The following photographs were taken in October 2006 during the height of ‘Park and Stare in Aberdare Weather’.
Please contribute your own photos!
Aberdare Under 12s won their competition.
In the photograph : Two Rhondda Cynon Taff Council workers offer some helpful advice today to a member of the public.
They were in the middle of a gardening job and perched on top of a raised flower bed in Green Street, opposite Aberdare Library.
Nowadays Rhondda Cynon Taff Council is perhaps the biggest employer in Aberdare.
This is a photo of the rear end of one of Aberdare’s most prominent buildings.
It is Siloa Chapel in Green Fach, near the Aberdare Library.
Siloa Chapel is a splendid example of Valleys Chapel building.
Alas, the rear of the building has been tattooed with graffiti over the years.
Aberdare Photographer Dave Sewell interprets Market Street in Aberdare Town.
Dave Sewell has published many photographs of Aberdare on Flickr.
His photostream is at http://flickr.com/photos/angelfishsolo/
There is an Aberdare photographic group on Flickr here, please join and contribute!
It has been another lawless weekend in ‘Wild West’ Aberdare Town.
Monday is the day that traders pick up the pieces after the weekend’s orgy of violence and vandalism.
This weekend, the windows of the Burtons menswear shop on Canon Street were kicked-in.
The windows of the Carousel Amusements on Commercial Street were kicked-in.
And the Barnado’s Charity Shop selling books on Commercial Street did not escape having windows kicked-in.
Both streets are covered by CCTV cameras which – allegedly! – provide more effective policing.
All the vacant shops in Aberdare are a reminder of just how difficult a battle traders face today.
It’s such a pity to see the broken windows in Aberdare week after week.
Who cares ?
Perhaps one day they will close all the shops, bulldoze them over, and extend the Tesco Supermarket car park.
‘Outside the Pinc’ – a typical scene in Market Street Aberdare outside the Pinc Clothing shop.
Here is a jammed-up version of Green Street Methodist Chapel, Aberdare.
It looks like some one intends to develop the old Aberdare Town Hall building in the middle of Aberdare.
Location : The old Town Hall is situated opposite Aberdare Library, adjacent to Green Street Methodist Church, and on the road opposite Aberdare Constitutional Club.
Don’t forget …
There are thousands of Aberdare Photos in the Gallery
Originally uploaded by Aberdare Blog.
The daffodils and Japanese Cherry have had their turn to show off their bloom, but this week it’s the turn of the Horse Chestnut now looking splendid at Aberdare St John’s Church.
A chance encounter in Weatheral Street, Aberdare today : whilst taking a photograph the gentleman with white hair walks into view and smiles for the camera.
Russell Bowen is Aberdare’s Surgeon to Old Shoes. Perhaps we should call him the Surgeon General as he is the most senior cobbler in Aberdare and has been in the business of mending shoes for decades.
In times past, local craftspeople made and mended shoes, and therefore there were cobblers in every town and village.
Nowadays the majority of our shoes are made thousands of miles away, mostly in Chinese factories. Few of these shoes are built to last or be repaired.
The daffodils around St John’s Church brighten up Aberdare today, and it is perfectly timed for St David’s Day, Dydd Gwyl Dewi Sant, the patron Saint of Wales.
Photos of the flowers at St John’s Church in Aberdare on St David’s Day 1st March 2007
February 9th 2007. Aberdare Commercial Street today, at the heart of the town’s shopping district on a Friday afternoon and you could count the number of shoppers on one or two hands, and maybe a toe or two.
Many shops in Aberdare Town could not receive their usual deliveries. Bread and milk was selling quickly in the few shops selling these basic items.
Some journalists like to drum false stories into our heads suggesting that taking time off work on a day like this is “bad”.
As if we had sinned against man and nature to withhold a day of our labour on one of the most unusual days of the year.
We are but human beings and creative ones too, and the urge to build snow men, throw snowballs, and skate down icy paths is a natural urge.
Ten, twenty, thirty, forty, fifty, sixty or more. Age is no barrier. Take your Zimmer out if necessary. Form a snowball with your hands, sculpt something with this wonderful stuff falling from the sky.
There was a little time early today to steal a few moments at Aberdare Park following the heavy snowfall last night.
The snow brings a silence that provokes a sense of awe in nature. It is at times eerie.
Snow dusted onto the trees and shrubs accentuates their shape for the eyes.
Walking underneath the trees and a flurry of snow slips down on one’s head. The trees are old like the hills but they retain a school-child’s sense of humour.
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More photographs of Aberdare Park in the snow …
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“Nature is silent save when the poets lend her a voice. As soon as man is alone in the fields, he is overwhelmed by this mysterious silence; not a breath, not a sound; if his foot strikes a root; if he coughs, the ocean of silence immediately closes over that flowing noise like the calm waves over a stone fallen in the water. Silence here below is not an interruption of sound, it is sound which interrupts silence; and silence absorbs it, as darkness absorbs the meagre flash of a rocket, or the vanishing track of a shooting star. Let us look at the firmament; let us contemplate it, if we dare, for an hour, lying on our back with our face turned towards the milky way, and we shall then understand this thought of “Pascal” which makes us shudder : “The eternal silence of infinite space frightens me!”
Assuredly, there are sounds in nature; the leaves rustle, the brook murmurs, the wind roars or moans, the thunder rumbles; but in all this there is no language; and though we listen, attentive or anxious, we do not hear the words of consolation or revealation, for which we long. ” – Wilfred Monod “Silence and Prayer” (Allenson, London, 1931). (Translated by Gladys A. Slade).
