Rhondda
Rhondda or Rhondda Valley is a former coal mining community in Wales. The area is actually two valleys: the larger Rhondda Fawr valley (mawr large) and the smaller Rhondda Fach valley (bach small). The singular term 'Rhondda Valley' and the plural 'Rhondda Valleys' are both commonly used.
Rhondda Fawr
The larger of the two valleys, the Rhondda Fawr, extends from Porth and rises through the valley until it reaches Blaenrhondda, near Treherbert. The villages that make up the Rhondda Fawr are:
- Blaencwm a district of Treherbert.
- Blaenrhondda a district of Treherbert.
- Cwm Clydach a community.
- Cwmparc a district of Treorchy.
- Cymmer a district of Porth.
- Dinas Rhondda a district of Penygraig.
- Edmondstown a district of Penygraig.
- Gelli a district of Ystrad
- Glynfach a district of Cymmer
- Llwynypia a community.
- Pentre a community.
- Penygraig a community
- Porth a community that sees itself as the unofficial capital of the Rhondda, mainly due to its geographic location.
- Ton Pentre a district of Pentre.
- Tonypandy a community.
- Trealaw a community.
- Trebanog a district of Cymmer
- Trehafod the most southernmost and smallest of the Rhondda Valley communities.
- Treherbert a community.
- Treorchy the largest community in either of the valleys.
- Tynewydd a district of Treherbert
- Williamstown a district of Penygraig.
- Ynyswen a district of Treorchy.
- Ystrad a community.
Rhondda Fach
The Rhondda Fach is the smaller of the two valleys. Villages include Wattstown, Ynyshir, Pontygwaith, Ferndale, Tylorstown and Maerdy. The settlements that make up the Rhondda Fach are as follows:
- Blaenllechau a district of Ferndale.
- Ferndale a community.
- Maerdy a community.
- Penrhys a district of Tylorstown.
- Pontygwaith a district of Tylorstown.
- Tylorstown a community.
- Stanleytown a district of Tylorstown.
- Wattstown a district of Ynyshir.
- Ynyshir a community.
Rhondda Media
River Rhondda in the Fawr Valley near its source in Blaenrhondda
Llyn Fawr Reservoir in 2008
The ruins of the Hen Dre'r Mynydd settlement at the head of the Rhondda
1735 Welsh (Powys) longhouse typical of those found in medieval Rhondda.
Llwynypia looking north towards Llwynypia Hospital, (c. 1912)
Commemorative statue to the "Mining Communities of Rhondda" Robert Thomas (1926–1999)
The Lewis Merthyr Colliery, now part of the Rhondda Heritage Park
Cwmparc leading into Treorchy in the Rhondda Fawr
Statue to "Our Lady", the pilgrimage site at Penrhys
