The Last Days of Dolwyn

[4] The screenplay focuses on an impoverished Welsh village which becomes the site of a bitter power struggle between a callous developer and a stubborn widow.

A consortium led by Lord Lancashire is constructing a massive dam at the head of the valley above Dolwyn, to create a reservoir to supply water to Liverpool.

Leaseholders are offered large sums for their leases, along with new houses in Liverpool and jobs in a cotton mill for those who want them.

One young shepherd refuses to flee the flood and his defiant, lilting tenor voice is suddenly silenced as the tide consumes him.

The film's setting parallels the drowning in the 1880s of the village of Llanwddyn in Lake Vyrnwy to provide water for Liverpool.

It may also be based on the construction of the Elan Valley Reservoirs, designed to supply water to Birmingham, and the tragic flooding of the beautiful neighbourhood of Nantgwyllt, beloved of the poet Shelley.