Adfeilion Llefydd Sanctaidd

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-There aren't many finer sights

-than a splendid ruin...

-..slowly crumbling in the country.

-This might be the perfect example...

-..in the grounds of Wimpole Hall,

-near Cambridge.

-The arched windows tell us

-it could be an old monastery...

-..protected from

-the world by its walls.

-We can imagine

-a monk looking out at us.

-But there's one problem.

-It's a folly...

-..built by a rich

-landowner in 1769...

-..just to improve

-the view on his estate.

-There are follies like this on many

-aristocratic estates in Britain.

-The splendour of real

-ruined abbeys inspired them.

-But our interest in holy

-ruins continues to this day.

-Today, I'm going to try to discover

-why they still appeal...

-..centuries after their role

-as holy buildings ended.

-This obsession with ruins

-is a typically British trait.

-Romantic ideas about architectural

-marvels covered in ivy...

-..date back to the 18th century.

-But the roots of this obsession

-go back much further.

-Is it nostalgia

-for a long lost golden age?

-Or is it something much deeper?

-Whatever the reason, British ruins

-are protected almost religiously.

-My next stop is Valle Crucis Abbey

-near Llangollen.

-It was one of the last abbeys

-founded in Wales...

-..and one of the most

-intact ruins.

-This room, where monks gathered

-to hear readings from the Bible...

-..or to listen to the Abbot,

-is as striking today as ever.

-More than a hundred people lived

-and worked here in its heyday.

-The hospitality of the abbots

-of Valle Crucis was praised...

-..by the greatest poets

-of the Middle Ages.

-It is said that the poet Guto'r

-Glyn spent his final years here.

-I've come to meet the poet

-and dramatist Aled Jones Williams.

-Why do ruins like this

-appeal so much?

-I'm sure it creates

-a kind of nostalgia...

-..a rather pleasant nostalgia...

-..for the past.

-There's something about them,

-a certain presence.

-What is this presence?

-It's because the monks and

-the place represented something.

-That feeling of a presence

-is still here, somehow.

-Although something has died,

-maybe some essence remains...

-..and some kind

-of continuity, perhaps.

-The ruins here

-are more intact than most.

-Does that change

-our response to the place?

-I must admit, part of me...

-..is disappointed that

-it's as intact as it is.

-Part of me wants it

-to be more of a ruin.

-Why is that?

-Maybe less...

-..would mean that my imagination

-could be more alert.

-It doesn't take a lot for me

-to recreate this in my imagination.

-It's something to do

-with the imagination...

-..and the imagination's vital role

-in religion and inspiration.

-Basically, we don't know

-anything about God.

-What has to happen is that

-imagination comes into play...

-..in religion.

-One has to reimagine something.

-Places like this were important

-symbols of faith in the past.

-What do they symbolize now?

-The key factor

-is the need for a symbol.

-Maybe we, as Welsh speakers...

-..are very lacking in symbols.

-I think there's something

-about Protestantism...

-..that has been detrimental to us.

-It's all about the word,

-words and verbosity.

-Whereas here...

-..it's Catholicism.

-The essence of Catholicism...

-..are symbols and sacraments.

-So coming to a place like this...

-..gives us that awareness again...

-..of our need for symbols.

-For things you can touch...

-..for things you can see.

-Perhaps a place like this

-rekindles that feeling.

-The Protestant Reformation

-made Valle Crucis Abbey a ruin...

-..like all the abbeys

-in Wales and England.

-I'm going to St Andrews in Scotland,

-an independent country at the time.

-How did the Reformation

-affect Scotland?

-In the 16th century,

-all over Britain...

-..the old Catholic beliefs were

-replaced by the new Protestant ones.

-There was no place for monks,

-so the abbeys were dissolved.

-Here in Scotland,

-they went a step further...

-..and got rid of bishops too.

-There was no place

-for cathedrals like this any more.

-It's even more surprising

-to an outsider...

-..to discover that this cathedral

-was dedicated to St Andrew...

-..called by Christ to be his first

-apostle, near the Sea of Galilee.

-It is said that a Greek monk

-brought Andrew's bones here...

-..in the eighth century.

-In time, Andrew became

-the patron saint of Scotland.

-With such a pedigree, one would have

-thought this cathedral at least...

-..would have been safe from the

-16th century's religious changes.

-But that's not how it was.

-In 1559...

-..the Protestant reformer John Knox

-gave a fiery sermon...

-..in a church nearby.

-The congregation was so inflamed...

-..they came to smash the statues and

-symbols of Catholic worship here.

-They didn't stop at that either.

-This place hasn't gradually decayed.

-It looked very much

-like this as early as 1600.

-It clearly shows

-the destructive ferocity...

-..of the Protestant reformers.

-In the following centuries,

-in most of Britain...

-..much of the passion

-that drove the Reformation waned.

-The persecution of those who upheld

-the old Catholic faith is long over.

-But in parts of Scotland

-the old antipathy lingered.

-It intensified after

-immigration from Ireland...

-..in the 19th century.

-Religion has become part

-of the cultural identity...

-..of different groups in Scotland...

-..although some symbols of

-their separateness are very similar.

-These are Protestant apprentices

-marching through Glasgow.

-Catholics in the city

-have very similar bands too.

-That's why St Andrew's cathedral

-is comparatively overlooked...

-..in a quiet, public park

-on the edge of town.

-Because the church is dedicated

-to such an important saint...

-..it surprises us that Scots

-don't make more of these ruins.

-Maybe that's more honest.

-These ruins represent

-a religious difference...

-..that's still significant here.

-But it would be sad if they

-represented a religious divide.

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-My journey to see

-Britain's holy ruins continues.

-And they're not rare...

-..after the dissolution

-of the monasteries and abbeys...

-..in the wake of the Protestant

-Reformation in the 16th century.

-Another place perfectly expressing

-the otherworldliness of ruins...

-..is here on the cliffs

-above Whitby in North Yorkshire.

-The Saxon abbey on this site...

-..was one of the most

-important Christian centres...

-..in the early Middle Ages.

-In the seventh century,

-it was run...

-..by one of the most powerful women

-in church history, St Hilda.

-In her time, the first hymns

-in English were written.

-One could argue

-that an abbey like this...

-..had just as much effect

-on Britain's culture...

-..after it became a ruin.

-Ruins were some of the things

-that inspired the Gothic movement...

-..in architecture,

-design and literature.

-I've come to meet John Coates...

-..an expert in English

-literary history...

-..to ask why ruins became

-so popular in the 18th century.

-It's hugely complicated, but I think

-there are two key words really.

-One is picturesque

-and the other is sublime.

-There's a man called

-Rev William Gilpin.

-He wrote three essays

-on Picturesque Beauty.

-He talks about the value of ruins

-as a means of contemplation...

-..a means of spiritual

-development and so on.

-So that's the picturesque.

-And the sublime,

-which is connected with fear.

-Great mountains, torrents,

-dark places, ruins.

-Anything that's got some element

-of awe and strangeness about it.

-That feeds very much

-into the Gothic novel...

-..very often set in ruined

-or half-ruined mansions.

-Secret passages, dark chambers.

-Above all, secrets from the past.

-One Gothic novel in particular

-is associated with Whitby.

-In the 1890s...

-..the author Bram Stoker

-set his most famous book here...

-..Dracula.

-Did the abbey ruins

-influence the novel?

-One of the things

-that's very striking...

-..when Jonathan Harker

-first meets Count Dracula...

-..is the pride that

-he has in his own past.

-He's a creature from the past.

-The past has a kind of terror...

-..simply because

-it's so strange and so alien.

-I think that feeds into

-the figure of Dracula himself.

-It's hard to measure

-the impact of Dracula...

-..on 20th century popular culture.

-More than 170 Dracula films

-have been produced...

-..not to mention all

-the stories about vampires.

-Who'd have thought those stories

-would be linked to this place?

-But the meaning of ruins

-can be rewritten, as we've seen.

-It's ironic that

-the Protestant Reformation...

-..that was supposed to free us...

-..from our superstitious past

-and dependence on relics...

-..created hundreds

-of new architectural relics.

-Holy places like this...

-..have perhaps come to mean

-something slightly different now.

-But they still draw

-people as much as ever.

-That manifested itself

-in the Gothic tradition.

-But that's only one aspect

-of a much older history.

-Maybe the 18th century

-interest in ruins...

-..felt like a new idea at the time.

-But actually, ruins fired our

-imagination at a much earlier time.

-To find evidence of this,

-I'm going to South-East Wales.

-This is Caerwent, one of Wales's

-biggest towns in the Roman era.

-It was an important

-administrative centre.

-Although these walls

-are more than 1,700 years old...

-..they still evoke admiration.

-They give us a strong indication

-of the power of the Empire.

-Caerwent was built

-by the Romans in 75AD.

-It's one of the foremost

-Roman sites in Northern Europe.

-These are the remains

-of the temple in Caerwent.

-When we think

-of the Romans' spiritual lives...

-..we tend to think they worshipped

-gods like Mars, Apollo and Venus.

-We forget that the Roman

-Empire was a Christian empire...

-..in its later years.

-Temples like this might have

-been adapted to be churches...

-..or more probably, left in ruins.

-While excavating in Caerwent...

-..archaeologists found a bowl

-with a Christian symbol on it...

-..dating back to 375.

-This is the earliest existing

-evidence of Christianity in Wales.

-But soon after the bowl was made...

-..the society that used it

-began to draw to an end.

-After the Romans left

-Britain in the 5th century...

-..buildings like this

-started to decay.

-In the 8th century,

-a monk in England was inspired...

-..by the ruins

-of a Roman town like this...

-..to write this poem,

-in early English.

-POEM IN OLD ENGLISH

-"Amazing stone masonry,

-fated to collapse

-"Great walls fall

-"Buildings erected by giants,

-now rubble

-"Their roofs fallen

-"Their towers in ruin"

-It's surprisingly similar

-to the kind of thing...

-..Gothic authors wrote

-about ruined abbeys centuries later.

-History tends to repeat itself.

-But the next place we visit

-shows how we can learn from that.

-These ruins in Coventry Cathedral...

-..are amongst the most

-recent in Britain...

-..and therefore, the most powerful.

-The bombing that

-destroyed this building...

-..is still vivid in the memories

-of Coventry's oldest citizens.

-They also remember

-all those who died.

-More than 500 planes

-attacked Coventry that night.

-Four thousand homes were destroyed.

-The city centre was demolished.

-Five hundred and sixty eight

-people were killed.

-The cathedral was a shell.

-Immediately after the massacre...

-..people called for reconciliation

-and forgiveness, not revenge.

-After the bombing, the cathedral

-master mason saw two beams...

-..that had fallen

-from the roof in the fire...

-..as it happened,

-in the shape of a cross.

-He placed them against this wall,

-in a pile of rubble.

-That cross can still be seen

-in the cathedral today.

-A local priest found

-three mediaeval nails...

-..and fashioned them

-into another cross.

-That cross is on the altar

-in the new cathedral today.

-After the war, similar crosses

-were made and sent to Dresden...

-..Kiel and Berlin, in an attempt

-to reconcile with other cities...

-..that had suffered in the bombing.

-Now, the Community Of The Cross

-Of Nails is a global movement...

-..working in countries

-affected by war.

-When a new cathedral was going to be

-built in Coventry after the war...

-..a decision was made to keep

-the ruins of the old cathedral.

-But this place

-isn't only a monument.

-The land is still consecrated.

-The two parts, the old and new,

-still form an entity.

-The decision to keep the ruins

-and continue worshipping here...

-..reminds us of the need

-not only to remember the dead...

-..but also the need

-to forgive continuously.

-In a place like this,

-our experience of ruins...

-..becomes much more

-direct and personal.

-Strata Florida in Ceredigion

-is the last stop on my journey.

-The place has always

-been dear to me...

-..because many of my father's

-family are buried here.

-It was one of the most important

-abbeys in Mediaeval Wales.

-But after the Reformation,

-it fell into ruin too...

-..until the 1860s, when the engineer

-Stephen Williams came here...

-..when building the railway

-between Aberystwyth and Carmarthen.

-He was one of the first

-to dig on the abbey site.

-He hoped the place would

-become a tourist attraction...

-..and create business for his

-railway, but it was a vain dream.

-This was a poor area.

-Many more left the county

-than came to visit it.

-Ceredigion has been described

-as the Ireland of Wales...

-..because so many had to leave

-in the 19th and 20th centuries.

-Some went to the South Wales

-coalfield, others to the USA.

-Most of my family went to London.

-But the link

-with Ceredigion remained.

-Looking at the gravestones here...

-..we soon see how many people

-were brought back to be buried.

-Funeral services were held

-on the platforms in Paddington.

-Welsh hymns resounded

-under the station's huge roof...

-..before the coffin

-was put on the train...

-..for the last journey

-back to the country.

-That's how so many

-of those lying here returned...

-..including members

-of my own family.

-For me, the feeling of nostalgia

-we get in every ruin...

-..is intermingled with

-something more personal here.

-In the history of every ruin,

-there is separation, dispersal.

-Maybe that's why a place

-like this appeals so much to me...

-..as someone raised in London...

-..because our family too

-is scattered.

-But something still draws us back.

-Maybe this is the secret of ruins.

-Individual members of a family...

-..can come to us and leave us...

-..but the idea of family continues.

-In the same way, although

-the old abbey that stood here...

-..is now quietly crumbling...

-..the idea and faith

-that upheld it, lasts.

-Ideas don't die.

-S4C Subtitles by Gwead

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