Mountain Ash

[martyn williams]

Found this on Youtube
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=nOal1HYlRag
My home town filmed in 1926. The film had been restored.It shows the steam winding houses.

[Neversweat]

Which one of the coal dust coated chaps is you Martyn ?

Steve

[martyn williams]

Cheeky bugger

[Martyn Henley]

Martyn, you ought and go and stand where that was taken and film as it is now ...

Martyn

[martyn williams]

Martyn Good idea.
At the end of the film,it shows a view from the mountain.I used to play on that mountain side.4o years ago!!!.
This town was busy and vibrant.Now its run down and a shadow of its former self.There were 5 pits in the valley that employed thousands of people.

The photo shows our house at Coedely,right hand side of the picture in the distant,you can make out the white wall and roof apex.This photo dates 1900.

[Martyn Henley]

I have trying to think where i have seen that photograph before ...
I have an uncle that came from Tonypandy .. lovely part of the world though

Martyn do you know how many pits there were in the south wales region had before Maggie came ?

Martyn

[martyn williams]

There were lot of pits still in use,some had joined together.In the Cynon valley there were six and of course the most famous,Tower, at the very top end of the valley.In its hay day there were a few dozen pits.But decline had started in the late 1950's.They give a good living,but at a cost to health of the miners and wiped out a generation at Aberfan ,including some of my relatives.Those kids would be the same age as me now.A lot of miners died down the pits,roof falls and fire damp.Both my granfathers suffered the dreaded dust in the lungs.I have got my grandads miners helmet hung up on the wall in the hallway at home.
Martyn
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=OVsxVo26AoU.
The village of Aberfan was just over the top of the mountain shown in the first clip.

[Martyn Henley]

Strange i was just talking to Gaz about Aberfan .. i remember it well Martyn ..terrible thing, on that link you put up i was amazed at the height of the slag heaps above the village, never seen the school from that angle before ..
Thank you Martyn


Martyn

[martyn williams]

Those tips were a few hundred feet up from the floor of the valley.The two tips that were left could be seen from where I lived in the next valley.
I can remember that day like it was yesterday.We were sent home from school after assembly not knowing what happened till we saw the news.Everyone man in our valley joined in the rescue.I can still remember trying to stop my father going incase he did not come back.
They had fantastic help from everywhere in the UK and around the World,shows that there are a lot of good people out there.But you saw what happened to the money.Only repaid in recent years.