Midway through the last century, the village of Keyworth, just southeast of Nottingham, became something of a commuter town for the big city just up the road.
Three-quarters of a century on, the short journey from the little civil parish to the bright lights is still a well-travelled road. But few, if any, would place Cardiff, via Adelaide and Llanelli, as the natural next destination beyond that initial six-mile stretch.
But then, the route to being a Wales international hasn't been all that conventional for Ellis Mee. For all the talk of academies right now within the Welsh game, Mee is a reminder of what can come from outside the system.
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This might have been his third year of BUCS rugby with Nottingham Trent University. Or even his second season of Championship rugby with Nottingham RFC.
Instead, he's just made his Test debut against Ireland in the Six Nations. The village of Keyworth, just southeast of Nottingham, has its first rugby international.
"Obviously it’s gone so quick since I started rugby," admits Mee. "I only played level two Championship rugby a year ago now so to be able to pull on the Welsh shirt was an unbelievable feeling.
"Coming into the camp, I’m obviously still quite young being 21 so I thought it would be a good experience for me. With Sanjay (Liam Williams) coming in as well I thought I’d be able to learn off him as well.
"Growing up, obviously there's the main ones like Shane Williams and stuff like that, but then obviously watching Liam, because I'm still quite young, watching him through his career, going to the Lions tour and everything like that, he was a big idol for me.
"So I never thought I’d get a chance. But I got my chance and I’ve taken it."
Indeed he has. The 21-year-old ran out onto the Principality Stadium pitch on Saturday against one of the world's best teams and never really stopped sprinting after that.
The Scarlets wing doesn't know what his GPS figures were from the weekend. You'd imagine, given he seemed to never stop swapping wings to get involved, the poor machine gave up counting midway through the match.
Having rubbed shoulders with one of his rugby heroes in the early weeks of camp, training alongside Lions full-back Williams, it was Mee who was nearly the toast of Cardiff in the dying minutes of a match that, while ending in defeat, at least offered fresh impetus to Welsh rugby after a miserable year.
Reaching out for the Irish line, Mee was agonisingly denied a maiden Test try right when Wales needed it. "It was close, very close," he says.
"Immediately I thought I was in touch because I thought my feet were out, but looking back at the video, I could see my feet weren’t out but I was that tiny bit short."
Try or not, it was as fine a Test bow as you could wish for from a player. Far from being overawed by the occasion, the quiet and unassuming Mee relished the challenge of Ireland.
The great Wallabies fly-half Mark Ella used to say: “If I touch the ball once, there's a chance someone will score. If I touch it twice, the chances are the person I pass it to will score. If I touch it a third time, I will score." So nearly the case for the 21-year-old.
Simply getting the chance to pull on the red jersey at the Principality Stadium meant so much to Mee and his family. The photos have already done the rounds of Mee, mum Karen and brothers Connor and Evan - both decked out in superb vintage Welsh Reebok kits - proudly posing with Mee's first cap after the match.
On Instagram, Mee shared the picture, adding the caption: "This one was for you Dad." Sadly, Mee's father Tony passed away in 2022.
"He would have loved it," says Mee. "It would have been surreal for him as well as me.
"My mum was shaking the whole time really. She was nervous the whole time. But once the final whistle blew she was all good."
There have been countless influences in Mee's rugby journey - from the Welsh Williams' of Shane and Liam, to Dave Ross, who coached him at both university and club level in Nottingham - but before all that, it was watching Tony turn out for Keyworth week after week that sparked the passion for the sport.
"It was my dad mainly," he says. "Dad always played rugby, he's always watched rugby on TV, and then every weekend basically I went to watch him and my brothers play."
Mee's older brother Connor is a fly-half, while his younger brother Evan, like his dad, is a No. 8 - with both playing for Keyworth and another local club, West Bridgford. However, now they're the ones doing the watching.
"Before I started playing, I always watched my brother play," he says. "And then growing up my little brother started playing as well, and then since I've been in professional rugby, they've just followed me really and stopped playing in their rugby careers."
As well as watching his dad play, he'd also go to watch the occasional Wales game with him too - the influence of his mum Karen, who is from Newport.
"My mother's influence is very strong and she was a big influence on my Dad," he admits. "I'd always watch Welsh teams and have been to more Wales games than English games. Obviously my mum's Welsh, so she dominated it."
Evan, born in Australia, would bring a bit of sibling rivalry to the party when Wales played the Wallabies - with Mee and his brothers getting to experience that split loyalties in the stadium on a couple of occasions.
Mee's own first experiences with a ball in hand came down under, in the rugby league heartland of Adelaide. However, it was in the Midlands where his rapid rise in the sport really begun.
"It was at Keyworth in the junior ages," he says, when asked where it all began. "It was good to be fair, just a local club where everyone knows each other.
"Before that I was in Australia playing for a junior club in Adelaide. So when I came back I was at Keyworth and then went to West Bridgeford as well.
"From there I went to Brooksby Melton College, through the university, and then ended up at Nottingham."
His first and only year at Nottingham saw him pick up a handful of awards at the club. Player of the year, player's player of the year and fan's player of the year.
"It wasn't a bad haul," he admits, "not for the first year either."
From there, the Scarlets - through the astute eye of former Wales international James Davies - took notice. It's a lovely reminder that there's more than one way to forge a path in this game.
"Not being in an academy means you are quite raw and allows you to be shaped later on in your career," he says. "That might be more ideal for coaches. I don't think I missed anything by not being in an academy.
"I just want to carry on building my career and see where it takes me."
Where that may be is up to Mee. Whatever's next, the one certainty is that he won't forget where he's come from. Earlier in the season, when the Scarlets had a week off, Mee was back in the Midlands to watch the university play.
It was Keyworth, the village southeast of Nottingham, that made Wales' latest international. Having taken the road less travelled to get to this point, the one thing you can take from Saturday's performance is that he won't stop running to whatever's next - however unconventional the route may be.
