GRESFORD COLLIERY, A COAL MINING DISASTER IN WALES

Today, The Grandma is still relaxing at home. She has decided to read about Gresford Collery, a Welsh coal mine where a terrible disaster occurred on a day like today in 1934, after an underground explosion.

Gresford Colliery was a coal mine located a mile from the North Wales village of Gresford, near Wrexham.

The North Wales Coalfield, of which Gresford was part, runs from Point of Ayr, on the Flintshire coast, to the Shropshire border. Although coal mining records date back to the 15th century, it was not heavily exploited until the 18th century. By 1900, more than 12,500 miners produced three million tonnes a year.

Industrialist Henry Dennis of Ruabon, and his son Henry Dyke Dennis, began the colliery near Gresford in 1907.

The site was on the edge of the Alyn Valley, between the Shrewsbury and Chester Railway, later the Great Western Railway's Birkenhead to London Paddington line, and the old main road between Wrexham and Chester.

The Dennis' company United Westminster & Wrexham Collieries took four years to sink two deep shafts, the Dennis (downcast) and the Martin (upcast), located 46 m apart.

It was one of the deepest coal mines in the Denbighshire coalfield, the Dennis shaft reaching a depth of about 690 m and the Martin shaft about 686 m.

The first coal was produced in June 1911 and full production reached before the outbreak of World War I.

Three seams were worked: the Crank, the Brassey (named after engineer Thomas Brassey), and the Main. House coal was produced from the Crank seam, the Brassey seam was virtually gas free whilst the Main seam was very gaseous. Working conditions at the colliery were dusty, and very hot, the temperature often more than 32 °C.

The Dennis section was divided into six districts: the 20s, 61's, 109's, 14's and 29's districts, along with a very deep district known as "95's and 24's". These districts were worked by the longwall system but the 20s and 61's, which were furthest from the shaft, were worked by hand when the remaining districts were mechanized. The coal was renowned as being of very good quality and hot burning.

More information: The National

In 1934, 2,200 men were employed at the colliery, with 1,850 working underground and 350 on the surface.

The government passed the Coal Mines Act 1911 requiring every new colliery to have two intake airways into the mine, to allow air to circulate in the workings and only one air intake be allowed for the movement of coal.

Gresford Colliery was in operation before the law came into force and was exempt. Retro digging a new shaft made little commercial sense, and not much profit had ever come out of the pit, so the Dennis didn't undertake the work.

After the General Strike, cost-cutting measures were introduced in all mines, including in safety provision. Five local collieries -Westminster, Wrexham & Acton, Vauxhall and Gatewen - shut in quick succession during the 1920s and 1930s.

Mechanization, believed by the workers and unions to improve working conditions, created more dust and explosions, in an economic climate where the government were reluctant to enforce regulation.

By 1934, there were two main sections to Gresford Colliery, the Dennis and the South-east, which were both part mechanized. 2,200 miners worked in three eight-hour shifts. Some miners worked double shifts to earn extra money, despite it being illegal. The Dennis family owned a residual 45% stake in the colliery, and wanting additional profitability put manager, William Bonsall, under pressure to increase the productivity of the whole colliery.

One of Britain's worst coal mining disasters occurred at the colliery. The Gresford Disaster occurred on Saturday 22 September 1934, when 266 men died following an underground explosion.

As there was a football match on the Saturday afternoon between Wrexham and Tranmere Rovers, on Friday, 21 September, many miners doubled up their shifts, so they could attend the match. This meant there were more miners down the pit than there ordinarily would have been.

The explosion occurred in the Dennis district at around 2am, the time when the men would be having their mid-shift snack.

Only six men survived the blast. A fire followed the explosion, and the mine was sealed off at the end of the following day.

On 25 September, rescuer George Brown was killed on the surface when another explosion blew a seal off the Dennis shaft, and he was hit by flying debris. Only eleven bodies were ever recovered. The mine owners docked the men half a day's pay, as they had not completed a full day's shift.

Sir Henry Walker, the Chief Inspector of Mines, chaired the inquiry which opened on 25 October 1934, at Church House, Regent Street, Wrexham. Walker was assisted by John Brass, for the mine owners; and Joseph Jones for the Miners' Federation of Great Britain (MFGB). Both sides employed barristers, Hartley Shawcross for the owners; while the MFGB were offered pro bono publico the services of Labour MP and barrister Sir Stafford Cripps.

Walker wanted access to the evidence, and although the pit was reopened in March 1935, for safety reasons the Dennis section remained closed, and was eventually sealed. Having adjourned the inquiry in December 1934, by December 1936, Walker legally had to make his final report.

The report noted that before the accident, ventilation in some districts was possibly inadequate: in particular, it was noted that 14's and 29's districts were poorly ventilated. The report after the accident, considered that the main return airway for the 109's, 14's and 29's districts was far too small at 4 feet by 4, according to one witness.

Evidence was given that 95's and 24's district, at 792 m deep, was uncomfortably hot. There were numerous breaches of regulations regarding the firing of explosive charges in 14's district, taking of dust samples, and other matters.

The colliery had made an operating loss in 1933, and the manager, William Bonsall, had been under pressure from the Dennis family to increase profitability. He had spent little time in the Dennis section of the pit in the months before the disaster, as he was overseeing the installation of new machinery in the mine's other section, the South-Eastern or Slant.

More information: Wrexham

The disaster left 591 widows, children, parents and other dependants. In addition, over 1500 miners were temporarily without work, until the colliery was re-opened in January 1936. After each newspaper opened its own fund, they and national donations by September 1935 totalled £565,000.

The mine remained sealed off for six months after the explosion. Districts of the mine were gradually reopened, although the Dennis district, where the explosion occurred, remained sealed. Coal production restarted in January 1936, and by 1945 there were 1,743 men employed.

Gresford was officially closed on 10 November 1973 due to a combination of exhaustion of existing coal reserves and geological problems.

To this day, Wrexham Library has the memorial book on display with a list of the poor souls still buried underground. There is also a painting in All Saint's church, Gresford, depicting scenes from the disaster and rescue.

Nine years after the closure of the pit, in 1982 the headgear wheel was preserved as part of the Gresford Disaster Memorial.

On the 75th anniversary in 2009, various memorials took place, including Wrexham Football Club delaying their match by 15 minutes -as they would normally have done in the days when the mine was working.

More information: Wrexham AFC

Mining is a dangerous profession.
There's no way to make a mine completely safe:
These are the words owners have always used
to excuse needless deaths
and the words miners use to prepare for them.

Tawni O'Dell