Born in 1950 in Caerphilly, I was very lucky to see and experience Welsh Valley life before modernity and technology came along. No central heating, double glazing, few motor cars, no mobile phones, no television, foreign holidays, showers - you were lucky if you had a bath and an indoor toilet! Few people locked their doors, there was so little mechanical noise that you could hear a dog barking from across the valley. Despite the great change arriving in pop culture in the early sixties (in a small venue in Cardiff at the age of 15 I saw the Beatles, Rolling Stones and Bob Dylan each ticket to see them about £5 in today's money), communities were still tight. Most people were given an affectionate, humorous nickname - Mrs Up and Down, Eyeshigher, Eighteen months ( had half an ear missing), Dai Dogs, Evans the Death (the undertaker), etc. I left this environment in 1970 to study Painting and Drawing at Cheltenham Art College, a town where retired Colonels lived taking the Spa waters and strolling in the lovely parks. I myself now lived in flats on these Regency Crescents enjoying the wonderful architecture and environment for the next three years. When I returned to the Valleys the terraced houses with smoke coming from the chimneys and the way that people still looked and behaved was all the more intense for me. And so I began to record what I saw in Paintings and drawings. They were spotted by the then Welsh Committee representative for the Interceltic Festival at L'Orient, Brittany. My work was exhibited at several of these festivals in the late 1970's. I later went on to buy my own Gallery in Brittany in the early 2000's. My life has been spent in Art Education, both teaching and moderating 'A Level ' examination work. On retirement, I have spent more time on my own work, exhibiting for many years at the Harbour Lights Gallery in Porthgain and the Steam House Gallery, Beer. Since Covid and the lockdowns I have seen many nostalgic photos on group sites on Facebook, which made me decide to make more drawings of the Abertridwr and Rhymney Valleys, hoping to illustrate how things once looked. A small sample are exhibited here. I've found that my best results are with 2B Pencil on Arches hotpressed watercolour paper, using vintage frames for extra authenticity.