hitony said:I dont know the last time you visited Blackwood, but i was there yesterday and in all honesty i am around that area due to work on a weekly basis, Blackwood and the surrounding areas are doing very well, theres so much Private Housing gone up there, (and theres still loads being built) and none of them are empty!, the road systems have so much improved from 25 years ago that places like cardiff and other big towns (with plenty of employment) are easily accesible.
I was living in wales during the times you are talking about, and i remember them well.
I was going to say similar about Yorkshire. Our next door neighbour was a miner. He was glad to get out of the filthy stinking pit, take his redundancy money and re-train as a manager for Victoria Wine co. He left there later and is now a manager for a building company.