The Albion Colliery was sunk in 1884 on the site of the Ynyscaedudwg Farm in the then farming hamlet of Cilfynydd on the outskirts of Pontypridd. The pit opened officially in August 1887 and was operated by the Albion Steam Coal Company Ltd until its purchase by the Powell Dyffryn Company in the late-1920s. It was finally closed by the National Coal Board in 1966 and the site is now occupied by Pontypridd High School (formerly Coedylan Comprehensive School) which opened in 1984.
The pit itself featured two 19-foot shafts sunk 33-yards apart from each other to depth of 646-yards. Comparatively free of gas, the Albion Colliery forged a good record of pit safety until, on 23 June 1894, a massive explosion ripped through the underground workings killing 290 men and boys. At the time, it was the largest single loss of life in a coal mine in Wales and remains the second-worst disaster behind the Universal Colliery explosion in Senghenydd in 1913. Most of the community suffered loss. A further gas explosion in November 1906 killed six men.
