h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Entry: Gresford Colliery Disaster - A15713705
Author: Vicki Virago (That would be Mrs) ACE/Scout/Sub-editor - U205101

Put your hands up, those who know of this disaster.

Had a skim read and looks good so far I'll come back to this one...



P.S.
I *had* heard of it, but didn't know the details.

Rockhound

Thank you for writing this VV - It's very moving.

I know you're local - do you have any connections with the tragedy?

No connections. In fact, I didn't know of the disaster until my boss told me about it. He lives not too far from there.

I asked my granddad about the disaster and he can't remember much about it as he was only a lad at the time.

He remembers the football match between Tranmere Rovers and Wrexham and has a feeling that the proceeds were donated to the disaster fund. I'm awaiting confirmation of this from Tranmere Rovers FC.

He also thought that "some" of the victims remained down there. He was shocked to hear when I told him that none of the victims were brought to the surface and they are still down there to this day.

Hmmm... how did I come across this then?

"There are records dating back to the 15th century, although it wouldn’t be until the 18th century that mining for coal really took off and in 1900 there were over 12,500 miners in the North Wales area alone and they produced three million tonnes of coal a year."
-->
"There are records dating back to the 15th century, although it wouldn’t be until the 18th Century that mining for coal really took off. By 1900, there were over 12,500 miners in the North Wales area alone, and they produced three million tonnes of coal a year."

"One of the best harvesting of coal within the region." - this sentence doesn't make sense...

"cost cutting measures were introduced." --> "cost-cutting"
"A little after 2.00am Saturday morning" --> "2.00am that Saturday morning"
"They hadn’t gone 5 meters" --> metres

"Many groups, schools, businesses et seq" Do you mean 'etc'?

"By now, the accident had claimed 266 men and boys"
--> perhaps "claimed the lives of"?

Finally, you've used a lot of curly Microsoft Word apostrophes (’) instead of straight ones ('). The former look slightly slanted when editing the Entry.

Alex

I now remember why the name stood out: the Miner's Hymn, to the tune 'Gresford'

http://www.cmhrc.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk/gres.htm

----------

Anyhoo, I had a dig around some sites I have stored in my favourites (coal mines come up a lot in my present line of work ) You’re probably going to have to include a few metric conversions for young numpties like me who don’t do old money . And onto the text:

With the mechanisation came the realisation that deep coal reserves could now be accessed. Henry Dennis and his son, Henry Dyke Dennis began a coal mine near Gresford. Work began in 1907. It would take 4 years before the Dennis Shaft was completed. It was 2,263 feet deep. June 1911 would see the first coal from this new reserve come to the surface.


2,263ft is about 690m
There were two shafts (19ft 6ins or 6.00m diameter) dug, about 50 yards apart: Martin and Dennis. Dennis was used for air intake men and coal, Martin for air out-take and men and supplies.
The Dennis section extended over a mile underground, and was mainly working the Main and Brassey seams. Brassey was ‘virtually gas free’ coal for commercial use; while the Main (6ft – 7ft thick) was very gassy, producing ‘firedamp’ a mixture of gases (mostly methane) mixed with air, which is explosive.

In 1934 the colliery now employed 2,200 men. There were two main sections to the pit now. These were the Dennis and the South East. Some parts of the pit were mechanised, yet others were still dug by hand. They worked in three shifts, with the days and nights split into three. Many would work double shifts to earn extra money, but this was in fact illegal. No one stopped them.

In 1934 the colliery now employed 2,200 men. --> consider changing to -->By 1934 the colliery employed 2,200 men.

Probably me being dense, but were there three day shifts and three night shifts, or three 8 hour shifts per 24 hours? Just needs re-wording I think.

…The Gresford Colliery was exempt from this law due to it already being in operation. The law did make good sense though, yet the owners refused to take on the extra costs of digging out the extra air intake. The early hours of Saturday 22 September, 1934, would see this have fatal ramifications.


Because there were two shafts I had to re-read this paragraph a couple of times to get it, what about:
The Gresford Colliery was exempt from this law due to it already being in operation --> The Gresford Colliery was exempt as it was in operation before the law came into force.
digging out the extra air intake --> digging out the extra air intake to supplement the Dennis shaft


A little after 2.00am Saturday morning, Fred Davies heard and felt an explosion. He was in his cabin at the bottom of the shaft. He left his cabin to find out what had occurred, yet he couldn’t see anything as he was completely enveloped in dust. Davies then rang the surface to warn them that an explosion had taken place. The call was never answered.


http://www.wrexham.gov.uk/english/heritage/gresford_disaster/explosion_escape.htm suggests that Davies rang the surface, then rang the ‘clutch’ where the haulage machine was – it was this second call that wasn’t answered, due to the explosion.


At 7.00pm that night, the decision was made to abandon the rescue attempt and to seal off the pit in an attempt to snuff out the fires raging inside. It turned out to be the right decision to make as 3 days after the initial explosion, the Dennis section exploded once more. It killed one man on the surface. By now, the accident had claimed 266 men and boys, most of whom would stay within the pit and never come out.


Might be worth clarifying that the man killed three days later was caught by the cap or seal on the mine being blown off.


What did come out of the inquiry was that the Assistant Surveyor, Idris Cuffin had faked the July and August 1934 air measurements. He had made up the measurements after the explosion by the orders of Bonsall.


Might be worth adding that Bonsall had initially ordered Cuffin to not take the measurements; then after the event he ordered him to fake them to cover up the omission.

I might have some more tidbits to add after the weekend (if you fancy them) but other than that, good entry.

Thank you so much guys!!!

I've gone and worked through your suggestions and as far as I can see, I've now covered them all.

Hi VV, well, my hand stays down, did'nt know about this diaster.

The last sentence does'nt here read right somehow,

"It wasn't until they could hear further explosions from deeper inside the mine that they suddenly realised one thing. Should they continue, or risk their own lives in trying to save the men."

Should it read something like:- [feel free to ignore obviously]

'It wasn't until they could hear further explosions from deeper inside the mine that they realised the full dangers facing them. Should they continue,risking there own lives, or call off the rescue?'

Apart from that I think it's a darn good read.

ST.

Good stuff, VV!

Just a few pointers:

18th Century, not century, and Government not government.

Where you use single-digit numbers, you should write the word (eg the right decision to make as 3 days - three days).

He then rang the 'Clutch' wher the - where

I've updated those points guys.

Thanks for your help

I've had a phone call back from Tranmere Rovers FC. They've e-mailed me some information regarding the football match that was held.

The guy helping me is going to dig further into it for me. He said that their historian may be unaware of what happened and the fact that many miners actually doubled up on their shifts so they could attend the match...that's why the death toll was so high.

If this is the case, then he's going to ask their historian to contact me for further information.

In addition to this, they "may" wish to put a link on their website to this entry (if it gets selected that is). They've also asked that I e-mail the link to the entry before it becomes edited so they too can check that everything is factual. They are real stars!!!!

Wrexham FC on the other hand seemed very reluctant to help so I'm in two minds whether to put a link to their website on there. Sour grapes on my part eh!

Fantastic, VV!

Thanks Skanky!!

Below is a copy of an e-mail received from a gentleman from Tranmere Rovers.

Dear Toni,

I refer to your contact with Tony Coombes of Tranmere Rovers re the GresfordColliery Disaster in September 1934. I very much doubt if Tranmere would have foregone their share of Wrexham’s gate receipts on 22/9/34 by either of the means you suggest. They were apoor Division 3 club, with few prospects, making regular losses. It was the Depression too. Because net gate receipts (after match expenses and tax)were shared 80:20 between both teams, it probably was also not in the rules of the Football League to allow general free admission without their permission though, in the circumstances, that could have happened - but notin less than 24 hours?

The home club was obliged to submit a full financial statement for each game within 6 days so it was not something that WFC could have done off their own bat without letting the Football League know. It would be up to WFC to make any such arrangement and it would be theirdecision too what they did with their own share of net gate receipts - therein may lie your answer, I suppose.

It is also unlikely the Chancellor would have given up his Entertainment Tax dues so you can see WFC probably had little room for manoeuvre. However, you might be interested to know I have a copy of TRFC's 1934-35 Annual Report & Accounts which show a Receipt of £69.14s.6d – ‘Gresford Colliery Collection’, presumably taken on the ground at the next home game v Halifax Town on the 29th – attendance 5241, so an average of 3 old pence perhead. A corresponding Payment of £80.4s.0d is shown as ‘Donation and Collection, Gresford Colliery’. I have a news report of the agm in September 1935 but there is no mention of the Disaster – the club had been embroiled with the FA over maladministration. The board of directors had previously been cleared out so this was the dominant topic on the night. The club had made a loss of £1121 in 1934-35 to give you some context.

You might find that the two local bi-weekly papers in Birkenhead, theBirkenhead News and the Birkenhead Advertiser, around that time, reportedthe arrangements and maybe even what the arrangements were at Wrexham on the22nd. Contact Wirral Libraries at [email protected] .

Obviously, you should also see what the Wrexham papers reported especially with regard to the gate receipts there. Did other clubs arrange similar collections etc for the Fund and surely a list of donors was eventually published? One final thought, why not get yourself a copy of WFC's accounts for 1934-35 from Companies House in Cardiff? There should be some help there too.

Regards,

Gilbert Upton


This information has put a slight change on how the entry will go ahead so I need to do further investigations into monies donated etc.

great entry VV

I was wondering though, would the ballad excerpt work better as part of the intro?

Not sure. Where exactly would I put it?

just above or just below the first paragraph?

feel free to ignore me of course

No, I think you're right.

Just below the first para I think.

Thanks Sis!!!

Anything else?