Photos of a typical Rhondda Family in Ynyshir

Rhondda Valleys Information and History

Photos of a typical Rhondda Family - The Scard Family.

Frederick Scard was born in Cerne, Dorset circa 1862. Like most young men at that time throughout the UK, Fred was an agricultural labourer. Times were tough, and the land was unable to sustain so many workers. Sometime later Fred moved to the Rhondda Valley, settling in Ynyshir where he became a coal miner.

They lived at 5, Maindy Terrace, Ynyshir, right next door to the Lady Lewis colliery, and by now he had got married.

Maindy Terrace and the Lady Lewis Colliery, Ynyshir, Rhondda Valleys.

In about 1891 his daughter Fanny was born, and when she grew up she married a lad named John Owen Thomas, born circa 1886 in Llandwrog, Caernarfonshire. They went on to live in 4, Standard View in Ynyshir, so called because it looked directly over at the Standard Colliery.

The Standard Collieries (Coal Mines) in 1904

Life would undoubtedly have been hard for them, as it was for all mining families, and by 1925 Fanny and John Owen Thomas had four children, Annie May (born c1911 - died 1926 aged 15), William (born c1912 - died 1931 aged 19), Emrys (born c1916 - died 1982 aged 66), and Glyndwr (born c1925 - died 1990's).

Fanny Owen (nee Scard) died in 1931 aged 40. John Owen Thomas met his second wife - a widow named Margaret Ann Turner - whilst tending Fanny's grave in Trealaw. Their only child together - Gwennie - was born in 1933. In 2007 Gwennie was living in Merthyr.

These photographs are courtesy of the great great grand-daughter of Fred Scard - Hayley Weston. Click on them to see full size photographs.

Fanny Scard born 1891 died 1931	Possibly Fanny Thomas (nee Scard) - born c1891, died 1931 - in white blouse
John Owen Thom and his sons William and Glyndwr circa 1932	John Owen Thomas and his son Glyndwr circa 1928
William and Glyndwr Thomas circa 1928	William and Glyndwr Thomas circa 1930

Frederick Scard (born c1862) died 1956 - The man who came from Dorset to make a life in the Rhondda Valleys.

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