Twelve years ago, I walked one thousand miles around the entire periphery of Wales. One might imagine unspoilt coastline and mediaeval castles, but the coast is also the historic industrial heart of the country. Until very recently water was the fastest and most reliable mode of transport, meaning that centres of population, power and industry were never far from the sea or navigable rivers. In some places, the landscape has been literally despoiled, although even these, such as Parys Mountain, may have a strange beauty of their own and serve as a warning for new technology. In others, the landscape is not 'unspoilt' as in untouched by human presence but rather shot through with the marks of human making.
From First World War shipyards to four-thousand-year-old copper mining, the remnants and traces are often far from current centres of population or invisible, remembered only by an information board. In socio-economically depressed post-industrial communities, connecting with local heritage can be a way to reassert pride in place. In equally challenged rural areas tourists flock to the obvious vistas shaped by ice, sheep or Norman conquest, but may miss the hidden threads that connect the landscape to human life. Can digital technology help bridge these gaps exposing the past for the benefit of current and future generations?
Slides
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brick works Anglesey (Ynys Môn)
Observations on the River Wye William Gilpin (Internet Archive)