Rhondda'
- even now the name evokes the turbulent times when Rhondda (actually two valleys the Fawr & Fach) was synonymous with the deep-mining of steam coal. This is a story of pioneering deep-mining & unbridled capitalism: the prospecting of two valleys unfettered by health & safety amid divisive industrial relations & scarce health-care. The result fired railways steam-powered shipping & the engines of the Industrial Revolution across the world. Using a mixture of historical & modern photographs coloured by personal testimony & 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 & today's valleys
- a mainly residential landscape of green hills.