The famous Nos Galan Races commemorate the Welsh runner Guto Nyth Bran and his legendary athletic prowess. Stories of Guto include how he could catch a bird in flight, and how on one occasion he ran to Pontypridd and back, some seven miles, before the kettle boiled.

This article, written by David Walter Morris in 1996, describes parts of the town centre as they were seventy years earlier in 1926. David was born in 1912 and lived firstly in Broniestyn Terrace and then in Commercial Street. His father was a hosier and outfitter and when the family moved to Commercial Street, the town became very familiar to DWM, which no doubt enabled him to write accurately about the shops and other premises after such a long period of time. Photographs that illustrate some of the paragraphs are used with the permission of Rhondda Cynon Tâf Libraries, and can be found in the online Photographic Archive