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Tours > Wales > The Five Valleys
The Five Valleys
Traveling through the five great mining valleys of Southeast Wales, Taff, Rhondda, Rhymney, Ebbw and Cynon is now a pleasurable experience, fast becoming tourist destinations. Vast areas of industrial wasteland have been transformed into forest and grasslands; in short, the Valleys are green again.
In the latter half of the 19th century, the movement into the five great valleys of the South was so immense that Wales ranked second to the United States as a world center of immigration. Along with industrialization of the Valleys came a dramatic increase in numbers of inhabitants -- from approximately 500,000 people in the 1750's to over 1,600,000 in 1851 and 2,600,000 before Word War I. By 1913 over 250,000 miners in south Wales were producing over 57 million tons of coal each year. The impressive civic buildings that grace the centre of the city of Cardiff are a testimonial to the wealth derived from King Coal and the growth in importance of the city during the latter part of the century. In the Valleys, heritage centers built around former iron works and coal mines also point to the former feverish activity to produce black gold.
In the frenzy of economic prosperity, the dependence of the valleys upon one commodity was totally ignored. Everything rested upon there being a world market for Welsh coal, if that market were to collapse, it would bring down the major Welsh industry with it. When oil began to replace coal, disaster came to the Valleys. In addition, in order to save money, owners were reluctant to invest in labor-saving machinery and safety measures; mining remained a dangerous "hard-labor" industry in which life expectancy was short. Explosions such as the one at Senghenydd (Seng Henith) near Caerphilly in 1913 that killed 439, totally devastated local communities.
Between the two World Wars, coal held on for quite some time as the largest Welsh industry. But the numbers employed in its production fell to 115,000 by 1947, a drop of 150,000 in just over twenty years. Great changes came to the Valleys when the National Coal Board closed down all inefficient mines, modernized and centralized others in an effort that came too late. Light industries were introduced with dozens of factories setting up shop in the ubiquitous industrial parks that began to transform the landscapes in the 1960's as well as the lives of the people who came to work in them. By the 1980's not one single working pit remained in the Rhondda Valley, which had been synonymous with coal for a hundred years. The industry could not compete in the world markets.
The bleak, coal-tipped filled landscapes that "How Green Was My Valley" presented to the world through novel and movie are no more. The terrible tragedy at Aberfan in 1966 that buried 144 school children and their teachers under a pile of waste coal hastened the clean up of the Valleys after the departure of the old industries. The children's cemetery is a poignant reminder of the terrible tragedy.
Tourism is now a major industry in the Valleys. An authentic experience of what it was like to toil underground is found at Big Pit Mining Museum, Blaenavon. Here, on a bleak, windswept hillside a few miles north of Pontypool, the original mine workings have been left intact, including underground stables tunnels, workshops, forge, engine house and pithhead baths. A one-hour tour takes the visitor, carefully decked out with helmet and flashlight 300 feet deep underground for a unique and memorable experience.
 Other Valley attractions range from Cyfarthfa Castle Museum, Llancaiach Manor, Margam Abbey Stones Museum, with a marvellous collection of inscribed Roman and Celtic stones and crosses (pictured right), a commemoration of the life of American singer and actor Paul Robeson at Treorchy; the South Wales Miners Museum at the Afan Argoed Countryside Center, six miles northeast of Port Talbot; the Valley Inheritance Museum at Pontypool; the site of the 1992 Garden Festival at Ebbw Vale, now an upscale restaurant and shopping centre; and many craft centres throughout the Valleys.
Near Merthyr Tydfil, at the head of the great Taff Valley that leads up from Cardiff, the town of Cyfarthfa looms strong in Welsh industrial history, for it was here that a great ironworks was established in 1765 by Richard Bacon. It later came into the ownership of Richard Crawshay, one of Britain's first millionaires. The great uprising of 1831 that led to the execution of Dic Penderyn began when Crawshay lowered the wages of his workers. Cyfarthfa produced iron rails for the fledgling railroads of the United States, Austria, Poland and Russia. The iron works finally closed in 1921, unable to compete with the output of the newer industrialized nations.
The Crawshays lived at Cyfarthfa Castle, its mock medieval walls dominant on their hill and overlooking the ironworks. It is now open to the public as a museum and art gallery. It is also a vivid reminder of the valley's industrial past and of the great power exercised over the lives of the workers by the Crawshay family. At Vaynor, five miles out of town is the gravestone of Robert Crawshay, with it inscribed "God Forgive Me."
To experience the Ghost Tour at Llancaiach Fawr (Thlan Kyack Vowr) Manor, in the town of Nelson, near Treharris, contact the bookings office at the Manor House (0l443-4l2248).
Next Stop: The Rhondda Valley
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