Porth and Rhondda Fach: Images of Wales

This collection on the Rhondda concentrates on Porth, the gateway to the two valleys, and the Rhondda Fach, from Ynyshir to Maerdy. Authors Also Baccheta and Glyn Rudd have assembled a splendid mix of images providing an insight into several aspects of the life of these communities and their inhabitants: at work, on strike, in poverty and at leisure. One thing is again clear from this selection: that the people of Rhondda have always known how to entertain themselves.

The century and a half of mining activity in the area is illustrated in detail and the many pictures of the individual pits, the colliers and their families remind us that this was not so very long ago a dominant industry that shaped both landscape and culture.

Comparisons of then and now which appear in each chapter bring home to the reader how much that has disappeared, but as Rhondda battles to reinvent itself, we can draw strength from knowledge of the past achievements outlined in these pages.