The Story of Wales

Episode
Episode Five - A New Beginning
Broadcast Info
2012 (59 mins)
Description
From the 1860s to the Second World War, Wales is shaped into the country of popular memory. We begin with Liberal Wales, Welsh-speaking, chapel-going. Progress, education is on the agenda. The people’s University College and the county schools. But for women, only the well-off like Charlotte Guest and the Dillwyns can benefit. By the 1890s the coalfield is booming, sucking in English-speakers. As the Edwardian succeeds the Victorian, sport, entertainment and consumerism thrive. The National Museum and the National Library join the university as key institutions. Cardiff becomes a city. We show the mind-boggling scale of coal-shipping in Cardiff and Barry Docks. This is a major hub of world commerce.
The Welsh are in many ways supporters of the British Empire and all its works. They support the Boer War enthusiastically and join up for the Great War. But there’s also radicalism on the streets of Tonypandy and elsewhere. The War has a massive effect on Welsh society. 40,000 Welshmen die. And women have to enter the workplace. We tell the story of the inter-War years through the experience of women getting the vote; going to universities against the odds and at a higher rate than elsewhere in Britain; campaigning for pit-head baths to ease the burden of domestic labour; and coping with the unimaginable pressures of the Depression. But another War is in the offing....
Genre
History; Social Science

How to cite this record

The Open University, "The Story of Wales". https://learningonscreen.ac.uk/ou/search/index.php/prog/82593 (Accessed 11 Jan 2025)