Rhondda Collieries Through Time

This fascinating selection of photographs traces some of the many ways in which Rhondda Collieries have changed and developed over the last century.

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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.