A fascinating collection of 167 black-and-white photographs comprising 76 pairs of photographs taken from identical locations reflecting the extensive changes seen in the Rhondda Fawr valley communities during the 20th century in the fields of commerce and industry, leisure and culture, politics and religion.

Casgliad hynod ddiddorol o 167 ffotograff du-a-gwyn yn cynnwys 76 pâr o ffotograffau wedi eu tynnu'n bennaf o'r un lleoliadau, yn adlewyrchu'r newidiadau helaeth a fu yng nghymunedau Rhondda Fawr yn ystod yr 20fed ganrif ym meysydd masnach a diwydiant, hamdden a diwylliant, gwleidyddiaeth a chrefydd.

This book of photos and accompanying text is divided into sections reflecting the ‘village’ character of the Rhondda Valleys: Porth and Trehafod; Dinas and Trealaw; Penygraig and Williamstown; Tonypandy and Clydach Vale; Llwyn-y-pia, Ystrad and Gelli; Ton Pentre, Pentre, Treorchy and Upper Rhondda. The casual visitor to ‘the Long Street’ may not know where one village ends and the next begins, but local people do and there is much rivalry between them.

The compiler is a local man, though his book is not without its spelling mistakes; the publisher even gets the name of his school wrong: Graid-yr-Eos Secondary Boy’s School; to say nothing of the grocer’s apostrophe. (I am beginning to grow tired of these books about Wales where no care has been taken with the spelling of placenames and other matters. English publishers please note: names like Maes-yr-haf do not have a capital Y when it is the definite article; to put one in is like writing ‘Billy The Kid’.)

Like other books of its kind, this one tends to concentrate on photos of Old Rhondda during the heyday of coal, that is to say in Victorian and Edwardian times. The result is a plethora of industrial scenes of unremitting grimness, as if all the Rhondda had to show the world was pits and filthy living conditions. But at least it also shows people, hordes of them at work and play, so that we get an impression of Rhondda as a bustling, thriving place where wages were comparatively good (three times as high as those for agricultural labourers), even though the housing stock was primitive and social amenities almost non-existent.

Children play in the street, the girls in their white pinafores and hobnailed boots, the boys in their fathers’ Dai-caps. Colliers come home from work to their homes near by. Buses come and go. The few cars, probably belonging to doctors and other professional men, go about their business. Brass bands play and boxing booths prove ever-popular. Towards the end of the book there is a Sports Centre at Ystrad, though not in Gelligaleo Park, Ystrad, as stated here.

One of the most evocative photos is of a street party in Library Road, Penygraig, in celebration of VE Day in 1945. The faces of the children as they tuck into their paste sandwiches and Vimto pop, and their pretty mothers as they hover over them in their frilly smocks, are just as I remember them from that momentous occasion.

I have one more complaint: the pictures have no captions and the reader has to scan the text for an explanation of what is shown in the plates.

Meic Stephens

It is possible to use this review for promotional purposes, but the following acknowledgement should be included: A review from www.gwales.com, with the permission of the Welsh Books Council.

Gellir defnyddio’r adolygiad hwn at bwrpas hybu, ond gofynnir i chi gynnwys y gydnabyddiaeth ganlynol: Adolygiad oddi ar www.gwales.com, trwy ganiatad Cyngor Llyfrau Cymru.