Boots & Bread

The coal-seam rich valleys of south Wales fuelled the global industrial revolution and inspired generations of social activists and artists including Patrick Jones (b. 1965), a contemporary poet and playwright who has brought the struggles and contradictions of life here to new audiences. Welsh miner turned teacher and poet, Idris Davies (1905-1953) was born in Rhymney. The self-declared voice of a generation, his work reflected the idealism and protest of people here during the 1920s and 1930s. The poverty and mass unemployment of the Great Depression in Wales caused ripples beyond our borders, including the rise of both the Labour Party and the Communist Party, and the exodus of 200 miners to fight against General Franco in the Spanish Civil War. The Bells of Rhymney from Davies' debut collection was set to music and has become a folk classic. Pass Davies’ childhood home on Victoria Road and work your way up to the moor for views of the town and pit scars below.