Penygraig
| Penygraig | |
|---|---|
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 Penygraig
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| Penygraig shown within Rhondda Cynon Taf | |
| Population | 5,554 (2011) |
| OS grid reference | SS995915 |
| Principal area | |
| Ceremonial county | |
| Country | Wales |
| Sovereign state | United Kingdom |
| Post town | TONYPANDY |
| Postcode district | CF40 |
| Dialling code | 01443 |
| Police | South Wales |
| Fire | South Wales |
| Ambulance | Welsh |
| EU Parliament | Wales |
| UK Parliament | |
| Welsh Assembly | |
Penygraig (Head of the Rock) is a village and community in the Rhondda Valley in the county borough of Rhondda Cynon Taf, within the historic county boundaries of Glamorgan, Wales. As a community Penygraig contains the neighbouring districts of Dinas, Edmondstown, Penrhiwfer and Williamstown.
The original settlement which in now Penygraig was called Ffrwd Amos, though as with the rest of the Rhondda before industrialisation the only settlements were farmsteads. In 1832, Soar, one of the first baptist chapels in the Rhondda was built at Penygraig by preacher David Williams.
Coal mining began in Penygraig in 1857 when Thomas Ellis sank a drift mine. In 1858 Moses Rowlands and Richard Jenkins discovered a seam at Penygraig and would later form the Penygraig Coal Company. The Company sank the first deep pit in the village, The Penygraig Colliery; after which the village would be named. After the Penygraig Colliery showed a successful profit the Naval Colliery Company opened a second deep pit, The Pandy, which reached the steam coal seam in 1879. The Pandy was then sold to the New Naval Colliery Company after three disasters, which then opened three more deep mines The Ely, the Nantgwyn and the Anthony Pits. The New Naval company would then become part of the Cambrian Combine, owned by Viscount Rhondda. The Ely Colliery would be the centre of the Cambrian Combine dispute, which in turn would lead to the Tonypandy Riot.
The first of three disasters to occur at the Naval Colliery happened on 4 December 1875 when a flood broke through into the mine, resulting in two miners drowning and the lives of many others placed at risk. Then on 10 December 1880 a gas explosion took the lives of 101 miners out of the 106 who were working in the mine at the time. This was followed on 27 January 1884 when another explosion led to the death of fourteen men. These disasters are likely factors in the Naval Colliery Company selling the mine in 1887.
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Wikipedia