Aberdare, United Kingdom

Eight miles northwest of Abercynon, towards the top of the Cynon Valley, is the spacious town of ABERDARE (Aberdâr), home to one of the Valleys' best museums, the Cynon Valley Museum & Gallery (Mon– Sat 9am–4.30pm; free), in an old tram depot next to the Tesco superstore. Exhibits portray the social history of the valley, from the appalling conditions of the mid-nineteenth century, when nearly half of all children born here died by the age of 5, to stirring memories of the 1926 General Strike and the 1984–85 Miners' Strike. Alongside are some fun videos and exhibits on Victorian lantern slides, teenage life through the ages, the miners' jazz bands and Aberdare's role as a prominent centre of early Welsh-language publishing.