The name Ferndale is a direct Anglicisation
of the Welsh name Glyn Rhedynog and was first adopted in
the 1860's, by either David Davies, Blaengwawr who sank
the Ferndale pits or his chief cashier Delta Davies. The
1847 tithe map for Ferndale shows a large expanse of woods,
meadows and fields, with the only human intrusion being
the two farms of Rhondda- Fechan, farmed by David Evans,
and Dyffryn Sarfwch, farmed by William Davies. Whilst across
the valley Blaenllechau were the isolated farmsteads of
Blaenllechau, Pendyrys Isaf and Pen-Yr-Heol.
The pioneer of the coal industry in this part of the Rhondda
Fach was David Davis (1797-1866) who had gained his wealth
firstly as a tradesman with shops in Hiwaun and Aberdare
and later as the owner of steam coal companies in Blaengwawr(Aberdare)
and Abercwmboi. He encountered numerous difficulties in his
attempts to mine the area around Ferndale. His first attempt
to reach the No.3 Rhondda seam were unsuccessful and the
isolated nature of Ferndale at that time meant that all the
machinery and materials for the enterprise had to be conveyed
from the Aberdare valley by horses, the mountain track being
too narrow for carts.
It was when Lewis Davis, David's son recommended sinking
the pit to a much greater depth that the Four Feet seam was
eventually struck at a depth of 278 yards in 1862. The quality
of the seam was found to be much greater than that found
in the Aberdare Valley and subsequently the No.1 pit was
also deepened to two equally important new seams. Meanwhile
the Taff Vale Railway had extended its operations from Ynyshir
to Blaenllechau, enabling in 1862 the first load of steam
coal to be sent from Ferndale to Cardiff. Thus the industrial
age in the Rhondda Fach had truly begun.
In common with most areas of the Rhondda upon
the discovery of coal and the influx of workers, accommodation
quickly became a problem. The original sinkers of the pits
(about 40 in number) had been lodged in one dwelling house, ‘Y
Lluest'. Whilst the first miners and their families, lured
to Ferndale through adverts in the South Wales press for ‘work
under good conditions', were housed in a large number of
wooden huts known as ‘The barracks'. In 1867 a reporter from
the ‘Times' who visited Ferndale described how "…almost all
the population of 800 is lodged in houses rudely built of
wood, like American log huts". It was not until into the
1870's when much larger numbers migrated into the district
that the huts were taken down and the colliery company built
the familiar long terraces of stone houses to house this
expanding population.
Ferndale like many of the towns of the Rhondda suffered
through the dangerous nature of the mining industry, particularly
in its early days. As well as numerous deaths through falls
of rocks, dram accidents and other similar incidents it
also suffered two major disasters in its early days. One
in 1867 where 178 men and boys were killed, and one only
two years later in 1869 when 53 miners lost their lives.
Striker looking for coal on the tips during the 1921 strike
Ferndale quickly became the main township
of the Rhondda Fach with a busy shopping centre, based around
The Strand, as well as The Ferndale Workmen's General Hospital
and Eye Infirmary, built in 1891. It also boasted numerous
chapels such as Trerhondda built in 1867, the Wesleyan Methodist
Chapel, built in 1880 and subsequently rebuilt after a fire
in 1893 by family, friends and colleagues of the late Lewis
Davis, the coal owner, as a tribute to his memory. It also
boasted numerous recreation facilities with Darran Park and lake, an outdoor
swimming pool as well as the ever present Workmen's Institute and Library.
FERNDALE COLLIERY DISASTERS -THE TRUE
PRICE OF COAL
In 1988 adjacent to where Ferndale No.1 and
No.5 pits once stood a memorial was erected commemorating, ‘those
miners who worked, or were killed or injured in the four
Ferndale pits. Including the 231 miners who lost their lives
in two frightful explosions at No.1 pit in 1867 and 1869'.
The Ferndale concerns were the property of D.Davies and Sons,
and prospered in the 1860's, however with the death of Davis
snr. in 1866 followed by the two explosions of 1867 and 1869
the enterprise at Ferndale started to founder. The disasters,
in 1867 when 178 miners were killed and 1869 when the death
toll was 53 gave Ferndale a reputation as a ‘bad place' where ‘the
shadow of death seemed to rest over the valley'. In fact
more miners died at Ferndale No.1 pit than in any other coal
mine in the Rhondda. As a consequence many of the miners
started to drift away from Ferndale to find work elsewhere
and Lewis Davis, the then owner, found it expedient to move
to Ferndale (where he built Brynderwen House) to personally
supervise the operations there. Thankfully no other major
disasters occurred at Ferndale, but the memory of the disasters
of 1867 and 1869 left a scar that took many years to heal
in this part of the Rhondda Fach. However the everyday dangers
of the mining industry can be shown by this list
of fatal accidents at Ferndale Colliery from 1896 . As
you can see in this one year alone thirteen men died underground
in separate accidents, a toll that would be echoed throughout
the mines of the Rhondda at that time.
‘FATAL FRIDAY AT FERNDALE' THE FERNDALE
NO.1 PIT COLLIERY EXPLOSION
8TH NOVEMBER 1867
The Merthyr Express newspaper of the time
reports the ‘tidings of one of the most calamitous explosions
in South Wales' (in fact the Surveyor of Mines report into
the explosion states it as being the largest ever number
killed in one explosion in his district at that time). The
newspaper goes on to describe the aftermath of the explosion,
the tides of sympathy felt for the victims and their families
from ‘throughout the land', and the scenes at the pit-head
where crowds had gathered to identify loved ones, and the
daily procession of bodies brought up from the mine. The
true scale of the tragedy in a small village such as Ferndale
where nearly every working man and boy were employed in the
same pit is illustrated by the mention of one victim Thomas
Thomas who died in the disaster along with his four sons.
The reporter also describes the grief of one girl who had ‘followed
one brother to the grave on Wednesday, another on Thursday,
and her father and third brother are still undiscovered in
the pit'. The report of the Mines Inspectors into the disaster
presented at the inquest into its victims states:
‘We believe the explosion took place, first - in consequence
of a great accumulation of gas in certain workings of the
colliery, and this accumulation we attribute to the neglect
of Mr. Williams the manager and his subordinate officers,
second - by this gas being fired by one or more of the
colliers carelessly taking off the tops of their lamps
and working with naked lights.'
After the explosion a Disaster fund was set up to alleviate
somewhat the suffering of the widows and orphans under
the chairmanship of Richard Fothergill M.P. The Minutes
Book of the Disaster Committee had been digitised and copies
are available on CD-ROM at our 3 main libraries to view
on computer.
FERNDALE COLLIERY DISASTER 10TH JUNE 1869
Less than two years after Ferndale suffered its first major colliery explosion
this little village in the Rhondda Fach made national headlines once again
when another major disaster occurred, this time claiming the lives of 53 miners
This time however it was the workers in the Duffryn section of the mine that
were killed while those in the Rhondda and Glo-Bach escaped injury, the opposite
to what occurred in 1867.
The report of the Inspector of Mines was unable to say exactly where the explosion
took place and could only surmise as to how it was caused. He believed Ferndale
being the only colliery in the immediate vicinity at that time working the areas
large quantities of Aberdare steam coal, known as being a ‘fiery coal', became
the only outlet for the large quantities of gas trapped within these seams.
As such the pit was worked exclusively with locked safety lamps and no shot-firing
was allowed during working hours. However the pit suffered from a number of occurrence
of falls and sudden influxes of gas into the workings, particularly between the
No.6 and No.7 headings where he speculates the explosion could have originated.
He believed that one of these sudden influxes of gas passing over a safety lamp,
even one in perfect working order, would be enough to cause the subsequent explosion.
His theory was that the gases came from the unworked two-feet-nine seam, some
ten or twelve yards above the four feet seam where the explosion took place.
He thus recommended that this seam be worked in tandem with the four feet seam
in future so that the gases contained within it could be dispersed through the
mines ventilation system. The conclusion of the inquest criticised the managers
of the pit for not implementing all the recommendations made after the 1867 explosion
and also criticised the pits ventilation system which they believed did not manage
to properly distribute air throughout all the pit.
