Wrexham marks 90th anniversary of Gresford disaster

Today marks the 90th anniversary of the Gresford mining disaster, resulting in the deaths of 266 people, with 253 remaining entombed.

A special ceremony to mark the anniversary will take place at the memorial in Pandy at 11am this morning.

On Saturday 22 September 1934 Wrexham were due to play rivals Tranmere Rovers at the Racecourse, and with many miners being loyal supporters many worked through the Friday night or swapped shifts so they could make the game.

At around 2am, an explosion, likely caused by a spark igniting high levels of gas, ripped through the Dennis section of the mine causing a fire. It is believed those closest to the explosion were killed instantly and others succumbed to carbon monoxide released by the blast. Six managed to escape, but 261 were killed.

Statement from survivor John Samuels – via National Archives.

Within a few hours, volunteers entered the mine and managed to recover seven bodies. Later that morning the official rescue team went in. Tragically, three rescuers were killed by the carbon monoxide, bringing the death toll to 264.

As the news reached town, many people went to the pithead waiting in hope for loved ones to emerge. As the hours became days anxious families’ worst fears became reality. The miners had not survived. The families’ attention now turned to attempts to recover their loved ones so they could be given a proper burial.

Crowds gathered by the Gresford Colliery pit following news of the explosion. Image via National Archives photograph from the Wrexham Star by kind permission of Margaret Jones.

On 25 September, George Brown became the 265th victim of the disaster when he was hit by flying debris above ground caused by ongoing explosions within the mine.

Letters and petitions have now been published by the National Archives from the Wrexham community asking the authorities to continue efforts to retrieve those killed.

It was decided that Chief Inspector of Mines, Sir Henry Walker, would lead the official inquest into the disaster. It opened on 25 October 1934 in Church House, Wrexham.

In March 1935, a recovery team was allowed to enter certain areas of the mine. While wearing breathing apparatus, the team built ‘stoppings’ for ventilation to bring fresh air into the pit. They were able to recover the body of John Lewis, the third man killed in the initial rescue attempt.

After two months, the recovery team had reached the Dennis section, but due to safety concerns were prevented from continuing far enough to retrieve the 254 bodies that remained underground.

On 5 June 1935, Ralph Rogers, from Rhostyllen, wrote to Ernest Brown, Minister of Mines, enclosing a petition signed by 319 people. It pleaded ‘every possible effort should be made to recover the bodies before proceeding to produce coal at the above colliery.’

Rogers worked at Gresford along with his stepson, Walter Hughes (24), who been killed in the explosion. The Manchester Guardian reported a ‘grim-faced’ pair, including Rogers, waited outside a local hotel to personally deliver the petition to Brown.

As time went on, the community became concerned that the mine owners’ need for profit would outweigh their need to respect the mine as the final resting place for 254 men and boys.

One letter outlined the widely held belief within the community that the authorities didn’t want to recover the bodies or inspect the scene of the disaster in case it provided evidence of their culpability.

We have been very patient, waiting quietly, for nine long months in the hope that the rescue teams were working for that purpose [to recover the bodies] All the time they were preparing to get coal which apparently is all that matters even after murdering our men. If nothing is done to get them we can believe nothing else only that the officials want to hide their guilty secret of how they blew up the Gresford pit and murdered our brothers and fathers.
Mrs M Lloyd

In January 1936, against the pleas of the families to recover the bodies or close the mine, Gresford Colliery reopened for business. This was despite the ongoing inquiry, which wouldn’t publish its findings until January 1937.

Not only had the community lost loved ones, but they had also lost precious wages to support wives, children and parents. The miners tended to be paid on a Friday and many victims had collected their pay before going down the pit, which was now lost. On wages owed for the night, the mine owners decided to only pay up to the time of the explosion. With the mine closed until 1936, over 1,000 Gresford miners signed on the unemployment register.

However, public sympathy for the bereaved families was strong. Donations flooded into relief funds, which raised over £580,000. But disagreements around its management arose leading to suggestions the community was being treated unfairly.

Sir Henry Walker’s inquiry into the disaster was published in January 1937, but it failed to attribute any outright blame or definitive cause of the explosion that took place in the early hours of 22 September 1934. Its conclusions were contentious, with the Gresford community feeling they had been given false promises. They viewed the Mines Inspectorate and mine owners as being on the same side, with the interests of the miners and their families being considered secondary.

In December 1934, the East Denbighshire coroner opened an inquest into the deaths of the seven miners and three rescue men whose bodies had been recovered. But, after ascertaining their identities, he delayed the inquest ‘pending the Government Inquiry into the cause of the Disaster’.

With the inquest pending, it wasn’t possible for the deaths of any of the victims to be officially registered. It wasn’t until June 1938 that the Secretary of State, Sir Samuel Hoare, issued a request for the inquest to resume.

Finally, in October 1938, four years after the disaster, the inquest returned verdicts of ‘death from carbon monoxide poisoning as the result of an explosion’ for the 10 men whose bodies had been recovered. The same verdict was reached on 57 of those whose bodies had not been recovered, but then the inquest was adjourned again until 9 November.

Once resumed, the coroner concluded that the remaining deaths were the result of the explosion, but that there was not sufficient evidence to show how the explosion occurred. Following this, it was decided to close the inquest.

In April 1937, at Wrexham Petty Sessions, 42 charges were made against the colliery company, manager and officials. In the end most were withdrawn or dismissed. The pit manager was found guilty on eight regulation breaches, and fined £140, or around £8,000 today.

The memorial that stands in Pandy commemorates the 266 lives lost: 261 miners killed in the explosion, the three men from the rescue team, George Brown (the man killed by flying debris on the surface) and 22-year-old Frederick Strange, who died in hospital on 14 October 1934.

Of the 266 victims, 254 were never recovered.

Rich Knew from local company Knew Productions recovered historic video tapes from Wrexham’s past, including a rare interview (above) with one of the survivors from that day. Although the quality can be poor at times it’s well worth 12 minutes of your time.

The list of the dead illustrates what a truly local disaster this was, with many if not all roads still in use and still occupied nowadays:

In the last couple of years the disaster has been highlighted to a global audience by the Welcome to Wrexham documentary series. Wrexham shirts have had the 1934 date since the takeover, and this season the club’s shirts have the number 266 and a representation of the Gresford Colliery wheel on the nape of the neck, in remembrance.