:17:280:17:31

but another Cardigan poet has followed in his footsteps.

0:17:310:17:34

A oes heddwch?

0:17:340:17:35

Ceri Wyn Jones also won the Eisteddfod chair

0:17:350:17:38

and has become the new wordsmith for the town.

0:17:380:17:41

The traditional view of a poet is very often of someone remote,

0:17:410:17:45

detached from reality in some way,

0:17:450:17:49

someone who's into abstract philosophising about life.

0:17:490:17:53

But Dic lived real life.

0:17:530:17:54

He worked the soil, he worked with the animals,

0:17:540:17:58

he was an integral part of his own community.

0:17:580:18:02

He celebrated people's birthdays.

0:18:020:18:04

He wrote poems in condolence.

0:18:040:18:07

He wrote poems that pulled people's legs.

0:18:070:18:11

It was part of the...

0:18:110:18:13

almost the part of the vocation of the poet in this area.

0:18:130:18:16

It still is. A poet isn't remote,

0:18:160:18:19

he's part of his community, almost like a biographer of that community.

0:18:190:18:24

And for that community, 1976 was a special year indeed,

0:18:250:18:29

when the National Eisteddfod returned to Cardigan

0:18:290:18:32

800 years after Lord Rhys created it there.

0:18:320:18:35

With the baking hot weather of that memorable summer,

0:18:350:18:38

the Eisteddfod was a huge success.

0:18:380:18:42

The Cardigan Eisteddfod became Eisteddfod y Llwch -

0:18:420:18:45

the Eisteddfod of the Dust!

0:18:450:18:47

And it was true.

0:18:470:18:49

Everywhere was parched, the whole country was parched,

0:18:490:18:53

but the Eisteddfod field in Penlan was nearer brown that it was yellow.

0:18:530:18:57

Everyone, the whole community, would have been drawn into that.

0:18:570:19:00

But in the 35 years since the Eisteddfod,

0:19:020:19:04

how has the Welsh language fared in the town?

0:19:040:19:07

The last census showed about 73% of Cardigan's population

0:19:070:19:11

able to speak Welsh.

0:19:110:19:13

But there are still fears for the future.

0:19:130:19:16

In terms of visibility and access,

0:19:160:19:19

the Welsh language seems never to have had it so good.

0:19:190:19:23

Signage throughout the town,

0:19:230:19:26

access to all kinds of events in both languages.

0:19:260:19:31

But there seems to be less Welsh being spoken.

0:19:310:19:34

Sadly, it's still true to say, however,

0:19:340:19:37

that English and Welsh speakers could, if they chose,

0:19:370:19:41

live parallel lives here.

0:19:410:19:43

It's so complex.

0:19:430:19:45

You can't put your finger on one thing that's preventing it,

0:19:450:19:49

which is why so many of us are anxious to make sure

0:19:490:19:53

it doesn't disappear as an issue either.

0:19:530:19:55

We have to keep on reminding people.

0:19:550:19:57

Even as the town changed, some traditions were upheld.

0:20:050:20:08

This is the Winter Fair, held every year on the 10th of November

0:20:080:20:13

and going back centuries.

0:20:130:20:15

Originally this was the date and the place

0:20:150:20:17

where you hired servants and maids.

0:20:170:20:20

Not too many of them around nowadays.

0:20:210:20:24

In the spring is another traditional fair, Barley Saturday,

0:20:240:20:28

always held on the first Saturday after the last Friday in April.

0:20:280:20:31

Got that?

0:20:310:20:33

It's so called because that's when barley, the last crop, was sown.

0:20:330:20:37

But it was also the day stallions were paraded through the streets of the town

0:20:370:20:42

to be selected by farmers to breed with mares.

0:20:420:20:45

Revived in the 1960s, it's still going strong,

0:20:450:20:47

and along with the Winter Fair, is one of the highlights of the town's year.

0:20:470:20:52

'He's beginning to get up on the near side. Last Suspect has won it!'

0:20:520:20:56

In 1985, one horseman became a hero in Cardigan.

0:20:560:20:59

Local jockey Hywel Davies won the Grand National that year,

0:20:590:21:03

a 50-1 outsider, on his horse, Last Suspect.

0:21:030:21:07

The bookies took a hammering and Hywel returned home in triumph.

0:21:070:21:10

O, 'na sioc! I'm...I'm...brilliant!

0:21:120:21:16

But he wasn't the only sporting champion to come from the town.

0:21:160:21:20

Once, the fastest thing on the Teifi was a coracle race.

0:21:200:21:23

Come on, number 10!

0:21:230:21:25

But in the 1980s, there was a new sound on the river.

0:21:250:21:29

MUSIC: "My Favourite Game" by The Cardigans

0:21:290:21:32

Jonathan Jones is a Cardigan lad with a need for speed.

0:21:350:21:39

Working out of a local boatyard, he became British powerboat champion

0:21:390:21:43

before taking the world title in 1986.

0:21:430:21:46

'Jonathan still lives and builds powerboats in Cardigan

0:21:480:21:51

'and I persuaded him to take me out on the river.'

0:21:510:21:54

For old time's sake, Jonathan?

0:21:540:21:56

-CHEERING AND APPLAUSE

-Here we are. The homecoming. Do you remember it?

0:22:020:22:05

Yes, I remember it like it was yesterday.

0:22:050:22:08

It was a great day. Very enjoyable.

0:22:080:22:11

Stopping at the town hall for the presentation. Terrific crowd.

0:22:110:22:17

A lot of local people.

0:22:170:22:19

A lot of fellow competitors. It was a wonderful day.

0:22:190:22:22

And it was only the first of four. Four times world champion.

0:22:280:22:31

Yes, yeah. I was... '86 was the first time and '89, '91 and '98. Yes.

0:22:310:22:36

Powerboat racing has been good to me.

0:22:360:22:39

MUSIC: "Jeans On" by David Dundas

0:22:390:22:43

Jeans and Cardigan, what's the connection?

0:22:450:22:48

Well, a strange but true fact is that between the 1970s and 1990s,

0:22:480:22:52

millions of Britain's denim-clad teenagers

0:22:520:22:55

wore jeans made in the town.

0:22:550:22:57

At its height, the Dewhirst clothing factory

0:22:570:23:00

was turning out 35,000 pairs of jeans a week.

0:23:000:23:03

That's almost two million pairs a year.

0:23:030:23:06

It was Cardigan's biggest employer and had a strong community spirit.

0:23:060:23:12

We were like a family there.

0:23:120:23:14

There was about 400 people working there

0:23:140:23:17

so it was one big happy family.

0:23:170:23:20

But in 2002, disaster struck when the factory was closed,

0:23:230:23:26

with 400 jobs going out of a population of just 4,000.

0:23:260:23:29

When the factory closed, it affected, you know, a family,

0:23:310:23:35

where you'd have husband and wife working or mother and daughter.

0:23:350:23:40

So it did... When it closed, it was quite a sad time.

0:23:400:23:46

It was just a very dark cloud that came over

0:23:460:23:49

and it was very sad to see the day of it closing.

0:23:490:23:52

But Cardigan's denim dream hasn't gone for ever.

0:23:520:23:55

A new company is starting up

0:23:550:23:57

and employing former Dewhirst workers like Elin Evans.

0:23:570:24:00

-It's in the

-jeans,

-you know.

0:24:000:24:02

The story is about the town that used to make jeans

0:24:020:24:05

and actually would love to make jeans again.

0:24:050:24:07

It's a human interest story,

0:24:070:24:10

especially for me, because I live here,

0:24:100:24:12

and I really love the town, and I believe,

0:24:120:24:15

with ideas and with craftsmanship,

0:24:150:24:18

we can actually go and build a global company here.

0:24:180:24:21

Albeit, it might be a small global company.

0:24:210:24:24

But there's a romantic notion where, actually,

0:24:240:24:27

we can be great. I'm sort of very proud to be Welsh

0:24:270:24:30

and I'm very proud of the town.

0:24:300:24:32

But I love ideas, and we can go and take on the best.

0:24:320:24:35

It's lovely to think we're going to be making jeans back here

0:24:350:24:41

and get Cardigan back on the map of jeans-making.

0:24:410:24:44

If a lot had changed in Cardigan, one thing remained frozen in time.

0:24:490:24:54

Cardigan Castle and this Georgian townhouse in its grounds

0:24:540:24:57

were privately owned, and for decades,

0:24:570:25:00

all this was closed to the public.

0:25:000:25:03

It became a huge controversy in the town as the buildings

0:25:030:25:06

were increasingly overgrown and in danger of collapse.

0:25:060:25:09

The owner thought her home was her castle.

0:25:090:25:13

She was Cardigan's own Miss Havesham -

0:25:130:25:15

Barbara Wood, an eccentric Englishwoman

0:25:150:25:18

who battled for years with the local authorities.

0:25:180:25:21

Cardigan Borough Council are trying to terrorise a woman owner

0:25:210:25:25

whom they know owns the most valuable property in the town.

0:25:250:25:29

That's the situation. And they've cooked up this plot.

0:25:290:25:33

After years of holding out, she finally sold it to the county council in 2003

0:25:330:25:37

and died in a nursing home in 2009.

0:25:370:25:42

Inside the castle was a house lost in time.

0:25:460:25:49

For local archivist Sian Collins, entering solved a childhood mystery.

0:25:490:25:56

When I was a child I always wanted to get inside the castle

0:25:560:25:58

because all you could see were the walls.

0:25:580:26:00

I wasn't really aware of this house. I didn't know exactly where it was

0:26:000:26:04

within the walls or what it looked like.

0:26:040:26:06

I just knew that an elderly lady lived there

0:26:060:26:08

and it wasn't in a very good condition.

0:26:080:26:10

Barbara Wood's family had bought the Georgian townhouse in the 1940s

0:26:100:26:14

but soon found it beyond their means and struggled to pay the bills.

0:26:140:26:18

They did try their best to keep up appearances, though.

0:26:180:26:22

This stepladder here impresses many people.

0:26:220:26:25

We have Harrods written on it

0:26:250:26:27

so we're assuming it was bought from Harrods

0:26:270:26:30

but they could have just painted it on themselves

0:26:300:26:32

to impress the neighbours.

0:26:320:26:34

-Social climbing.

-THEY LAUGH

0:26:340:26:38

Since the death of Miss Wood, the castle and its grounds

0:26:430:26:46

are finally going to be reopened to the public.

0:26:460:26:50

After years of campaigning, a band of local historians

0:26:500:26:52

and enthusiasts have now raised a massive £10 million

0:26:520:26:55

from the Lottery, Europe and the Welsh Government

0:26:550:26:58

to restore the buildings and give the town a new heart.

0:26:580:27:02

It's the biggest restoration award in Wales

0:27:020:27:05

and one of the organisers, Jann Tucker,

0:27:050:27:08

gave me a sneak preview of their plans.

0:27:080:27:11

This looks very exotic.

0:27:110:27:13

This looks very space-agey.

0:27:130:27:15

-What's going on here?

-It is. That's going to be the Eisteddfod garden.

0:27:150:27:18

That's in the daytime when it's really nice and lovely

0:27:180:27:22

and the sun is shining.

0:27:220:27:24

But if the rain does come,

0:27:240:27:26

the idea is somebody comes around and presses a button.

0:27:260:27:30

-Centre Court, Wimbledon.

-Absolutely.

0:27:300:27:33

Inside the house, there'll be Welsh learning for adults.

0:27:330:27:37

Also we're hoping to use this site as well to do masterclasses here.

0:27:370:27:43

You can sing, play the harp, make jam. You know, anything like that.

0:27:430:27:48

We can have courses like that going on in here

0:27:480:27:50

which will also be providing people coming into the town

0:27:500:27:54

through the winter, not just the summer.

0:27:540:27:56

It is a decaying site and yet this is what it could be,

0:27:560:27:59

this is what it will be.

0:27:590:28:01

Have you had a reaction from the town?

0:28:010:28:03

We've had a very good reaction from the town.

0:28:030:28:05

The majority of people you speak to can't wait

0:28:050:28:08

to see something happening here.

0:28:080:28:10

When the stanchions from the outside get taken away,

0:28:100:28:12

then I think they will realise that something is happening

0:28:120:28:16

and they will be very pleased.

0:28:160:28:18

Over the centuries,

0:28:220:28:24

Cardigan has seen the tides of history ebb and flow.

0:28:240:28:28

Industries have come and gone.

0:28:280:28:31

What now?

0:28:310:28:33

Well, maybe the castle symbolises the town.

0:28:330:28:36

There it is, a bit battered and bruised,

0:28:360:28:38

but work is due to start here in 2012.

0:28:380:28:41

And there's the lesson -

0:28:410:28:43

using the past to build something brand new for the future.

0:28:430:28:46

Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd

0:28:550:28:58

Download Subtitles

SRT

ASS