Ferndale is a small town located in the Rhondda Valley in the county borough of Rhondda Cynon Taf, Wales. Neighbouring towns are Blaenllechau, Maerdy and Tylorstown. Ferndale was industrialised in the mid-19th century. The initial coal mine shaft was sunk in 1857 and was the initial area to be intensively industrialised in the Rhondda Valley. In Welsh, Ferndale is referred to as Glynrhedynog, the name of among the old ranches on which the town is constructed. In its infancy Glynrhedynog was additionally referred to as Trerhondda after the name of the initial large church to be integrated in the town. The naming of negotiations after chapels prevailed in Wales at the time, as is shown in village names such as Bethesda, Beulah and Horeb, but neither Glynrhedynog nor Trerhondda was destined to be utilized for long. Glynrhedynog is made from words "glyn" implying valley and "rhedynog" indicating ferny, therefore coal from the Glynrhedynog pits was marketed as Ferndale coal, a a lot easier name for English customers to absorb. The Ferndale pits are what attracted the labor force as well as their families to the location, and also by the 1880s "Ferndale" was well established as a flourishing community. With the phasing in of bilingual roadway signs from the late 1980s onwards, the name Glynrhedynog gradually reappeared as well as is currently the officially designated Welsh language name for Ferndale. The Welsh language is on the rise in Ferndale after the town embraced the English language throughout the Industrial revolution. A Welsh language institution is positioned near the park and also the institution is called after the park's lake, 'Llyn-y-Forwyn.' (The Maiden's Lake).