Women of the Rhondda 1971
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- čas přidán 26. 08. 2020
- My grandma (Doreen Adams) in a 1971 documentry.
"A slave to the home" is one participant's memory of daily life for women - while the men were slaves to the mine owners - in a coalmining area of South Wales in the 1920s. The industry was riven by strikes in this era, including the General Strike of 1926, and times were even tougher for the women when the men were out on strike. These four women of the Rhondda Valley speak eloquently to camera - they have clearly been put at ease by the filmmakers - as they tell of lost hopes of careers as a teacher or vet, and recall happier times too.
Director:Mary Capps and Mary Kelly
Featuring:Doreen Adams,Alice Boxall,Beatrice Davies
Released:1973
heartbreaking. says alot about the trauma still in the valleys to this day.
Folk don't know they're born these days.
That was very moving I love the Rhonda people they are the salt of the earth lovely people
Wonderful, proud to have descended from similar Welsh women ❤
My granddad was a miner in Cwmaman.remember spending time during summer holidays and help getting coal in for them.
Everyone should watch this. I left the Rhondda Valley when was 9 years old, I'm now 80, to live at The Pier Head, in Cardiff, both poor but diverse neighbourhoods. Everyone struggled. Men went out to work, they were the bread winners. Women stayed home to care for home and children. It used to be a man's place to provide for the family. Woman had the responsibility of spreading the wages in order to pay the bills. If you were lucky, you had a husband who only took from the wage packet enough for a drink once a week. If you were unlucky you got what was given. Food would run out completely. Cups of this and that would be passed over fences to neighbours. Always returned ASAP. Very hard times, which went on for years and years.
I'm reading John Le Carré's book 'Call For he Dead' ... and he mentions (p.69) the miners of the Rhondda striking. I didn't know about this. I am grateful to you for posting this piece of history. I cannot say, words don't express how deep the sadness... the unfairness... for all the people who suffered under the companies making money off of the labour of these men and their families... and the governments that allowed this. And it goes on and on, still, around the world. But the goodness of these men and women... ! Wow. Solid, and earnest ... and honest. That is something to be proud of. Thank you.
I was nine years old in 1971. That was the year my family moved to England. I have moved all over the world since then (I have now settled in New Zealand) but the Rhondda has never left me. The reserved dignity of the people. The closeness of the community.
My grandfathers were good men who died before I really got a chance to know them. Worked to death and choked by Pneumoconiosis - coal dust trapped in the lungs.
Five years before this film was made the Aberfan disaster demonstrated the disdain of the Coal Board. 13 years after it was made the Thatcher government acted with unforgivable callousness. 20 years on from 1971 and this once proud community was decimated.
I believe the Rhondda is slowly rebuilding now. I wish them every success.
Sincere thanks to the uploader for this well-made documentary.
This video is based in Wales not England.
I should have made it more clear. We moved from Wales TO England when I was 9 years old. I was born in Tonypandy. @@jca111
@@jca111@jca111 My understanding is the person who left the lovely comment moved to England from Wales aged 9 in 1971 ending up in New Zealand - and was thanking you for uploading the film about the Rhondda where they and their Grandfather coalminers were from.
Brings tears to my eyes.
Very interesting and emotional
Hard Times! So Moving!
Respect for all miners+families.x
These woman are so strong
Very sad but that generation had great women. Something we lost along the way. As a product of Walsh and East African seamen born in the 70s in TigerBay. I just learned more about the history and culture of my mother and her heritage.
Thank you
Thank you for this (How you get these old pre-vcr vids amazes me). And people outside these communities rarely appreciate the sacrifices that Rhondda mothers gave (even growing up in The Rhondda in the 60's my mam often went hungry to give me and my sis food at lunchtime until dad came home (not in the mine then) with his pay-packet.). And I notice that Alice Boxall was one of the interviewees. Was Rhondda's Mayor at one time.
The country has largely forgotten that less than a hundred years ago these people were worked to the bone for just enough to keep them turning up and if you got sick or injured then you lost that wonderful privilege. Who needed slaves when you had these people queuing up to risk life, limb and health for a weekly pittance?
Isn’t it appalling to see the way it was and still is ..these incredibly bright women born into the middle classes indeed would have been Vets or teachers ..opportunities to achieve desires and dreams are sadly still the preserve of the middle classes ,the BBC for instance
I'd love to know their names so I can see I know family
@20:30 are their names. My grandma was Doreen Adams
How bleak.
Sadly the money all went to the NC in London nothing different to what uk did to a lot of countries draining the money on the backs of people.
Not much has changed really
my nan always used to say goying instead of going must be a welsh thing