The Rhondda our Valley

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The Encyclopedia of Wales (2008) does not give the area of the Rhondda Valley, but gives it in hectares for each of the 16 communities as of 2001. Clydach (487 ha), Cymmer (355 ha), Ferndale (380 ha), Llwynypia (258), Maerdy (1064 ha), Pentre (581 ha), Penygraig (481 ha), Porth (370 ha), Tonypandy (337), Trealaw (286 ha), Trehafod (164 ha), Treherbert (2156 ha), Treorchy (1330 ha), Tylorstown (590 ha), Ynyshir (441 ha), Ystrad (714 ha). Total 9994 ha Both the singular term 'Rhondda Valley' and the plural 'Rhondda Valleys' are commonly used. It is part of the county borough of Rhondda Cynon Taff . Rhondda has a population of around 72,000 people living in 16 communities built around the River Rhondda. During the Industrial Revolution , and especially in the period from 1840 to 1925, the area was synonymous with the production of coal. Continuing our autumn series by John Geraint, author of ‘The Great Welsh Auntie Novel’, and one of Wales’s most experienced documentary-makers. ‘John On The Rhondda’ is based on John Geraint’s popular Rhondda Radio talks and podcasts. Two main roads service the area. The A4058 runs through the Rhondda Fawr and the A4233 services the Rhondda Fach. The A4058 starts at Pontypridd runs through Porth before ending at Treorchy, where it joins the A4061 to Hirwaun. The A4233 begins outside Rhondda at Tonyrefail, heading north through Porth and through the Rhondda Fach to Maerdy, where the road links up with the A4059 at Aberdare. Two other A roads service the area; the A4119 is a relief road known as the Tonypandy Bypass; the other is the A4061, which links Treorchy to the Ogmore Vale before reaching Bridgend. The Porth Gazette and Rhondda Leader was published from 1944 to 1967. Also published in Pontypridd during that period was the Rhondda Fach Leader and Gazette. In more recent years the Rhondda Leader and Pontypridd & Llantrisant Observer combined, before the Rhondda Leader became separate once more. [154]

John Ward (1914). 'Our Lady of Penrhys', Glamorganshire Volume 69 (1914) pp. 363-368. Archaeologia Cambrensis. Half a dozen miles to the south, the prosperous market town of Caerphilly had already been around for centuries. It sprang up in the shadow of Caerphilly Castle, the largest castle in Wales. Built in the 13th century by the Norman lord “Red Gilbert” de Clare, the fortress stands on three artificial islands in a 30-acre lake. Its usefulness as a fortification is long past, but the castle still dominates the town. Local folks take the mammoth castle and its unique display of medieval siege engines quite for granted. Their greater interest is fishing in the lake. Carpenter, David J. (2000). Rhondda Collieries. Stroud, Gloucestershire: Tempus Publishing. ISBN 0-7524-1730-4.

Walk our Hillsides

The Rhondda Fach is celebrated in the 1971 David Alexander song 'If I could see the Rhondda'; the valley includes Wattstown, Ynyshir, Pontygwaith, Ferndale, Tylorstown and Maerdy. The settlements that make up the Rhondda Fach are as follows: So, it's a particular pleasure for me to be able to support this project. The others have all been successful and I very much hope this will be as well." Davis (1989), p. 26, "Morgan not only misidentifies the height of the 30-ft. mound as 100 ft. but states that '...all these sacred mounds were reared in this country... when Druidism was the established religion', but gives no historic proof. The book also has an illustration of the castle to which the artist has added a moat and several druids, neither of which are factual." Blaen’ refers to the source or head of a river or stream, so Blaencwm and Blaenrhondda are the twin heads of the valley. Blaenllechau is ‘the head of the Llechau brook’. Blaenclydach has always slightly puzzled me – literally, it’s ‘the head of the Clydach brook’, though Blaenclydach is down below Clydach Vale. They always do things different up there. As industrialisation began, there was still little shift in the use of Welsh. Initial immigrants were Welsh: it was not until the 1900s that English workers began settling in any great numbers, and in any case it was not these new workers who changed the language. The erosion of Welsh had begun in the 1860s in the school classrooms. The educational philosophy accepted by schoolmasters and governmental administrators was that English was the language of scholars and Welsh a barrier to moral and commercial prosperity. [145] In 1901, 35.4 per cent of Rhondda workers spoke only English, but by 1911 this had risen to 43.1 per cent, while Welsh-speaking monoglots had fallen from 11.4 to 4.4 per cent in the same period. [146]

Tony Moon, project secretary, said: "That [the tweet] is true as far as the main links of the tunnel goes. 90-odd per cent of the tunnel is managed by National Highways but the end that's owned by Neath Port Talbot council is different and we're still looking at the possibility of going ahead with that end by getting planning permission from Neath Port Talbot council. Wherever you go in the Rhondda you are traditionally assured a warm welcome. The people of the Valleys are known for their positive outlook, even in times of hardship. Wales is a bilingual principality so visitors may find themselves being greeted in either Welsh or English. Welsh is the oldest living language in Europe and it is visible on highway signs, in shop windows and in print. Many schoolchildren in the Rhondda area attend schools where Welsh is the language of instructionThe Acts of Union in the mid-16th century and the English Civil War in the mid-17th century brought much rebuilding in the Kingdom of England, to which Wales was now annexed. This appears in the structures built in the Rhondda Valley. [38] The fluctuating economy of the late Tudor period resulted in farmers taking in more land, creating higher levels of surplus goods and so producing higher profits. These were reflected in new farmhouses built in the Rhondda and for the first time an emphasis on domestic comfort apparent in the design of dwellings. [38] Many new farm buildings were simple structures of two or three small rooms, but of a much sturdier, more permanent quality than the medieval platform houses. A popular style was the Dartmoor longhouse, which combined the house and cowshed into one building. By 1840, the Rhondda had at least 160 farms, [39] but most were destroyed with the growth of the mining industry. Of the few survivors, those of note include Tynewydd ('New House') in Tynewydd, a 17th-century house thought to have given its name to the neighbouring village of Tynewydd and of Tyntyle in Ystrad dated around 1600. Stephens, Meic (28 May 1999). "Obituary: Robert Thomas". independent.co.uk . Retrieved 28 September 2017. British Rail reopened some of the closed stations, such as Ystrad Rhondda in 1986. [161] Notable people [ edit ] Though the population of the Rhondda was embracing English as its first language, a literary and intellectual movement formed in the Rhondda in the 1940s that would produce an influential group of Welsh language writers. The group formed during the Second World War by Egyptologist J. Gwyn Griffiths and his German wife Käthe Bosse-Griffiths was known as the Cadwgan Circle ( Cylch Cadwgan [ cy]) and met at the Griffiths' house in Pentre. Welsh writers who made up the movement included Pennar Davies, Rhydwen Williams, James Kitchener Davies and Gareth Alban Davies. And Haydn Wilkins said: "Willie the Oil, Davies Tyntyla (clothes), Tom the Barber, Evans the Shop, Evans Top House, John Up And Down (he had one leg shorter than the other), Johnny Ice Cream and the best I have ever heard - Dai Rusty Nail!"

Trehafod takes its name from a farm. The ‘hafod’ was the upland farm, where cattle and sheep were taken to graze in summer (‘haf’ in Welsh) – as opposed to the ‘hendre’, the old ancestral winter home down in the valley. The Rhondda Valleys were also home to a strong early nonconformist Christian movement. This manifested itself in the baptist chapels which had a marked cultural influence in Rhondda during the 19th and early 20th century. The Rhondda Valley is well known for its male voice choirs and plays a key role in Wales' celebrated musical tradition. Rugby is the favourite sport in the Rhondda. Of the Cadwgan Circle, the most notable is Rhydwen Williams, winner of the Eisteddfod Crown on two occasions, who used the landscape of the industrial valleys as a basis for much of his work. Writing in English, Peter George was born in Treorchy and is best known as the Oscar-nominated screenwriter of Dr. Strangelove, based on his book Red Alert. Reflecting the lives of the residents of the Rhondda, both Gwyn Thomas and Ron Berry brought a realism to the industrial valleys missing in the more rose-tinted writings of Richard Llewellyn.During the 20th century the Rhondda supplied a steady stream of championship boxers. Percy Jones was not only the first World Champion from the Rhondda, but the first Welshman to hold a World Title when he won the Flyweight belt in 1914. After Jones came the Rhondda's most notable boxer, Jimmy Wilde, also known as the "Mighty Atom", who took the IBU world flyweight title in 1916. British Champions from the valleys include Tommy Farr, who held the British and Empire heavyweight belt, and Llew Edwards, who took the British featherweight and Australian lightweight titles. Interpretation Act 1978", legislation.gov.uk, The National Archives, 1994 c. 19 , retrieved 22 October 2022 Although association football was not so popular as rugby in the Rhondda in the early 20th century, after the 1920s several notable players emerged from the area. Two of the most important came from the village of Ton Pentre; Jimmy Murphy was capped 15 times for Wales, and in 1958 managed both the Welsh national team and Manchester United. Roy Paul, also from Ton Pentre, led Manchester City to two successive FA Cup finals in 1955 and 1956 and gained 33 Welsh caps. Alan Curtis, who was best known for representing Swansea City and Cardiff City, came from the neighbouring village of Pentre, and in an 11-year international career won 35 caps for Wales, scoring six goals.

Just a few miles up the road at Trehafod, the Lewis Merthyr Colliery has found new life as the Rhondda Heritage Park. Here among the rusting relics of busier days, the unique industrial heritage and way of life is kept alive. In multimedia and reconstructions of village life, the Heritage Park tells the history of the Rhondda. Former colliers, who worked these pits for years, lead visitors underground to experience working life in the mine during the 1950s. Rhondda is a conurbation of numerous smaller settlements along the valleys. The Royal Mail treats five of the settlements as post towns: Ferndale, Pentre, Porth, Tonypandy, and Treorchy, all of which come under the CF postcode area. The Office for National Statistics (ONS) deems most of the settlements in the Rhondda Fawr valley and lower Rhondda Fach valley to form part of the Tonypandy built-up area, with a population at the 2011 census of 62,545. [96] The ONS separately defines a Ferndale built-up area covering much of the upper Rhondda Fach valley, with a population in 2011 of 7,338. [97] Due to the dominance of rugby union, there have been few football teams of note in the history of the Rhondda Valleys. Several teams were formed around the end of the 19th century, but most folded in the Depression, including Cwmparc F.C. in 1926 [135] and Mid-Rhondda in 1928. [135] The area's most successful club is Ton Pentre F.C. Netball [ edit ] May, John (2003). Rhondda 1203 - 2003: The Story of the Two Valleys. Caerphilly: Castle Publications. ISBN 1-871354-09-9. The notable members of the group include Ernest Zobole, a painter from Ystrad, whose expressionist work was deeply rooted in the juxtaposition of the industrialised buildings of the valleys against the green hills that surround them. [165] Also from the Rhondda Fawr was the sculptor Robert Thomas; [166] born in Cwmparc, his heavy-cast statues have become icons of contemporary Wales, with many of his works publicly displayed in Cardiff. [167] Science and social science [ edit ]Rhondda Places of Worship". LSJ Services [Wales] Ltd. TheRhondda.co.uk. Archived from the original on 30 September 2011 . Retrieved 19 October 2011. Glamorgan County History, Volume IV, Early Modern Glamorgan from the Act of Union to the Industrial Revolution, Glanmor Williams, pp. 2–3. University of Wales Press (1974)