Ebbw Vale Heritage Archives
Glyn Walters has assembled a film that goes to the heart of the communities of Blaenau Gwent, and in particular Ebbw Vale.
He has managed to create a potted history of Ebbw Vale Steelworks and the communities that supplied the brains and labour that made it once the envy of the industrial world.
By assembling footage, some of it dating from 1914, and taking a chronological approach, he gives a real picture of a community at work and at play. We meet real characters, witness exciting developments and enjoy the opportunity to wallow in nostalgic recognition of much loved landmarks sadly now no longer with us.
If the film has an overall message it is that the unique melting pot that produced the proud Valley people of Blaenau Gwent must somehow have been touched by Angel dust producing as it has people who are as hard as they are soft; as passionate as they are reserved; as humorous as they are dour, and always, always survivors. Industry will come and go, large and soulless corporations will continue to attempt to rip the heart out of communities for their profit but they will never extinguish the fire that burns in Valley souls.
