While in Europe the culture we know as the Celts were being pushed by the Romans westwards. 

When the German tribes arrived they pushed the Celts further west into Wales, north in to Cumbria and further west into Ireland.

The Welsh countryside abounds with fortifications - prehistoric hill-forts, Roman castra, and Norman castles.

In 1066 William the Conqueror arrived in Britain with his army and started to build motte and bailey castles in the countryside.

They arrived in Wales in about 1070 and proceeded to change the landscape, in some parts forever. Not only did they build castles but also Monastries, Abbeys and churches which dotted the country.

Under Edward I more castles were built either on existing sites or on new ones to try and curb the Welsh uprising. 

Industrial Revolution in Wales.

Much like the rest of Britain the Welsh were at the forefront of the Industrial Revolution.

With the coming of the railways and their routes to other parts of Wales and Britain brought new prosperity to parts of Wales.

Until the railways, transporting of goods such as slate and other heavy material had to be drawn by horse and cart, it would have been impossible to have transported such heavy material in such great quantities all the way from the slate quarries in north of Wales to the south, east or west of the country.

Canals were dug and opened for barges to transport goods to other areas on the canal route.

These were all dug by hand and somtimes the navvies had to use explosives in order to cut their way through rock faces to forge tunnels under mountains for the railways to continue.

The architects had to come up with a novel idea in some parts of the canals in order to raise the level of the canal when faced with steep inclines.

They did this by building a series of locks that held water in an area, they then flooded that same partition to raise the water in the canal to the next level.

Familes moved into the towns and cities to work in the factories, coal pits and mills that sprang up and again changed the face of the landscape in Wales.

Although coal mining in Wales had been on-going since the Romans, they also mined Gold at Dolgetheau, Lead in. 

The Rhonnda Valley was one very area in south Wales where the population grew very rapidly.

Up until this period of time weaving and spinning were industires performed in-house sometimes by men but mainly by women and even children.

They would produce enough material to clothes themselves and then sell any surplace at a market.

All this new employment meant another change in the landscape.

Rows upon rows upon rows of newly built housing was required to house this influx of people arriving from the countryside.

These tended to be built at the base of the sides of mountains/hillsides in long lines some back to back and constructed in a manner to house as many as could be.