talking point - Rhondda Cynon Taf

The performing arts in the town are well served by the Muni Arts
Centre where events as diverse as a tribute to Abba and a Jack and
the Beanstalk pantomime have taken place. Concerts also take
place in the many churches and chapels as well as at the
University. And like all market towns, Pontypridd really comes alive
on market days. Every Wednesday and Saturday the biggest openair
market in Wales fills the streets with bustle and bargains galore!
Meanwhile, in the indoor market, tables groan with fresh produce;
cabbages and cauliflowers are stacked high, and apples – real
apples; all the old varieties. There are local cheeses, butter fresh
from the churn, and bara lawr, a Welsh speciality formed from
healthy edible seaweed.
The story of Pontypridd is told at the Cultural and
Historical Centre which stands on the banks of the Taff,
next to the town’s famous Old Bridge. Pierced by six
elegantly engineered holes to direct the thrust of the
high, single-span stone arch, the bridge was built by
William Edwards in 1756, when it was the longest stone
span in Europe and so famous that Josiah Wedgwood
used it as a design for a dinner service commissioned by
Empress Catherine the Great of Russia.
Above Pontypridd Town Centre is the Common, a high plateau, strewn with boulders left by retreating glaciers
thousands of years ago. ‘The Common’, with its famous Rocking Stone and Gorsedd Circle has often been used for
rallies and public meetings: here the firebrand MP and miners leader William Abraham addressed his people in
the early 1900s, quelling hecklers by singing hymns!
To reach the Common, take the exit from the Llanover Arms roundabout signposted for the A4054 to Cilfynydd and
then straight ahead at the first crossroads. Beyond the Common, the road descends past the Round Houses, two
towers built by Dr William Price (1800-1893). Dr Price’s eccentricities are described in Tour 4, but it is a fitting
tribute to the man who secured the recognition of cremation that the first crematorium in Wales is just below the
Round Houses at Glyntaff: it was opened in 1924.
Above the Common, Pontypridd Golf Club enjoys a spectacular mountain setting fringed by woodland with longdistance
views west over Pontypridd town into the valleys of the Rhondda and Cwmnantclydach. The Club
welcomes visitors by arrangement to its 18-hole par 69 course.
9