If you recognise this mural from Merthyr Town Centre, please drop us a note to let us know more about it.
It is located at the rear of High Street Chapel, in the centre of Merthyr town.
The wall itself may form part of the High Street Chapel.
Nearby is Merthyr Police Station.
The mural depicts many key landmarks in Merthyr Tydfil.
It’s very good!
Link to photos of the Merthyr Tydfil Mural
We had a knock at the door last night from a nice man called Ian. It was -3*C and he was going door to door with a petition. Ian was collecting residents signatures for his petition to raise awareness of one anonymous landowners intent to dig for coal on a small plot of land behind the graveyard in Caegarw, Mountain Ash.
We had been wondering about the sounds of heavy machinery and the Apex Drilling vans seen on our street over the past few weeks.
It appears that the plot of land was sold by Lord Aberdare in the ’60’s to this man and he has twice been denied permission to excavate the coal from a 100 year old tip.
We understand that the land has a preservation order on it due to its environmental value following the tree planting which has occured on it. It is close to a hospital and two
schools, not to mention hundreds of houses.
We wonder why this is being attempted again, when the council and Welsh Assembly Government have spent over £20 million on cleaning up the Cynon Valley, when there are plans for a new community hospital less than half a mile from the site and when there are concerned residents, the authorities have done nothing.
Has planning permission again been sought? If so, wouldn’t the residents who live within 500 metres of the plot have been told? Where is our voice in all this? We understand that the land is an old tip. We don’t want a return to dust and smoke - we value our environment and hope that the council and WAG do to. Anyone know anything about this???
The residents of Caegarw are a vociferous bunch and we welcome any information that can help us get to the bottom of the drilling, digging and the looming threat of coal dust again…
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Get it off your chest… Blog a reply to Jane’s story or Add Comments.
With so many interesting places in Mountain Ash Town we thought we would put them on map to make them easier to find.
Here’s a Map of Mountain Ash we baked earlier. Markers on the Map indicate a Link to Photos of interest.
Some of the things we’ve added to the map include :
Mountain Ash War Memorial; the Gorsedd Circle of Stones at Dyffryn Woods, Chapels including Providence, Nazareth, Soar, Ffrwd, Elim and others; Churches including St Margaret’s; Pubs including Napiers Arms, Mountain Ash Inn; the Workmen’s Club and Institute in Oxford Street, recently restored; the Town Hall; Mountain Library, and much more.
As this is a ‘work in progress’ if you would like to add photos, or suggest links, please get in touch.
What would the late and great Phil Weekes have to say about the closure of Tower Colliery this week ?
In 1974 at a Conference held during the Year of the Valleys, Philip Weekes described himself thus :
I have all the contrasts, the contradictions, the cussedness, the emotions that you will find in the typical valleys miner, which is what I claim to be. My devotion to the Valleys has no logic that I can discover; it seems to be rooted in emotion. An emotion that made me demand that I be removed from an exciting job as Director-General of Mining in London - to run the largest, geologically-toughest, most unprofitable coalfield in Britain, and probably, Western Europe.
Weekes was a genius communicator but even he would now find it difficult to articulate his disappointment at the demise of our old way of life in the Valleys.
We have prepared a collection of Aberdare Grot Spots using photos from a variety of locations across Aberdare and Rhondda Cynon Taf.
One of the ugliest grot spots is perhaps at the top of the Mountain overlooking Aberdare. Hereabouts people dump their fast-food flotsam.
Visitors coming to Aberdare via Maerdy in the Rhondda are greeted by the sight of wrappings from the local junk food merchants.
In fairness to Aberdare’s local Council, they clean up the mess left by other people pretty soon, but perhaps, Rhondda Cynon Taf Council should prosecute a few more litter-bugs to ‘get the message across’.
Local recycling mascot Rhyscycle does an excellent of educating young people about the importance of recycling. Maybe it is now time to invent a similar cartoon character to help educate the Neanderthal adults in our midst who have not yet discovered the modern invention called a dust-bin!
Click on the thumbnail photos to see larger versions.
