Sparsely populated until the nineteenth century, the Rhymney Valley in south Wales was industrialised in the early 1800s for iron ore and then coal, to meet the massive demand for Welsh steam coal; by 1900 it had seen an enormous increase in population, with around forty working pits at the peak in 1913. In the early 1970s the local authority started to re-landscape the abandoned workings and make safe the waste heaps, and new industrial estates were built over old colliery sites. By 1984 only two working mines remained. The author was commissioned by the district council through Ffotogallery Wales to photograph industrial landscapes, and also decided to document workers in various industrial units and striking miners.