Rhondda Collieries Through Time

Rhondda

— even now, the name evokes the turbulent times when Rhondda (actually two valleys, the Fawr and Fach) was synonymous with the deep-mining of steam coal.

This is a story of pioneering deep-mining and unbridled capitalism: the prospecting of two valleys, unfettered by health and safety, amid divisive industrial relations and scarce health-care. The result fired railways, steam-powered shipping and the engines of the Industrial Revolution across the world.

Using a mixture of historical and modern photographs, coloured by personal testimony and memories, this book reveals the vibrant, turbulent, often tragic record of Rhondda: from pastoral vale via black gold-rush to grimy industrial prime, followed by the twentieth-century economic slide, the demise of all its fifty-three collieries and today’s valleys — a mainly residential landscape of green hills.