EXPLORE THE HERITAGE OF SOUTH WALES ON NEW CYCLE TRAILS

Launching today, Tales of the Trails is a Cycling UK project recording stories from mining communities in the Welsh valleys and bringing them to life with cycle trails

• Funded by the National Lottery Heritage Fund, the Tales of the Trails project has worked with Ynysybwl Regeneration Partnership and the Cambrian Village Trust to capture stories from residents of Ynysybwl, Clydach Vale and surrounding areas
• Online “story maps” and videos show how the stories relate to the landscapes visited by new cycle trails
• Project launched with Facebook Live event tonight (Wednesday 30 June) at 7.15pm

Cycling UK today launches a new heritage project which records the human stories of communities transformed by coal mining in the Welsh valleys. Tales of the Trails, funded by the National Lottery Heritage Fund, celebrates the heritage of Ynysybwl and Clydach Vale while inspiring residents and visitors to explore the area by bicycle.

The project brings together videos of local residents telling their stories, interactive online “story maps” and a network of cycle trails designed to connect place, people and heritage, ranging from a 2.8-mile lakeside loop to a longer 13-mile route suited to mountain or gravel bikes.

These communities have a long history, from prehistoric Iron Age settlements through the opening of vast collieries in what were previously remote rural valleys. The Clydach Vale collieries became synonymous with the rise of industrial activism, with the miners’ strike of 1910-11 and the Tonypandy riots instrumental in workers’ struggle to improve wages and conditions.

Gwenda Owen, Cycling UK’s engagement officer for Wales, said: “Tales of the Trails was inspired by my bike rides through the valleys and conversations with people living and working there. The impact of coal on South Wales can be seen from the trails, and the stories about how the rise and decline of the coal industry transformed the Valleys and the people who live in them deserve to be heard. Thanks to a 15-Minute Heritage Fund grant, we can tell those stories and allow people to explore them in the best possible way: by bike.”

The event will be officially launched with a Facebook Live event tonight (30 June) at 7.15pm. The event can be attended by anybody, free of charge, via https://www.facebook.com/events/895538207843668 or https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iSHtoh5ugXE.

The trails and stories can be found at https://www.cyclinguk.org/talesofthetrails.