talking point - Rhondda Cynon Taf

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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
Tour 2 HERITAGE & HILLSIDE Discover Cwm Rhondda and the Glamorgan Highlands 11 www.rhondda-cynon-taf.gov.uk/visiting Tel. 01443 424085 The Rhondda – one of the most famous names in Wales, home of world-renowned male voice choirs and brass bands, cradle of a proud coal-mining heritage and crucible of radical Non-Conformity, and also a place of natural beauty on a heroic scale, forest and crag towering over the terraced houses of the pit villages below. talking point “Rhondda” was originally the name of two rivers, the Fawr and Fach which flow in parallel courses until they unite at Porth. When coal mines were sunk and towns grew up around the pits, the name was applied to the urban area as well as the rivers and their valleys.
Page 1 and 2: ...TOURING COUNTRY... DISCOVER RHON
Page 3 and 4: STARTING YOUR TOUR 4 We have devise
Page 5 and 6: The A470 dual carriageway northward
Page 7: Pottery of a different sort is made
Page 11 and 12: Our route now enters the Rhondda Fa
Page 13 and 14: The road crosses a desolate moorlan
Page 15 and 16: Taff Trail Stretching from Cardiff,
Page 17 and 18: The A4059 leads us into our second
Page 19 and 20: Tour 4 VALLEYS & VALE The Green Val
Page 21 and 22: Where the A473 meets the A4119, a r
Page 23 and 24: Royal Mint From every street corner
Page 25 and 26: Midway up the Valley, Mountain Ash
Page 27 and 28: At the edge of the town centre, the

talking point - Rhondda Cynon Taf

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