Ferndale is a village located in the Rhondda Valley in the region borough of Rhondda Cynon Taf, Wales. Neighbouring towns are Blaenllechau, Maerdy and also Tylorstown. Ferndale was industrialised in the mid-19th century. The very first coal mine shaft was sunk in 1857 as well as was the very first area to be intensively industrialised in the Rhondda Valley. In Welsh, Ferndale is called Glynrhedynog, the name of one of the old farms on which the town is built. In its early stage Glynrhedynog was also called Trerhondda after the name of the first large chapel to be integrated in the town. The identifying of settlements after chapels was widespread in Wales at the time, as is received town names such as Bethesda, Beulah and also Horeb, yet neither Glynrhedynog neither Trerhondda was predestined to be made use of for long. Glynrhedynog is made from words "glyn" meaning valley and also "rhedynog" meaning ferny, and so coal from the Glynrhedynog pits was marketed as Ferndale coal, a a lot easier name for English customers to take in. The Ferndale pits are what drew the workforce and their family members to the location, and also by the 1880s "Ferndale" was well established as a successful town. With the phasing in of bilingual road signs from the late 1980s onwards, the name Glynrhedynog progressively re-emerged as well as is currently the formally designated Welsh language name for Ferndale. The Welsh language is on the boost in Ferndale after the village embraced the English language throughout the Industrial revolution. A Welsh language college is positioned near the park and also the institution is named after the park's lake, 'Llyn-y-Forwyn.' (The Maiden's Lake).