Ferndale
Ferndale is a town situated in the Rhondda Valley in the area borough of Rhondda Cynon Taf, Wales. Neighbouring towns are Blaenllechau, Maerdy as well as Tylorstown. Ferndale was industrialised in the mid-19th century. The very first coal mine shaft was sunk in 1857 and also was the very first area to be intensively industrialised in the Rhondda Valley. In Welsh, Ferndale is known as Glynrhedynog, the name of among the old farms on which the town is constructed. In its early stage Glynrhedynog was also known as Trerhondda after the name of the very first big church to be integrated in the community. The identifying of settlements after churches was widespread in Wales at the time, as is shown in town names such as Bethesda, Beulah as well as Horeb, however neither Glynrhedynog nor Trerhondda was predestined to be made use of for long. Glynrhedynog is made from the words "glyn" suggesting valley as well as "rhedynog" indicating ferny, and so coal from the Glynrhedynog pits was marketed as Ferndale coal, a much easier name for English customers to absorb. The Ferndale pits are what drew the workforce and their households to the area, and by the 1880s "Ferndale" was well developed as a growing community. With the phasing in of bilingual roadway indications from the late 1980s onwards, the name Glynrhedynog gradually came back as well as is currently the formally marked Welsh language name for Ferndale. The Welsh language is on the boost in Ferndale after the town embraced the English language throughout the Industrial change. A Welsh language school is situated near the park as well as the school is named after the park's lake, 'Llyn-y-Forwyn.' (The Maiden's Lake).
