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Taf Valley Lives, the new book by the noted Welsh historian Dr Denley Owen, includes 200 black and white, sepia and colour rare exclusive photographs. For the first half of the 20th century the rural valley of the Taf, which along most of its path divides the counties of Pembrokeshire and Carmarthenshire, changed little from its description in 1926 as… .the most remote and little explored region where dissent is embittered and all-powerful in such a cloistered world opportunities for the working class severely limited children were destined for a life in service. By 1944 two World Wars in thirty years served to loosen the grip of Dissent and affordable motor transport helped to overcome the valley’s remoteness. Most tellingly the introduction of free education and health care in the late 1940s went some way to provide working class children with a more level playing field which allowed them access to opportunities beyond the world of labouring. In this important historical record Dr Denley Owen reveals how three generations of labourers coped with their pre-war entrapment in the valley and how a working class family embraced the new opportunities available in the emancipated post-war community of the Taf Valley. These treasured memories of old Welsh agricultural Society resonate far beyond the small valley from which they come. Denley Owen’s careful record has opened the window for us on this vanished way of life, which engaged so many but is now remembered by so few. Thomas Lloyd OBE., DL., FSA Wales Herald of Arms Extraordinary
