The small town of Ferndale is located in the heart of Welsh mining country in the Rhondda Valley in South Wales. Ferndale was the very first community in the valley to be truly industrialised, when the first of nine coal mines was sunk in 1857. Together, these nine mines made up Ferndale Colliery.
Ten years after Ferndale No 1 was sunk, a second mine was added, ironically to become known as Ferndale No 3! Two years later, on November 8th, 1867, Ferndale Colliery was rocked by two large explosions. The recovery attempt was hampered by several roof falls, and it took almost a month to remove all the bodies from the mine, A total of 178 men and boys perished in the disaster, and many bodies were so badly burned and disfigured that identification was to prove impossible.
It was just 17 months later when another tragedy occurred at the Colliery. On the 10th of June, 1869 - 146 years ago today - 53 men and boys lost their lives in another massive explosion. Among the victims were two 13-year old boys - Morgan Jones and James Wilkins - and Abraham Mathews and Thomas Jones, both 14.
Ferndale Colliery closed in 1959.
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