0:00:06 > 0:00:12The Royal Commission is a government detective agency set up in the same year as the FBI.
0:00:12 > 0:00:17Unlike the FBI, the Commission investigates the history of Wales
0:00:17 > 0:00:20and its case files are open to everybody.
0:00:20 > 0:00:25This week the hidden history of the well that became infamous as a place of cursing...
0:00:29 > 0:00:31..discovering the secrets of a showcase mine
0:00:31 > 0:00:34that failed and rock art as you've never seen it before,
0:00:34 > 0:00:37and how volunteers from across the world
0:00:37 > 0:00:40built a better future for the Welsh Valleys in the '30s.
0:01:02 > 0:01:05Water has been long linked with healing
0:01:05 > 0:01:09and North Wales has two of the most famous examples in the UK.
0:01:09 > 0:01:13Holywell has been a centre for healing since the seventh century
0:01:13 > 0:01:17and is the oldest healing shrine in continuous use in Britain,
0:01:17 > 0:01:21but not all wells were used for healing, quite the opposite.
0:01:24 > 0:01:28Cefn y Ffynnon Farm is about 15 miles from Holywell, near Abergele.
0:01:28 > 0:01:32It was once a centre of dark arts.
0:01:32 > 0:01:36It doesn't look much now, but 200 years ago
0:01:36 > 0:01:41the Ffynnon Elian, near Abergele, was infamous as a cursed well.
0:01:41 > 0:01:46Its very name struck terror into the hearts of anybody cursed here.
0:01:46 > 0:01:49Huge amounts of money would be paid to the guardians of the well,
0:01:49 > 0:01:52upwards of £300 a year, a fortune in those days.
0:01:52 > 0:01:55It's a fascinating, if dubious, chapter
0:01:55 > 0:01:58in the social history of Wales.
0:01:58 > 0:02:02Cursing involved writing the initials of the cursed on a piece of slate
0:02:02 > 0:02:06and paying a fee for the slate to be put in the well.
0:02:06 > 0:02:09Ffynnon Elian has long fascinated Richard Suggett,
0:02:09 > 0:02:14an expert on magic and witchcraft, but this is his first visit.
0:02:14 > 0:02:19There, Richard, look what a little bit of strimming in a corner of some local field has revealed.
0:02:19 > 0:02:23This is astonishing, Eddie, absolutely a total surprise.
0:02:23 > 0:02:26The well was supposed to have been utterly destroyed
0:02:26 > 0:02:30sometime in the 19th century, and here we have it.
0:02:30 > 0:02:34I can't say the breeze blocks look like 18th-century workmanship to me, but...
0:02:34 > 0:02:38No, I think this is 20th-century workmanship, yeah,
0:02:38 > 0:02:41but the point is the continuity of the well.
0:02:41 > 0:02:46Despite every attempt to destroy it, it survives and look at the water.
0:02:46 > 0:02:49- Crystal clear.- Crystal clear.
0:02:49 > 0:02:52- Excellent for a curse or two. - That's right, yes.
0:02:54 > 0:03:00Richard, would people have known all about this, "Oh, please don't do a Ffynnon Elian on me?"
0:03:00 > 0:03:03Oh, yes, certainly. The threat to curse someone,
0:03:03 > 0:03:05to put them in the well,
0:03:05 > 0:03:10was a terrifying utterance in the 18th and 19th centuries.
0:03:10 > 0:03:13So, I find out that somebody has done EB on a pebble
0:03:13 > 0:03:17and chucked it in, I am obviously worried, what do I do?
0:03:17 > 0:03:20- Very worried.- Very worried. - Very worried.
0:03:20 > 0:03:26Well, either you, or if you're very ill a surrogate,
0:03:26 > 0:03:30goes to the farmhouse at Cefn y Ffynnon and you see the woman of the well
0:03:30 > 0:03:34and you want to know if a slate, or a pebble or whatever,
0:03:34 > 0:03:38with the initials EB has been retrieved from the well.
0:03:40 > 0:03:43And you're probably taken to an upper room
0:03:43 > 0:03:47and there you're shown hundreds of slates and sure enough...
0:03:47 > 0:03:49You start scrabbling.
0:03:49 > 0:03:51You start scrabbling.
0:03:51 > 0:03:54And sure enough you find a slate with your initials on it.
0:03:54 > 0:03:55And, um...
0:03:55 > 0:04:03without being too cynical, I think it was probable that every possible permutation of initials
0:04:03 > 0:04:06was kept in the farmhouse.
0:04:09 > 0:04:13So, you've got your slate, you're taken down to the well
0:04:13 > 0:04:15and you essentially remove the curse
0:04:15 > 0:04:19by doing a reverse of the ritual for imposing the curse.
0:04:19 > 0:04:21And then it comes to the question of a fee.
0:04:21 > 0:04:27So, you may offer the woman what you can afford and she may accept it or reject it.
0:04:27 > 0:04:32But, it seems from the documentation of one case,
0:04:32 > 0:04:36that something like 18 shillings or so
0:04:36 > 0:04:39- was the going rate, which is quite a lot.- Yeah, not cheap.
0:04:39 > 0:04:44Yeah. I imagine a pound or a guinea, or something like that was asked for
0:04:44 > 0:04:46and that the price was brought down a bit.
0:04:46 > 0:04:49In the 21st century this would be called diversification.
0:04:49 > 0:04:51EDDIE LAUGHS
0:04:51 > 0:04:55Although the tradition of cursing wells has long gone,
0:04:55 > 0:04:59a few remnants survive, mainly from the 19th century.
0:04:59 > 0:05:05Bangor Museum has a small, but fascinating, collection associated with this darkest of arts.
0:05:08 > 0:05:11There's a lot of effort gone into this slate.
0:05:11 > 0:05:13It's inscribed on one side with the name Nanny Roberts
0:05:13 > 0:05:16and what's quite interesting is, on the other side...
0:05:16 > 0:05:22It looks like it's been a trial run, because the Roberts doesn't quite fit the slate property.
0:05:22 > 0:05:25- Or poor old Nanny got it twice. - Possibly.
0:05:28 > 0:05:30Scratching names on a piece of slate
0:05:30 > 0:05:33wasn't the only way to curse your enemy,
0:05:33 > 0:05:35this cursing pot had pins inside.
0:05:36 > 0:05:40There would have been a frog skin and some pins found in here.
0:05:40 > 0:05:43If somebody wanted to put a curse on somebody else,
0:05:43 > 0:05:48you would put your curse, make incantations and seal it
0:05:48 > 0:05:50with the slate on top.
0:05:50 > 0:05:52Apparently it was tradition amongst younger girls.
0:05:52 > 0:05:55If they wanted to get the affections of a young man,
0:05:55 > 0:05:59they would put a curse against one of their rivals for that affection.
0:05:59 > 0:06:01Oh, jealousy.
0:06:01 > 0:06:03Jealousy in Anglesey.
0:06:06 > 0:06:12When Ffynnon Elian was in full swing as a cursing well, Welsh Methodism was at its height.
0:06:12 > 0:06:15This used to be a Calvinist Methodist chapel
0:06:15 > 0:06:22and what the congregation here saw over there at the cursing well, just in those trees, they didn't like.
0:06:22 > 0:06:26And one day in 1829, they decided to take matters into their own hands.
0:06:26 > 0:06:29Richard, what did they do?
0:06:29 > 0:06:33Well, they marched in a body across the road,
0:06:33 > 0:06:36through the hedge, up the stream and to the well.
0:06:36 > 0:06:39They dismantled the well stone by stone
0:06:39 > 0:06:43and it's said they actually ploughed the ground and planted potatoes there.
0:06:43 > 0:06:47- Such righteous indignation, such trespassing.- Very probably.
0:06:47 > 0:06:51And they decided to erase it completely from the landscape.
0:06:51 > 0:06:53Well, that's pretty radical, isn't it?
0:06:53 > 0:06:57- It's extremely radical.- Did it really put an end to the cursing tradition?
0:06:57 > 0:07:01You'd think it would, wouldn't you? But no, completely the opposite.
0:07:01 > 0:07:04The well hung on for the next 20 years.
0:07:04 > 0:07:07It's extraordinary, just 50 yards from the chapel,
0:07:07 > 0:07:12two ways of life facing each other, challenging each other in a way.
0:07:12 > 0:07:16In the end one does triumph, but it takes 20 years.
0:07:16 > 0:07:19I feel slightly reassured that the Welsh carried on cursing.
0:07:23 > 0:07:26The man who enabled the Welsh to carry on cursing
0:07:26 > 0:07:28was known as Jac Ffynnon Elian
0:07:28 > 0:07:31who diverted the water supply from the farm.
0:07:31 > 0:07:35Current well owner, Jane Beckerman, doesn't believe that Jac was a villain
0:07:35 > 0:07:38and has even written a university thesis on the subject.
0:07:38 > 0:07:43I think he was a shrewd and intelligent man
0:07:43 > 0:07:49who was a very, very gifted amateur psychologist.
0:07:49 > 0:07:51But he pinched your water.
0:07:51 > 0:07:57He made a living for himself at a time when it wasn't easy in Wales.
0:07:57 > 0:08:03And I think, although the reputation is so negative,
0:08:03 > 0:08:11I think Jac Ffynnon Elian provided an extremely useful service for many people who didn't have access
0:08:11 > 0:08:15to perhaps normal channels of justice, or indeed normal channels of healing.
0:08:15 > 0:08:18I think perhaps the well can be called more of a well
0:08:18 > 0:08:21of justice and healing than a cursing one.
0:08:22 > 0:08:27At Ffynnon Elian we're not far removed from a world of witchcraft and magic.
0:08:27 > 0:08:30Richard Suggett has never met Jane before and he is intrigued
0:08:30 > 0:08:34by her interest in an era which has almost disappeared.
0:08:34 > 0:08:37So, here we are, this is Jac Ffynnon Elian territory.
0:08:37 > 0:08:42So, this is quite appropriate we're entering his domain, crossing the stream that comes down from the well.
0:08:42 > 0:08:49Yes. Jac Ffynnon Elian, when he took up residence, probably about 1820,
0:08:49 > 0:08:52he if you like, stole the water from Ffynnon Elian
0:08:52 > 0:08:57and diverted it into his own garden, which is here, which is this area.
0:08:57 > 0:09:01The reputation for cursing really did begin to develop
0:09:01 > 0:09:05at the end of the 18th and the beginning of the 19th century
0:09:05 > 0:09:09with a new breed of writers who wrote about the well,
0:09:09 > 0:09:16picking up this idea of cursing and using an image of the Welsh which suited, perhaps,
0:09:16 > 0:09:23- English middle-class ideas of Welsh romanticism and Welsh backwardness, and Welsh primitiveness.- Yes.
0:09:23 > 0:09:28And wrote the most extraordinary articles which were read all over Great Britain.
0:09:28 > 0:09:30So, can you honestly believe
0:09:30 > 0:09:34that people came here for that length of time,
0:09:34 > 0:09:37people who were suffering and in difficulties,
0:09:37 > 0:09:40at a very difficult time in Welsh history?
0:09:40 > 0:09:45And I can't imagine that people would have parted with hard-earned cash
0:09:45 > 0:09:46unless it was for their benefit,
0:09:46 > 0:09:50unless they felt that they were going to access healing.
0:09:50 > 0:09:55And, Jac understood that, he was a shrewd psychologist, a clever operator too.
0:09:55 > 0:09:59Yes, yes. I think we have to think of the well as a kind of...
0:09:59 > 0:10:03- You know, having dual aspects.- I think so.
0:10:03 > 0:10:04A healing and a hurting aspect.
0:10:04 > 0:10:07We've rather forgotten the healing aspect.
0:10:07 > 0:10:11- Exactly.- But the hurting aspect is quite extraordinary.- It is.
0:10:15 > 0:10:18There's a twist to Jac Ffynnon Elian's tale.
0:10:18 > 0:10:22Towards the end of his life, he became a Baptist and recanted.
0:10:22 > 0:10:26He got religion round about 1854,
0:10:26 > 0:10:31was dipped in his own well, apparently, by the Baptists,
0:10:31 > 0:10:36wrote an autobiography, or wrote with the assistance of a minister,
0:10:36 > 0:10:40a kind of confession, rather like the confessions
0:10:40 > 0:10:44that the condemned made before they were hanged,
0:10:44 > 0:10:47exposing everything as a hoax and saying
0:10:47 > 0:10:51that he didn't have any powers at all, he was just an ordinary man.
0:10:51 > 0:10:56- Presumably, he'd have been a prime catch.- Absolutely, yes.
0:10:56 > 0:10:59What better catch than Jac Ffynnon Elian?
0:10:59 > 0:11:03- And then getting him to write his autobiography saying...- I recant.
0:11:03 > 0:11:05I recant and the whole thing was a hoax.
0:11:13 > 0:11:17This is Ystrad Einion, a silver-lead mine south of Machynlleth,
0:11:17 > 0:11:19which wasn't exactly a huge success.
0:11:19 > 0:11:23It cost a fortune to build, had state-of-the-art machinery,
0:11:23 > 0:11:26and yet only worked for a few years at the end of the 19th century
0:11:26 > 0:11:33with very little return. But what was bad for business
0:11:33 > 0:11:35has proved to be a boost for heritage.
0:11:36 > 0:11:39In the beautiful Artists Valley near Machynlleth,
0:11:39 > 0:11:44the remains of a Ystrad Einion metal mine are about to be brought to life.
0:11:46 > 0:11:50Ceredigion County Council have asked the Royal Commission
0:11:50 > 0:11:53to produce an animation showing how it worked.
0:11:53 > 0:11:56So, just how important is a site like this?
0:11:56 > 0:11:59It's the history of the site, it's what it represents
0:11:59 > 0:12:03to the metal and mining industry as a whole in the 19th century.
0:12:03 > 0:12:07And the discovery of the metal, it brought new people into the area,
0:12:07 > 0:12:09it brought prospectors in and it changed the way of life
0:12:09 > 0:12:11of people who lived and worked here,
0:12:11 > 0:12:14there were some more employment opportunities.
0:12:14 > 0:12:17So, it's really representative of a time of great change
0:12:17 > 0:12:21and it actually sort of placed Mid Wales on the map, really,
0:12:21 > 0:12:23to a wider world.
0:12:25 > 0:12:28The current lack of information and interpretation here
0:12:28 > 0:12:30make it difficult to visualise what went on.
0:12:30 > 0:12:34All that has changed with the new animation
0:12:34 > 0:12:37which shows how the mine looked in its heyday.
0:12:37 > 0:12:43What to me seemed like a jigsaw in stone, suddenly began to make sense.
0:12:43 > 0:12:45We are actually stood at the top of the mine site
0:12:45 > 0:12:49and we're actually stood over the main shaft of the site.
0:12:49 > 0:12:52Now, behind us this huge hole here went down 50 fathoms,
0:12:52 > 0:12:57that's over 100 metres down under ground just to extract the ore.
0:12:57 > 0:12:59This is a silver-lead mine,
0:12:59 > 0:13:01but the ore came out in a mixture of others,
0:13:01 > 0:13:04so you can start seeing the silver-lead here,
0:13:04 > 0:13:06but you do have zinc as well.
0:13:06 > 0:13:10And, also from this mine, copper was being extracted.
0:13:10 > 0:13:15So, the shaft behind us, as well as an access point down into the mine,
0:13:15 > 0:13:18was also a place of bringing up pieces of rock like this,
0:13:18 > 0:13:22the actual ore, which could then be processed throughout the site.
0:13:22 > 0:13:26In its heyday Ystrad Einion was state-of-the-art,
0:13:26 > 0:13:29employing just 11 people,
0:13:29 > 0:13:32but even the most advanced machinery failed to produce results.
0:13:32 > 0:13:40In 1891, the mine produced five tonnes of lead ore, ten tonnes of zinc and five tonnes of copper,
0:13:40 > 0:13:46yielding a turnover of less than £60, meagre returns for an investment of £3,000.
0:13:46 > 0:13:49Below us you are looking at these... The two circular...
0:13:49 > 0:13:52- They're known as buddles.- Buddles.
0:13:52 > 0:13:57Buddle pits. And that really was the final stage in the process.
0:13:57 > 0:14:03So, what happened was, in this process it was a circular sweeping machine, in effect,
0:14:03 > 0:14:07where various sludge and various small particles
0:14:07 > 0:14:09were placed into this machine,
0:14:09 > 0:14:14water, again, added to it and sweepers rotating around and around.
0:14:14 > 0:14:18Minerals would then all settle, it's almost like gravity,
0:14:18 > 0:14:20they'd settle along the surface of this buddle.
0:14:20 > 0:14:23And you could then see the different ores you were getting,
0:14:23 > 0:14:26so you'd have a heavier top layer, perhaps of the silver-lead,
0:14:26 > 0:14:30you might have a middle layer of the zinc down to the much lighter copper
0:14:30 > 0:14:34and at the very bottom you'd have all the waste -
0:14:34 > 0:14:35the sludge and the slimes,
0:14:35 > 0:14:40which could just be thrown onto the nearby spoil tip.
0:14:40 > 0:14:43Not all of Ystrad Einion's attractions are above ground,
0:14:43 > 0:14:46they're on another level in the more ways than one.
0:14:49 > 0:14:53One of the greatest feats of engineering is just through this tunnel.
0:14:54 > 0:14:55And here it is.
0:14:57 > 0:15:00The water wheel is unexpected and stupendous,
0:15:00 > 0:15:03a full five metres in diameter,
0:15:03 > 0:15:07not even the animation can capture its surprising scale.
0:15:07 > 0:15:11The wheel had two functions, winding up ore bearing rock
0:15:11 > 0:15:16from lower levels and pumping out water to keep the mine workable.
0:15:16 > 0:15:20The wheel dates from the mid-1870s.
0:15:20 > 0:15:27The fact that it's been hidden away for so long perhaps accounts for its remarkable state of preservation.
0:15:27 > 0:15:33Silly question, but look at the size of this and look at the tunnel through which we came in,
0:15:33 > 0:15:35how did they get it in here?
0:15:35 > 0:15:39Well, I think we'd guess that they would have constructed it actually here.
0:15:39 > 0:15:43So, they would have brought all the parts in and manufactured it.
0:15:43 > 0:15:47Wood and iron are the two main components of this, which to me is more amazing
0:15:47 > 0:15:52when you consider they would have been working with candlelight as well to construct all of this.
0:15:52 > 0:15:55So, it's an absolutely amazing feat really.
0:15:55 > 0:16:00More than a century after it closed Ystrad Einion is about to illuminate
0:16:00 > 0:16:03another corner of Wales's mining heritage.
0:16:19 > 0:16:21Leisure facilities,
0:16:21 > 0:16:23we take them for granted nowadays.
0:16:23 > 0:16:27Swimming pools like this at Nantyglo can be found across Wales,
0:16:27 > 0:16:29but it hasn't always been so.
0:16:31 > 0:16:33The depression years of the '20s and '30s
0:16:33 > 0:16:37were not entirely unproductive for industrial communities in Wales.
0:16:37 > 0:16:40There was a spate of building recreational facilities
0:16:40 > 0:16:44for the hardest hit, financed by a levy on coal owners and miners.
0:16:44 > 0:16:49Many of today's parks were built by voluntary labour and born of extreme hardship.
0:16:49 > 0:16:54An example is Brynmawr in Blaenau Gwent which has just had a makeover.
0:16:58 > 0:17:01In Brynmawr Welfare Park, what the local workforce
0:17:01 > 0:17:04and the international volunteers created is not only still here,
0:17:04 > 0:17:09but has recently been commemorated in this new area in the main park.
0:17:09 > 0:17:11This is the Pebble Beach.
0:17:12 > 0:17:17In the past few years, a corner of the existing park has been redesigned
0:17:17 > 0:17:21to commemorate the achievements of the 1930s pioneers.
0:17:21 > 0:17:26The centrepiece is this fountain, actually a pump, part of the original swimming pool.
0:17:30 > 0:17:35Daryl Leeworthy is studying leisure facilities in the Valleys during the '30s
0:17:35 > 0:17:39in a joint project with The Royal Commission and Swansea University.
0:17:39 > 0:17:43He's found that the park was built by a team of international volunteers,
0:17:43 > 0:17:47who flooded into the Valleys at a time when Wales needed their help.
0:17:47 > 0:17:50You've got solicitors and teachers
0:17:50 > 0:17:55and sculptors and watchmakers from all over Europe
0:17:55 > 0:17:58landing in what really was Wales's most savaged community
0:17:58 > 0:18:02during the Great Depression with 80% of people out of work.
0:18:02 > 0:18:04- 80%?- Yes.- Wow.
0:18:04 > 0:18:09And so, they must have felt a little bit of guilt in the fact that they had jobs back at home,
0:18:09 > 0:18:13whereas most of the town, most of the people they came into contact with,
0:18:13 > 0:18:14were struggling to survive.
0:18:14 > 0:18:18We can see what they've left, what did they start work on?
0:18:18 > 0:18:19This is what they've built.
0:18:19 > 0:18:24Imagine everything around us is completely black, there's coal waste, there's quarry waste,
0:18:24 > 0:18:29there's bits and pieces of the earth literally thrown all over this place,
0:18:29 > 0:18:31completely barren and black landscape.
0:18:31 > 0:18:35So, they've dug down deep enough to form these hollows.
0:18:35 > 0:18:39Literally, brought it down to less than ground level, really.
0:18:39 > 0:18:43Flattened it off to try and provide as much level surface as possible.
0:18:43 > 0:18:49During the 1930s, the sufferings of Welsh industrial communities struck a chord throughout the world,
0:18:49 > 0:18:52much in the way that Africa animates today's youngsters.
0:18:52 > 0:18:56The International Voluntary Service was based in Switzerland
0:18:56 > 0:19:00and Daryl succeeded in tracking down its membership files.
0:19:00 > 0:19:03Oh, they came from all over. There were Swiss, Belgians,
0:19:03 > 0:19:05even people from as far abroad as Syria,
0:19:05 > 0:19:09Georgia, Czech Republic, Detroit in the United States...
0:19:09 > 0:19:12So they really did come from all over the world.
0:19:14 > 0:19:16There was one guy from Switzerland
0:19:16 > 0:19:19who cycled in five days from Lausanne all the way to Brynmawr.
0:19:19 > 0:19:23Taking into account the ferry, that's quite an amazing achievement.
0:19:23 > 0:19:28They were almost super volunteers, in fact they paid for the privilege.
0:19:28 > 0:19:33Yeah, they paid because the International Voluntary Service
0:19:33 > 0:19:35said to them, "Well the people in Brynmawr
0:19:35 > 0:19:38"simply cannot afford to help support you,
0:19:38 > 0:19:41"so you've got to fund your activities in Brynmawr on your own."
0:19:41 > 0:19:44Were they here and gone tomorrow?
0:19:44 > 0:19:48Camps took place over the summers, one in 1931 and one in 1932,
0:19:48 > 0:19:51and the final one to really finish it all off in 1938.
0:19:51 > 0:19:54And they were here for about two and a half, three months at a time.
0:19:54 > 0:19:59So, it was a long period and quite a few of them actually stayed the whole period.
0:19:59 > 0:20:02One thing strikes me, you have Britain, there's the depression
0:20:02 > 0:20:06which is affecting everybody, but Britain is a hugely wealthy nation.
0:20:06 > 0:20:09- Yeah.- And yet, it can't provide facilities like this.
0:20:09 > 0:20:13It's saying to volunteers, "We can't do it, you'd better do it."
0:20:13 > 0:20:18The Great Depression, we tend to think about it happening all over the United Kingdom.
0:20:18 > 0:20:23It really didn't, it hit certain areas of the United Kingdom far more than it hit other parts.
0:20:23 > 0:20:28Oxford, for example, you could talk about the great Roaring '30s.
0:20:28 > 0:20:32People moved from South Wales to go and work in the Oxford car plants
0:20:32 > 0:20:34and Cowley and those parts of the world.
0:20:34 > 0:20:38So, there really wasn't a depression in Oxford.
0:20:38 > 0:20:41The new commemorative area has several community features,
0:20:41 > 0:20:44such as facilities for young children and the less-abled.
0:20:44 > 0:20:48The history of the site is never far away.
0:20:48 > 0:20:51This is the talking post and it tells the story
0:20:51 > 0:20:54of the international volunteers and what they did in the 1930s.
0:20:54 > 0:21:00Give it a spin and it all depends on which way you turn for which language you get.
0:21:00 > 0:21:05'After years out of work even the most optimistic can lose hope,
0:21:05 > 0:21:09'but the world did care about Brynmawr's fate and future.
0:21:09 > 0:21:14'In December 1928 newspapers reported streams of relief
0:21:14 > 0:21:17'flowing in from all quarters of the kingdom.'
0:21:17 > 0:21:21This park within a park is the inspiration
0:21:21 > 0:21:25of local councillor Terence Hughes who swam in the original pool.
0:21:25 > 0:21:29The focal point of this garden is the fact that it had
0:21:29 > 0:21:34such historical significance and importance to the people of Brynmawr,
0:21:34 > 0:21:40so much nostalgia, that we thought "This is vital, we should retain this fountain."
0:21:40 > 0:21:43So, it keeps alive that spirit of building something for everybody.
0:21:43 > 0:21:47That's right. So, we thought that because of the spirit
0:21:47 > 0:21:50and the community that was in the form of the open-air swimming pool,
0:21:50 > 0:21:53we tried to recreate what we had.
0:21:53 > 0:21:56We've recreated it here, young families can come,
0:21:56 > 0:22:00relax and sit and take in the surroundings, you know?
0:22:06 > 0:22:09Just thinking of how you've got the experiment
0:22:09 > 0:22:12of the volunteers arriving from abroad here,
0:22:12 > 0:22:16joining forces with the local workforce and building,
0:22:16 > 0:22:17what, the new Brynmawr spa?
0:22:17 > 0:22:22Yeah, it's amazing, the heights of ambition and idealism,
0:22:22 > 0:22:25that they wanted to turn Brynmawr into a leisure spa,
0:22:25 > 0:22:29really showing how Brynmawr from the depths of unemployment
0:22:29 > 0:22:32could rise. A phoenix from the ashes, really.
0:22:46 > 0:22:49There's something of a Teletubby house about this,
0:22:49 > 0:22:50but instead La La or Po inside,
0:22:50 > 0:22:54there's some of the best Stone Age rock art to be found in the UK.
0:22:54 > 0:22:58I'm at Barclodiad y Gawres, a Neolithic burial chamber
0:22:58 > 0:22:59of the Anglesey coast
0:22:59 > 0:23:03where Stone Age people left their mark in more ways than one.
0:23:07 > 0:23:14It's carvings like these which make Barclodiad y Gawres on the Anglesey coast, such an exceptional site.
0:23:14 > 0:23:17Apart from photography, new methods of laser scanning
0:23:17 > 0:23:21are revealing the 5,000-year-old burial complex in a new light.
0:23:23 > 0:23:29The Royal Commission is comparing the two different survey methods to see what each can reveal.
0:23:32 > 0:23:38I asked Toby Driver why Barclodiad is so important.
0:23:38 > 0:23:40Before we do the art, Toby, can we just do the age?
0:23:40 > 0:23:44I mean, this is going up when the Pyramids are being built.
0:23:44 > 0:23:47Oh, yeah, I mean we're stepping back 5,000, 5,500 years
0:23:47 > 0:23:49to when this tomb was built.
0:23:49 > 0:23:52This is what makes Barclodiad y Gawres so special.
0:23:52 > 0:23:57This wasn't previously known about when the tomb was standing in a field in the '50s.
0:23:57 > 0:24:01It was excavated in the early 1950s and the excavators discovered
0:24:01 > 0:24:04this very rare prehistoric rock art.
0:24:04 > 0:24:07- Diamonds and what are they chevrons, there?- Well, yeah.
0:24:07 > 0:24:10We can see here, and we'll see better on some of the new scans,
0:24:10 > 0:24:12these double diamonds or chevrons
0:24:12 > 0:24:16linked in to either side's snake-like sinuous carvings
0:24:16 > 0:24:19down each side, and then zigzags at the top.
0:24:19 > 0:24:23This is a pattern of tomb art that we recognise from Ireland,
0:24:23 > 0:24:26Brittany, Spain, across Western Europe.
0:24:26 > 0:24:31And here we are 5,500 years ago seeing this shared patterning.
0:24:33 > 0:24:38George Nash is a rock-art specialist working with a team from Bristol University.
0:24:38 > 0:24:40Using digital photography,
0:24:40 > 0:24:45he claims to have discovered 30% more art than the 1956 excavation.
0:24:47 > 0:24:50So, what we've got here in this particular monument,
0:24:50 > 0:24:54we've got an odd monument, orientated north-south when it should face east-west.
0:24:54 > 0:24:59You've also got interesting sort of landscape as well, which I think is being replicated on the stone.
0:24:59 > 0:25:06So, if this stone is facing the east, the east where the sun rises, this could actually be the sun.
0:25:10 > 0:25:15And these could actually be the zigzagged peaks of the Snowdonia mountain range.
0:25:23 > 0:25:26Now the one stone is obvious, but on this stone,
0:25:26 > 0:25:28you've discovered new art work, haven't you?
0:25:28 > 0:25:33I've been coming here for about 15, 20 years and walked past this stone many times.
0:25:33 > 0:25:37It wasn't until this year that we started to get some high-resolution photography
0:25:37 > 0:25:41and some very bright lights on this particular face of stone here.
0:25:41 > 0:25:44You can just see the graffiti, pretty obvious there,
0:25:44 > 0:25:48but underneath that graffiti are the very, very faint lines of a spiral.
0:25:48 > 0:25:51And there are some lines up here as well.
0:25:51 > 0:25:54And the reason why this stuff is so faint
0:25:54 > 0:25:57is partly because for many hundreds of years,
0:25:57 > 0:25:59this stone was exposed to the elements,
0:25:59 > 0:26:01so it's been slowly eroded away.
0:26:01 > 0:26:04But, underneath the veneer of the graffiti
0:26:04 > 0:26:09are these very, very faint lines which show a very ornate stone.
0:26:09 > 0:26:11And again, another important point
0:26:11 > 0:26:14is that the art here is hidden, only certain people are meant to see it.
0:26:14 > 0:26:18- Does that bring us into the realms of the dead?- The realm of the dead.
0:26:23 > 0:26:25Now, a new survey technique is available.
0:26:25 > 0:26:28Andrew Beardsley is carrying out laser scanning
0:26:28 > 0:26:32which uses millions of survey points to build up a 3-D picture.
0:26:32 > 0:26:36Andrew, a surveyor with a private company, has been fascinated
0:26:36 > 0:26:41by Barclodiad for years and is undertaking the survey in his own time.
0:26:41 > 0:26:46It's a technique capable of scanning individual rocks and showing how they relate to each other.
0:26:49 > 0:26:54It fires out a beam of laser light which hits an object and bounces back.
0:26:54 > 0:26:57On a dull surface it will come back with the least amount of light,
0:26:57 > 0:27:00on a highly-reflective surface it will come back with the most.
0:27:00 > 0:27:05So it fires thousands and thousands of millions of those out to create a 3-D space around it.
0:27:05 > 0:27:07You can go in pitch black conditions?
0:27:07 > 0:27:09Absolutely, it is its own light source.
0:27:09 > 0:27:11We could work 24 hours with one of these.
0:27:11 > 0:27:14Even though we might grumble, the scanner doesn't.
0:27:14 > 0:27:18This is a tool in the box for heritage.
0:27:18 > 0:27:23For instance, this is being used all around the world to capture in 3-D, with as much accuracy
0:27:23 > 0:27:26as is possible in this day and age with this technology,
0:27:26 > 0:27:29any monuments or heritage sites that are in danger.
0:27:29 > 0:27:32This one's pretty safe, but people could vandalise it.
0:27:32 > 0:27:34And that captures the 3-D essence of a site,
0:27:34 > 0:27:39so if you need to reposition anything as it was within millimetres, this is the method.
0:27:39 > 0:27:41To document, for instance, the carvings,
0:27:41 > 0:27:45the work that's been done with sort of ambient lighting, acetate tracing
0:27:45 > 0:27:49and very detailed photography is the ultimate way of documenting the carvings,
0:27:49 > 0:27:54but the carving's relation to its 3-D position and the landscape, this is the ultimate way of doing that.
0:27:54 > 0:27:58So, what I'm pleased with is the fact that it's got two elements to it.
0:27:58 > 0:28:00It isn't a replacement for photography,
0:28:00 > 0:28:02but the scan is embellished by the fact
0:28:02 > 0:28:07that it's got these beautiful carvings on there as well as the 3-D shapes.
0:28:07 > 0:28:11So how does The Royal Commission evaluate the two different approaches?
0:28:11 > 0:28:15It's difficult, but I think both approaches have their merits.
0:28:15 > 0:28:18The laser scanning is mind-blowing, the ultimate in precision,
0:28:18 > 0:28:21it makes a precise record of what's here now.
0:28:21 > 0:28:24But then again it's not interpreting that record,
0:28:24 > 0:28:27it's just showing the rocks, the stones as they are today.
0:28:27 > 0:28:30George's approach is much more detailed, much more focused,
0:28:30 > 0:28:36looking at the carvings themselves, a bit like the prehistoric people who carved the pictures first.
0:28:36 > 0:28:41But with a site this important you need both - you need precision, you need interpretation,
0:28:41 > 0:28:43you need to understand what you're looking at.
0:28:43 > 0:28:46And that's what we've been seeing today, really,
0:28:46 > 0:28:48with the full armoury hitting the site.
0:28:58 > 0:29:01Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd
0:29:01 > 0:29:04E-mail subtitling@bbc.co.uk