How a forgotten BBC project brought 1980s Brecon back to life

Mark Mansfield

For anyone who remembers shopping in Brecon’s market, visiting stores that have long since disappeared or simply growing up in the town during the 1980s, a new online project offers the chance to step back in time.

Dave Forsey, a former Brecon resident now living in the Netherlands, has painstakingly reconstructed a virtual walk through the town using more than 2,700 photographs originally captured for the BBC’s ambitious Domesday Project, creating what amounts to a 1980s version of Google Street View.

The website allows visitors to navigate street by street through Brecon as it appeared in 1985, peering into shop windows, exploring familiar landmarks and even stepping inside some businesses whose interiors were photographed as part of the original project.

The Domesday Project was a landmark initiative launched in 1986 to mark the 900th anniversary of the original Domesday Book. Compiled between 1984 and 1986, it combined maps, photographs, video, statistics and written material from communities across the UK.

Among its most innovative features were nine so-called “surrogate walks” – early virtual tours that allowed users to navigate real places using linked photographs.

Brecon was one of only nine locations selected and the only one identified by name rather than a generic description such as “farm” or “council flat”.

Forsey said his fascination with the project dated back to childhood.

“As a kid in primary school, around 1989, I remember being amazed when we were shown the system where we were able to walk through the town, seeing the shops and people, all from the comfort of our classroom.”

Decades later, thanks to preservation work carried out by the Domesday86 Project, he was able to revisit the material online. But while he was impressed by the efforts that had kept the project alive, he felt the original interface was difficult for modern audiences to use.

His solution was to extract every image from the Brecon walk and rebuild the experience from scratch.

“I wanted to visit 1980s Brecon again and, due to the preservation efforts from the Domesday86 Project, I was able to use the online emulator.

“But while it was an incredible feat of engineering for its time, it is not pleasant to use compared to modern-day systems.

“So I extracted the 2,700 photos of Brecon and pieced them together to build this: an easy-to-use online version of the original Brecon surrogate walk.”

In total, the process took around a week of full-time work.

“Most of the time was piecing together the images to make sure that when you walk down a certain street, each photo is sequentially in order.

“Each position has eight photos pointing in eight directions, and I wrote some scripts that helped automate some of it.

“I think this process would have been very difficult for someone who hadn’t grown up in Brecon to do, as sometimes you’re looking at literally nothing more than a drainpipe.”

Memories

The project has already struck a chord with people who remember the town from that era.

Forsey said one image in particular brought back memories of his late mother.

“The supermarket in the centre of town called International.

“We moved to Brecon from Builth in 1987 and I had never seen it with this branding because by that point it had changed names.

“But my mum continued calling it International for so many years afterwards, which baffled me as a kid.

“My mum died last November, so little things like this bring back these memories.”

He also highlighted the entrance to Brecon Market as one of the scenes that best captures the town as it once was.

“Back in the day people would visit it once a week on Market Day to buy their groceries, clothes and presents.

“It was an incredibly important part of the town, and while it still exists and operates, the way people shop has changed so much.”

County Hall

During his work, Forsey discovered additional photographs that were not easily accessible through the original Domesday interface, including images taken inside the former County Hall and a photograph of former mayor Denzil Griffiths presenting an award to an unidentified recipient.

He hopes the project will not only preserve a unique snapshot of Welsh life in the mid-1980s but also encourage others to explore a piece of local history.

Forsey left Brecon in 2005 and now lives in the Netherlands. Working on the project, he says, has deepened his connection to home.

“The death of my mum last year is obviously part of it, but these photos definitely add to the hiraeth I have for Wales.”

The virtual walk can be explored here.