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More than 5000 entries on the history, culture and life of Britain (published in 1993 by Macmillan, now out of print)
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Rhondda Valley
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The area of south Wales, in Mid Glamorgan, which has become almost the symbol of Welsh mining, and of the chapel-going and choral-singing traditions of the mining community. It consists of two parallel valleys, Rhondda Fawr and Rhondda Fach, which in the 19–20C became heavily industrialized but which will now gradually revert to their original sparsely inhabited and scenic state. *Coal was first mined here in the early 19C, when the population was under 1000; a century later, thanks to the voracious demands of steam engines, the valleys supported more than 150,000 people.
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The decline began in the *Depression, and the last Rhondda pit closed in 1990. An idealized community of this kind became the public image of Wales through the success of *How Green was my Valley.
To the east of Rhondda several other valleys – Cynon, Taff, Rhymney, Ebbw, Sirhowy – run down in similar fashion from the south Wales mountains towards the coast. All have suffered the same rise and fall over the past two centuries.
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