-We live on an island of more than 1,000 beaches.

For many of us, they've been bringing fresh air, freedom, and fun for as long as we can remember.

But our beaches are also where Britain meets the outside world.

They're full of extraordinary stories and big events that have shaped our nation and helped to make us who we are.

I'll be uncovering those stories, meeting people with deep local knowledge... -She was saying a woman can beat a man's record.

-Is this her?

She looks like a superhero.

...enjoying pleasures on the beach...

I'll see you later.

I'm gonna to swim the channel now, ...diving into the world of work...

So these are for me to take to the hatchery?

-Yes.

-Are they gonna bite me?

...and culture.

-They've come into this space, and it must have just felt otherworldly.

-I'll find historical gems... -We've got a 24-pounder cannon.

It's gonna be absolutely devastating.

-...and reveal how those stories still resonate.

Owain Glyndwr lived within these walls, and around these mountains, his name reverberates to this day.

-From the remote beaches of Cornwall to the White Cliffs of Kent, from the wildness of Wales to the bustling resorts around Blackpool in the northwest, this is the secret history of Britain's beaches.

♪♪ Today I'm exploring the north and west coast of Wales.

Historically, the people who have lived and worked here have had to rely on one another more than on the rest of the UK.

Wales has a stunning coastline of 150 beaches with stories of battles, invasion, and rebellion.

Proud and passionate people, they've created industries of shipbuilding and fishing.

And then, with the dawn of tourism, they welcomed holidaymakers to their beautiful remote beaches in their own distinct Welsh way.

These are tales of Welsh pride and independence, from the last invasion of mainland Britain... Why wouldn't all of them come out to see what was happening?

Be quite a spectacle.

-Oh, yeah.

It would have been the biggest thing that happened this side of the Roman invasion.

-...to an ancient tradition unique to this part of the country.

This is just magic.

I feel like I've stepped back in time right now.

From beautiful Rhyl Beach, the setting of the healthy holiday... -We're talking about a leisure revolution.

-Beach pajamas.

-Yes.

-I mean, they look incredible.

...to an innovative amphibious creation that pulled in the crowds.

-It was a bit of kudos to the town.

You know, "Look at us.

We've got the world's first passenger-carrying hovercraft."

-Welcome to the beaches of Wales.

♪♪ I'm beginning my journey at Harlech Beach in Gwynedd, in the northwest of Wales.

Here, four miles of empty sands are ringed by the rugged mountains of Snowdonia.

But there was a time when it played a central role in British history in the battles between the Welsh and the English in the wars of Welsh independence.

This region bred rebels and revolution.

In 1272, the new King of England, Edward I, had his eye on conquering Wales.

Here in the wild mountainous north, the Welsh were undefeated, but Edward had a plan to build an iron ring of mighty castles, and they all had one thing in common -- he built them right on the sea.

No English monarch had ever controlled the whole of Wales.

Edward's plan was to implement a policy of English settlement, moving the Welsh out of key areas and bringing the English in.

To keep control of his conquest and resist persistent Welsh rebellions, he would need something extraordinary -- unbreakable castles like this one.

His building strategy was inspired by his travels on the Crusades, as medieval historian Rhun Emlyn explains.

-Edward would have seen the castles in the Holy Land.

He would have also traveled back through Europe and seen the new castles being built in different parts of Europe as well.

So he's stealing the best ideas from different parts of Europe and the Middle East and also stealing the best architects, as well.

-And how long did it take to build?

-It took around six years.

-That's not a bad building job.

-No, not at all.

-I think my house took longer than that.

Must have had some good builders.

-Definitely.

Oh, he recruited the best builders, the best masons.

-So it was a statement of power, a statement of control, his administrative center.

It looked spectacular.

But also, the views must be incredible.

-The views are incredible.

Yeah, definitely.

-Should we take a closer look?

-Yep.

-Come on, then.

Overseen by Edward's master mason, up to 950 craftsmen and laborers ensured the quality of the castle's construction.

Its inner walls were over three meters thick, protected by an impressive gatehouse, drawbridge, and a dry moat.

Built on a 60-meter-high rocky knoll and using the cliff face of the north, west, and south as a natural barrier, its strategic location was paramount.

So from this perspective -- now we're on the castle -- you can see where the sea is.

But when it was built, where would the sea have been?

-Right down there.

-Just there?

-Just underneath where we're standing now.

-Since the 1300s, southwesterly winds off the Irish Sea have deposited sand and rock, creating these spectacular sand dunes and beach, moving Harlech Castle further away from the water's edge every year.

But for Edward, the proximity to the Irish Sea was fundamental to Harlech's defenses, especially when, 10 years after its construction, the castle came under attack.

-There was a rebellion, quite a major rebellion we call the Rebellion of Madog ap Llywelyn.

So Madog ap Llywelyn is the main leader.

He announces himself as Prince of Wales.

It was him, but also a lot of other nobles and general population decided they were fed up and they wanted to rebel, and especially because the king had just raised taxes.

And so that was the opportunity for them to overthrow the conquest.

-Discontent against English rule was often brewing.

This rebellion had been months in the planning, and in the winter of 1294, with thousands of rebels taking up arms and just 37 soldiers defending Harlech Castle, Edward was on the defensive.

So what was the plan?

What happened at Harlech?

-Well, they basically took over the whole of the countryside, but they found it much more difficult to capture Harlech.

-Why was that?

What makes this so hard to capture?

-Well, it's what we call a concentric castle.

That's the latest in castle design in the 13th century.

So it's basically a castle within a castle.

So anyone who wants to break into the castle had to break through one line of defenses, and you'd be faced with a much more difficult castle on the inside.

-So what are we standing on at the moment, then?

Is this the outer or the inner?

-This is the inner one.

So this is the inner castle, as it were.

And then on the outside, surrounding everything we can see now, would be another line of defenses.

So more towers, more walls, as well.

But the sea would come all the way down to the castle walls.

-And how was that an advantage for the castle?

-Well, if the castle came under siege, as happened with the Rebellion of Madog ap Llywelyn, all around us, there would be soldiers.

There'd be rebels attacking the castle, trying to starve the occupiers of the castle.

But, of course, Edward could then send his ships.

So ships came from Ireland, ships came from Bristol, from Chester, sending more food, sending more soldiers, which meant that whatever happened on the outside, the soldiers inside could be fed and could maintain their resistance against the rebels outside.

-How long did it go on for?

What happened to them?

-Well, the rebellion is quite an impressive rebellion because it doesn't just start in one part of Wales.

It starts simultaneously in different parts of Wales, and this lasts for nearly a year.

So it's quite a serious rebellion for Edward I, showing that he wasn't in full control of Wales after the conquest.

And in order to quell the rebellion, he had to lead an army of 35,000 into Wales to put an end to this rebellion and stamp his authority again over the country.

-Madog ap Llywelyn, self-declared Prince of Wales, was defeated in battle, becoming a fugitive before admitting surrender.

By the summer of 1295, Edward was no longer under threat, and in 1301, he even crowned his son the first ever English Prince of Wales, a contentious title, but one that cemented English dominion.

The mighty Harlech Castle had not been overthrown.

It would be another century before it was threatened again.

And that was by one of the greatest heroes in medieval Welsh history, who to this day represents Wales's independent spirit.

♪♪ ♪♪ I'm on the west coast of Snowdonia's National Park at Harlech Castle.

Set high above the beach, the castle still looms large over this area.

It was once a symbol of English rule over Wales, but it's no longer remembered that way.

I'm meeting Nathen Amin to discover how one man changed the reputation of this coastline and castle forever.

-We have a gentleman, a country squire named Owain Glyndwr.

Now, Owain Glyndwr has a fantastic pedigree.

He's descended from three different ancient royal Welsh houses.

By 1400, the Welsh aren't happy.

There has been a century of English oppression, of corrupt officialdom here in Wales.

Owain Glyndwr seizes upon this opportunity of English dynastic trouble.

In September 1400 in northeast Wales, he raises the banner of rebellion.

-That's a brave move.

-The time had come.

By 1404, he is now claiming the title Prince of Wales.

-In an act of defiance against the English king, Henry IV, the charismatic Owain also gained the support of opponents of the king in his fight for Welsh independence.

By 1404, he's won control of most of Wales and sets his sights on Harlech, one of several fortresses that remained in English hands.

-He has a program.

He comes to Harlech that year.

He lays siege to this dominant symbol of English oppression.

-And we know that it's been historically impenetrable.

-Exactly that.

You know, it's set up high on a rocky crag.

It's overlooking the sea.

It's protected by the mountains.

But Owain Glyndwr has an ace up his sleeve.

He has support from the French and the Bretons.

They now provide him with a naval fleet.

The naval fleet is able to patrol the sea behind us.

Therefore, the English cannot bring any supplies into this castle.

-Without this vital link to the sea, the ill-prepared and understaffed garrison had just three shields, eight helmets, and six lances to fend off the Welsh rebels.

So this beach here, this is key to all of this, then, because up until that point, the English had control of these waters.

But now the tables have turned.

-Exactly.

You know, if you can't bring your garrison fresh food, fresh drink, they're gonna quickly surrender or they're gonna die from exhaustion.

The garrison here -- they decide to surrender to Owain Glyndwr.

The English move out.

The Welsh move in.

This symbol of English oppression now becomes a representation of Welsh defiance against English rule.

In fact, Owain now uses this as his military and political headquarters.

It becomes home to his royal court.

It becomes his family home.

Harlech is everything to Owain Glyndwr's vision of an independent Wales.

-Owain showed that Harlech was no longer unbreakable, and his actions would change the legacy of the castle in Welsh history forever.

But the revolution didn't last.

Just five years later, in February 1409, and after an eight-month bombardment by the forces of the Crown led by a formidable future King of England, Henry V, Harlech was finally captured.

-The surrender of Harlech is really the end of Owain's dream of an independent Wales, and, in fact, we could argue the end of any vision of an independent Wales up to the modern day, at least.

But no one knows to this day what became of Owain.

Legend, in fact, says that he's still waiting in those very mountains, ready to rise once again when Wales finally frees herself.

-It's an amazing story.

What does it mean to Wales?

What does Owain mean to Wales?

-Owain Glyndwr is a hugely significant figure in Wales to this day.

There are many people in Wales who still view him as the last true Prince of Wales.

All other princes of Wales, of course, are imposed on Wales by the English Crown.

So to many Welshmen, Owain Glyndwr was, is, and always will be the last Prince of Wales.

-This spectacular castle and the changing beach serve as a powerful emblem of the fight for Welsh culture and independence that's celebrated here.

From this northern edge of Cardigan Bay, I'm heading further south to the River Teifi to explore a proud Welsh tradition that Owain Glyndwr himself would have recognized and has been part of the cultural heritage of this area for over 2,000 years.

The remoteness of this coast has encouraged the people living here to be self-sufficient, so the traditions of boat building and fishing have been crucial as a source of food and of income.

And one vessel witnessed and documented by Julius Caesar when he invaded Britain can still be seen on the rivers of Wales today.

-These coracles are a type of fishing boat used by the ancient Britons 2,000 years ago.

Pitched cowhide over a wicker frame, they're easily portable and thoroughly watertight.

♪♪ -The coracle is a small, flat-bottomed boat designed to be carried by one person.

Feel like a beetle.

I'm meeting Len Walters, who's been fishing the tidal waters of the River Teifi for 30 years.

It's actually quite heavy, isn't it, Len?

-That's the lightest one we got.

-Yeah, the lightest one, but still heavy, right, Len?

-It's empty.

It's heavy when it's got fish in it.

-Hey!

Got it.

-You got it?

-Whoo!

♪♪ Every handmade Welsh coracle is unique because the willow weaving pattern is tailored to suit the river it's designed for.

-Styles varied from locality to locality in the days when the coracles were used extensively.

But the Teifi coracle has always been short and squat, about 4 feet, 6 inches long and 27 pounds in weight.

-Its just willow and hazel.

All your laths here are made of willow.

Your bleth on the top is made of hazel.

-Did you make it?

-Yeah, that one.

Not that one.

-It's beautiful.

-Yeah, they are nice.

-Where do you get the willow and the hazel from?

-Yeah, that's the hard part.

That's where the time goes, is finding the right length, the right shape.

All through the summer, like, when you're walking through the woods, you continually got your eye out for a bit of willow, isn't it, you know?

-How long have they been around?

-Oh, probably been around as long as man's been around.

Different shapes.

Different versions.

-In the 1860s, around 400 coracle men relied on this river for food.

But over the years, there's been a dramatic decline in the number of coracles permitted to fish in order to protect fish numbers in Welsh rivers.

How many people still do this?

-There's 12 left on the Teifi, but active fishing, I think this year now we'll go down to about seven.

-And it's a Welsh tradition as well.

Is that important to you?

-There are coracles all over the world, but actually left fishing now commercially, yeah, it is a Welsh thing.

-Yeah, and does that make you feel proud that you're keeping something alive?

-Well, yeah.

I think it's good to keep most of our heritage, traditions, and fisheries alive, isn't it?

-Yeah.

-Because once they're gone, they're gone.

-Well, before they get into a museum, I want to be able to say that I had a go in one.

Although, do you know what I'm worried about, Len?

That slightly nervous smile that you've got that's telling me... -You'll be fine.

-...anything can happen.

I don't believe you.

Is this the front?

-No.

-Do I sit facing -- -So that's a good start...

This is the front, square end.

-Right.

What's the technique?

-So you'll be sitting on the center there, and you'll have one leg in each corner, right?

You keep your feet on the laths at all times.

So when you're stepping in, you stay on the laths.

Don't be tempted to bring your legs together because then you can roll.

-So capsizing is a possibility.

-Rare possibility.

-All right.

We'll give it a go.

-Right.

-I mean, hang on.

There's only one oar.

-Yeah, you have only one oar.

-Just one oar?

-Just one oar.

-Oh!

[ Laughs ] All right, here we go.

Here we go.

-One leg in on the laths.

Be sure you're on the laths.

-Okay.

-Right.

Sit on it.

Other foot in.

-Oh, my God.

-Perfect.

Right.

Try moving to one side.

And then counterbalance your other leg.

That's your balance.

-Oh, my God.

-Yeah.

And now with your paddle -- Let me just get mine.

I'll show you.

-Right.

I'm just holding on.

Hang -- what -- I've got -- aah!

Oh, no!

[ Laughs ] -So now you're gonna use the paddle over the front.

-Yeah, over the front?

-Yeah.

You're gonna lean forward.

You're gonna hold it upright.

Keep your fingers over the top there.

-Mm-hmm.

-Okay?

-And you will move it in a figure-eight pattern like that, pulling back, pushing forward, pulling back.

-All right.

So let's -- -Very careful when you're going forward... -Yeah.

-...that you don't get your paddle jammed there.

-Yeah.

-Because if you do, then you'll catapult yourself out.

-I don't want to be catapulting anywhere.

Wales is one of the last places where fishing with coracles the traditional way is done commercially.

On the rivers Taf, Towy, and Teifi, sewin, or sea trout, are caught with nets as they swim upstream from the coast.

This is just magic.

I feel like I've stepped back in time right now.

So when do you fish?

-We fish in the hours of darkness.

-In darkness?

-Yeah.

Pitch black.

-Why is that?

-Because the fish will see the net, just go around it, go over the top of it.

So it's got to be absolutely pitch dark.

So I'd be one end of the river and you'd be the other side.

-See, you fish together as -- -As a pair.

-And where would the net go?

-The net would be between us.

-In the middle?

-Yeah.

The net will be stretched out between us.

Yeah.

-Ah!

-With a man at each end, the net is dragged upriver.

Then the two ends are brought together and the net is hauled in.

But today is a blank.

Perhaps better luck tomorrow.

-During the 18th and 19th century, coracle fishing was one of the main sources of income for families living along the banks of the river.

Until the late 1960s, they were even used on the Teifi for the annual washing of the sheep.

-You've really gotten to that really quickly.

Some people could take days to get to where you are with that.

-I've got the best teacher, though, haven't I?

-[ Laughs ] -You're the master of this.

And there aren't many of you who do it.

-No, there's not many of us left now, unfortunately.

-So why is it important to you to keep it going?

-It's fantastic.

You know, I do all methods of fishing, but this is my favorite.

It's beautiful, you know?

-Why?

-Because you're really in touch with nature, isn't you?

Everything's in the dark.

It's all by feel.

There's no fuel being used here.

It's sustainable.

We've got a four-inch mesh on the net, so, like, anything under two pound gets through and goes upriver.

You can only do it five nights a week in the very short season of three months.

My wife sells the fish a mile down the road.

You know, when it comes to food mileage, you will not get any shorter than that.

-I mean, it's so sympathetic to your surroundings, as well, isn't it?

-Yeah, it is.

-Right.

Which way to Cardigan Bay?

-Head that way.

-Keep going?

-Downstream.

-Am I nearly there?

-[ Chuckles ] Only a mile to go.

-All right.

-May take us a while.

-I really hope Len is not the last in this extraordinary 2,000-year chain of Welsh fishermen.

Next, I'm heading south to uncover another story of the independence and resilience of the people of this area and how, against the odds, they took on the French Revolutionary Army, repelling the last ever invasion of mainland Britain.

♪♪ I've traveled a few miles down the coast of southwest Wales to Goodwick Sands, a small, sandy beach sheltered within Fishguard Bay.

This stunning piece of Pembrokeshire coast is hugely significant in the history of Wales.

225 years ago -- 1797 -- was the last time mainland Britain was invaded by the French.

Their aim -- to create civil unrest and create an uprising against the British monarchy.

But what they hadn't accounted for was the local Welsh reaction.

On the 22nd of February, in the middle of the night, around 1,400 French troops landed in small boats near to a bay at Carreg Wastad Point, carrying cannon and gunpowder.

It had been planned as part of a three-pronged attack, but adverse weather and ill discipline caused two of the forces to turn back.

The remaining force eventually landed here in Wales with orders to march on Bristol.

I'm meeting historian Rita Singer in a spot overlooking Fishguard Bay, several miles from where the invading French Revolutionary Army first came ashore.

So who were these 1,400 troops that had been brought over from France?

-So the French soldiers weren't professional soldiers.

Most of them, apart from the officers, were recruited from prisons and chain gangs.

Some of them were royalists.

So quite an unsavory bunch that the French were happy to export somewhere else.

-This hastily put-together group was known as La Légion Noire, as they wore the uniforms of captured British soldiers dyed black.

Their plan wasn't to fight the English alone, but to try to spark a revolution with the Welsh, whom they considered to be oppressed.

So they were expecting to get the Welsh onside, were they?

-They were hoping to, but they didn't really know that in this corner of Wales, the country population wasn't that much impoverished as in the rest of the country.

So the farmers here -- they didn't take too kindly to having their houses ransacked and being attacked by a bunch of very badly dressed, very malnourished prison inmates from France.

-Word of the invasion spread.

But there was only a small military force based here.

Welsh reservists under the command of John Campbell, Lord Cawdor, would have been outnumbered.

To face down the French, they were joined by Welsh volunteers who flocked to the coast around Fishguard with makeshift weapons.

And legend says Welsh women played a crucial role in the defeat of the French.

-The country fashion at the time was for women to wear woolen shawls that were dyed a kind of reddish tinge and round, mannish hats, which, at a distance, gave them the look of British soldiers.

John Campbell, Lord Cawdor, had encouraged a couple of local women to walk in a circular manner around the Bigney, which is a hill up there, and because there was a bit of a dip, it looked like there was a constant stream of more and more enforcements coming down the hill, when it was essentially just a group of women in their red woolen shawls walking around the circle, play acting as soldiers.

-It's folklore, but it sounds plausible, doesn't it?

Why wouldn't women come out?

Why wouldn't all of them come out to see what was happening?

Be quite a spectacle.

-Oh, yeah.

It would have been the biggest thing that happened this side of the Roman invasion.

But it wasn't just the women.

It was generally everybody assembled just to see what was going on there.

And that, again, at the distance, gave the impression there were loads more troops assembled than there was in reality.

-Riddled with drunkenness and desertion and convinced they would be outnumbered by a far superior enemy, the French decided to surrender.

Beating their drums, the Légion Noire laid down their weapons right here on Goodwick Sands on the 24th of February, 1797.

The final invasion of Britain had only lasted three days thanks to the defiance of the people of Fishguard.

But the story of one particular woman has become a symbol of Welsh resilience.

-There was one very famous one, Jemima Nicholas.

She was a cobbler.

She was quite tall and quite muscular as a woman.

It's why Welsh she's called Jemima Fawr, which means Jemima the Great.

Some people say this may be in reference to her size.

Some say she's Jemima Fawr because she did great deeds, Jemima the Great, and one of the supposed great deeds was that she took matters into her own hands, took a pitchfork, came down, found a couple of drunk French soldiers, marched them up the hill to Fishguard, locked them up in the local church so that they would be then marched back to Goodwick Sands the following day for the surrender.

-I love this story.

Absolutely love it.

Hardy Welsh woman.

"Come on my land, I'll give you what for.

Here's me with my pitchfork."

I mean, it is a great story.

♪♪ As part of the 200-year commemorations of the 1797 invasion, a hand-stitched tapestry was created.

And just like the famous Bayeux Tapestry, it's also 30 meters long.

Oh, my gosh.

This is incredible.

The detail is amazing.

So why does this little-known story still matter to the people of Fishguard?

I'm meeting Julie Coggins, chair of the Invasion Centre Trust.

Julie, this is magnificent.

What am I looking at?

-It tells the story from the landing of the ships, all the way through to the French soldiers surrendering on the beach.

77 local people worked on it.

It was designed by the most wonderful artist called Elizabeth Cramp.

She really captured the story and then had people help transfer it from paper to fabric.

-It's so beautiful and so detailed.

How long did it take to make?

-Well, it took four years.

Almost two years to research, to draw, to transfer, to buy the fabrics, to buy the threads.

So after about two years, the ladies were ready to stitch.

-So let's talk about the depiction of Jemima on that panel.

How have you captured her?

-Well, Jemima is a prominent part of the tapestry, deliberately so, and surrounded by the French soldiers that she's captured.

She represents the strength of women.

She represents bravery.

She was not gonna have these French soldiers ruining our landscape and stealing our food and drinking our wines.

Some people think, did she really do it single-handedly?

It could be an embellished story, but it's our story and we're sticking to it.

-And so often, as we know, women are written out of history.

Here, they've actually been stitched in.

-They've been stitched in.

And that is our legacy.

We want the invasion story to be known.

We don't want it to be ignored as part of history.

-Do you feel it has been?

-Well, I think people are surprised when they hear that this is the last invasion of mainland Britain.

-Mm-hmm.

-And we love to tell the story because we knew we weren't the target.

But what we did was win.

-And I just love that, you know, 200 years later, it's women of the area that have made this.

-Yes.

Yes.

-You know, the mistake they made was thinking that the Welsh would be easily corrupted... -Yes, yes.

-...and brought onside.

I think they just hadn't accounted for the people they were about to meet.

-No, they did not.

They were in hostile territory here because this wasn't a country to support the French cause.

This was West Wales.

-Well, it's an incredible story, and I think more people need to know about it and more people need to come and see this because it is very special.

♪♪ The story of Fishguard is so inspiring and really gets you going because it's a David and Goliath story.

This small town and the people of this place took down a mighty army.

But this is the person I'm here to see.

This is a headstone in memory of Jemima Nicholas.

I think it's hugely significant that she's remembered.

She represents the courage, the pride, and the resistance of Fishguard.

My kind of girl.

For centuries, these Welsh coasts were protected by their people and their remote location.

Difficult to reach, tough to conquer, still doing things their own way.

But in the 19th century, everything changed.

And it changed because of one thing -- the railways.

Across Wales, rail travel was more than just an efficient way of transporting goods.

It brought us -- people looking for sea, sand, sun, if you were lucky, but most importantly, an affordable holiday.

Over 1,500 miles of railway line were built by the turn of the 20th century, connecting up regions that had been separate and independent for millennia.

I'm heading to the wild coast of North Wales to discover how an influx of tourists brought by the trains embraced a new kind of holiday and a fashion revolution.

♪♪ I'm on Rhyl Beach in North Wales, following in the footsteps of holidaymakers looking for an escape.

The beauty and wildness of this coast attracted people from all over the UK.

It was one of the first places to embrace a Victorian craze -- camping for leisure with canvas tents similar to those used by the military adapted for holidays and erected right by the beach.

Then, in the 1930s, this craze evolved and a different kind of holiday took hold.

When the factories of the West Midlands closed their gates for the annual shutdown every summer, the ever-expanding rail network offered people the chance to take a holiday by the seaside.

And what they got here was a vacation with a Welsh twist.

I'm on the track of a holiday that found its spiritual home on this stretch of amazing coastline -- the holiday camp.

I'm meeting Kathryn Ferry, a historian specializing in seaside culture, to understand why this was at the center of it all.

So where did holiday camps first arrive?

-Well, they're actually Victorian.

The idea goes back to the 1890s, and it was people camping in tents.

And then through the 1920s and '30s, there was a kind of social change getting people out in the outdoors.

This is when the Youth Hostel Association came into being.

People started doing hiking, exercise, sunbathing.

That was all part of the kind of 1930s social and leisure revolution, really.

So holiday camps tapped into that completely.

-In the early 1900s, organized camps with permanent tents opened up, and then in the '20s, wooden huts or chalets were added.

The first camp with these chalets was on the Norfolk coast, but it was here in North Wales that the holiday camp found its spiritual home.

-There were at least eight different camps operating, maybe more, and those were all set up in the 1920s and '30s and lots of them are still going because Rhyl was an established seaside resort already, had great transport links and then beautiful beaches.

So it was the perfect kind of place to build holiday camps just next to the sands, really.

So you could just sort of walk out of your chalet directly onto the beach.

You'd get a key to your chalet so you can come and go as you please.

I mean, that's real freedom in the 1930s.

-It is absolutely stunning.

You can see the appeal of the coast full stop.

But do you think there was something extra special about coming to Wales?

-I think probably if you're in one of the Midlands towns or at Manchester, Liverpool, you've probably been to Blackpool, but coming here is a different place, isn't it?

We've got Snowdon to our left here.

It's just glorious.

It feels different.

-By the mid-1930s, Rhyl alone had around 2.5 million people every year coming to enjoy the fresh air, activities, and miles of beautiful beach.

And the holiday camps here continued to innovate.

-So this is the Coventry Co-operative Holiday Camp, which was just the other side of Rhyl here.

And this was a really pioneering venture because this was set up by the Education Committee of the Co-operative Company in Coventry specifically for their members.

So if you shopped in the grocer's there and you'd saved up your divvy, collected your stamps, you could put those towards having a holiday by the sea in North Wales.

-So this opened up holidaying to people who couldn't traditionally afford it.

-Exactly.

And there was such competition for this.

You actually had to queue on a Saturday morning in February, and the queues were sort of round the street, in order to get the best week.

The Coventry fortnight is when all the factories closed down.

And so to get your tent or your chalet, you had to queue, and people remember doing that.

-Was there any kind of class snobbery?

Because this is very much a working-class co-operative for people in industrial cities in the Midlands and the North.

So what about for everybody else?

-Yeah, there was a certain snobbery about it, and there is a camp just down the coast here at Prestatyn that tried to really change that.

It's called the Prestatyn Holiday Camp, otherwise known as the Chalet Village by the Sea.

-Ooh!

Ooh, la-di-da.

-Exactly.

But this one was actually paid for as a joint venture by Thomas Cook and the London Midland and Scottish Railway.

-This was something rather special, not a bit like an ordinary holiday camp.

I wasn't altogether struck with the idea at first, but you know how women are.

Mary made the decision, so off we went.

-So these were two companies who were used to dealing with very middle-class consumers.

The LMS railway had built the Midland Hotel in Morecambe, -Yep.

-Extremely posh, luxurious, and they were bringing some of the glamour of that to the North Wales coast in this, which was designed by their own architect, William Hamlyn, and it made a big splash in the architectural press because it was this very modern, sleek, streamlined holiday camp and really unique for that.

-From the affordable Coventry Co-operative Camp, known as Coventry by Sea, to the luxurious Prestatyn, there was something on this waterfront for everyone, and this wasn't limited to where you chose to stay.

-We're talking about a leisure revolution, and so fashion starts to catch up with that.

In the 1930s, there's a bit more disposable income about, and people start to have specific leisure wear, holiday clothes.

And these garments, the beach pajamas, are really part of the new look for women at the seaside.

-Well, anything that just has "pajamas" in it is good with me.

Beach pajamas?

-Yes.

-I mean, they look incredible.

-It's such a contrast from the Victorians and the pre-war era.

This is emancipation writ large.

-And it's women in trousers.

as well.

-And this is the first time women wore trousers.

They couldn't go home and really wear them in Coventry or Manchester.

-Yeah.

-But they could wear them when they were by the beach.

Somehow the standards were different, you know?

And this one is wonderful... -Oh, yes!

-...because you've just got to look at the gaze of this couple.

You know, they're dressed far more modestly.

You know, in that one image is sort of captured that amazing shift in leisure over the 1930s.

And the seaside always had that air of being able to get away with things.

You could get off the train here, and you could put on your new clothes and be this different person.

-It's been so inspiring to hear about the origins of the summer holidays, something we all take for granted, and that it was here on the North Wales coast that people were able to leave the daily grind and feel equality and women were able to liberate themselves, quite literally, from their clothes, reveal flesh, but even more shocking, wear trousers.

[ Gasps ] As the 20th century progressed, this stretch of the North Wales coast continued to be at the forefront of holiday innovation.

In the 1960s, a brand-new experimental form of travel brought tourists to these beaches and pride to a seaside town.

On the 20th of July, 1962, the world's first passenger hovercraft made its first-ever trip from right here in Rhyl to Moreton Beach in Merseyside.

The hovercoach, as it was called, represented a huge leap forward in technology.

As it was being developed in the 1950s, the Patent Office was unsure whether to class it as an aircraft or boat.

I'm meeting Paul Frost, who works for the RNLI and grew up here in Rhyl and remembers seeing the hovercraft for the very first time.

So what did it mean to have a hovercraft here for a young lad?

-Well, I was so amazed that we should have it here.

It was in the forefront of technology at the time.

-The craft made light work of heavy weather and rode on its cushion of air without a hitch.

-The noise that it made as the skirts were lifting and it took off -- you could actually be within 20 meters of it.

I can remember being on this side on the fence and I had a football in my hand, and it took off and went onto the sea so smoothly.

It was lovely to see.

And I looked round.

Where's my football?

And it was half a mile down the beach because of the wind that it generated.

But the attraction it was -- it was lovely to see people coming out in their Sunday best, all the gentleman in their top suits and everything.

-The new hovercoach could carry 24 passengers traveling up to 70 miles an hour and cost a pricey £1 each way, which is around £25 in today's money.

-The 15-mile Rhyl-to-Wallasey trip, which normally takes two hours by road, is a 20-minute hop for VA3.

This new vehicle is undoubtedly an important form of transport of the future.

Leading the world now, Britain's new hovercraft industry should be given one order only -- full speed ahead.

-It was just an occasion because obviously it wasn't cheap, but it attracted hundreds and thousands of people.

-Because it was the height of technology then.

-It was, yeah.

-I mean, it was the future.

-It was the future, yes.

I mean, it was the forefront.

It was the very first one in the world to actually have fare-paying passengers.

So it was sort of a bit of kudos to the town, isn't it?

You know, "Look at us.

We've got the world's first passenger-carrying hovercraft."

-But the success of this new leap in technology was short-lived.

The hovercoach only ever made 172 crossings.

Marred by bad weather and technical trouble, its last trip was in September 1962 when its engines failed in the middle of the Irish Sea.

But worse was to come.

Awaiting repairs, the stricken hovercraft was moored up here at Rhyl, close to this lifeboat station, when a huge storm came in.

In the middle of the night on the 17th of September, 1962, the craft with three pilots on board broke free of its moorings.

It drifted dangerously and was then thrown against the promenade.

The Rhyl lifeboat was launched into the gale to try and save the vessel and rescue the three crew.

And so what do you remember of the crash?

-The only thing I can remember the evening was the noise of the hovercraft.

I said to my father, I said, "That's not right."

He woke me up, you know, coming and going.

And then the lifeboat maroons, the rockets went up, and lots of screeching of car tires as it went along the promenade to get there.

And then I didn't know anything about it, and my dad said, "Oh, the hovercraft's been wrecked."

And we went down here 8:00 in the morning, and it was actually still tied on here, or smashed up.

-Here, right?

-Yeah, right here where we are now.

-This spot?

-That spot here.

-So what would we have seen then on that morning?

-It was actually sideways on, but for the first sort of six or seven meters all along the side, the actual metal hoarding above the skirt was all stove in.

Apart from that, there was very, very little damage.

-How sad.

-It was, yes.

-That night of the rescue made such an impression on the young Paul that just five years later he joined the RNLI crew himself while still a teenager.

-With one skillful maneuver, they grabbed the three blokes and took them off.

And it was less than a minute afterwards that the hovercraft actually hit these rocks.

And all the shore crew helpers here actually came out with ropes and tied it to the railings, which in itself was a brave thing to do, as well.

But it sort of gave me a great feeling of pride that the people from Rhyl were willing to go out and rescue these people.

And it's just a shame that it was so damaged.

-The hovercraft would never again run at Rhyl, despite attempts to bring it back by the locals.

But the people here are still proud to have had the world's first-ever passenger hovercraft service.

A silver medal of gallantry was awarded to the coxswain, Harold Campini, and the crew commended for going above and beyond in their service.

And what was it about the rescue that inspired you so much?

-Oh, just thinking that where we are now, if you can imagine the sort of two-meter-high waves pushing this hovercraft here, and six, seven men were willing to risk their lives to go out and save that, and that inspired me.

And it has inspired me all my life.

-For me, this response to the rise and fall of the hovercraft really symbolizes the pride and resilience I've encountered in the historical stories along this coastline.

From the revolutions at Harlech Castle to defiance at the Battle of Fishguard, in the face of adversity and aggressors, the people here have fought to conserve their independence and their traditions.

The Welsh are a proud nation, and I can totally see why.

They've had to defend these shores from attacks from both across the sea and their nextdoor neighbor.

And they're not to be underestimated.

They have an ancient heritage that they want to keep alive.

And I can tell you firsthand the stunning beaches that welcomed millions in the heyday of the summer holiday are still just as welcoming today.

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