Ferndale is a town located in the Rhondda Valley in the county district of Rhondda Cynon Taf, Wales. Neighbouring towns are Blaenllechau, Maerdy and also Tylorstown. Ferndale was industrialised in the mid-19th century. The initial coal mine shaft was sunk in 1857 as well as was the first neighborhood to be intensively industrialised in the Rhondda Valley. In Welsh, Ferndale is known as Glynrhedynog, the name of one of the old ranches on which the town is built. In its early stage Glynrhedynog was likewise called Trerhondda after the name of the initial big chapel to be constructed in the community. The naming of settlements after churches was widespread in Wales at the time, as is received town names such as Bethesda, Beulah and Horeb, yet neither Glynrhedynog nor Trerhondda was predestined to be utilized for long. Glynrhedynog is made from the words "glyn" meaning valley as well as "rhedynog" suggesting ferny, and so coal from the Glynrhedynog pits was marketed as Ferndale coal, a much easier name for English purchasers to absorb. The Ferndale pits are what drew the workforce as well as their households to the area, and by the 1880s "Ferndale" was well developed as a thriving community. With the phasing in of multilingual roadway signs from the late 1980s onwards, the name Glynrhedynog gradually came back and also is currently the officially designated Welsh language name for Ferndale. The Welsh language is on the boost in Ferndale after the village adopted the English language during the Industrial change. A Welsh language college is positioned near the park as well as the college is named after the park's lake, 'Llyn-y-Forwyn.' (The Maiden's Lake).
