1980s Cardiff & the Valleys

1980s Cardiff, Newport & the Valleys

Educating Cardiff 1985

In 1985, I was awarded an Artist in Residence post by the Arts Council of Wales.

Based at Llanedeyrn High School in Cardiff, a multi-cultural comprehensive school, my role was to set up a photographic darkroom and teach photography to sixth-form pupils. As well as this, I was asked to document pupils at the school, which would be exhibited at the Newport Museum and Art Gallery.

Over a four-month period, I began to photograph pupils at the school and they responded to me well. I was known to them as Rog, although many of the more formal teachers at the school found this to be inappropriate. Calling me 'Sir' or Mr. Tiley was not something I wanted to be known as! The headmaster and the art teachers were fantastic to me because I was working as a photographer, freelancing for national newspapers. I could phone in to say I was on assignment and wouldn't be in. If I was already at the school and I had to go on an assignment, I was allowed to take the minibus and students with me., under the title of 'work experience'.

Back in the 1980s, parent consent forms were not needed. Things were so different then.

As the residency came to an end, the school found extra funding to keep me on for another ten weeks. I continued to develop photography at the school.

Mines Rescue, Wales, 1983

When the collieries were working in the South Wales valleys, each pit had a mine rescue team. As well as major disasters in the mines, smaller accidents were common.

Miners from each pit would volunteer to join the mines rescue team. They were trained once a week in the local mines rescue centre. The photograph was taken in 1983 at the Crumlin mines rescue station in the Gwent Valleys.

Vigorous training would be undertaken, to cover all eventualities that may happen underground. The build-up of toxic gas was common, possibly causing a lethal explosion. The mines rescue teams trained wearing breathing apparatus, carrying out simulated rescues. They would also train the humidity chamber at the rescue station, working in temperatures in excess of 40 degrees Celcius. They would also carry out rescues in a simulated underground tunnel, carrying a stretcher and performing first aid to the casualty.

When the pits closed, so did, the mines rescue centre in Crumlin.

Miners' Strikes in the Welsh Valleys 1983 & 1984/85

A year before the year-long miners' strike in 1984/85, Welsh miners voted to strike over the closure of Lewis Merthyr Colliery in the Rhondda Valley. Unfortunately, other areas of the British coalfield did not support their comrades in South Wales. Lewis Merthyr Colliery closed just before the year-long British coalfield strike.

When the Welsh miners came went on strike, during the year, they were supported by their wive, partners, and families. Soup kitchens provided food for striking miners. Jumble sales were organized to collect money.

Six months into the strike, miners were enticed by the coal board and indeed the Tory government to return to work. Some did, thus breaking NUM picket lines.

The changing South Wales Valleys 1986-1993

Post miners' strike, the pits began to close, one after another. Communities deeply enrooted within the industry had to change, and change quickly. More housewives were returning to work, as their husbands no longer had well-paid jobs.

After the strike, women felt they had a place in valley communities. They were happy to drink in workingmens' clubs and be more independent.

American influences became apparent in the valleys. Mc Donalds in Merthyr and line dancing in the Rhondda Valley.

Pits were demolished and two became tourist attractions. The young generation of boys, many opting to work in the collieries, were now faced with more opportunities. Some moved away, and some stayed.

As a photographer documenting this, I remember the rapid speed of change.

Industrial Cardiff 1985

1985 was very busy working as a photographer. The miner's strike was coming to a conclusion and I was commissioned to photograph industry in the capital city of Wales.

A lot of the subject matter I captured has long gone. There was little evidence of health and safety; at least as we know it today. One lady machinist of a factory, wore slippers, as she felt comfortable. I was given a free run of the companies I choose to photograph.

I remember visiting the old Brains Brewery in the centre of Cardiff. They insisted on me trying samples of their beers. Those who have sampled Brains beers in Cardiff or the surrounding area will understand the strength of their brews. I left the company after photographing and stumbled through the streets of Cardiff until I sobered up!

I visited a cigar factory and again they invited me to sample their products. Being a nonsmoker, I declined the offer.

It was a good time for documentary photographers, as there were hardly any restrictions. It's unbelievable to think I took these photographs forty years ago!

Newport, South Wales 1983/84

The people of Newport during the 1980s, like many towns across the UK, faced change. The docks were about to lose coal exports from the pits in the Gwent valleys, as they would face closure toward the end of the decade.

New technology factories were attracted to the area with Welsh Office funding. They created jobs, for a growing female workforce. Inmos silicon chip plant was a major gain to the area. They provide opportunities to train in new technology and provided skilled jobs. The plant still offers much-needed employment to the area to this day.

Most of these photographs were taken whilst I was studying under Magnum photographer David Hurn, on the Documentary Photography course at Newport College of Art.

Newport recently celebrated gaining city status, twenty years ago.

Newport College of Art, (contact sheets) 1982/83

In 1982, after spending four years as an industrial photographer, I was accepted onto the Documentary Photography course, under Magnum photographer David Hurn.

I have included some of the many contact sheets from the photographic tasks were assigned to do during the first year of a two-year course.

The tasks during the first year of the course were:
1. Man at work
2. Relationships - People
3. Relationships - Inanimate objects
4. Portraits
5. Establishing shots
6. Three picture stories

For the first three terms of the course, we were only allowed to make contact sheets in the darkroom. We had regular critiques with the full-time staff; David Hurn, Ron McCormick, Clive Landen, and Daniel Meadows. We had regular visits from Martin Parr, John Benton Harris, Nick Hedges, and Paul Hill, to name a few. They talked us through our work as well as presented lectures on their own practice.

I loved my two years at Newport, learning so much, not just about documentary photography, but also people and how to build a relationship with them.