The anniversary of the Gresford Disaster, which took the lives of 266 men, will be marked today at a series of special events.
It was on September 22, 1934 that an explosion ripped through the Dennis Section at the colliery killing the men.
In all 261 miners, three rescue men and one surface worker died, leaving 164 widows and 242 fatherless children. Following the disaster the colliery was closed for years putting 1,700 men on the dole.
All the casualties lived in the Wrexham area but only 11 bodies were ever recovered.
At 11am the annual memorial service will take place at the Gresford Miners Memorial Wheel and a service will take place in All Saints Church at 2pm.
Meanwhile at Wrexham Museum a special exhibition pays tribute to the men and their families.
Visitors will be able to listen to the stories of ex miners, watch original film footage and explore fascinating objects and interactive exhibits in the Museum’s Mining Memories exhibition.
Work began sinking the pit at Gresford in 1908 by Westminster and United Collieries Group.
It was completed in 1911 and the mine was one of the deepest in the Denbighshire Coalfield. The Dennis shaft reached depths of about 2,260 feet.
By 1934, a total of 2,200 coal miners were employed at the colliery, with 1,850 working underground and 350 on the surface. Three coal seams were worked at Gresford. The Dennis shaft produced softer industrial coal but was prone to firedamp.
Gresford was always known for its big concentration of gas. Today it would have been siphoned off and used to fire surface boilers or fed into the domestic mains.
But in 1934 it dominated mining often killing men. Rescuers battled for 40 or more hours trying to push back the fires in an effort to reach the men known to be trapped behind the fire, but advanced no more than a yard or two. The first blast had come in the early hours of the Saturday.
An inquiry was launched - the likely cause was an explosion caused by a build-up of gas, chiefly methane, which was ignited, possibly simply by a spark from a metal tool – but no answers were provided, and to this day it is still unknown what caused the explosion.
Six men at work on the edge of the seam made their way out by devious routes.
Teddy Andrews, one of the six men to escape the flames, said after: “One fellow said: ‘Wait until somebody comes for us.’ But nobody was coming. It was the last time we saw them.”
Others were caught by the initial blast so ferocious it hurled men off their feet in different parts of the mine. If they were not killed in the first blast, they could have died in the deadly fire-damp gas or the fires that raged after. Only the winding gear built into a slate plinth remains.
But the disaster dominated public life long after, with an inevitable public enquiry bringing top experts and lawyers, headed by Sir Hartley Shawcross, Sir Patrick Hastings and Sir Stafford Cripps.
Evidence was given by the North Wales Miners Association, the Mines Inspectorate and the Gresford owners. But with most of it buried hundreds of feet beneath the surface, and other evidence partisan and contradictory, there was opportunity to trawl through records and challenge their accuracy at the hearing.
At the end there emerged specimen charges against the manager William Bonsall and many of his lesser officials, but in the end all but those against Bonsall were dropped.
He was charged with failing to keep records of air flow, As a result the company was fined £40 with £350 costs which seemed paltry compared to size of the disaster.
Earlier this year British Pathé released its entire collection onto online video sharing site YouTube including news footage of the disaster.
A new group has also been established, The Friends of Gresford Colliery Disaster, and visitors will be able to find out more about how to join and become involved at the Wrexham Museum exhibition.
Monday 22 September 2014
http://www.dailypost.co.uk/news/north-wales-news/gresford-mining-disaster-80th-anniversary-7807364
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