0:00:01 > 0:00:04This programme is a sort of detective story.
0:00:04 > 0:00:07It's about how you can find out about the place where you live,
0:00:07 > 0:00:09your city, town or village.
0:00:09 > 0:00:13There are clues everywhere if you know where to look.
0:00:13 > 0:00:15I've come to Monmouth.
0:00:15 > 0:00:17It's my nearest town and the place I went to school.
0:00:17 > 0:00:22It's famous for Henry V and Charles Rolls of Rolls Royce.
0:00:22 > 0:00:26But this isn't about the top dogs. This is history from the bottom up.
0:00:26 > 0:00:29This is the story of the ordinary people who lived here
0:00:29 > 0:00:32and how their lives have changed over the last 1,000 years.
0:00:32 > 0:00:36I'm going to investigate the history of Monmouth for myself,
0:00:36 > 0:00:39through old buildings, documents and individual lives.
0:00:41 > 0:00:44It's an often surprising story of industry and iron forging,
0:00:44 > 0:00:47of rivers and river trade,
0:00:47 > 0:00:48of pigeons and parachutes.
0:00:48 > 0:00:54And also a very 21st century way of finding out about the past.
0:01:18 > 0:01:22The first question to ask in any town is why is it here?
0:01:22 > 0:01:24The biggest clue may be in the name.
0:01:24 > 0:01:28Monmouth, where the River Monnow joins the River Wye.
0:01:28 > 0:01:32The two rivers have been bringing people here for thousands of years,
0:01:32 > 0:01:36but water isn't the only reason why the settlers came.
0:01:39 > 0:01:41Another clue to the story of a town is the oldest building.
0:01:41 > 0:01:45Here it's this, or what remains of, Monmouth Castle,
0:01:45 > 0:01:48standing high on a hill above the town.
0:01:48 > 0:01:51The Romans first built here and it's easy to see why.
0:01:51 > 0:01:54It's ideal to defend.
0:01:55 > 0:01:58But it was the Normans who were the real founders of Monmouth.
0:01:58 > 0:02:01William FitzOsbern, cousin of William the Conqueror,
0:02:01 > 0:02:05first built the castle in 1068 and it was besieged
0:02:05 > 0:02:08during the bloody Battle of Monmouth in 1233.
0:02:11 > 0:02:14Monmouth was one of the outposts of Norman rule.
0:02:14 > 0:02:17This is Monnow Bridge, built in 1270
0:02:17 > 0:02:20and the last remaining fortified bridge of its kind
0:02:20 > 0:02:21still standing in the UK.
0:02:23 > 0:02:25The Normans needed protection
0:02:25 > 0:02:28because although they controlled the border lands, the Welsh Marches,
0:02:28 > 0:02:30the rest of Wales resisted them.
0:02:30 > 0:02:34The border was often fought over and needed to be defended.
0:02:38 > 0:02:42Walking around town I discovered more signs of the Middle Ages.
0:02:42 > 0:02:46Outside Monmouth Priory are three carved heads
0:02:46 > 0:02:50of a knight, an angel and a miller,
0:02:50 > 0:02:52representing the king, church and merchants,
0:02:52 > 0:02:55the key elements of any medieval town.
0:02:55 > 0:02:57The window is named after Geoffrey of Monmouth,
0:02:57 > 0:03:0112th century historian and author of the legend of King Arthur.
0:03:01 > 0:03:04But he would never have sat in the window,
0:03:04 > 0:03:07which was built 300 years after his death.
0:03:08 > 0:03:12To get a true sense of Norman Monmouth you have to walk the streets.
0:03:12 > 0:03:17This is Monnow Street, still very much the heart of the town today.
0:03:17 > 0:03:19It's classically medieval.
0:03:19 > 0:03:22One main street, wide in the middle for the market
0:03:22 > 0:03:24and narrow at both ends to keep the livestock in.
0:03:27 > 0:03:29You can see how towns develop through old maps
0:03:29 > 0:03:33and on this one of Monmouth from 1610, both Monnow Street
0:03:33 > 0:03:36and today's town plan are clearly visible.
0:03:36 > 0:03:42But to find out more about what it was really like, you have to literally dig deeper.
0:03:42 > 0:03:44The Monmouth Archaeological Society was founded
0:03:44 > 0:03:47by two schoolteachers in the 1950s
0:03:47 > 0:03:51and has made Monmouth one of the most excavated towns in Britain.
0:03:51 > 0:03:54Any time someone digs a hole in Monmouth the archaeologists jump in,
0:03:54 > 0:03:57although sometimes this can get them into a bit of trouble.
0:03:58 > 0:04:02Quite often the roadworks, which we've always covered,
0:04:02 > 0:04:05quite often they go on through the night because of the traffic.
0:04:05 > 0:04:09We were there three o'clock in the morning with the lights on
0:04:09 > 0:04:11and recording the stone work.
0:04:11 > 0:04:15With that, suddenly, at 3.30am there were police everywhere.
0:04:15 > 0:04:19Someone had tipped off the police we were tunnelling into the bank.
0:04:19 > 0:04:23- No!- It's true. People don't believe this but...
0:04:23 > 0:04:25Anyway, we explained that the...
0:04:27 > 0:04:31Well, the chaps who were doing the gas mains explained themselves too.
0:04:31 > 0:04:34We got away with it but it was a bit dodgy.
0:04:34 > 0:04:37I thought we were going to be in handcuffs!
0:04:37 > 0:04:40- These are some examples of your finds.- The pottery, yes.
0:04:42 > 0:04:45These are jug spouts and they're dated to the late 1200s.
0:04:45 > 0:04:47This is a demon.
0:04:47 > 0:04:49A beautiful little chap.
0:04:49 > 0:04:51I thought he was a carol singer.
0:04:51 > 0:04:54He turned up on Christmas Eve in lower Monnow Street.
0:04:54 > 0:04:59I held him under the tap in the back room in the torch light, really,
0:04:59 > 0:05:01and he came to life almost.
0:05:01 > 0:05:04This one is a pig or a boar.
0:05:04 > 0:05:07He's lost his tusks but it's the same thing. They're jug spouts.
0:05:07 > 0:05:08Age?
0:05:08 > 0:05:12- Middle to late 1200s.- Wow.
0:05:12 > 0:05:16This archaeology business, is it an obsession?
0:05:16 > 0:05:21I find archaeology as exciting now at my advanced age
0:05:21 > 0:05:23as I did when I was 12 or 13.
0:05:23 > 0:05:26It never goes away.
0:05:26 > 0:05:29It's exciting and it's also our own.
0:05:29 > 0:05:32It's our own history, our own place, our own life and everything else.
0:05:32 > 0:05:34Wonderful.
0:05:35 > 0:05:38It's not only objects that tell us about local history.
0:05:38 > 0:05:41I must have walked past Monmouth's museum thousands of times,
0:05:41 > 0:05:45but this is the first time I've gone deep into the archives.
0:05:45 > 0:05:48Here they have documents dating back hundreds of years
0:05:48 > 0:05:51and curator Andrew Helme showed me one
0:05:51 > 0:05:55which mentions a famous woollen cap made in the town.
0:05:55 > 0:05:58Andrew, these look alarmingly old to be anywhere near a clumsy man.
0:05:58 > 0:06:00What have we here?
0:06:00 > 0:06:04These are the Hundred Court rolls from the 15th century, 1449.
0:06:06 > 0:06:07Very dense.
0:06:07 > 0:06:11Five skins, literally skins, written on both sides
0:06:11 > 0:06:14with bureaucratic Latin.
0:06:14 > 0:06:16The whole point of getting these out
0:06:16 > 0:06:19is they're the earliest records we've got in Monmouth Museum.
0:06:19 > 0:06:21They're part of the borough archive for the town.
0:06:21 > 0:06:25They illustrate one of Monmouth's main claims to fame.
0:06:25 > 0:06:29In this particular document we have for the first time
0:06:29 > 0:06:31in Monmouth's history,
0:06:31 > 0:06:35the mention of somebody involved with caps or capping.
0:06:35 > 0:06:38On this particular sheet,
0:06:38 > 0:06:41one of the entries which you can just make out here,
0:06:41 > 0:06:45this little line is recording a debt.
0:06:45 > 0:06:50It's owed by a Welshman, Thomas ap Davy,
0:06:50 > 0:06:54and a gentleman called Richard Capper.
0:06:54 > 0:06:58At this stage people's surnames often reflected what they did for a living. Thatcher...
0:06:58 > 0:07:00- Butler.- Butler!
0:07:02 > 0:07:05- Capper.- There he is. - Richard Capper is here.
0:07:05 > 0:07:08He's involved in this record of a court case.
0:07:08 > 0:07:13The Monmouth Cap was an essential item of 16th century headgear.
0:07:13 > 0:07:15Made of wool, thousands were produced
0:07:15 > 0:07:18both in the town and further afield.
0:07:18 > 0:07:21Worn by itself or under a helmet
0:07:21 > 0:07:24it gets a mention in Shakespeare's Henry V.
0:07:24 > 0:07:27When adventurer Francis Drake set off on his explorations
0:07:27 > 0:07:30he took 36 dozen with him.
0:07:31 > 0:07:34And Monmouth has another military connection.
0:07:34 > 0:07:36The Royal Monmouthshire Royal Engineers,
0:07:36 > 0:07:39one of the oldest regiments in the British Army.
0:07:39 > 0:07:43Founded as a militia in 1539, their base, Great Castle House,
0:07:43 > 0:07:47was built using stones from the castle.
0:07:47 > 0:07:50There's also the thorny question of whether Monmouth
0:07:50 > 0:07:52was Welsh, English or neither.
0:07:52 > 0:07:56The problem stems from the Act of Union of the 1530s.
0:07:56 > 0:08:00In it Monmouthshire was listed as part of Wales
0:08:00 > 0:08:04but was not included on the list of Welsh counties.
0:08:04 > 0:08:08For centuries documents had to carry the phrase "Wales and Monmouthshire",
0:08:08 > 0:08:13an anomaly that wasn't sorted out until 1974.
0:08:13 > 0:08:17There's a local rumour that while Wales, England and Monmouthshire
0:08:17 > 0:08:19declared war on Germany in 1939,
0:08:19 > 0:08:22only England and Wales signed the peace treaty
0:08:22 > 0:08:25making Monmouthshire, technically, still at war.
0:08:26 > 0:08:27Just in case.
0:08:31 > 0:08:34Despite its image as a county town, I was surprised to find
0:08:34 > 0:08:37there's quite an industrial history to Monmouth as well.
0:08:38 > 0:08:42The whole area was famous for iron making from Roman times
0:08:42 > 0:08:44and there are still clues to that iron making tradition.
0:08:44 > 0:08:46There were three foundries in the town
0:08:46 > 0:08:51making all sorts of implements and here - nails.
0:08:51 > 0:08:55Nails haven't been made in Nailers Lane for over 200 years.
0:08:55 > 0:08:58But I got local blacksmith Gareth Thomas to bring history to life
0:08:58 > 0:09:01and show me how they were produced.
0:09:01 > 0:09:06Here we are. This is the very stuff of Industrial Revolution, isn't it?
0:09:06 > 0:09:10- Absolutely.- And yet, it's so, so small and so simple.
0:09:10 > 0:09:12- Light us up.- Yeah, OK.
0:09:15 > 0:09:21The tinder box in which is the flint and steel.
0:09:22 > 0:09:25The tinder is burnt cotton.
0:09:27 > 0:09:31Because it's pretty much pure carbon and it's very dry
0:09:31 > 0:09:34it'll take a spark like that.
0:09:39 > 0:09:41So that's now glowing.
0:09:41 > 0:09:43We'll add plenty of dry fuel.
0:09:52 > 0:09:54There we have a fire.
0:09:54 > 0:09:56- Amazing, isn't it?- Yeah.
0:10:02 > 0:10:04Charcoal for the fuel.
0:10:04 > 0:10:07On the back of the blower there is a handle.
0:10:07 > 0:10:10- If you give that a turn. - Clockwise?- Anti-clockwise.
0:10:10 > 0:10:12How many nails would they be expected to make in a day?
0:10:12 > 0:10:14Hundreds.
0:10:14 > 0:10:18Yeah, you'd have to make hundreds to be able to make the money.
0:10:18 > 0:10:20We've got a heat now.
0:10:20 > 0:10:22The next thing is to put it to the anvil.
0:10:24 > 0:10:27And you can change its shape by flattening it,
0:10:27 > 0:10:29turning it through 90 degrees.
0:10:31 > 0:10:33I've stretched out that piece now.
0:10:33 > 0:10:36- And the point is made? - The point is made.
0:10:36 > 0:10:38- You've made your point.- Yeah.
0:10:38 > 0:10:40You hit round the head of the nail.
0:10:43 > 0:10:46And put it into the nail heading tool.
0:10:47 > 0:10:49That's hot there, mind.
0:10:59 > 0:11:01- One nail.- One nail.
0:11:03 > 0:11:07Which was an important cottage industry
0:11:07 > 0:11:10all through the iron working areas.
0:11:10 > 0:11:13Very often carried out by families in the back yard.
0:11:13 > 0:11:17- The nail, a tradition revived. Nails back in Nailers Lane.- Yeah.
0:11:17 > 0:11:19Anyway, there it is.
0:11:19 > 0:11:21We're back!
0:11:25 > 0:11:29With all this trade and industry, Monmouth was booming.
0:11:31 > 0:11:34Merchants and traders were doing well, so well that one of them,
0:11:34 > 0:11:38haberdasher William Jones who made his fortune in Germany,
0:11:38 > 0:11:41left the then substantial sum of £6,000
0:11:41 > 0:11:43to found a school in the town.
0:11:43 > 0:11:47Monmouth Boys School is still going strong
0:11:47 > 0:11:48and I spent many a year there.
0:11:50 > 0:11:54I'm sitting in the school library under the watchful gaze of William Jones.
0:11:54 > 0:11:59This is a letter, written by one of the pupils in 1762.
0:11:59 > 0:12:02He's explaining the school rules.
0:12:02 > 0:12:03It's in Latin.
0:12:03 > 0:12:05This is like being at school again.
0:12:05 > 0:12:07"Let there be no quarrelling,
0:12:07 > 0:12:10"thieving, lying, swearing and cursing."
0:12:10 > 0:12:13Broke most of those on the first day!
0:12:14 > 0:12:16"On the Lord's day everyone must go to church
0:12:16 > 0:12:19"two by two in crocodile to repeat the principles
0:12:19 > 0:12:22"of the Christian religion, the younger ones in English,
0:12:22 > 0:12:24"the older ones in Latin or Greek.
0:12:24 > 0:12:27"Whoever violates these rules, let him be punished."
0:12:31 > 0:12:34The landscape gives a clue to a town's history.
0:12:34 > 0:12:39The River Wye played a vital role in Monmouth's commercial life.
0:12:39 > 0:12:44It's hard to imagine now, but this bank was full of wharves
0:12:44 > 0:12:48and on the river, no rowing boats, but barges and working boats
0:12:48 > 0:12:53called trows that were bringing goods in and out of the town.
0:12:53 > 0:12:56The river around Monmouth is famously beautiful and tranquil,
0:12:56 > 0:13:00but in the 18th and 19th centuries it would have been very different.
0:13:00 > 0:13:04Anne Rainsbury is an expert on the history of the River Wye.
0:13:04 > 0:13:06It was the main highway.
0:13:06 > 0:13:10It was, if you like, the motorway into the hinterland.
0:13:10 > 0:13:14There was industry which used the small tributary rivers
0:13:14 > 0:13:18and charcoal from the woodland.
0:13:18 > 0:13:23I mean, the woods, obviously, were completely different
0:13:23 > 0:13:25in terms of a resource.
0:13:25 > 0:13:30Timber and oak bark were very important exports of Monmouth
0:13:30 > 0:13:32and all down the Wye.
0:13:32 > 0:13:36Big timber for building buildings and ship building
0:13:36 > 0:13:39and the oak bark was used for tanning leather
0:13:39 > 0:13:43and a lot of it went out through Chepstow to Ireland
0:13:43 > 0:13:46for the tanning industry there.
0:13:46 > 0:13:49You've got this hive of industry and yet is it not true that
0:13:49 > 0:13:53the tourist industry came along as well?
0:13:54 > 0:13:58Yes. Amidst all of this and amidst what, certainly,
0:13:58 > 0:14:01in the Lower Wye Valley would have been an industrial scene,
0:14:01 > 0:14:04people coming to admire the scenery,
0:14:04 > 0:14:10looking for picturesque, the picturesque scenery.
0:14:10 > 0:14:13So, the people arriving with their romantic notions
0:14:13 > 0:14:16of what this is all about, how did they get on with the people
0:14:16 > 0:14:18whose reality it was working there?
0:14:18 > 0:14:23The local people were often their guides when they got out of the boat
0:14:23 > 0:14:28and had to climb up to get the view at the top of Symonds Yat.
0:14:28 > 0:14:34It would be a local cottager who would take them to the top for, obviously, a sum of money.
0:14:34 > 0:14:38Or when they got out at Tintern there would be lots of beggars
0:14:38 > 0:14:40trying to make their money.
0:14:40 > 0:14:45So it was tourism with all the sort of buy a handbag here...?
0:14:45 > 0:14:48We've been flogged all kinds of things along the way.
0:14:48 > 0:14:51Yeah, perhaps swap handbags for a plate of plums
0:14:51 > 0:14:54or a bag of nuts or something like that!
0:14:58 > 0:15:02The most famous visitor on the Wye tour was Lord Nelson,
0:15:02 > 0:15:05who stopped off at Monmouth in 1802.
0:15:05 > 0:15:09In tow were his mistress Emma Hamilton and her husband.
0:15:09 > 0:15:11Nelson came up here to the Kymin for lunch
0:15:11 > 0:15:13in this splendid banqueting house
0:15:13 > 0:15:16before being whisked back down into town
0:15:16 > 0:15:20to visit one of Monmouth's hidden little treasures.
0:15:22 > 0:15:26Tucked behind a wall in the middle of the town is a secret garden.
0:15:26 > 0:15:29It's something I never knew was there.
0:15:29 > 0:15:34Now being carefully restored, the garden dates back hundreds of years.
0:15:34 > 0:15:36It's named after Nelson
0:15:36 > 0:15:39and features an odd looking memorial to the great man.
0:15:41 > 0:15:46You might think it's a summerhouse in a pleasure garden.
0:15:46 > 0:15:49It's easiest to think of it as a kind of temple to Nelson.
0:15:49 > 0:15:52Much less of a summerhouse, it's a celebration of Nelson,
0:15:52 > 0:15:53a sort of shrine.
0:15:53 > 0:15:56I think to put the cap on it, the fact that it's got
0:15:56 > 0:16:01the very seat he sat on in the Beaufort Hotel actually there
0:16:01 > 0:16:05has a quality of a sort of focus for worship.
0:16:06 > 0:16:08After its prime in the mid-19th century
0:16:08 > 0:16:12the garden became neglected, overgrown and almost forgotten.
0:16:12 > 0:16:16But now a group of local volunteers from the University of the Third Age
0:16:16 > 0:16:18are cutting away the weeds
0:16:18 > 0:16:21and restoring it to its Victorian splendour.
0:16:21 > 0:16:24It shows how everyone can get involved in local history.
0:16:24 > 0:16:27We've done a lot.
0:16:27 > 0:16:33In 2007 the U3A gardening group got involved and now every Friday,
0:16:33 > 0:16:35I'm the Historic Gardens advisor,
0:16:35 > 0:16:41but I have between eight and 12 U3A gardeners who come and help
0:16:41 > 0:16:44cut the lawns, cut the shrubs, they've been working on the bank,
0:16:44 > 0:16:46working on the pond, the pavilion.
0:16:48 > 0:16:50We're now putting back the borders
0:16:50 > 0:16:54using plants that would have been available in the 1880s
0:16:54 > 0:16:58as our plan is, because that's the bit we're working back to.
0:16:58 > 0:17:02We've got historically authentic plants.
0:17:05 > 0:17:08The Monmouth we see today is Georgian,
0:17:08 > 0:17:12built in the late 18th and early 19th century.
0:17:12 > 0:17:15It was smart and well-to-do, but there were poor people as well.
0:17:15 > 0:17:17The parish had to look after them
0:17:17 > 0:17:20so they were keen to get rid of anyone they didn't think belonged.
0:17:22 > 0:17:26This is the poors book, the first poors book of Monmouth we've got.
0:17:27 > 0:17:29We're particularly interested in an entry
0:17:29 > 0:17:32when the town went to great trouble to try and get rid
0:17:32 > 0:17:35of a potential drain on the rate payers of Monmouth
0:17:35 > 0:17:39by moving this particular lady you can see there.
0:17:39 > 0:17:42Elizabeth James and her five children.
0:17:42 > 0:17:47Three pages of this volume are taken up with all the payments made
0:17:47 > 0:17:49to various people in an attempt to prove
0:17:49 > 0:17:54that Elizabeth James and her children didn't actually belong to Monmouth.
0:17:54 > 0:17:57They ended up spending a grand sum of twenty pounds,
0:17:57 > 0:18:00which in those days was quite a lot of money.
0:18:00 > 0:18:03Twenty pounds, line drawn under the...
0:18:03 > 0:18:06There was a conclusion but I'm afraid we don't know what happened to her.
0:18:06 > 0:18:09She doesn't appear in the poor records for Monmouth again,
0:18:09 > 0:18:12so presumably they did succeed in getting rid of her,
0:18:12 > 0:18:15but where she went we've got no idea, I'm afraid.
0:18:18 > 0:18:21Individual stories can bring history to life.
0:18:21 > 0:18:22This is Church Street,
0:18:22 > 0:18:25which used to be on the main coaching route to London.
0:18:25 > 0:18:29It's pretty narrow now, but would have been even narrower back then.
0:18:29 > 0:18:31One night in the early 1830s,
0:18:31 > 0:18:34Mrs Syner, who ran a gingerbread shop,
0:18:34 > 0:18:37was locking up when the coach went through.
0:18:37 > 0:18:39Her apron strings caught in the wheels
0:18:39 > 0:18:43and she was dragged the length of the street.
0:18:43 > 0:18:46The coachman thought he'd killed her, but up she gets,
0:18:46 > 0:18:50picks up his whip and hits him in the mouth dislodging two teeth.
0:18:50 > 0:18:53She then campaigned successfully for a bypass.
0:18:53 > 0:18:56You don't tangle with the women of Monmouth.
0:18:56 > 0:19:00Stories like that of the redoubtable Mrs Syner
0:19:00 > 0:19:02can be found in the archives of the local newspapers
0:19:02 > 0:19:05and by the 1830s Monmouth had two of them -
0:19:05 > 0:19:08The Monmouthshire Merlin launched in 1829,
0:19:08 > 0:19:12and more the mouthpiece of the establishment and still going strong today
0:19:12 > 0:19:15The Monmouthshire Beacon which began in 1837.
0:19:15 > 0:19:19All over the front pages there are advertisements.
0:19:19 > 0:19:24"Yoland's Specific Solutions. Case of stone in the bladder cured."
0:19:24 > 0:19:26"Loose teeth fastened" in The Beacon.
0:19:26 > 0:19:31There are stories of local and national importance on the inside.
0:19:31 > 0:19:33For example, in The Beacon,
0:19:33 > 0:19:36"Dreadful riot and loss of life at Newport."
0:19:36 > 0:19:39The Chartist uprising 25 miles down the road
0:19:39 > 0:19:42which would have a huge impact on Monmouth itself.
0:19:43 > 0:19:46The Chartist riots in Newport were a national event,
0:19:46 > 0:19:49leaving 22 dead on the streets and fears of revolution.
0:19:52 > 0:19:55Chartist leader John Frost and his co-defendants
0:19:55 > 0:19:58were brought to Monmouthshire Hall for trial.
0:20:01 > 0:20:03Facing a charge of high treason, Frost would have been put
0:20:03 > 0:20:07in one of these holding cells, standing room only in here,
0:20:07 > 0:20:09before being taken up to the courtroom for trial.
0:20:17 > 0:20:21The courtroom has been restored to as it would have been for the trial.
0:20:21 > 0:20:25Monmouth was the county town and the local gentry were fearful
0:20:25 > 0:20:28of the new radicals from industrial South Wales.
0:20:28 > 0:20:32They were in little doubt that the Chartists were guilty of treason
0:20:32 > 0:20:36and one document gives an unexpected insight into this.
0:20:36 > 0:20:40Sitting on the grand jury convened to see if the prisoners should stand trial
0:20:40 > 0:20:43was John Etherington Welch Rolls,
0:20:43 > 0:20:46grandfather of Charles Rolls of Rolls Royce.
0:20:46 > 0:20:51Here are the actual court papers of Rolls Senior.
0:20:51 > 0:20:55He was an inveterate doodler and these drawings
0:20:55 > 0:20:58give a pretty clear idea of where he stood.
0:20:58 > 0:21:03Here is a re-enactment of the scene at the Westgate Hotel.
0:21:03 > 0:21:07And here are the Chartists hanging from the gallows
0:21:07 > 0:21:09on the roof of Monmouth jail.
0:21:10 > 0:21:14In the trial itself the men were condemned to death,
0:21:14 > 0:21:16but after a huge public petition
0:21:16 > 0:21:19their sentence was commuted to transportation to Australia.
0:21:23 > 0:21:27After the Chartist trial, the big events of Victorian Britain
0:21:27 > 0:21:29somewhat passed Monmouth by.
0:21:29 > 0:21:32The boom in industrial South Wales overtook the small metal industry,
0:21:32 > 0:21:36but Monmouth was still a thriving market town
0:21:36 > 0:21:39and a clue to that is hidden beneath one of the town roads.
0:21:41 > 0:21:46These are the old abattoirs, derelict, all but forgotten now.
0:21:46 > 0:21:50They were built under the market hall. So the meat went up there
0:21:50 > 0:21:55and the blood from all these slaughterhouses went into the river.
0:21:58 > 0:22:02When the railways came to Monmouth in the 1860s and 1870s
0:22:02 > 0:22:05it spelt the end of the river trade
0:22:05 > 0:22:08and the riverfront housing turned into slums.
0:22:08 > 0:22:12This is Granville Street, now a quiet cul-de-sac
0:22:12 > 0:22:15with just a few houses heading down towards the Wye.
0:22:15 > 0:22:17But at the turn of the 20th century
0:22:17 > 0:22:19it was one of the town's poorest areas.
0:22:19 > 0:22:23You can get census returns online and this is from 1901
0:22:23 > 0:22:26and it reveals Granville Street to be full of houses,
0:22:26 > 0:22:2930 of them, tiny, teeming with life.
0:22:31 > 0:22:34These pictures were taken by the town surveyor
0:22:34 > 0:22:36just before the slums were demolished.
0:22:36 > 0:22:38They show how photographs can also give a glimpse
0:22:38 > 0:22:41of the harsh realities of life for the many.
0:22:41 > 0:22:48At the other end of the social scale was Monmouth's most celebrated son, Charles Rolls.
0:22:48 > 0:22:52He founded the famous car company with engineer Henry Royce,
0:22:52 > 0:22:56but he was also a pioneer aviator who launched a balloon in Monmouth
0:22:56 > 0:22:59filled with gas from the town gasworks.
0:22:59 > 0:23:02Sadly, he was also Britain's first air casualty
0:23:02 > 0:23:05when he crashed his plane at an air show in 1910.
0:23:09 > 0:23:12Monmouth also had places for entertainment.
0:23:12 > 0:23:14This is the Savoy Theatre,
0:23:14 > 0:23:18the oldest theatre in continuous use in Wales.
0:23:19 > 0:23:22This beautifully restored interior dates from the 1920s,
0:23:22 > 0:23:26but there's been entertainment on this site since Elizabethan times.
0:23:26 > 0:23:30Over the years it's been a theatre, a cinema, a music hall
0:23:30 > 0:23:33and even, briefly, a roller skating rink!
0:23:33 > 0:23:36In my day it's where you went to see rock bands.
0:23:38 > 0:23:42For the 20th century, film archive can also tell a story
0:23:42 > 0:23:45like this home movie footage of Monmouth in the 1930s.
0:23:45 > 0:23:49With history of the last 70 or 80 years
0:23:49 > 0:23:52you can still talk to people who lived through it.
0:23:52 > 0:23:55In the Second World War a new industry came to Monmouth.
0:23:55 > 0:24:00Temco made parachutes and employed women from all over the town.
0:24:00 > 0:24:03I met up with a few of them to find out what it was like.
0:24:04 > 0:24:07Here we have some of the Temco girls.
0:24:07 > 0:24:09Maud, are you anywhere?
0:24:10 > 0:24:11I'm there.
0:24:12 > 0:24:14Where's that taken?
0:24:14 > 0:24:20That's taken in the grounds at a break time of Temco.
0:24:20 > 0:24:25It was my first full-time job but I had worked since I was 13
0:24:25 > 0:24:27somewhere else.
0:24:27 > 0:24:29How much were you on?
0:24:29 > 0:24:33I was paid monthly two pounds ten shillings.
0:24:33 > 0:24:36Did that keep a 15-year-old happy?
0:24:36 > 0:24:38Yes, it did.
0:24:38 > 0:24:41Were they strict on quality control?
0:24:41 > 0:24:45Oh, it had to be tested out quite often through the day
0:24:45 > 0:24:48to make sure it was safe.
0:24:48 > 0:24:54If it wasn't safe, if it wasn't right, you had to undo it all.
0:24:54 > 0:24:57Dorothy, you didn't work there but your mum did.
0:24:57 > 0:25:02Yes. My mother worked there, again at the age of 15.
0:25:02 > 0:25:07When she started working at Temco she was earning 15 shillings.
0:25:07 > 0:25:08Here we have...
0:25:09 > 0:25:12..a parachute, perhaps made by your mother.
0:25:12 > 0:25:16Obviously a small parachute for...
0:25:16 > 0:25:19It's a parachute for pigeons.
0:25:21 > 0:25:23What happened was
0:25:23 > 0:25:28the pigeon was attached to a parachute, the parachute was dropped
0:25:28 > 0:25:29behind the lines
0:25:29 > 0:25:35and then our men attached a message to the homing pigeon
0:25:35 > 0:25:37which was then sent home.
0:25:37 > 0:25:40Hence on the south coast, you weren't allowed
0:25:40 > 0:25:42to shoot homing pigeons in the war
0:25:42 > 0:25:46because they were bringing home important messages.
0:25:46 > 0:25:49Was it all deadly serious? Did you have any fun?
0:25:49 > 0:25:55During the lunch hour we used to go into the air raid shelter
0:25:55 > 0:25:59and there was a lady by the name of Mrs Manchie
0:25:59 > 0:26:02that played the piano accordion.
0:26:02 > 0:26:03She taught us all to dance.
0:26:05 > 0:26:07That was the leisure side of the work.
0:26:08 > 0:26:11By the end of the war, you're all 20,
0:26:11 > 0:26:14I bet you were a right handful.
0:26:14 > 0:26:19No, we weren't! We weren't. We weren't!
0:26:19 > 0:26:22- We weren't.- We didn't know what trouble was then!
0:26:23 > 0:26:26After the Second World War, Monmouth changed again.
0:26:26 > 0:26:28The last remnants of the metal industry,
0:26:28 > 0:26:33the tin plate works in nearby Redbrook, closed in 1961.
0:26:33 > 0:26:36A new dual carriageway took traffic away from the town
0:26:36 > 0:26:40but controversially cut it off from the river.
0:26:40 > 0:26:43With its schools and Georgian buildings,
0:26:43 > 0:26:45Monmouth continued to prosper
0:26:45 > 0:26:49and in 1974 the town was officially confirmed as part of Wales,
0:26:49 > 0:26:53although most will say it always was.
0:26:53 > 0:26:56As we've seen, Monmouth is brimming with history and historians.
0:26:56 > 0:26:59But the town's past isn't all about looking back.
0:26:59 > 0:27:03A new project, a world first no less, has just been launched.
0:27:03 > 0:27:06Monmouth is going digital.
0:27:08 > 0:27:11It appears Monmouth has moved into the modern age.
0:27:11 > 0:27:15It doesn't seem right somehow. But how have you done it?
0:27:15 > 0:27:18I started a project on Wikipedia that lets anyone
0:27:18 > 0:27:20add to Wikipedia articles about Monmouth.
0:27:20 > 0:27:25So far we've had 350 new articles in, I think, 20 languages now.
0:27:25 > 0:27:28You invited people through Wikipedia?
0:27:28 > 0:27:31- If you've got anything to say... - Yeah.
0:27:31 > 0:27:33- And the response?- Amazing.
0:27:33 > 0:27:36People from all over the world have been adding new things.
0:27:36 > 0:27:37The QR thing?
0:27:37 > 0:27:41There's going to be about 100 QR code plaques around the town.
0:27:41 > 0:27:45The QR code is like a barcode which your phone can read through its camera.
0:27:45 > 0:27:49You use an application on your phone to scan the code.
0:27:49 > 0:27:51I am living proof that it may work.
0:27:53 > 0:27:56- Monmouth is on my phone.- Great. - It's a first, isn't it?
0:27:56 > 0:27:59Yeah, we're the first Wikipedia town in the world.
0:27:59 > 0:28:02It's lovely that everybody's contributed to this
0:28:02 > 0:28:04and made it happen.
0:28:07 > 0:28:12Monmouthpedia reveals the ongoing enthusiasm for local history
0:28:12 > 0:28:15and local historians in the town.
0:28:15 > 0:28:17As I've discovered, the history of Monmouth
0:28:17 > 0:28:19isn't only about the great and the good,
0:28:19 > 0:28:21it's also about ordinary people,
0:28:21 > 0:28:24iron workers, shopkeepers
0:28:24 > 0:28:26and women making parachutes.
0:28:26 > 0:28:29The history of the town is written by local people,
0:28:29 > 0:28:33people with a passion for their town and the past.
0:28:33 > 0:28:36It's something you can do wherever you live.
0:28:40 > 0:28:44Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd