Cilfynydd
Cilfynydd
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 Cilfynydd
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| Cilfynydd shown within Rhondda Cynon Taf | |
| Population | 2,855 (2011 Ward) |
| Principal area | |
| Ceremonial county | |
| Country | Wales |
| Sovereign state | United Kingdom |
| Post town | Pontypridd |
| Postcode district | CF37 |
| Police | South Wales |
| Fire | South Wales |
| Ambulance | Welsh |
| EU Parliament | Wales |
| UK Parliament | |
Cilfynydd is a village in the county borough of Rhondda Cynon Taf, Wales, a mile from the South Wales Valleys town of Pontypridd, and 13 miles north of the capital city, Cardiff.
Situated on the banks of the River Taff, the village was named after the farm that was situated on the east side of the valley, Cilfynydd Farm farmed by the Lloyd family most recently Gwun and Lewis now both deceased. Cilfynydd was originally a farming hamlet, consisting of some cottages built along the Glamorganshire Canal, surrounded by a few scattered farms. These properties, according to the 1881 census, housed about 100 people, but this all changed over the next two decades.
Sinking of Albion Colliery began in August 1884 on the site of Ynyscaedudwg Farm. It was owned by the Albion Steam Coal Company and opened in August 1887. It was served by the Llancaiach Branch line of the Taff Vale Railway. Production at the colliery quickly began to prosper and its average weekly output soon reached around 12,000 tons. This was an extreme amount of tonnage for a single shaft coal-winding colliery and one of the largest in South Wales. By 1893, 1,500 men and boys were employed at the Albion. The colliery's early years were relatively free of serious incidents.
Albion was the scene of the second worst disaster in the South Wales Coalfield, after the later disaster at the Universal Colliery at Senghenydd in 1913. At four o'clock on Saturday 23 June 1894, a massive explosion caused by the ignition of coal dust following an explosion of firedamp killed 290 men and boys. Of the 125 horses, only 2 survived. Many of the bodies brought to the surface were so badly mutilated that identification was virtually impossible, and there was several instances of corpses being carried to the wrong houses. Almost everyone in the community lost someone in the disaster, with one family in Howell Street lost 11 members: father, four sons, six lodgers were all killed.
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