The Golden Valley: A Visual Biography of the Garw

The Golden Valley is a personal account in words and photographs of the Garw where Phil Cope has lived for thirty-five years.

In it he explores the valley’s history: sparsely worked agriculture; boom-town coal exploitation; sudden, followed by gentle, post-industrial decline; attempts at re-invigoration through heritage and leisure; and now, existing in a post-covid world. This is a classic example of close-knit communities shattered by the removal of the thing that bound them together.

Cope photographs the entire valley between March 2019 and January 2021, to create a contemporary, twenty-first century record. The ancient Garw hilltops above the valley, sometimes snow-capped, with their tombs and lost settlements are present. As are the much more recent settlements of the coal villages with their terraces once occupied by colliers, the repurposed miners’ institutes, the shops and chapels, and the now almost obligatory public memorials to a lost industry (and, in some cases, lost lives).

The valley’s natural beauty – some might say returning natural beauty – is also present, from the minutiae of the lichen on its windswept trees to the river which has shaped the valley with its timeless flow. The centrality of nature and landscape to the current and future life of the valley are also recorded, the walks and bike trails, the sports fields and wind turbines.

The Garw Valley has its own particular character as this book records so richly and compassionately yet it shares with other valleys the sense of creating a haven between its steep sides. Most of all its story is also the story of all the valleys of the former south Wales coalfield: in the Golden Valley lie all the other valleys of Glamorgan and beyond.