Most people wouldn't remember the days when terraced homes were fitted with open coal fires. For decades, coal kept the valleys alive. Houses, villages even, were built surrounding collieries to give a home to the miners, and everyday those of us who live in the valleys walk in the footsteps of our industrial history.
One street on the edge of Treorchy, Tylacoch Place, is a stark reminder of that industrial past. Houses in the street date back to the 1800s and were originally built with the sole purpose of being yards away from the old Tylacoch Colliery site which first opened in 1854.
The houses were simple. Two-up, two-down. The toilets, outside of course, sat in front of the little cul-de-sac of houses, possibly shared between neighbours. The back gardens levelled up the mountain side, and as one resident told me, used to have a little lane going through them where the coal cart would come through delivering each home its fuel.
