Holly Country, known as the Coalbrook Mining Village until 1996,
is a town in
Fezile Dabi District Municipality
Fezile Dabi District Municipality, formerly known as Northern Free State District Municipality, is one of the 5 districts of Free State province of South Africa. The seat of Northern Free State is Sasolburg. The majority of its 460 289 people spea ...
in the
Free State province of
South Africa
South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the southernmost country in Africa. It is bounded to the south by of coastline that stretch along the South Atlantic and Indian Oceans; to the north by the neighbouring count ...
.
History
The settlement, located some 5 km from
Sasolburg
Sasolburg is a large industrial city within the Metsimaholo Local Municipality in the far north of the Free State province of South Africa. Sasolburg is further sub-divided into three areas: Sasolburg proper, Vaalpark (a more affluent cluster o ...
, is a former
colliery
Coal mining is the process of extracting coal from the ground. Coal is valued for its energy content and since the 1880s has been widely used to generate electricity. Steel and cement industries use coal as a fuel for extraction of iron fro ...
, and was originally named Coalbrook, probably named after
Coalbrookdale
Coalbrookdale is a village in the Ironbridge Gorge in Shropshire, England, containing a settlement of great significance in the history of iron ore smelting. It lies within the civil parish called the Gorge.
This is where iron ore was first s ...
in England. It was the scene of the
Coalbrook mining disaster on 21 January 1960; 435 workers were buried alive when the mine collapsed.
Richard Hse, a Taiwanese businessman, bought out the old mine village in October 1996, renamed it and turned the place into a hub of factories including clothing, shoes, stoves, wood and paper factories and a sportsfield.
[
]
References
Populated places in the Metsimaholo Local Municipality
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