Ö÷²¥´óÐã

The first of March is arguably the most famous and important day in Welsh history and culture.

Flag of St David

It is, of course, St David's Day and all over the country celebrations - usually in the shape of eisteddfodau or arts festivals - take place. They are held in schools, in colleges, in chapels and churches, even in hospitals.

The celebrations are held each year to mark the death of St David, patron saint of Wales.

On St David's Day in 1827 the appropriately named was opened, one of the earliest seats of learning in Wales. The College is still functioning in the tiny town to the north-east of Carmarthen.

On this day in 1918 the Order of St John of Jerusalem established the Priory of Wales in Cardiff. It was the first new priory established on the authority of the old king, Edward V11, and its creation had obviously been delayed by World War One.

On 1 March 1927 a crippling explosion at , Ebbw Vale, killed no fewer than 51 miners. There had been worst mining disasters in Wales but this one, coming so soon after the tragedy of World War One was a particularly poignant and painful event.

On a somewhat lighter note, on 1 March 1965 singer Tom Jones hit the number one spot for the first time with his single It's Not Unusual. It was the start of an amazing career for the Pontypridd boy, a career that continues to this day. Songs like Green, Green Grass Of Ö÷²¥´óÐã and Delilah retain memory for most Welsh people, and no rugby international would be complete without at least one rendering of Delilah. And to think it all began on St David's Day.

St David's Day in 1979 saw the rejection of devolution in a referendum held right across the country. The result of the vote, rejecting the concept by the huge margin of four to one, was totally unexpected and was a major setback for supporters of nationalism. The idea of devolution disappeared from the Welsh political agenda for over ten years; only in September 1997 was a second referendum held, this time resulting in a narrow victory for the supporters of devolution.

Dylan Thomas at the Ö÷²¥´óÐã

Dylan Thomas, in many respects the traditional national poet of English-speaking Wales, was honoured on 1 March 1982. On that day a memorial to the boozy bard of Cwmdonkin Drive was unveiled and dedicated at Poets' Corner in Westminster Abbey. Dylan, who always loved the idea of being a poet - perhaps as much as the art of writing poetry - would surely have felt highly pleased by the accolade.

St David's Day 1986 saw the death of one of Wales' great sporting heroes. Tommy Farr, the Tonypandy Terror, might have resisted the fists of Joe Louis but he could not escape the clutches of his greatest opponent and died at the age of 73.

Born in Clydach Vale on 12 March 1913 Tommy fought, first, as a light heavyweight, then as a full heavyweight. He became British and Empire Champion in 1937 and in August of that same year was matched against the great American world champion, Joe Louis, in a bout at Yankee Stadium, New York. Louis had carried all before him, knocking out the nine opponents before Tommy Farr and nobody gave the Welshman much of a chance.

In a brutal and close contest Tommy Farr lost on points and earned the respect of Louis and all the spectators. Indeed, when the decision was announced many of the crowd booed to show their disapproval. Tommy's later life did not run smoothly and, having retired in 1940, he was forced to return to the ring to try to recapture some of his lost fortune. He tried singing and even ran a pub in Brighton for a while but his moment of triumph (even though it was, in reality, a defeat) had come years before in his contest with Joe Louis.

The Goons light up with the leeks to celebrate St. David's Day 1956 (left to right) Spike Milligan, Peter Sellers and Harry Secombe in 1956.

Clearly, then, St David's Day is about more than just the death of Wales' patron saint. But however we remember it, we should never forget the emotional and cultural significance of 1 March. It is a day to wear your leak or daffodil with pride.

If you would like to find out more about the traditions and emblems of Wales, don't miss Welsh Icons on Tuesday 1 March at 8pm on Ö÷²¥´óÐã Two Wales. Eddie Butler discovers the origins of our very own Welsh icons, including the Welsh dragon, the Welsh hat and the wearing of leeks and daffodils. Visit the programme page to watch some clips from the programme.

The rock hard sands at Pendine stretch for over seven miles along the shore of Carmarthen Bay, running between Laugharne Sands in the east and the village of Pendine itself in the west.

Babs ©

These days they are an ideal tourist location where sand castles and walks along the beach are the order of the day. But it was not so many years ago that young would-be drivers of Pembrokeshire and Carmarthenshire sat behind the wheels of their parents cars and, inexpertly and perhaps a little reluctantly, took their first stab at manoeuvering their vehicles along the sands.

Safe from the problems of traffic and other road users, it was the ideal place to learn to drive. Yet these Tyro drivers were simply following in the footsteps of more famous men before them.

For Pendine Sands were once the home to roaring motorbikes and daring attempts to break the world land speed record.

The sands at Pendine are rock hard, particularly the eastern stretch, and in the early days of motoring were often safer and more uniform than roads and racing tracks.

From 1922, for several years, the annual Welsh TT Races were held on the sands. They offered a smooth surface on which to race and, importantly, a long straight track where the motorcyclists could put their throttles down and achieve the maximum possible speed on their early machines.

Due to the success of the TT Races it soon became obvious that Pendine Sands might be the ideal location for world land speed record attempts. Such attempts needed, not just the measured mile but also a build up and run out area. It was estimated that any attempt at a speed record would require at least five miles of open track - and Pendine had seven.

The famous was the first man to use the area for a record attempt. And it was a successful one. Driving his car, the first Blue Bird, on 25 September 1925 he established a new world land speed record of 146.16 miles per hour.

Four other record breaking attempts were made on Pendine Sands between 1925 and 1927. Two of these were by Campbell and two by his arch rival, the Welsh driver in his car which he named Babs.

In February 1927, driving the second Blue Bird, Malcolm Campbell managed to hit 174.22 miles per hour, an incredible time for the 1920s. Parry-Thomas was adamant that the record could be broken and on 3 March the same year made his attempt.

Driving at 170 miles per hour, on his final run, tragedy struck. The drive chain on Babs - which was exposed rather than hidden under the bonnet - snapped, whipping up and back towards the driver. It struck Parry-Thomas in the neck, partially decapitating him and killing him instantly. Babs slewed out of control, crashed and rolled over onto the sand.

JG Parry-Thomas was the first driver ever to be killed while attempting to break the world land speed record and his death marked the end of Pendine Sands as a location for such attempts. His car, Babs, was buried in the sand dunes as a mark of respect and the sleepy little Welsh village returned to insignificance. It did, however, have its memories.

For years many parents, during a summer day out on the beach - and all eager for a little respite from their demanding offspring - would tell their children to go and see if they could dig up the car of Parry-Thomas.

The children dug for hours but never managed to find the car. However, in 1969 Owen Wyn Owen from Bangor was given permission to excavate Babs from her sandy grave. He then spent 15 years renovating the car which now goes on display at the every summer.

The sands at Pendine have, over the years, also been used as a landing field for aircraft - early, propeller-driven aircraft, not modern jets - and postcard views of aeroplanes on the sands are now eagerly sought.

During the World War Two, Amy Johnson and Jim Mollison took off from Pendine Sands in their De Haviland Rapide on a non-stop flight to America. The Ministry of Defence also acquired a large portion of the Sands during the war, using it as a firing range and putting much of the area out of public use.

Pendine Sands do still, occasionally, hit the headlines. In June 2002 the grandson of Malcolm Campbell set the UK electric land speed record at Pendine, clocking up an amazing speed of 137 miles per hour. It may not rank alongside the modern jet propelled records but Malcolm Campbell would be proud of his grandson's achievement on the same stretch of sand where he once risked life and limb back in the 1920s.

Ask the average man or woman in the street when Britain was last invaded and the answer will probably be "1066". In fact the response would be wrong by about 700 years.

Fishguard Harbour. Photo by on Flikr

The last time any invaders foot ever stood upon the soil of mainland Britain was February 1797 when 1,400 members of the French landed on the Pencaer Peninsula just outside Fishguard.

They were a misbegotten and desperate band of villains, most of them convicts from the prisons of Brest and Le Havre, men kept in chains until the invasion fleet actually sailed. The rest were the worst and least disciplined soldiers from every assorted regiment in France.

However, for a brief moment these vicious and terrifying warriors had the island of Britain at their mercy. Panic spread across the land, people really believing that the cream of French soldiery had come to slit their throats.

Led by a 70-year-old American soldier of fortune by the name of William Tate, the original aim of the Légion Noire was to attack Bristol, then the second city of Britain, and divert the attention of the Royal Navy from another assault, this one on the southern part of Ireland.

The Irish plan failed but with the villains of the Légion Noire already assembled in Brest it was decided to launch the attack on Bristol and cause as much chaos as possible.

The legion was, once Bristol had been sacked, to wheel round and march into Wales. The Welsh nation, it was believed, would quickly flock to their standard, desperate to throw off the yoke of English tyranny.

Even if the invaders had been well trained and highly disciplined soldiers it is doubtful if this element of the scheme would ever have worked. With men like the Légion Noire involved the plan was doomed to disaster from the very beginning.

Contrary winds prevented the French fleet from reaching Bristol and so Tate decided to land instead on the Welsh coast.

When the fleet approached Fishguard on 22 February 1797 they were met by a single shot from the town fort. The shot was a blank but it frightened Tate into landing over the rocks of on the Pencaer Peninsula rather than in the town itself.

By late evening most French troops were ashore, camped on the headland. To oppose them were and just 190 part time soldiers, Fencibles as they were known.

Throughout the long night Knox waited and watched. Then on the morning of 23 February he decided there was no option but to withdraw towards Haverfordwest. The town of Fishguard now lay at the mercy of the French.

All that long day the French soldiers, most of them half starved and out of control, roamed the hills and fields above Fishguard. They were supposed to be searching for supplies and transport - in fact they were more intent on looting and finding whatever food and liquor they could in the farm houses of the area.

A number of skirmishes took place between the French and the Welsh people. A party of sailors and men from nearby St Davids encountered some of the enemy in a field below Carn Gelli. They quickly opened fire - when the smoke had cleared one Frenchman was dead, another injured, and the rest took to their heels.

Some of the incidents were simply ludicrous.

At the farm of Brestgarn a drunken Frenchman, looking for more wine, heard what he took to be the click of a musket being cocked. He spun round and fired - straight through the face of a grandfather clock.

The undoubted hero of the hour was town cobbler Jemima Nicholas. She marched out onto Pencaer and, single handed, captured 12 French soldiers. They were probably drunk, ill and more than happy to find themselves in safe captivity, but that should never detract from the courage of the woman.

General Tate soon found himself faced by a mutinous army that had little or no stomach for the coming fight. All day there were sightings and rumours of a relieving force under marching northwards towards Fishguard. And so, at 9pm that evening, Tate asked for terms and surrendered.

At midday on the 24 February, the Legion Noire marched onto Goodwick Sands, piled their arms and were marched away into captivity.

The invasion has always had more than a little of the farce about it, worthy of Gilbert and Sullivan at their best. It remains the classic 'what if?' story.

If the invading army had contained quality soldiers, men who had the inclination and the training to fight, rather than the drunken rabble of the Légion Noire, then untold damage could have been caused. There were precious few defences and, once the protective screen thrown up by the navy had been breached, almost no soldiers to fight a determined and resolute foe.

The invasion caused panic all over Britain. People buried their money and jewels.

Even so the panic that spread all over Britain when news of the invasion broke was worrying. People demanded their money from the banks - given out in gold and silver coins in those days - and set about burying it in their gardens where, they felt, it would be safe from French hands.

The Bank of England almost ran out of money and had no option but to issue promissory notes to the value of £1 and £2, paper money that has stayed with us ever since.

Legend and fact have blurred somewhat over the years and there remains a wonderful story of Lord Cawdor asking local Welsh women in their red shawls and tall stove pipe hats to masquerade as soldiers. The French, so the story goes, were totally taken in and promptly threw up their hands in horror.

Sadly, the story has little substance. There were Welsh women in Cawdor's relieving force and they were certainly there watching in great numbers when Tate surrendered but as for pretending to be British soldiers there was neither the time nor the inclination. It remains just a lovely story.

Phil Carradice will be telling the story of the last invasion of Britain on The One Show on Thursday 24 February, 7pm on Ö÷²¥´óÐã One.

This weekend marks the 70th anniversary of the Swansea Blitz. On 19 February 1941 the gentle calm of a quiet evening was smashed by the heavy and sustained bombing by the German Luftwaffe. The blitz lasted for three days.

Up to 70 enemy aircraft dropped some 35,000 incendiaries and 800 high explosive bombs over the three-day period. The raging fires could be seen from the other side of the Bristol Channel in Devon.

A total of 230 people were killed and more than 400 were injured, and the bombing changed the face of the city forever.

The centre of Swansea was flattened in the blitz

In the radio programme Swansea In The Blitz, which was broadcast in June 2010 on Ö÷²¥´óÐã Radio Wales, Mal Pope met experts and eye-witnesses to talk about the three-day blitz, the collective resilience of the people of Swansea, and how the bombings changed the city for ever.

In this short clip Mal speaks to Elaine Kidwell, who remembers watching her beloved St Mary's church burning during the bombing.

You can read more of Elaine's memories of World War Two on the People's War website.

Ö÷²¥´óÐã South West Wales also collected some of the memories of the Swansea Blitz.

Yvonne Greco (nee Sulsh) left this comment:

"I lived in Elved Road, Mayhill at the time. I remember my mother had a square dining table with four matching chairs. When the siren sounded, my mother would put the chairs on their sides around the outside of the table to form a barrier.

"She would pile all cushions around the inner edge of the table and put my sister aged two years, myself aged three-and-a-half and my baby brother under the table, then try to squeeze under herself ending half in and half out.

"Teilo Crescent took a beating and there were many deaths. Listening to my mother and neighbours talking - one Teilo gateway was roped off and the body bits were collected and put there.

"My grandfather lived at 82 Pantycelyn Road and was an ARP [Air Raid Precautions warden]. Some years later, it was said that the Germans were trying to disrupt the supply of oil from the docks to Llandarcy oil works which was called PLUTO - Pipe Line Under The Ocean.

"I remember being at my grandmothers on one occasion in Kilvey Terrace, St Thomas. The house had three levels - the lowest being below the level of the street. The air raid warning went off and we all piled into the coal house on the lower level - it was pitch black. We were standing on small coal - I had no shoes on. My feet were full of chilblains - I was crying because the adults kept stepping on my bare feet. An incendiary bomb landed in the back garden - but it was soon dealt with. As young as I was - I can remember it as if it were yesterday. We were were terrified."

Terry Jones, Redditch wrote:

"I was five years old at the time of the three nights bombing of Swansea.

"We lived in Clyngwyn road above Tirbach colliery in Ystalyfera, this gave us a clear view down the valley.

"As there wasn't much chance of sleep during the raids I remember clearly sitting on the low garden wall seeing the fire and explosions, then a slight delay before the 'crump' of the explosions was heard up the valley."

There are more memories from the Swansea Blitz on the Wales History website, and you can find out more about Wales during World War Two.

You can also read Royston Kneath's in-depth account of the three-day blitz on the South West Wales website.

In Swansea this weekend there will be a series of events marking the anniversary of the blitz. Find out more on .

This half term the Ö÷²¥´óÐã's Hands on History team are challenging families to unravel the mystery surrounding the creation of Stonehenge with a new whistle-stop tour across the UK.

Hands on History Stonehenge

For one day only between 11am and 4pm on Monday 21 February at the in Cardiff, an area will be taken back in time with a near life-size inflatable section of the prehistoric monument standing at over four metres tall.

Stoneage Eric

The event will include a wide number of ancient activities including an interactive mini-drama, where the Hands on History 'archaeologists' will take audiences through the challenges of constructing Stonehenge using only the apparatus that would have been available over 4,000 years ago.

Talking about the ancients tour, Nina Bell, campaign executive for the Ö÷²¥´óÐã Learning Hands on History Campaign said:

"From children to parents and grandparents, the Hands on History Stonehenge tour will bring the ancient world to life for all the family. Our aim is to get families excited and inspire them to learn more about history by making it as engaging and relevant as possible."

As well as the dramatisations, families will also be able to find out about ancient sites to visit nearby and can get hands on with the historical artefacts, on loan from the Salisbury and South Wiltshire Museum, including arrow heads and ancient tools.

If you can't make it to Cardiff you can still explore the ancient world on the Hands on History website.

The site has a a new 'Eric' animation where he embarks on a new ancients adventure. There is also a free pull out time line for kids and find out about more events and activities.

The tour accompanies the new Ö÷²¥´óÐã Two series 'A History of Ancient Britain'. This factual series sees Neil Oliver embark on the story of how today's Britain and its people came to be, forged over thousands of years of ancient history.

View a list of ancient sites to visit in Wales.

We've raided the Ö÷²¥´óÐã Wales archives and found this short clip from a series called The Land Remembers made in 1972. In it, Gwyn Williams looks at the first people to come to Wales and investigates the Red Lady of Paviland, discovered in a cave on Gower in the 1820s, and who is, of course - a he.

The revamped officially threw open its doors once again yesterday.

The museum has just undergone a £2 million facelift, and over the past 12 months has been modernised to include a wealth of new attractions and interactive displays.

Wrexham County Borough Museum and Archives

You can from inside the newly-refurbished museum on the Ö÷²¥´óÐã North East News website.

Designed to engage and appeal to all the family, new exhibits include 'Smelly Old Wrexham' where visitors can follow their nose through the streets of the Victorian town and take in the aroma of the famous Wrexham Brewery.

The National Museum and National Library for Wales will also have a presence in the Wrexham building to exhibit collections.

Wrexham Mayor Jim Kelly was joined by Welsh historian John Davies for the official opening.

The funding came from which contributed £950,000, and .

You can find visitor times and exhibition details on the .

One of the most eccentric and fascinating characters ever to come out of Wales, the painter Augustus John, was a Pembrokeshire man through and through.

Augustus John

Even after he grew up and achieved international fame he often returned to the county of his birth, affording it a warm and fond place in his heart.

The third of four children, both Augustus and his older sister Gwen became celebrated and distinguished artists. Indeed, there are many who say that for all his posing and bohemian ways, Gwen was actually the better painter of the two. The jury, as they say, is out on that one.

Augustus John came from the county town of Haverfordwest where his father was a solicitor. However, he was actually born in the nearby seaside town of Tenby on 4 January 1878.

Late in 1877 there had been a serious outbreak of scarlet fever in Haverfordwest and, with the new baby due any day, Augustus' mother and her young family left their house in Victoria Place and decamped to Tenby. Augustus was born there a few weeks later.

Tenby was the ideal location for Augustus to grow up

Much of the future painter's childhood was spent in Tenby, the open sands and fine sea bathing making it an ideal place to grow up.

Even though his mother died when he was just six years old, it seems to have been a happy childhood. To begin with, at least, he was a mild and quiet child.

However, an accident while bathing - diving into water that was too shallow - resulted in an injury that became life changing. The simplistic view is that he dived into the sea, smashed his head on a rock or the sea bed and suffered a character change - the rampaging bohemian was born.

The truth of the matter is probably that the accident gave him a long period of enforced convalescence. During this time Augustus John sat and thought about life and art - and his role in it. The period certainly filled him with ideas and stimulated a passion for what can only be described as "adventure".

John's ability as an artist was soon noticed and he studied first at Tenby School of Art. Quickly outgrowing this, he went to the in London where he became renowned as the an exceptionally able pupil of artist and teacher Henry Tonks.

Soon he was accepted as the most brilliant draughtsman the college had produced and, almost inevitably, won the Slade Prize in 1898. Leaving the Slade he went to Paris and then journeyed through France until he found the most perfect spot to live and paint in the Provence region.

Early in 1900 Augustus John married his first wife, Ida. Always passionately interested in the Romany way of life, for many years he travelled, together with his wife Ida, his mistress Dorelia McNeill and children from both women, around the countryside in a gypsy caravan.

It was a bohemian lifestyle that caught the public imagination and made his looming, bearded figure famous throughout the land.

When Ida died in 1907 Augustus continued to travel and live with Dorelia - all the while managing to keep a mistress or two in close company. He did later marry Dorelia.

The bohemian lifestyle did not seem to affect the children too much. One of the sons from John's first marriage, Casper, decided on a career in the Navy and rose to become First Sea Lord at the Admiralty.

During World War One John was appointed official War Artist with the Canadian forces. Together with the king he was one of the few soldiers (his position as War Artist meant that he was officially a serving soldier) allowed to keep his beard and other facial hair!

He did little painting, however, and after two short months in France he got himself involved in a brawl. Shipped home in disgrace, he managed to avoid a court martial - thanks to the intervention of Lord Beaverbrook - and he returned to France where he did actually manage to produce one or two paintings. The most famous of these is , a depiction of three soldiers standing close together in front of a bombed out building.

In his early days Augustus John had been known as an exponent of Post Impressionism and for his abilities as an etcher and sketcher in oil.

After the war, however, he turned more and more to portrait painting and was soon regarded as Britain's finest artist in this field. Amongst others he painted people like Lawrence of Arabia, George Bernard Shaw and Dylan Thomas.

It was Augustus John who actually introduced Dylan Thomas to his future wife, Caitlin Macnamara. Caitlin was at that time John's mistress and in a famous episode during the return from a drunken excursion to west Wales, the jealous Augustus John actually knocked Dylan down. It did not stop Caitlin transferring her allegiance to the Welsh poet.

Augustus John continued to paint and write - he produced two autobiographies - until his death at Fordingbridge in Hampshire on 31 October 1961.

He left behind a huge body of work, some quite brilliant, some possibly not so good. His real legacy, however, lies in the tales of rampaging hedonism that seemed to follow him wherever he went - truly one of Wales' great eccentric characters.

If Phil's blog has made you want to find out more about Welsh art and artists, don't miss Rolf on Welsh Art on Wednesday 16 February, Ö÷²¥´óÐã One Wales.

Also, keep an eye out for Framing Wales which starts on Thursday 24 February on Ö÷²¥´óÐã Two Wales. Presented by Kim Howells, who attended Cambridge College of Arts and Technology it is his personal view of the great 20th century Welsh paintings and painters.

Last night, won seven British academy awards (Baftas), winning both best film and outstanding British film.

Colin Firth won the best actor award for his portrayal of George VI struggling to overcome his stammer.

Prince Albert stayed at Clochfaen house for three weeks in 1917

Ö÷²¥´óÐã Wales News has an article on the little-known role that a small mid Wales village called Llangurig played in the health of the future king.

In September 1917, shortly after serving in the Battle of Jutland during World War I, Prince Albert was said to have suffered from the effects of a duodenal ulcer.

Prince Albert stayed in this bedroom at Clochfaen house

Clochfaen was an estate owned by Harry Lloyd-Verney near Llangurig on the banks of the River Wye. Lloyd-Verney was a senior member of the royal household at the time and the house, which was newly built, was considered to be the ideal location for the prince.

Although the future king was clearly taken by the tranquility of the area, it seems that the scenery was not enough to cure his health woes.

James Stirk, whose grandfather bought the house from the Lloyd-Verneys in 1928, and now helps to run Clochfaen as a holiday business, said:

"He travelled to Llangurig with his doctor Louis Greig and stayed for three weeks. According to a biography of George VI by [John] Wheeler-Bennett, Prince Albert wrote to his father from Clochfaen, depressed and saying he was not getting better and he needed an operation."

Clochfaen house is now run as a bed and breakfast and holiday cottage business

Read the full article on the Ö÷²¥´óÐã Wales News website.

Read the rest of this entry

One of the roles of the is to survey major industrial sites that are closing down. This way, the Commission can ensure that there are permanent records of ways of life in Wales that are changing forever.

In Hidden Histories tonight (Thursday 10 February, 7.30pm on Ö÷²¥´óÐã Two Wales), commission secretary Peter Wakelin, photographer Iain Wright and presenter Eddie Butler take a look at in the heart of the Snowdonia National Park.

You can watch a preview clip from tonight's episode here.

The second destination for tonight's programme is Skomer Island, which has one of the finest archaeological landscapes in Britain.

The Harold Stone on Skomer Island ()

Royal Commission investigators Toby Driver and Louise Barker examine how the relative isolation of the island from the mainland has preserved the remains of prehistoric settlements.

One reminder of prehistoric ritual and burial on the island is the Harold Stone, a 1.7 metre high standing stone. It is thought that the stone is a a Bronze Age monument, marking a burial (in a cremation urn) or an area of now buried ritual and funerary activity.

Barry Docks 1929 ()

Staying shoreside, Eddie Butler and maritime officer Deanna Groom search for the wreck of a Bristol Channel pilot cutter.

The Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments of Wales have created in-depth guides to each subject featured in tonight's programme. on their website and view images relating to Hidden Histories on their

Hidden Histories, Thursday 3 February, at 7.30pm on Ö÷²¥´óÐã Two Wales.

The name might mean very little to most people but, for some time, this enigmatic and fascinating man was the leader of the psychoanalytical movement in Britain and many years later was voted number 96 in the list of top 100 Welshmen of all time.

Perhaps more importantly, Ernest Jones wrote and produced the definitive biography of the great - a work that even now, over 50 years after it first appeared, is still regarded as a classic text.

Jones was born in , just outside Swansea, on 1 January 1879. Educated at , he went on to study at and .

In 1901 he was awarded a first-class honours degree in medicine and obstetrics. He followed this with an MD and, in 1903, membership of the .

Ernest Jones specialised in and, in his early years in practice, worked mainly in hospitals in the London area. Appalled by the brutal, almost inhuman treatment of people then termed "insane", he began experimenting with hypnotic techniques.

Then, in 1905, he read an article by Freud in a German medical journal and became fascinated by the Austrian's theories. Concepts and terms such as the ego and libido were soon second nature to the young man.

However, the medical profession, and the whole medical establishment of the time, were opposed to Freud and his treatments and Jones faced considerable opposition from people who disliked the Freudian approach. So much so that in 1906 he faced a charge that undoubtedly hurt his professional standing.

Carl Jung

Jones encountered , Freud's pupil and fellow professional, in 1907 and this brought him first hand information about Freud's work. Then in 1908 he met the great man himself for the first time, at a psychoanalytical conference in Salzburg.

Ernest Jones promptly followed Freud back to Vienna after the conference and the pair carried out in-depth discussions on psychoanalytical practice. It was a period that helped form the personal and professional relationship between Freud and Jones, a relationship which lasted until Freud's death in 1939.

In 1908 Ernest Jones ably demonstrated that repressed sexuality was the underlying problem with the paralysed arm of a young girl who had come to him for treatment. Her parents, however, were appalled at the suggestion and promptly complained. Jones had little option and resigned from his position at the hospital.

Following his resignation, Jones moved to Canada where he taught at the University of Toronto. For the next five years he taught, wrote and organised conferences, even bringing Freud across the Atlantic for a lecture tour.

Ernest Jones returned to the UK in 1913 and set up in private practice as a psychoanalyst. In 1917 he married the Welsh composer but she died 18 months later after an operation for appendicitis. Jones re-married just after the war, this time to Katherine Jake, a woman who had been at school with Freud's daughters.

Although Ernest Jones had taught himself German in order to better understand Freud's writings, it was his second wife's command of the language that later helped him when he was compiling documents, arranging letters and writing his biographical masterpiece.

Following the of 1937, when Hitler's Germany annexed Austria, Freud, as a Jew, found himself in a parlous position. Ernest Jones promptly flew to Vienna and helped to negotiate the release of Freud to Britain.

It was a brave thing to do as anyone, even at this early stage of the new regime, who was connected with Jews was immediately suspect and liable to very severe treatment.

The major achievement of Ernest Jones' final years was the gathering together of Freud's papers and letters and then writing his three-volume biography of the man. The volumes were published between 1953 and 1957 to immediate acclaim - an acclaim that has lasted until the present day.

Always hugely proud of his Welshness, Ernest Jones was a member of Plaid Cymru and remained inordinately fond of the Gower Peninsula.

He was one of the first to spot the disagreement between Freud and Carl Jung, a disagreement that would, eventually, split the world of psychoanalytical treatment and thought in two.

Perhaps his greatest contribution to the profession, however, was in recognising and developing the concept of "rationalisation" - the excuses that people make for things that make them uncomfortable or unhappy. That and, of course, his magnificent biography of one of the greatest men of the late 19th and early 20th centuries.

When we have visitors come to stay, friends or relatives who have, perhaps, never been to Wales before, one of the first things many of us do is take them out to see some of the majestic ruined castles that still dominate our landscape.

Caerphilly Castle. Photograph by Somira Jain.

This is Wales, we say, these are part of out heritage. And they are - but most of us remain unaware that the majority of these great stone edifices aren't Welsh at all.

They are English and were built with the sole purpose of grinding down the populace, of keeping the Welsh people in subjugation.

That doesn't make them any less magnificent - as pieces of architecture, as weapons of war. But it is good and only right that we should know and pass on their original purpose.

When Dafydd, brother of Llywelyn, the last true Prince of Wales, was captured and executed at Shrewsbury in 1283 it left Edward I of England in total command of Wales. The Statute of Rhuddlan, signed in 1284, set out the principles on which Edward intended to rule his newly acquired territories.

From the beginning it was clear that he intended to rule as an autocrat, a conqueror who had little or no concern for the Welsh people and their traditions.

Boroughs on the English style were created at places such as Aberystwyth and Caernarfon and new Marcher Lordships were brought into existence in border regions like Chirk and Denbigh. A system of courts in the English style or format was also introduced, along with the imposition of English criminal law.

In order to ensure adherence to the new systems Edward built castles, huge stone monsters that were power bases for English Lords and English arms.

In the south several stone-built castles were already in existence. These included fortresses such as Caerphilly, Cardiff and Pembroke. They had been built by the early invaders of Wales, the Norman Barons who originally arrived with William the Conqueror in the years after 1066.

The very earliest Norman (or English) castles in Wales had been earth and timber structures, motte and bailey castles with a wide courtyard (the bailey) and a motte or mound some 30 or 40 feet high - both Cardiff and Pembroke had, originally, been motte and bailey forts.

The first stone-built castle in Wales was Chepstow, built by the Baron William FitzOsbern in approximately 1067. It retained the motte concept of the early earth and timber castles but added rectangular and, eventually, round or circular towers and keeps.

The Welsh chieftains had quickly copied the castle concept and built a few of their own. After Edward's successes in the 13th century these castles, places like Dinefwr and Drystwyn, were taken over and adapted by the victorious English.

It was in the north, however, traditionally the centre of Llywelyn and Dafydd's power, that Edward built his strongest castles. By 1282, before the Statute of Rhuddlan had even been contemplated, the enormous stone portals of Rhuthun, Denbigh and Holt Castles were beginning to take shape.

The following year work began on places such as Harlech and Conwy. Beaumaris - arguably the most perfect concentric castle in the world - began to take shape late in 1295.

Building castles at the rate Edward demanded did not come cheaply. By 1301, when work had been completed on the majority of his planned fortifications, it was estimated that the king had spent over £80,000 on the building programme. This was a truly incredible figure, one that would now translate to a sum in the region of £60 million.

Building materials such as stone, lead and iron had to be transported to Wales from various parts of Britain and Edward, always conscious of the need to make the castles both defensively effective and, at the same time, emotionally dramatic, employed only the very best craftsmen on each project.

James of St George, the Master of the King's Works in Wales, was the man who designed fortifications like Caernarfon and Beaumaris. He created military masterpieces, works of beauty that took the art of castle building to its zenith.

Caernarfon and Beaumaris are concentric castles, complete with two lines of defence, making them almost - almost but not quite - unconquerable. Caernarfon, with its polygonal towers and lines of coloured stone, the low symmetrical lines of Beaumaris - they might be weapons of oppression but, even now, they remain incredible works of art.

The castles of Wales, most of them English, were powerful units of military occupation. They were the physical manifestation of totalitarianism, the symbol of a dictatorial regime. Without them Edward could never have established and maintained his hold over the Welsh people.

We need to celebrate them for the superb pieces of machinery that they are but we should never forget their original intention.

Read about Welsh castles on the Wales History site.

Wales Nature has just published a fantastic gallery of Welsh castle photographs.

Two stars from the drama Baker Boys take a journey into the past to find out about the history of co-operatives.

A documentary, Baker Boys: How the Co-op Started, is broadcast tonight, Monday 7 February, 10.35pm on Ö÷²¥´óÐã One Wales.

Mark Lewis Jones explores the incredible vision of the co-operative movement's Welsh founder .

uncovers how Robert Owen's radical thinking is impacting on Welsh communities even today.

You can watch a preview clip of the documentary below.

Also in tonight's documentary, Mark Lewis Jones meets Pat Brandwood, the curator of the in Newtown. Pat has written a blog article for Ö÷²¥´óÐã Wales History about the work of museum and her passion for Owen.

Alun Burge has written two articles about co-operatives in Wales. Read Alun's article on the co-operative economy and on the history of the co-operative movement in Wales.

Phil Carradice has written a blog on the life of Robert Owen.

Baker Boys: Behind the Co-operative Movement is broadcast tonight, 10.35pm on Ö÷²¥´óÐã One Wales. Visit the programme page to find out more about the documentary and view some exclusive footage.

A 14th century Bishops' manuscript containing music notation and Latin text for religious services was put on show yesterday at .

The Pontifical - a book of forms for ceremonies performed by a bishop - has returned to Bangor from the in Aberystwyth, where it was conserved and rebound.

Senior clerics, including the Dean of Bangor, Rev Alun Hawkins, and the Bishop of Bangor, Rev Andrew John, attended a service where several plainchant melodies from the 700-year-old manuscript were performed.

The manuscript was put on display for just one day, and will now be kept safely in the archive of Bangor University. You can also view it .

Speaking about the website, Dr Sally Harper from the university said: "We've had the book digitised by a specialist team from Oxford and you can actually see every page in glorious detail on the website which we are now developing.

"We're going to have parallel translations of the Latin text and there will also be musical notation and sound files. So you'll be able to click on a melody and hear it."

Read more about this unique document on the .

Keep an eye out for Baker Boys: How the Co-op Started on Monday 7 February, 10.35pm, Ö÷²¥´óÐã One Wales.

The documentary goes behind the scenes of Ö÷²¥´óÐã Wales' heartwarming drama Baker Boys, and also explores the remarkable life of the co-operative movement's Welsh founder Robert Owen.

One of the people interviewed in the documentary about Robert Owen is Pat Brandwood.

Ö÷²¥´óÐã Wales history asked this Newtown resident and Owenite to write a blog about about her passion for the man, her work with the and why she thinks Owen's ideas still resonate 153 years after his death.

Pat Brandwood, curator, Robert Owen Museum

Pat Brandwood writes:

I am new to blogging, so let me introduce myself. My name is Pat Brandwood and I am curator of the Robert Owen Museum.

I have admired Owen since my early 20s when I first came across his ideas about learning through enjoyment and discovery. This approach brings out the best in students and remains as inspirational now as it was then.

After a career in teaching and lecturing, my husband and I retired to Newtown and, as a fan of Owen, I called into the museum to offer my services. After a short spell as education officer, I was offered the curator's job at the end of 2009, and all thoughts of a leisurely retirement disappeared.

I soon realised that Newtown was central to Owen's vision.

It was here he went to school, explored the countryside, learned to dance and run faster than any of his contemporaries.

When he set up his school in as a model for "universal education" he used his happy Newtown years as the basis for the curriculum: there was dancing, sport and nature study.

Despite setbacks, Owen remained an optimist about the future of society.

He spent his lifetime and his fortune campaigning for factory reform, co-operative communities, trades unions, and education for life.

His vision was broad, democratic and surprisingly modern. As he wrote in 1841, his aim was "to promote the well-being, and happiness, of every man, woman, and child, without regard to their class, sect, party, country or colour".

He returned to Newtown in 1858 to, as he put it, "lay my bones whence I derived them".

He still loved the place and Newtown honoured him with a grand funeral. His friend and lifelong co-operator, GH Holyoake, was one of his chief mourners.

When Holyoake returned to Newtown over 40 years later, he found the grave neglected and he used his influence in the Co-operative Union to improve the grave and make it a fitting memorial to his friend and "social father".

At the opening in 1902 he gave an impassioned tribute to the great man. You can .

The museum was opened in 1929 on the site of his birthplace. The collection was donated to the town by local gentry, business people, co-operators and American members of the Owen family.

Portrait of Robert Owen ©

The Co-operative Society continued to support Newtown in honour of their "founding father" and made a large donation to a lending library at the Cross in Newtown which has housed the Robert Owen Memorial Museum since 1983.

The museum is very small but visitors like the intimate, almost domestic feel. And though the real importance of the collection lies in letters, campaigning pamphlets and books by Owen, the museum is full of images of Owen, as well as some furniture and paintings which he would have known from his homes in Newtown and

My favourite exhibit is a very modest one: an empty glasses case. But with it comes a letter from the optician's daughter explaining that Owen came to their shop for a new case and when Owen asked the price, her father said he would be honoured for Mr Owen to have it free of charge, if he could keep the old one in memory of their meeting. She had kept it for 80 years and sent it to Newtown from America!

Throughout the museum's history fans from all over the world have found their way to this small market town. We regularly get visitors from Japan, Australia, USA and Europe.

For me and the other unpaid volunteers, the best reward is when someone discovers the range and impact of Owen for the first time. Our visitor's book is full of comments from people who have just learned of the continuing impact of his ideas.

Almost as important as the museum itself is our , which we believe is the best source of information about Owen and his writings on the web. It's a pleasure to receive emails from Owenites and co-operators all over the world.

My aim is to make people in Newtown, Wales and beyond aware and proud of a man who made his mark on history as one of the most prominent social reformers of the period, a pioneer of the co-operative and trade union movements and a source of inspiration for political theories from David Cameron's Big Society to green issues, fair trade and socialism.

You can meet Pat and the other volunteers at the Museum of Robert Owen, The Cross, Broad Street, Newtown, Powys. The phone and fax number is +44 (0)1686-626345, and opening times are on the of the museum website.

Phil Carradice has written a blog on the remarkable life of Robert Owen. Read it on the Ö÷²¥´óÐã Wales History blog.

It's a sad fact that the good, old fashioned public house was, for many years, far less public than most of us ever imagined.

Many Welsh pubs used to have 'Men Only' bars

Half of the population of Britain was actually banned from many of these establishments, purely on the grounds of gender, and of the other half a large proportion was excluded from certain parts of the building because of social class.

For a long time many Welsh pubs had 'Men Only' bars. Until as late as the 1970s women, if they came to the pub at all, were usually sat in the snug or the lounge.

They rarely entered the hallowed portals of the bar and their men folk - very few women ventured into the pub alone - would bring them drinks as the evening progressed. The men remained, resolutely, standing at the bar.

It had not always been like this. In the Victorian era you would often find women in public houses but these were not always the kind of girl you would be happy to take home to your mother!

Pubs like The Eagle in Cardiff - later, perhaps appropriately, re-named The Spread Eagle - doubled as brothels and many establishments were actually run by women. When you study the various directories of Welsh towns and villages in the 1880s and 1890s you find that, maybe, 40 or even 50% of them had women landlords.

There were famous characters in most Welsh towns, drunkards who regularly appeared in court on charges of being drunk and disorderly. Many of these were women and some, like Ellen Sweeney of Swansea had over 150 convictions. No sign of discrimination by gender there, then!

In the smaller towns and rural areas, however, the taboo against women in pubs remained firm and constant. Pubs often had a small hatch, perhaps at the rear of the building, where women might come to fill up a bottle or a jug but they rarely went inside.

Only as the swinging '60s progressed and the greater freedom of the Women's Lib movement began to smash down some of the prejudices of society did things really start to change.

There was also, for many years, a very clear social divide in the pubs. Working men used the bar; the 'better class of person' - the town doctor, solicitor or police sergeant - drank in the snug or lounge. And never the twain would meet.

Of course there was a charge of two pence extra on all drinks bought in the lounge but, for most members of the middle or even upper classes, that seemed to be preferable than drinking with your workers or servants.

Sometimes the working men in the bar had to face yet another form of discrimination. Many pubs expressly forbade the wearing of working clothes. Others allowed it in the early evening, for men on their way home from work, but if they wanted a drink after 9pm they had to be properly attired in jackets, shirts and trousers.

These days there is no sense of discrimination in our pubs. The law of the land would not allow it and, anyway, attitudes have changed out of all recognition.

The public house has evolved along with the rest of society and if it wants to survive it will have to continue to change, many times.

If you want to hear more about pubs in Wales tune in to Past Master on Sunday 6 February, 5.30pm on Ö÷²¥´óÐã Radio Wales, when Phil Carradice explores this unique British tradition.

Read Phil's earlier blog on the death of the British pub.

Presenters Eddie Butler and Heledd Fychan investigate Welsh places with extraordinary stories in tonight's Hidden Histories, with reseachers from the (RCAHW).

Eddie Butler and Richard Suggett from the Commission visit the Denbighshire/Caernarfonshire border in search of a well with special powers - it was a cursing well.

Cefnyffynnon Farmhouse: home of the keeper's of the well ©

Using historical records and talking with the owner of Cefnyffynnon Farm, who is an expert on the tradition of the cursing well, the pair find out how, in the latter part of the 18th century, the well acquired a reputation as a place where wrongs could be righted.

Barclodiad y Gawres, Anglesey ©

Heledd Fychan and investigators from the Commission visit the pecked stones of Barclodiad y Gawres in Anglesey. Does this Neolithic chamber have further secrets to reveal?

Barclodiad y Gawres, entrance passage ©

Helen also joins Royal Commission investigator Louise Barker to explore the remains of Ystrad Einion, a metal mine near Cwm Einion in North Ceredigion. The pair also find out about a new animation project that aims to bring the mine back to life.

Hidden Histories also visits Brynmawr in south Wales. During the Great Depression, the iron town, had at that time, the highest rates of unemployment anywhere in the United Kingdom and became the focus of a project by the International Voluntary Service. 

The Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments of Wales have created in-depth guides to each subject featured in tonight's programme. and view images relating to Hidden Histories .

Hidden Histories, Thursday 3 February, at 7.30pm on Ö÷²¥´óÐã Two Wales.

Think of it, the classic eccentric inventor, the man who designed and built a death ray and a sky projector for flashing messages onto the clouds - Batman or what? - and he's just moved into a house situated outside your home town.

Troops were sent to guard Harry Grindell Matthews When World War Two began (photo: istockphoto.com)

That's what happened, not in some Californian hideaway, but on the hills of south Wales between Clydach and Ammanford in the closing years of the 1930s.

Harry Grindell Matthews was born in Gloucestershire on 17 March 1880. After serving with the South African Constabulary during the Boer War (and being twice wounded) he became an electrical engineer at Bexhill.

The humdrum life of an ordinary engineer was not for him, however, and Harry Grindell Matthews soon began to turn his hand to what, in the early 20th century, were known as "inventions".

In 1911 he invented a device to transmit radio telephone messages between the ground and aeroplanes - and this at a time when aircraft had been around for fewer than a dozen years.

On 12 September the noted early pilot CB Hucks, flying at a height of 700 feet, received a message from Matthews on Ely Racecourse in Cardiff, the first time such communication had ever been achieved.

When the government asked for a demonstration of the device, however, Matthews objected to several of their engineers exploring the insides of his machine. He promptly packed up all the equipment and stormed off.

Newspapers of the time were all behind the new inventor but the , desperate not to lose face, promptly announced that the tests had been a failure.

Undaunted, Matthews continued to work. In 1914, with war declared against Germany, the government offered a grant of £25,000 to anyone who could come up with a way of defending the country against zeppelins or other remote controlled weapons of war.

Harry Grindell Matthews created a system using selenium cells and this time demonstrated his invention to the Admiralty. He got his £25,000 but, strangely, his device was never used.

The list of Matthews' inventions is long and varied - an early version of the mobile phone, a system for making talking pictures (long before ) and, above all, a death ray that would stop the engines of cars and motorbikes, even planes, from a great distance away.

In 1924 the government asked for a demonstration of this death ray but, always prickly where authority was concerned, Harry Grindell Matthews refused. Instead he showed how it worked to journalists, igniting a charge of gunpowder from many feet away. Once again the British press took him to their heart.

Matthews refused to say how his death ray worked, simply stating that the device sent out a beam or ray that stopped the magneto in any car or motorbike engine. Clearly there was some substance to his invention, with several of his assistants having been knocked out when passing too close to the beam and Matthews himself claiming to have lost the use of an eye during one experiment.

For a brief while Harry and his death ray were headline news in all the papers, particularly when the government - mindful, perhaps, of his petulance some years before - refused to buy it. Matthews declared that it was his invention and he would sell it to a foreign government if necessary. There was even a High Court injunction to stop this happening but when he did finally demonstrate the death ray to the Air Ministry in April 1924 officials were unimpressed and strongly suspected a confidence trick.

Harry Grindell Matthews next spent some time in America, working for a time for Warner Brothers, before returning to the UK with his next invention, a sky projector. In December 1930 he threw up the image of an angel and the message "Happy Christmas" onto the clouds outside London.

Despite this the sky projector was not a commercial success, and by 1931 Matthews was close to bankruptcy. Part of the trouble was that he enjoyed the high life, dining in fancy restaurants and staying in the best hotels, and that was where most of his sponsors money actually went.

Somehow Harry Grindell Matthews managed to survive - his relationship and later marriage to , an American opera singer may have helped - and in 1938 he moved to a house he had built for himself, Tor Clawdd on the hills above Clydach in south Wales.

It was not just a house, he also created a laboratory and carved out an airstrip for himself on a shelf of land at the back of the building.

Matthews continued to invent, creating, amongst other things, a machine that was able to detect submarines. The locals around Ammanford and Clydach did not quite know what to make of the man. They listened to the strange noises from his workshops, noted the powerful lights at night. Some even told stories about how their motorbike engines would suddenly cut out when they were riding on the mountain road - "Mr Matthews and his machine again," they would say.

Although the British government remained wary of his ideas they were sufficiently concerned about the safety of this wayward inventor that when war came in 1939 they were happy to provide electric fences and, for a while, troops to guard his property.

Harry Grindell Matthews died suddenly, from a heart attack, on 11 September 1941. His funeral was a low-key affair. Virtually nobody came and with the war raging against Germany people had other things on their minds.

A sad end to a man of undoubted genius? To a man who hoodwinked the nation's press? To a confidence trickster of the highest order? You pays your money and you takes your guess!

Tonight on Ö÷²¥´óÐã Four at 9pm is The Children Who Built Victorian Britain. This moving and unsettling documentary looks at the Industrial Revolution through the eyes of working children.

It is presented by Jane Humphries, a fellow of , a Professor of Economic History at Oxford University and the author of Childhood And Child Labour In The British Industrial Revolution.

The documentary uses biographies, letters, diaries and documents of hundreds of working children to tell the story of the Industrial Revolution from their perspective.

Professor Jane Humphries

Professor Humphries also reveals in the documentary how the social conditions created a population boom amongst the poor - one which was exploited by the early industrialists. New factories were built in sparsely populated areas and their workforce was provided through the trafficking of orphans from the cities.

These children, aged eight and sometimes younger, were handed over by the Parish authorities and signed up to work for free until they reached adulthood. Without this available slave labour many businesses would never have got off the ground.

The documentary, produced by Ö÷²¥´óÐã Cymru Wales, uses animation created by artists from the Ö÷²¥´óÐã Wales graphics department and by current and former students of the .

Animator: Helen Dallat, student, International Film School Wales

Animator: Dave Freeman Ö÷²¥´óÐã Cymru Wales Graphic Design

Animation: Sinead Oram, International Film School, Wales

You can find out more about the programme and watch clips of the animations on The Children Who Built Victorian Britain programme page.

The Children Who Built Victorian Britian, Tuesday 1 February, 9pm, Ö÷²¥´óÐã Four.