The Llynfi Valley Rivercare group has erected a monument in Garth to memorialise a tragic mining disaster at the Garth Merthyr Colliery in June 1897.
The cage carrying the men leaving their shift overwound as it reached the top causing the cable lifting the cage to snap. There was nothing left to support the cage and it plummeted 320 metres yards to the bottom of the shaft. Nine were killed, five men and four teenagers, the youngest being aged only 13.
In 2019/20 The Llynfi Valley Rivercare Group applied to the Heritage Lottery to erect a memorial to the disaster in Garth and were awarded £3,800. The bilingual memorial has now been placed alongside other historical information close to the Community Gardens and Senior Citizens Hall in Garth. It will serve as a lasting reminder to one of the tragedies that unfolded in the Welsh Valleys due to the mining industry.
