Little is known about these unearthed images believed to have been taken during the 1980s

They come from a time when coal still ran through the veins of Wales, even if the industry was approaching its last days.

The smiling faces of miners, faces black with soot, hide the harsh reality of the job and the strains facing workers and their families at the time, with impending closures imminent.

These photos - taken before, during and after the Miners Strike of 1984-1985 - tell the story of the turning tide which would see the end of coal mining on the industrial scale it had enjoyed for decades.

The photos - 79 of them in all - were received earlier this year by the Glamorgan Archives, from staff working at the ON Fife Archives in Scotland after it had been passed to them by the Cardenden Mining Museum.

They include black and white photographs of miners working at the Abercynon Colliery circa 1980, photographs documenting the closure of the collieries in the 1980s and photographs of families collecting coal from tips during the miners' strike.

But little is known about the photographs, or who took them.

Some of the names of the men captured in the collection have been recorded but that is all the information that is available.

The Glamorgan Archives are now appealing for people who may have information about who took the photographs or the people and places that feature in them to get in touch.

Louise Clarke, Glamorgan's Blood Project Archivist, said: "If you have any information about the collection or any of the individual photographs please contact glamro@cardiff.gov.uk."

The whole collection can be viewed in the Glamorgan Archives search room and digital images can be accessed online through their Canfod catalogue.

Here are a selection of the most striking photographs in the collection.