Episode 3 Ar Mo Bhealach Féin


Episode 3

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-Bore da, Guto.

-Bore da, croeso i'r Bala.

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-I see you've brought the crown.

-I take it everywhere.

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So this is the White Lion,

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where Seosamh Mac Grianna met the Welsh bard.

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Gwych, fantastic. Let's go in.

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This is the last verse of the last poem of the collection

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that won me this crown at the last National Eisteddfod.

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It's a poem about how homes in our Welsh language areas are empty,

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how our structures are diminishing,

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but how there are new opportunities

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such as social media, Twitter and so on

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that we can grasp and take forward.

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"Ond cau dy lygaid ar wacter y coed,

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"a gwranda ar y trydar diarbed:

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"ein swn ni - ein canmol cynhennus,

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"cynganeddion damweiniol ein delfrydau,

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"ymrysonau ffraethineb y boreau bach -

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"yn gwibio'n drydan drwy oerni'r aer

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"Mae'r coed yn noeth ond ni bia'r awyr."

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"The trees are bare, but we own the sky."

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Beautiful.

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I can't pretend or bluff that I understood the entire content there,

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but certainly aurally, lovely, guttural Welsh sounds,

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very appealing to the ear.

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And I'm intrigued that you have, in your work,

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you've managed to merge the ancient tradition, the classical tradition,

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with the challenges facing the young Welsh-speaking population

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-in the modern world.

-That's what I aim to do.

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I look back over the centuries of tradition that we have

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and try to bring titbits of that, be it a poem or a tale,

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and bring it into my poetry, make it relevant to our situation today,

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to the predicament of our Welsh language communities

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and try to put a new spin on it.

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There's a huge tradition in Wales of poets going from house to house,

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from mansion to mansion,

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singing for their supper, basically,

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singing the praises of the noblemen,

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but our poetry as a generation today

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is a lot more cynical - we challenge authority, rather than uphold it.

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We'll be seeing you again very soon at the Eisteddfod next week.

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Yes, at the start of the week,

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I'm going to be admitted into the Gorsedd of the Bards,

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the Order of Poets,

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which is an honours system that we have

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and I'm being allowed in cos I won the crown.

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The Eisteddfod is much more than that.

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It's a whole week of festival, of dancing, singing, live music

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-and poetry as well.

-One final request, please -

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would you be so kind as to don your crown?

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I'll put it on now.

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It's quite stylish, isn't it?

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-I wear it all the time, but not in the shower.

-Very regal!

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-Very regal.

-Quite fetching, I think.

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MUSIC: Men Of Harlech

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It was a bit of an accident that Seosamh Mac Grianna ended up here,

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because his original plan was to continue north

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from Bala to Scotland,

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but this was a bit of good fortune for him.

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It was a bit of good fortune, yeah.

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This is quite an ancient route here, linking Bala to Lake Vyrnwy

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-and way back, this would have been an old drover's road.

-Yeah.

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This would have been where they would have bought cattle, mainly,

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then, of course, taken them to markets, eventually,

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over in England and, of course,

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it's been used ever since. It was an old stagecoach route as well

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and it was the way that we from the village used to come over

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to do a bit of shopping over in Bala, so over the years,

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it's been a very important route.

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And there were certain dangers and hazards, historically,

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on this route, from what I gather.

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There were some very wild Welshmen up on the moors here, red-haired.

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They were called the Gwylliaid Cochion,

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a gang of bandits, marauding bandits.

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They used to work the moors all the way, well,

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probably a radius of about 20 miles here

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and they would rob people coming over and particularly drovers.

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When they'd taken the animals over to market in England, of course,

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they brought the money back with them and they knew this

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and they'd wait for them and they'd ambush them, take the money

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and it took the authorities decades

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before they eventually caught them,

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cos if you think of these moors here,

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if you know it, so many places for you to hide away,

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so they were wild men, wild, red-haired Welshmen.

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When Seosamh Mac Grianna embarked on this hike,

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he had two primary objectives.

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One was to source inspiration for his writing,

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but equally, to challenge himself physically

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and he covered 300 miles over the route,

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about 24-25 average a day.

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That was a tough challenge.

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It was very tough, especially way back then.

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We look at this route now and all the way along,

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you've got a lovely tarmac road, it's very smooth,

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it's quite easy walking, but if we were to do 24-25 miles a day,

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that would be challenging even now

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and when you've got little more than a path, a track at best,

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with potholes everywhere, that would have been incredibly difficult.

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Iolo, I'm conscious that Seosamh Mac Grianna would have been aware

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of the history of what happened here -

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a Welsh-speaking community was sacrificed

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to create a water supply for the city of Liverpool.

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Yes, yes, that's right. We're going back now to the 1880s,

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when this dam was built. The city of Liverpool was a growing city.

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They needed water for industry, but more than anything,

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they needed water for the people.

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The people lived in poverty, in squalor.

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Disease was rife, they were desperate for clean running water,

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so an act of parliament was passed for this dam to be built

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and it drowned the whole valley here, five miles of it.

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Unfortunately, it also drowned a village, farms,

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a Welsh-speaking community

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and that community now is under these dark waters.

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And I remember, as a lad growing up here, in 1976,

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the long, hot, drought summer of 1976,

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going to where the village was

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and because the water was at a record low,

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you could see the ruins of the old village of Llanwddyn.

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The bridge was intact, some of the houses were still there,

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there was a cockpit

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and it was incredibly sad.

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Of course, it's happened since then. Hopefully, it'll never happen again.

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WELSH CHORAL SINGING

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-Ah, Guto!

-Bore da!

-Bore da!

-How are you?

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Very well, thank you. You're fully vested and raring to go.

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Yes, looking magnificent.

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Yeah, I've been given my robe

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and then, in the ceremony later on at the Gorsedd Stones,

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I'll be given my head dress as well, with leaves in it.

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Then I'll be a full member of the Gorsedd of the Bards.

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I'm overwhelmed by the magnitude of this event.

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I've just heard that this is the second largest outside broadcast

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by the BBC, second only to Wimbledon.

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Yeah, that makes sense. It's a huge event.

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You'll have seen the huge pink pavilion as you walked in.

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That's where the main competing takes place

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and that's where the crowning ceremony

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will take place this afternoon.

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But the Eisteddfod is much more than the pavilion.

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It's got all these other tents, it's got lectures,

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it's got singing, poetry. It's like a powerhouse for our culture.

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It's been called a mobile capital city for Welsh-speaking Wales

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and I think that's true.

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A mobile capital city for Welsh-speaking Wales?

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Yeah, the idea is that for one week,

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we have got one place where everybody can celebrate the culture,

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everybody who's interested in the culture will try to make the journey

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to this small, uninhabited, almost, corner

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of the middle of Wales and here, our culture reigns supreme.

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MAN SINGS IN WELSH

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-Hi, Lisa.

-Hi.

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-Nice to meet you again.

-And you too.

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And this is the young bardess?

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Yeah, this is Casi and I've got a bib here

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and she's got a bib as well.

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It's not quite matching, but she's enjoying her first Eisteddfod.

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She's in pink!

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This doesn't signify anything in the bardic tradition, no?

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No, I don't think there are any pink... Are there any pink dresses?

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We wish you every success. Enjoy every second.

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-Savour the moment!

-I will.

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FANFARE PLAYS

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THEY SING IN WELSH

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ALL CALL OUT IN WELSH

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SHE SPEAKS IN WELSH

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HE SPEAKS WELSH

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APPLAUSE

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WELSH CHORAL SINGING

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CROSSING BELL RINGS, TRAIN'S WHISTLE SOUNDS

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TRAIN'S HORN BLARES

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Well, if Seosamh Mac Grianna had been doing his hike now,

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rather than in 1934, Arthur,

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he wouldn't have been tempted to get on the train,

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cos the train no longer stops.

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No, he'd have to be able to run fast -

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they're going through here at 84mph.

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But no, there was none of this here then.

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It was a biggish station for a little village,

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where we had two platforms, one each side,

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there was a signal box over there,

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the signalman lived in this house where we live now,

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the station master lived next door, the booking office was there

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and that's where they used to unload

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and put all the parcels that we used to deliver when we were kids.

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I can remember going down the road on a bike

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with three boxes of day-old chicks

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singing to me on the way going down the road.

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It was very exciting round here

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and the trains used to run up the sideline up there,

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to Kerry and we used to ride on them,

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either on the carriage van...

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If Mr Swain, the station master, was here,

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we'd have to ride in the carriage van.

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When he wasn't here, we could ride on the footplate

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and it was very exciting, riding on the footplate.

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A lot of levers to pull,

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whistles and what have you, innit?

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But there was also a tragic incident

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that happened here at Abermule station,

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an accident that may well have changed the course

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of world history, Arthur.

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January '21 there was a head-on collision

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about a half a mile up the line here,

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a goods train and a passenger train.

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Something had happened in the station here,

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the wrong token was given to this train going up

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and he thought he had right of way.

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It turned out the one from Newtown had right of way.

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16, I think there was, that were killed.

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On that train,

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there was an MP from Llanidloes, I think he was. He got killed.

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He left some of his estate to Winston Churchill

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and they reckoned at the time

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Winston Churchill was near enough bankrupt and if he'd gone bankrupt,

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he wouldn't have been able to be an MP.

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Well, this bloke saved him, really,

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and from that accident,

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all the stations in India

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where they've got the levers, there's a notice up above to say,

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"Remember Abermule", to remind the blokes who work in the signal box.

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-So a tiny village in Wales became...

-World-famous.

-World-famous?

-Yes.

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Arthur, it's been a treat talking to you.

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I suspect if we had more time, we could talk here for a lot longer.

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We could, yes. Once you start...

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Cheers, my lad.

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