The Gresford Colliery Disaster

90 years ago at the Gresford Colliery, near to Wrexham in Wales, an explosion and underground fire killed 261 men. 

Being one of Britain’s worst coal mining disasters, failures in safety procedures and poor mine management were contributing factors to the sad loss of life

After the event the damaged sections of the colliery were sealed permanently resulting in only 8 bodies ever being recovered.

The disaster took place in the Dennis shaft of the colliery at approximately 2am on 22nd September 1934. The exact cause was never determined and 253 bodies remain entombed to this day.

The mine was re-opened six months after the disaster and coal production resumed early in 1936, however, the Dennis section never reopened and the bodies of the victims there were sealed in. The colliery closed in 1973, the site was cleared and is now occupied by Gresford Industrial Park.

                                                              Pathe news clip

The Gresford Disaster is a folk song which has been widely recorded by artists such as Ewan MacColl (link below), the Hennessy’s and the Albion band and the song “The Colliers” on Seth Lakeman’s 2006 album Freedom Fields is also about the disaster.