Self Entertainment and Hobbies

For much of this period when people did have the time for entertainment they provided it for themselves. This was particularly true of children and Thomas Jones describes here some of the street games that were popular during his childhood in the 188Os:

Carnivals and visiting Circuses were also very popular with children in valley communities. Miners also made a great deal of their own entertainment and 'hobbies' were a passion with them. Amongst such popular pastimes were rabbit-snaring, pigeon-fancying, whippet racing and keeping allotments

Theatres, Cinemas and Outings

Organised entertainment first appeared in the 1870s when portable theatres were put up near public houses. Traveling actors would perform and seats for the performances were 2d. or 3d. By the 1890s permanent theatres such as the Theatre Royal in Tonypandy were being opened. In the same street was the Empire Theatre of Varieties. By 1914 the Cinema had arrived as well.

In a period when miners did not receive 'holiday pay', long holidays were rare events for a mining family. When they were taken, it would be to the seaside resorts and spa-towns of Mid and North Wales, or to relatives in the countryside. Much more common were day-trips to the coast of South Wales (usually Barry Island, Porthcawl and Aberavon) by coach or train, organised by chapels, schools and collieries. The account which follows by a Treherbert man off on a trip to Barry Island, shows the excitement of children on these occasions.
We were off, under the bridge, waving to people-Then they were lost to sight and there was nothing for it but to wait for the sandwiches and pop to appear ... Stomachs already crammed with food would then be further overloaded with sweets ... home-made lumps of toffee ... Spanish ... soda water. The sea was glimpsed for the first time ... After a solid year of village life ... it was like a sight of Araby . . . we stampeded like a herd of buffaloes to the water's edge.

Sport

>Like other industrial areas of Britain in the late 19th century, the South Wales valleys were obsessed with organised sport. Games such as and quoits were 'very popular and, especially in the Rhondda, handball had a great following. Boxing and foot-racing were sports which attracted gamblers. Thousands of spectators attended the many 'Powderhall' sprints and there were a surprising number of professional or semi-professional. runners in the valleys. Boxing varied from the bare fist fights organised on local hillsides which went on for as long as it took for one man to be beaten unconscious, to more organised and controlled contests. South Wales produced a number of boxing champions during this period, the most famous of whom were Freddie Welsh of Pontypridd who became world lightweight champion in 1914 and the legendary Jimmy Wilde of Tylorstown, who in a career of 864 fights lost only 4 and became flyweight champion of the world in 1916. The most popular of organised sports by the 1890s, however, were association and rugby football. Rugby was first introduced into South Wales by boys returning from public schools in England and the few public schools which existed in Wales itself. Despite this upper-class background it soon took hold in the South Wales valleys, with many rugby clubs being founded in the 1870s. In 1881 the Welsh Rugby Union was formed and in the same year the first international match was played against England, which ended in Wales being soundly beaten. A Llwynypia man explains the popularity of rugby in the valleys as follows:

Possibly it was the very nature of the miner's work which made rugby particularly attractive ... mining was tough, rough and hard ... These qualities were to develop a sense of camaraderie (fellowship) among workers, who tended to take their sport far more seriously than others ... taking part in the game gave the miner an opportunity of gaining more social prominence as a player for was he not rubbing shoulders with the elite and surpassing (overcoming) them at their own game.

Although miners were to be found in most of Wales' teams during this period (the 'Rhondda' type of forward-strong and robust-became famous) they often lined up along with schoolteachers, doctors and ministers of religion! In the early years of international rugby, valley clubs such as Treorchy, Treherbert, Penygraig and Llwynypia provided a steady supply of internationals. However, by 1914 it was the clubs on the South Wales coast-Newport, Cardiff, Swansea and Llanelli who dominated.

1901-1912 was Wales' first 'golden age' in international rugby when Wales won the triple crown six times and the first rugby 'superstars' appeared-W. J. Bancroft, Evan and David lames of Swansea and especially A. J. Gould of Newport. Perhaps the most famous game of these years was the 1905 victory over the all conquering New Zealand 'All Blacks' which was watched by 50,000 spectators in Cardiff. It did much to confirm rugby as the national game of Wales.

In North Wales soccer was much more popular than rugby and it was probably the migration of so many North Walians into the South Wales coalfield, along with Englishmen, which made soccer so popular in the valleys. At first Merthyr Town, formed in 1907, were the 'big, team and they were admitted to the Third Division of the English League in 1918. Cardiff City F.C. was founded in 1910 and within ten years had been admitted into the Second Division of the Football League, winning promotion to the First Division in their first season and in 1923-24 only failing to become champions by .024 of a point. Thousands travelled by train from the valleys to see Cardiff City, Newport County and Swansea Town Play and by the 1920s in many valley communities soccer had outstripped rugby in support.