 Due to the scarcity of inhabitants in the Rhondda prior to industrialisation , there are few residents of note before the valleys became a coal mining area . The earliest individuals to come to the fore were linked with the coal industry and the people ; physical men who found a way out of the Rhondda through sport ; charismatic orators who led the miners through unions or political and religious leaders who tended to the deeply religious chapel going public . 
