How Well Read Was My Valley?: Reading, Popular Fiction, and the Miners of South Wales, 1875-1939

In 1915 James Milne, editor of Book Monthly, traveled the United Kingdom describing the state of the book trade. ¹ Of Wales he stated that "books are coming to be more part of the life of the Welsh people than they once were," and he noted that "the Welsh miner is a great reader." ² Milne's judgment has since become a commonplace, seemingly confirmed by autobiographical reminiscences, library records, local newspaper articles and other primary documents. In this essay I will investigate how far South Wales miners in the fifty years up to 1939 could legitimately be called "great readers." What were the roots of their alleged appetite for books and reading; how was this appetite satisfied; and of what did their fare consist?

The hard meat of dialectical materialism, namely, the philosophical, economic, and sociopolitical writings of Marxism-Leninism, has often been seen as a major component of the miners' reading diet. ³ Milne himself called the miner "a student of serious books, including Carlyle and Emerson and the prophets of what may be called the social gospel." ⁴ Twenty years later the Reverend Reginald Barker, a Methodist minister in Tonypandy in the Rhondda Fawr between 1924 and 1935, confirmed Milne's impression, stating that in the Rhondda Valleys, the geographical and intellectual center of the South Wales coalfield, more miners knew "the writings of Karl Marx and the philosophy of Dietzgen than in any other working-class community in the country." ⁵ How had such tastes developed and were they shared by the majority of South Wales miners? Was fiction consumed with the "same eagerness and understanding?" ⁶

Initially the South Wales coalfield was Welsh in its traditions, mentality, and language. Thousands migrated from the depressed counties of rural Wales to the higher wages of the mining regions, such as the Rhondda Valleys, where the population rose from less than 24,000 in 1871 to more than 55,000 by 1881. Over the next three decades, far more immigrants arrived from the English border counties and beyond: by 1911 the population of the Rhondda had nearly tripled to 152,000. ⁷ Culturally and linguistically, the result was Anglicization in the eastern coalfield, the maintenance of a Welsh identity in the more rural western sector, and a mixture in the central Glamorgan valleys. Some miners lived in urban areas, but more typical was the ribbon development of mining settlements, running along narrow valley floors and creeping up the steep hillsides. This created localities with village-like spirits as well as isolated communities at the top of dead-end valleys, where communication with neighboring villages was difficult, despite being only a few miles distant over the hills. ⁸ The economy of many villages depended entirely on the pits, with no alternative employment. One industry and one class dominated; a sense of uniqueness and solidarity was born in communities, which looked to themselves to provide social, cultural, even educational facilities. Such geographic, demographic, and sociological factors were significant in shaping the reading experience of the South Wales miner.

As in England, state-run primary education was introduced in Wales with the 1870 Education Act, but did not become compulsory until 1880 and was not provided free until 1891. Earlier, basic schooling was offered via church-run, day, and "dame" schools. In South Wales mining districts, two further groups were instrumental in advancing reading and education--the colliery owners and Sunday schools. Following a practice begun by late eighteenth-century ironmasters, colliery owners offered welfare and social facilities, including medical care, places of worship, schools, and libraries. Employees were expected to contribute to their children's education in these "works schools," either voluntarily or as part of their conditions of employment. ⁹ Payment was deducted straight from their wages, via "poundage," a system that became crucial in the later development of Miners' Institutes and libraries in South...