{"id":4715,"date":"2024-07-22T19:41:42","date_gmt":"2024-07-22T19:41:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/news\/photographer-returns-to-south-wales-mines-after-1980s-strike\/"},"modified":"2024-07-22T19:41:42","modified_gmt":"2024-07-22T19:41:42","slug":"photographer-returns-to-south-wales-mines-after-1980s-strike","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/news\/photographer-returns-to-south-wales-mines-after-1980s-strike\/","title":{"rendered":"Photographer returns to south Wales mines after 1980s strike"},"content":{"rendered":"


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\"RogerRoger Tiley<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n

This image of Celynen South taken before the strike became one of Roger Tiley’s most enduring pictures<\/figcaption><\/p>\n<\/figure>\n
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\u201cI was planning to go and find a war or something when I finished my course. And in a way the war was on my doorstep.\u201d<\/p>\n

The \u201cwar\u201d referred to by photographer Roger Tiley is the 1984-85 miners\u2019 strike that began a few short months before he was due to finish his degree in Newport, and which altered the course of his emerging professional life<\/a>.<\/p>\n

It saw him roam the south Wales valleys, showing the mining community he had grown up in as it battled for its very existence, sending his photographs off to newspapers in London.<\/p>\n

The year-long strike ended in defeat for the miners, and was followed by the rapid closure of the pits that had formed the backdrop to Roger\u2019s life.<\/p>\n

Now he has retraced his steps<\/a> across the coalfield from the south-east Wales valleys where he grew up to his present home in the Swansea valley, to raise money for the Alzheimer\u2019s Society and look at the transformation of the landscape in the intervening decades.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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As a local boy, Roger had already spent some time taking pictures in the collieries in the year or so before the strike began, and this relationship allowed him access to communities which knew and trusted him.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m originally from Cross Keys in the Gwent valleys and some of my friends went to work in the collieries,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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\"Roger<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

Roger is using the anniversary walk to raise money for charity at the same time<\/figcaption><\/p>\n<\/figure>\n
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\u201cJobs didn\u2019t seem to be much of a problem in the 1970s. If you wanted to work, you could get a job in a factory, in the steel industry or in the collieries. Within 10 or 15 miles of me there were quite a few collieries still working, around about eight.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe miners\u2019 strike was very hard but I think I look back on it with fond memories in the fact that people were so good to me and so helpful.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a time that was desperate for a lot of mining families up in the valleys and I think what they were fighting for I believed in.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was very careful of where I turned the camera because I didn\u2019t want anybody using the pictures in the way that I didn\u2019t intend them to be used.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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\"RogerRoger Tiley<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n

The camaraderie, such as that displayed by miners in Celynen South in 1983, made life underground bearable to many<\/figcaption><\/p>\n<\/figure>\n
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In between taking photographs, Roger also got involved with helping support the miners and distributing food parcels, which he \u201creally loved. I\u2019m proud I had the opportunity to do that.\u201d<\/p>\n

One of the sites that holds particular resonance for him is Celynen South colliery near Abercarn in the Ebbw valley, where he first documented the working life of a colliery.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s where I started taking pictures. I wrote to the manager and he said I could come up,\u201d he explained.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s two miners waiting to go underground and there\u2019s a pithead wheel in the background and it\u2019s a very graphic picture. Over the years it\u2019s been used time and time again.\u201d<\/p>\n

Roger returned to the closed pit after the strike ended and he was commissioned to document the impact it had had on the valleys.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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\"RogerRoger Tiley<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n

Houses now cover the area at Celynen South where once hundreds of men went underground every day<\/figcaption><\/p>\n<\/figure>\n
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Roger returned to the closed pit after the strike ended and was commissioned to document the impact it had on the valleys.<\/p>\n

\u201cOne of the first set of pictures that I took of the actual area, the landscape, was Celynen South. It was very sad. In those days they didn\u2019t fence things off. They just demolished the pit and you could just walk on to it, which I did.<\/p>\n

\u201cSome of the buildings were demolished, the pithead wheel was there but some of the ropes they used for the cage had gone. It just looked really sad.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s a housing estate on the colliery site now. There isn\u2019t anything really to mark that there was a pit there.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn a way I suppose that\u2019s positive; it isn\u2019t wasteland any more. It was for a good few years, but now at least there\u2019s houses on there providing homes for people.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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\"RogerRoger Tiley<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n

Mardy colliery in Rhondda, pictured in 1985, was the last pit to end its strike action<\/figcaption><\/p>\n<\/figure>\n
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The changes to the landscape vary widely across the former coalfields.<\/p>\n

\u201cSome have factory units on them, half-empty I would say. Mardy [colliery in Maerdy, Rhondda Cynon Taf] is one place where you could walk up there and unless you knew there was a colliery, you wouldn\u2019t [be able to tell].<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s some concrete bases there from the buildings and there\u2019s some tiles from the pit canteen that are still there, but youngsters wouldn\u2019t really know that.\u201d<\/p>\n

Other places like Penrhiwceiber in the Cynon valley have become playing fields.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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\"RogerRoger Tiley<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n

There is no trace of Mardy colliery left, and the ground remains bare of any redevelopment<\/figcaption><\/p>\n<\/figure>\n
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While he acknowledges the good in reusing sites, Roger laments the loss of so many jobs and the community they engendered.<\/p>\n

\u201cEach pit would have employed in the region of 1,000-plus men. If you multiply that by 30, 31 pits still working at the time of the strike, that\u2019s a lot of men, and all the industries around it, suppliers etc.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo you\u2019re probably looking at 40,000-50,000 people employed in the south Wales coalfield, and that\u2019s all gone.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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\"RogerRoger Tiley<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n

Ray Lawrence worked at Celynen South for 25 years: “The place was vibrant”<\/figcaption><\/p>\n<\/figure>\n
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Ray Lawrence, NUM lodge secretary at Celynen South for 14 years, worked as an electrician for 25 years in the mine and joined Roger as he reached the pit on his six-day walk.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s hard to imagine it now,” said Ray. “I\u2019m looking around and it\u2019s so peaceful. But 40 years ago there was a dirty great big hole in the ground there and every morning 500 or 600 men would disappear down there.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe place was vibrant. There was the rattle of the trams, the whirr of the winder, everything was going on, it was alive,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere was a fence where everyone would stop and have a cigarette when they came up or before they went down. It was a real, living experience.<\/p>\n

\u201cMining is a difficult thing to explain. To people outside of it, they think it\u2019s a dirty, horrible job, which it was, but the camaraderie made up for that and it\u2019s hard to let it go. You talk to men 40 years after and the majority of them say \u2018I\u2019d go back tomorrow if I could\u2019.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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\"RogerRoger Tiley<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n

Some of the pit machinery from Tower colliery near Hirwaun remains at the current Zip World Tower activity site<\/figcaption><\/p>\n<\/figure>\n
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Liam Willetts is the marketing co-ordinator for Zip World Tower, a high-adrenaline activity complex on the site of the old Tower colliery near Hirwaun, Rhondda Cynon Taf, and one of the stopping points on Roger\u2019s walk.<\/p>\n

Tower was a rare success story post-strike, as its workforce banded together and bought it in 1994, keeping it operational until 2008 when it became the last deep coalmine in the UK to close<\/a>. <\/p>\n

Zip World opened zip lines and other attractions on the redeveloped land in 2021, but Liam said its mining past was central to the site.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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\"Liam<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

Liam Willetts of Zip World Tower says the site’s history as a pit is central to its attraction<\/figcaption><\/p>\n<\/figure>\n
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Liam said: \u201cThe staff talk to all the customers, tell them the history of the site, and everyone\u2019s really interested, especially the locals.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s great to see that it\u2019s been preserved in some sense as well. I think that was carefully thought through when building this site as a Zip World attraction.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve got some stories and newspaper cutouts that people like to look at. A huge part of the attraction is the history and the heritage.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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\"RogerRoger Tiley<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n

Penallta colliery near Hengoed closed in 1991<\/figcaption><\/p>\n<\/figure>\n
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\"RoperRoper Tiley<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n

Housing now sits alongside the listed winding gear at the old Penallta colliery site<\/figcaption><\/p>\n<\/figure>\n
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The landscapes of the coalfields have changed enormously, sometimes beyond all recognition. Nature has reclaimed many, and the environmental impact in climate terms cannot be doubted.<\/p>\n

Roger acknowledges this: \u201cThe valleys are very green now. I live in Ystradgynlais and it\u2019s a stunning place. There\u2019s people from outside coming in to live, it\u2019s a pretty, much sought-after area.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe old coal [railway] lines are being used for people commuting to Cardiff, Newport and Bristol.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo they\u2019ve changed. For the better? I don\u2019t know. I grew up in the 60s and I played on the coal tips, so that\u2019s what I love.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut then you walk outside and there\u2019s these beautiful walks on the mountains and everything is green and lush. It\u2019s a difficult argument.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n


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Roger Tiley This image of Celynen South taken before the strike became one of Roger Tiley’s most enduring pictures \u201cI was planning to go and find a war or something when I finished my course. And in a way the war was on my doorstep.\u201d The \u201cwar\u201d referred to by photographer Roger Tiley is the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":4716,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[65],"tags":[3268,3267,264,576,613,839,312],"class_list":["post-4715","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-in-pictures","tag-1980s","tag-mines","tag-photographer","tag-returns","tag-south","tag-strike","tag-wales"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4715","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4715"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4715\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4717,"href":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4715\/revisions\/4717"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4716"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4715"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4715"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4715"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}