Gresford disaster documents found

Albert Rowlands has not been down a mine since the disaster

Historic documents about the 1934 Gresford Colliery disaster have come to light in the vaults of a north Wales law firm.

In all 266 men died when an explosion rocked the mine near Wrexham, a tragedy that sparked a controversial inquiry.

Seventy years on, solicitor Glen Murphy discovered an old file in the vaults of Cyril Jones and Co in the town.

The documents include the official report on the disaster to Parliament which was published in 1937.

Mr Murphy's find included a copy of Sir Henry Walker's controversial report into the disaster on 22 September, 1934 and detailed plans of the mine.

There was also a copy of the song, The Gresford Disaster, and an order of service for the third annual memorial service at Parciau, Wrexham.

I was always hoping to see my dad. But he never came back and his tally was left there hanging on its hook Albert Rowlands

"It was a tragedy on a scale almost unbelievable to those involved and one that changed the course of industrial practice in this country," Mr Murphy said.

The firm's founder, Cyril Jones, represented the families of many of the miners killed and instructed Sir Stafford Cripps, barrister and radical left Labour MP, who offered his services free to the Miners' Union.

The owners employed Hartley Shawcross, later Chief British Prosecutor at the Nuremburg Trials.

The subsequent inquiry and court case only found the mine's management guilty of inadequate record-keeping.

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 in the 2,263 ft deep Dennis Shaft.

The disaster struck at a time of great depression, and many of the Gresford miners worked double shifts simply to make ends meet.

Bodies

The memory of the disaster is still fresh in the mind of one man, believed to be the last survivor of the workforce.

Albert Rowlands, 87, who lives in Borras, had not long left school when his collier father got him a job in the lamp room at the colliery.

His job was to hand out the lamps to the miners as they went on shift and to issue them with a tally when they returned them. Next shift they would exchange the tally for the usual lamp.

"Us boys in the lamp room had to be there as soon as the men started arriving for work," Mr Rowlands said.

"We were cycling to work with my dad and he told us to get on or we'd be late so we went on ahead.

Crowds gathered to hear news of loved ones after the blast

"He picked up his lamp at the other window so I never saw him again. Two others of his friends were with us and they were lost as well. They're all still down there."

The bodies of the dead have never been recovered, and the catastrophe remains one of the coal industry's worst disasters.

"They only found ten and they came up covered in blankets. I saw them. But by Sunday they had given up," Mr Rowlands added.

"I was always hoping to see my dad. But he never came back and his tally was left there hanging on its hook."

Coal mines at that time were thought to be 10 times more dangerous than modern pits, and miners had a one in seven chance of injury.

"Gresford always had a bad reputation even before the disaster," Mr Rowlands said.

"I think the men were expecting something to happen there. It wasn't very nice."

In April 1937, at Wrexham Petty Sessions, 42 charges were made against the colliery company, the manager and officials. In the end most were withdrawn or dismissed.

Parliament debated a motion calling for improvements to working conditions in the mines and Sir Stafford Cripps called for the nationalisation of the industry which came about 10 years later.

Mr Rowlands has not been down a pit since, but he still remembers Cyril Jones and Co represented the miners at the inquiry and that afterwards his mother received a shilling (5p) a week for him until he was 15 and 2/6d (12.5p) a week for his sister.