Came looking for answers. But had to search some more. Within The Aberdare Leader from 1906 - 1918 there are several references to "Snakes." None are derogatory, and it seems they are proud of the moniker. Cannot, therefore, have anything to do with 'blacklegs' during a miners' strike. Best, I've hears from a friend was that Aberdare was full of snakes, I'll guess grass snakes, with the lush greenery.
Anyway, here are the references with links. (There are a few other obscure Welsh references as well, which I've left out.)
newspapers.library.wales/view/3576837/3576845/80/From 1906
By the way, a. good proportion of the Rhondda population is made up of "Snakes Aberdar" and "Gwyr y Mount." Thirty or forty years ago, when the Ocean Collieries and others were being sunk, there was quite a "grand trek" from the Aberdare Valley to the two Rhonddas. People believed that the Aberdare Valley was played out, and that it'was only a matter of a few years before it would be completely deserted except by a. few farmers and shepherds. Rhondda was the new El Dorado, and thither they flocked. They left John, Nixon and sought David Davies, Llandinam.
1915 in the WW1 trenches.
newspapers.library.wales/view/3579806/3579813/72/This is soot from the trenches which we hold.—Yours, Pte. G. Taylor, Aberaman, .the old Aberaman Ath- letic linesman Pte. T. W. Williams Pte. T. Bowen, Cwmaman, one of the best of sports. Last but not least, Lance Corporal Wyndham Jones. They call us-the Aberdare lot-" The Snakes."—Yours, Swift, Grenadier Company, 58th Brigade, 9th Welsh, B.E.F., France.
And in 1914, again from the Aberdare Leader, a poem...
newspapers.library.wales/view/3579761/3579767/76/"I drink a peint when I feel feint,
And sometimes drink too many,
But when I'm sick and want a peint
My trowsis pockets' empty;
But now, beware, you Snakes of Dare,
You slackers bold and cheeky,
Old Count still lives just off the square
And gives good peints quite tidy!"
There's another line. "Long live the Snakes.—Down with the Germans!"
And there's this longer story... No idea from what time. But published in The Leader 1918
newspapers.library.wales/view/3581246/3581248/23/SNAKES AND STUMPS.
With regard to the derivation of the term "Gloran" (stump) applied to the" natives of Ystradyfodwg. Morien wrote to the Press the other day: "It will amuse many to learn the complete story as to how the term originated- The facts are as follows:—A farmer of Aberdare had sold a pony to a farmer of Ystradyfodwg. He had taken it across the mountains with' out, it was alleged, having paid the full price agreed upon. That night's' party of young men from Aberdare followed and took the pony out of the offender's stable. As they were hurrying away with it up the steep ascent behind Pentre farmhouse, the Ystradyfodians, led by one 'Die Fawr' (Big Dick), overtook the Aberdarians. Dic grasped the pony's 'gloran' (stump) and the Ystrad folk, catching hold of Die, all pulled, while the Aberdarians tugged at the pony's head. The struggle was desperate; the poor poly plunged about, and all of a sudden t'u' stump' came off and the 'glorans' fell over each other down the way they came. What became of the pony afterwards, history leaves no record. At fairs ever after the Ystrad folk were hailed as 'The men with the stump. 'Ystradyfodwg retaliated by nicknaming 'Gwyr Aberdar' 'Snakes' a play upon the word sneaks."
