Holly Country, known as the Coalbrook Mining Village until 1996, is a town in

Fezile Dabi District Municipality The Fezile Dabi District Municipality (; ), formerly known as the Northern Free State District Municipality, is one of the 5 districts of the Free State province of South Africa. The seat is Sasolburg. As of 2011, a majority of its 460,289 reside ...

in the Free State province of

South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the Southern Africa, southernmost country in Africa. Its Provinces of South Africa, nine provinces are bounded to the south by of coastline that stretches along the Atlantic O ...

History

The settlement, located some 5 km from

Sasolburg Sasolburg is a city in the Free State province of South Africa. The city is located in the northern part of the province and is the seat of the Metsimaholo Local Municipality. The city lies 13 kilometres south of the Gauteng province and form ...

, is a former

colliery Coal mining is the process of extracting coal from the ground or from a mine. 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 extra ...

, and was originally named Coalbrook, probably named after

Coalbrookdale Coalbrookdale is a town in the Ironbridge Gorge and the Telford and Wrekin borough of Shropshire, England, containing a settlement of great significance in the history of iron ore smelting. It lies within the civil parish called The Gorge, Shro ...

in England. It was the scene of the

Coalbrook mining disaster The Coalbrook mining disaster is the worst mining accident in the history of South Africa. The disaster occurred in the Coalbrook coal mine of Clydesdale Colliery on 21 January 1960 at around 19:00 when approximately 900 pillars caved in, almos ...

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 {{FreeState-geo-stub