Although there are reports of men dwelling in the Darran Valley from the Stone Age, the first real community to establish itself took its name from the largest farm at the time, Ysgwyddgwyn. In 1800
there were just 100 inhabitants in the valley,
however with the discovery of coal in the area this
was to rise dramatically to approximately 2,500 by 1900.
The village developed into two parts; the area on
the East side of the river being Deri and the area
to the West, Darran. The completion of the new
railway station in 1889 meant that a name had to be decided on
and ‘Darran and Deri’ officially replaced Ysgywyddgwyn. Over the years the
name Darran was dropped and the village became known as it is today, as Deri, from the Welsh word meaning ‘Oak Trees’.
Throughout the coal mining of the Industrial Revolution, several collieries operated out of the Darran Valley. The Darran Pit, which at its peak employed 272 miners, features in the black list of mining disasters of Great Britain. On Friday October 29th 1909, 27 men were killed in an explosion at the pit. Although the men continued to work at the mine after the disaster, it was officially closed on September 6th 1919. The 2 biggest pits in Deri were the Groesfaen and Ogilvie; these provided most families in the village with an income during their time in production. The Groesfaen was the deepest pit to be sunk in Deri and was the largest employer in the village until the Ogilvie opened in 1923. The Ogilvie was twice the size of Groesfaen and was the highest producer of coal of all Powell Duffryn’s pits, employing up to 1,500 men and boys at its peak.
By 1975 both pits had stopped production and the sites were subject to land reclamation schemes by the National Coal Board and Welsh Development Agency. The tips were grassed over and trees were planted, in an attempt to remove all traces of the coal industry and restore the area’s natural beauty. 125 acres of the Ogilvie Colliery were designated public space, a lake was developed and the waterfall over the quarry face restored. Nowadays, the former Ogilvie Colliery site is known as Parc Cwm Darran. The beautiful country park separates the villages of the Darran Valley, Fochriw to the North and Deri to the South. For many present day visitors to the area it is hard to visualise the environmental damage caused and how the valley must have looked during the peak of the coal industry in South Wales.
