Walking history

As a teenager I was entranced by the Alexander Cordell trilogy, "Rape of the Fair Country", "Hosts of Rebecca" and "Song on the Earth". I realise now that it was those books that sparked my initial interest in family history, because the fictional Mortymers were based on the families of the miners and iron workers who were my forebears in the industrial heartland of South Wales in the early and mid nineteenth century. And, just as I was fascinated then, I'm now completely immersed in the books again as I re-read them decades later.

On Monday we walked in glorious sunshine to the summit of the Blorenge, the "Iron Mountain" that stands between Abergavenny and Blaenavon. The view from the top is tremendous - in one direction across the borders to Gloucestershire and Worcestershire, in the other to the Brecon Beacons and the Carmarthen Fans. But the significance for me had more to do with the history over which we were walking; this is the "Fair Country" of the trilogy. Heather now covers the old mine workings, the tramways are foot and cycle tracks, the pond dug to supply the iron foundries is a recreational lake around which children play and people walk their dogs. As we strolled along the mountain paths that once echoed to the throb of the Industrial Revolution, the only sounds were the wind and the wingbeats of a raven flying above us - but for me the ghosts of the past were never far away.