Living the high life in mining community
ON THE edge of Bwlch mountain rests rows of terrace houses with breathtaking views of the Valleys.
While Wales is known to be a hilly nation, the residents of Vale View Terrace in Nantymoel live on one of the highest streets in the country.
The street is frozen in time, with picturesque views looking over the Ogmore valley in Bridgend county. Many of the residents have lived in the street for decades, and some have moved in from further afield.
Despite a gloomy day with heavy rain, the street is still full of charm, as the last remaining dusting of snow is seen on top of the terrace houses and around the area. As we walk down the street, just off the mountain edge, we meet Cheryl and Les John, who live in Cheryl’s family home.
Cheryl, 75, explains that she was born in this house, in the bathroom upstairs, and has no desire to leave. Cheryl is a mother and grandmother and said she has a lifetime of memories in her home. She added: “This house is my whole life, and I wouldn’t change a thing.
“My mother and father moved down a few streets as he had pneumoconiosis (which was common for coal workers and known as black lung disease) and couldn’t walk up and down the steps on the street outside. My husband and I then bought this house from them around 1969.”
The Valleys are known for their tightknit communities, and Cheryl’s most memorable experience of this was during the blizzard of 1982. As we sit on her sofa looking through old photo albums, we come across a picture of Les and his friend Bernard Jones – who were firemen in the pit – standing out in the snow in their mining gear.
“We all helped each other by getting food and coal – we all rallied together to get things up and moving.”
She explained that the snow was so deep on the street that sheep from the mountain were walking on top of locals’ cars.
Cheryl said the biggest change to the street was after the closure of the local coal mine, adding: “The closure of the pits was very heavy for us in the Valleys – it was a hard and terrible time. Then everyone started disappearing and going their separate ways – they had to find different ways of living and jobs. It was a horrible time.”
Cheryl said that she and one other neighbour are the only two left who were raised on this street.
The only downside for Cheryl, living so high up, is not being able to drive, which is her “biggest regret”, as being in her 70s has made it hard to independently travel. But she knows that she can rely on her neighbours if she ever needs help with anything.
“Although there are new people on the street, they’re all great people and there’s still a strong community support system – I only have to ring a neighbour and they’ll be here to help,” she said.
We’re next invited into Sandra Levy’s home. The 65-year-old, and her husband, originally from South Africa, moved to the street in November 2022.
“We moved from Zimbabwe as my son is living in Cardiff. We came down and saw the view here and had to take this house to experience the Valleys,” said Sandra.
Mining homes were built around collieries as a simple two-up, twodown. The couple say their home feels small compared to properties in Zimbabwe, where pools on a large property are the norm.
Sandra added: “I never thought in my life I’d be living in a mining house but it’s got loads of character.”
Sandra said the main road outside her home is “scary to drive” and took a bit of time to get used to. Laughing, she said that driving around the mountain has been a terrifying experience as there’s no barriers, but she’s built up more confidence to drive around the area in the past few months.
Her only concern about the street now is fast drivers and wishes speed
bumps were in place to slow cars down outside her home.
It has been a “lovely culture shock” for Sandra, as she couldn’t get over how “friendly the Welsh are.” Sandra said that the first week they moved in they were left without heating and her next-door neighbours were quick to help by providing portable heaters for the couple to use during the cold winter days.
She added that it’s lovely that Wales is also a big rugby nation, like South Africa, despite this year’s Six Nations showing.
“I find a strong Welsh accent a bit difficult to understand, and I’d love to be able to pronounce the street signs. Once I’m settled, I’d like to understand the pronunciations.”
As we sit around her dining table, she gives the Welsh phonetics a go and nails the “ch” pronunciation – which she says is similar in Afrikaans.
As we brace the rain once again, we venture down the street and see a “fresh eggs” sign on a window of a rather charming house that was once only known as “the home with the tree growing out of it” before it was renovated.
We’re invited in and speak to Alison Desbrow, who moved from Brighton to Cardiff in 2013 and then to Nantymoel in 2018, with her husband Steve.
Alison said that house prices appealed to their decision to move to the families and said that it’s a lot “quieter and friendlier” than the capital.
She added: “It’s a good little house with an amazing garden”, which people might not necessarily associate with a former miner’s property. Her garden is also home to her two pet chickens which lay eggs daily, so she leaves them outside in an “egg hub” – with a little donation pot – for her neighbours to take, which has proven “rather popular” in the community.
Like Sandra, Alison was surprised at the warmth and compassion she received from her new neighbours as soon as the couple moved in.
A l ison explained that when she and Steve moved here, she was recovering from cancer and Steve had just suffered a stroke.
She said: “When it happened, all the neighbours were so lovely and helpful.” She added that she didn’t think she would have had that support living in a city. As you walk up and down the street, you can still see pockets of history frozen in time within some properties, but most have been renovated and are very modern inside. Over the years, neighbours have come and gone from Vale View Terrace, and there is now a mixture of locals, elderly, young families and people from the larger cities living on the street – but the sense of a tight-knit community is still as strong as ever.
We moved from Zimbabwe as my son is living in Cardiff. We came down and saw the view here and had to take this house to experience the Valleys
Sandra Levy