Real Pontypridd

Pontypridd receives the Real treatment. The unofficial capital of the South Wales Valleys, Pontypridd is a place of sometimes surprising contrasts. It boomed from an earthern house at the confluence of the Taff and Rhondda rivers into a pulsating urban and industrial centre. Its early wildness attracted Turner, its industry produced thinkers like William Price and developed trade unions, its proud Victorian society gave us the Welsh national anthem and Cwm Rhondda. Its industrial decline coincided with writers like Alun Richardas and Elaine Morgan, singers like Tom Jones, and other actors, composers and opera singers. Daryl Leeworthy goes in search of Pontypridd: the places, the people, the communities which formed the bedrock of the town. From the pit villages of Ynysybwl and Cilfynydd and the industry of Treforest and Tumble, to the bustle of the town centre and its famous market, and from the empty hilltop of Llanwonno to the leafy suburbs of Church Village and Tonteg, all of Pontypridd is here. Like turning a kaleidoscope, Leeworthy finds the iconic arched bridge, the chainworks, Ynys Angharad Park, the ‘ House of Pain’ (Pontypridd RFC), the Lido, the famous market, the space-age new library, the churches and chapels, the Italian café s, the traffic, the Rocking Stone. Drawing on personal memories, an encyclopaedic knowledge of the local history, and many many long walks and conversations, Daryl Leeworthy describes the essence of this iconic south Wales Valleys town.

Daryl Leeworthy is a historian and biographer. He is the author of six books including lives of television screenwriter Elaine Morgan and novelist and playwright Gwyn Thomas, the pioneering A Little Gay History of Wales and several studies in the history of Welsh social democracy. Born in Weston Super Mare, he grew up in Ynysybwl. He now lives in Pontypridd.