Fernhill Colliery
Once a thriving mine, now there's little left to see.
Fernhill Colliery, sunk by Ebenizer Lewis around 1870, once stood at the head of the Rhondda Fawr valley. It was a major industrial site and a definitive part of the landscape.
Over the years, the Fernhill Colliery continued to expand, adding several new pits and further extending shafts. The colliery peaked in employment during the late 1930s when it employed around 1700 people. These numbers dropped to 1250 by 1945.
The end of an era…
The colliery began closing shafts over the next decades and its output was diverted to the nearby Tower Colliery on the other side of the Rhigos mountain. Throughout the 70’s and 80’s, Fernhill’s associated structures and outbuildings were dismantled and the colliery was officially closed in 1978. All remaining mining buildings have since been completely demolished and the area fully landscaped. Growing up in Treherbert today, there is little of the original mining landscape left to see.
How it looks today - the valley where Fernhill Colliery once stood.
