thumb|[[Cwmparc, near the head of the Rhondda Fawr, typical scenery]]

thumb|A short video about the Valleys Regional Park, by [[Natural Resources Wales]]

The South Wales Valleys () are a group of industrialised peri-urban valleys in South Wales. Most of the valleys run northsouth, roughly parallel to each other. Commonly referred to as "The Valleys" (), they stretch from Carmarthenshire in the west to Monmouthshire in the east; to the edge of the pastoral country of the Vale of Glamorgan and the coastal plain near the cities of Swansea, Cardiff, and Newport.

History

thumb|View of the [[Cynon Valley from Penrhiwceiber, Rhondda Cynon Taf]]

thumb|Ebbw Valley viewed from [[Ebbw Vale]]

Until the mid-19th century, the South Wales valleys were sparsely inhabited. The industrialisation of the Valleys occurred in two phases. First, in the second half of the 18th century, the iron industry was established on the northern edge of the Valleys, mainly by English entrepreneurs. This made South Wales the most important part of Britain for ironmaking until the middle of the 19th century. Second, from 1850 until the outbreak of the First World War, the South Wales Coalfield was developed to supply steam coal and anthracite.

The South Wales Valleys contained Britain's only mountainous coalfields. Topography defined the shape of the mining communities, with a "hand and fingers" pattern of urban development. There were fewer than 1,000 people in the Rhondda valley in 1851, 17,000 by 1870, 114,000 by 1901 and 153,000 by 1911; but the wider impact of urbanisation was constrained by geography—the Rhondda remained a collection of villages rather than a town. The population of the Valleys in the late 19th and early 20th centuries was disproportionately young and male; many of them were migrants drawn from other parts of Wales or from further afield. In the few industries that still relied on coal, the demand was for quality coals, especially coking coal, which was required by the steel industry. Fifty percent of Glamorgan coal was now supplied to steelworks, with the second biggest market being domestic heating, in which the "smokeless" coal of the southern Wales coalfield again became fashionable after the Clean Air Act of 1956 was passed. These two markets now controlled the fate of the mines in Wales, and as demand from both sectors fell, the mining industry contracted further. In addition, exports to other areas of Europe, traditionally France, Italy and the Low Countries, experienced a massive decline: from 33% around 1900 to roughly 5% by 1980. The Welsh mines were comparatively antiquated, with methods of ventilation, coal-preparation and power supply all of a decades-earlier standard. which was drastically reduced following an industrial recession in 1956 and an increased availability of oil.

In 1966, the village of Aberfan in the Taff valley suffered one of the worst disasters in Welsh history, referred to today as the Aberfan disaster. A mine waste tip on the top of the mountain, which had been developed over a spring, slid down the valley side and destroyed the village junior school, killing 144 people, 116 of them children.

In 1979, Margaret Thatcher became Prime Minister of the United Kingdom. Her policies of free market economics soon clashed with the loss-making, government-owned National Coal Board. In 1984 and 1985, after the government announced plans to close many mines across the UK, mineworkers went on strike. This strike, and its ultimate failure, led to the virtual destruction of the UK's coal industry over the next decade, although arguably costs of extraction and geological difficulties would have had the same result, perhaps a little later. No deep coal mines are left in the valleys since the closure in 2008 of Tower Colliery in the Cynon Valley. Tower had been bought by the workers in 1994, despite government attempts to close it.

By 2002, the unemployment rates in the Welsh valleys were among the highest in the whole United Kingdom since the 1980s, and have been seen as a major factor in the rise in drug abuse in the local area, which was highlighted in the national media during the autumn of 2002 and largely linked to drug dealing gangs from Birmingham and Bristol.

The Welsh Development Agency was established in 1975 and there was further regeneration from 1988 under the "Valleys Initiative" including clearing derelict land, building new housing, holding the 1992 Ebbw Vale Garden Festival and upgrading the Heads of the Valleys Road to improve connectivity.

More recently, employment levels have risen significantly in the area, outperforming the rest of Wales in 2017.

This has been driven by billions of pounds of investment into the valleys from EU structural funds, UK government and Welsh government. Significant further investments in the area are also planned to go ahead.

Present day

The Valleys are home to around 30% of the Welsh population, although this is declining slowly because of emigration, especially from the Upper Valleys. The area has a relatively high proportion of residents (over 90% in Blaenau Gwent and Merthyr Tydfil) born in Wales.

The Valleys have the highest percentage of Welsh identifying population in all of Wales. Merthyr Tydfil reported the highest rate of Welsh identifying, with 70.0%. They also had the highest rates of reporting themselves to have 'No religion'. The Valleys as a whole do suffer from a number of socio-economic problems however. A high proportion of people report a limiting long-term health problem, especially in the Upper Valleys.

A relatively large number of local people are employed in manufacturing, health and social services. Fewer work in managerial or professional occupations, and more in elementary occupations, compared to the rest of the country.

Culture

thumb|Rugby pitches are a typical feature of the valleys landscapes

thumb|Rugby fields marked on a map of the South Wales valleys

The South Wales Valleys contain a large proportion of the Welsh population and remain an important centre of Welsh culture, despite the growing economic dominance of Cardiff. The UK Parliament's first Labour Party MP, Keir Hardie, was elected from the area, and the Valleys remain a stronghold of Labour Party power. Rugby union is very popular, and pitches can be seen along the valley corridors. "The valleys in representational terms have become a synecdoche for Wales"

The geographical shape of the valleys has its effect on culture. Roads stretch along valleys and connect the different settlements in the valley, whereas neighbouring valleys are separated by hills and mountains. Consequently, the towns in a valley are more closely associated with each other than they are with towns in the neighbouring valley, even when the towns in the neighbouring valley are closer on the map.

Roads

The A470 from Cardiff is, as far as its junction with the A465 Heads of the Valleys road, a dual-carriageway providing direct access to Taff's Well, Pontypridd, Abercynon and Merthyr Tydfil. It links with the A4059 from Abercynon, Aberdare and Hirwaun; the A472 from Ystrad Mynach and Pontypool, and the A4054 from Quakers Yard.

{| class="wikitable sortable"

|+ style="font-variant:small" | A465 upgrade sections are

! Section !! From / To !! Commencement date !! Completion date !! Status

|-

| 1 || Abergavenny to Gilwern || February 2005 || May 2008 || Complete

|-

| 2 || Gilwern to Brynmawr || December 2014 || December 2021 || Complete

|-

| 3 || Brynmawr to Tredegar || January 2013 || September 2015 || Complete

|-

| 4 || Tredegar to Dowlais Top || March 2002 || November 2004 || Complete

|-

| 5 || Dowlais Top to A470 || Early 2021 || Due by mid-2025

  • Routes via the South Wales Main Line
  • Maesteg Line to Bridgend and Maesteg
  • Ebbw Valley Railway to Ebbw Vale
  • Welsh Marches Line to Abergavenny continuing into the English West Midlands, and to either North Wales or North West England

Valleys listed from west to east

  • Gwendraeth valley
  • Loughor Valley
  • Amman Valley
  • Swansea Valley (Tawe Valley)
  • Dulais Valley
  • Vale of Neath
  • Afan Valley
  • Llynfi Valley
  • Garw Valley
  • Ogmore Valley
  • Rhondda Valley
  • Cynon Valley
  • Ely Valley
  • Taff Valley
  • Taff Bargoed Valley
  • Aber Valley
  • Rhymney Valley (forms the historic boundary between Glamorgan and Monmouthshire)
  • Sirhowy Valley
  • Ebbw Valley
  • Ebbw Fach Valley
  • Llwyd Valley

References

Bibliography

  • The industrialisation of the South Wales Valleys
  • Welsh mining history
  • Old and New Library Images from the Valleys
  • The official tourism website for The Valleys