News Archive

Writers in their Landscape:
Lewis Jones bus tour in Clydach Vale

Saturday 19 September 2009
Departure: 9.30 am from Cardiff, National Museum, Cathays Park
(returning to the same location by approximately 6.15pm)
English language tour

No more extraordinary fictional response to the history of the south Wales coalfield has been written than Lewis Jones’s (1897–1939) Cwmardy and We Live. This bus tour will take us to the Heritage Park Hotel in Trehafod, where Dr Ben Curtis will talk about the social and political history of the valley, while Dr John Pikoulis, Academi’s Co-Chair, will examine Jones’s personality in the light of Cwmardy.

In the afternoon, we will embark on two guided walks around Clydach Vale. The first walk will lead us around two lakes, following the Clydach River down past the site of the old Cambrian Colliery. The second walk will take us through Clydach Vale village, past the Community Centre and two of Lewis Jones’s homes, including the one his novels were written in. Both walks will be guided by Dr. John Pikoulis and Dr. Ben Curtis and we will be joined by local historian David Watts, who has lived in Clydach Vale all his life and has worked in the Cambrian Colliery as a miner before its closure in the mid 1960’s.

Born in Clydach Vale in 1897, Lewis Jones began work underground at the age of twelve. He worked for the National Unemployed Workers’ Movement, was elected a County Councillor in 1936, and died in 1939 after a day of speaking at numerous public meetings in support of the Spanish Civil War.

Tickets
Price: £37.00 per person/per tour
Academi Members & Associates: £35.00 per person/per tour

Fee includes tea/coffee, lunch, coach travel and lectures/talks. No other discounts are available.

Please Note:
This tour is now full, however names are being added to a reserve list.

Contact Academi on:
029 2047 2266 / post@academi.org

Or click here to visit the Academi website and download a booking form.