This image overlooks the villages of Blaenllechau and Ferndale. At the head of the valley lies the village of Maerdy, known as 'Little Moscow' because the workers there were at the forefront of the Trade Union Movement for Miners, 'The National Federation [The Fed]'. In 1885 the Maerdy Colliery became the latest mine in the Rhondda Valley to suffer an explosion, killing 81 miners. This colliery was the last own to close in 1990 bringing to an end 150 years of coal mining in the valley. There are now no working mines in the Rhondda.