The Valleys -

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53 Results

Evan James - Ieuan ap Iago

‘This land of my fathers is dear to me.’

'Hen Wlad Fy Nhadau' or 'Land of My Fathers' is, by tradition, the national anthem of Wales. The words were written by Evan James and the tune composed by his son, James James, in 1856 whilst they were living in Pontypridd. The earliest written copy survives in the collections of the National Library of Wales.

Zephaniah Williams

Chartist Leader who was transported to Australia in 1840 for his part in the Newport Rising.

Blunt, bold speaking Zephaniah Williams held strong radical views and led Chartists from the Eastern Valleys to Newport during the Chartist Rising of 1839.

James J Davies

James J Davis, or 'Puddler Jim' as he liked to be called, emigrated to America from Tredegar and became United States Secretary of Labor in 1921. He signed his name as James J. Davies - the Welsh way - even though his surname had been changed on immigration to Davis!

Andrew Vicari

'I must have been 12 or 13 years old and my art teacher Margaret Thomas at Neath Grammar School entered me for the National Eisteddfod of Wales – I ended up winning the gold medal… I was completely ecstatic… If it wasn’t for that early encouragement I would never have pursued a career in art.’

Britain's highest-paid living artist - and also the official artist of Interpol - was born in Port Talbot in 1938.

Dic Penderyn

A martyr for change - Wales' first working class martyr. (Dic Penderyn)

A martyr for change - Wales' first working class martyr.

Mad Jack

'When eternity looks you in the face, you may as well go at full speed to meet it!' (Mad Jack from Pontypool)

This heroic volunteer tested the first train to run over the Crumlin Viaduct in 1857.

Alexander Cordell

One of Wales' most popular and prolific writers

Alexander Cordell's international best-selling book about the Valleys, Rape of the Fair Country, put Blaenavon on the world map some fifty years before it was designated a World Heritage Site.

Glyndwr Michael

The Man Who Never Was helped to dupe the Germans about the invasion of Sicily during WW2.

In 1943 the body of Aberbargoed born Glyndwr Michael was released from a British submarine into the sea off the Spanish town of Huelva in a plot to confuse the German forces.

Sidney Gilchrist Thomas

‘These two young men, Thomas and Gilchrist of Blaenavon, did more for Britain's greatness than all the Kings and Queens put together.’ ( Andrew Carnegie)

A global hero of industry; in the 1870s, his experiments at Blaenavon Ironworks led to a boom in steel making that echoed around the world.

Richard Trevithick

'We have plenty of steam and power' (Richard Trevithick, 1833)

Richard Trevithick’s experiments with steam locomotion in Merthyr Tydfil in 1804 helped to shape the industrialisation of Wales and the wider world during the 19th century.

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