INTRODUCTION
Having left the village almost 35 years ago I have proven that the saying “you can take the boy from the village but you cannot take the village from the boy” is true since my roots and family are in the area.
Following my retirement in 2000, it was with great interest that I read both volumes 1 and 2 of A History of Fochriw in Photographs by Peter Price and Portrait of Rhymney, Vols 1 and 2 by Marion Evans.
Furthermore, I rediscovered a copy of The Gelligaer Story, which was produced in 1953 by the then Gelligaer Urban District Council. Thus was born a desire to find out as much as possible about the history of Fochriw which includes geological, industrial, social and any other aspects related to the village and its immediate environs.
My interest was further cultivated upon finding, via the internet, that the relatives of the late Emlyn Evans and Alderman Payne had donated their research papers to the Glamorgan Records Office in Cardiff and this depository proved to be a mine of information from two individuals who were both natives of Fochriw and had undertaken in-depth research on the village over a period of many years.
This website is dedicated to the memory of the late Emlyn Evans who spent many years researching the history of the village and who produced a vast amount of information which has been an invaluable contribution in the compilation of this record.
Furthermore, I should like to acknowledge the sizeable contribution made by his friend Peter Bowen of Cardiff, who, after Emlyn’s death, typed from the newspaper records, collated and digitised all the material onto one compact disc, thus supplementing my own researches and making my task that much less onerous.
David Emlyn Evans 1915 - 1997
