Ceremony to take place to remember those who lost their lives in Gresford Mining Disaster

Details of this year’s annual service of remembrance for those who lost their lives in the Gresford Mining Disaster have been announced.

This year’s ceremony will take place at 11am on Sunday 22nd September at the Gresford Colliery Disaster Memorial in Pandy.

Local schoolchildren and representatives will take place in the service.

Dozens of people attend the annual remembrance ceremony to pay tribute to those who lost their lives and were affected by the tragedy the morning of Saturday, 22nd September 1934.

The disaster took the lives of a total of 266 men after an explosion ripped through the Dennis section of the mine.

Just six miners escaped the raging fires that followed, leaving 253 men entombed where they died. Eleven bodies were recovered from the burning pit.

A surface worker was killed a few days later when another explosion blew off part of the seal used to cut off oxygen to the flames.

Almost every village in Wrexham County Borough lost someone.

Relatives of the dead, fought long and hard for 48 years, for somewhere to lay their flowers.

The memorial was built using one of the wheels from the Dennis headgear. It was dedicated on 26th November 1982 in the presence of the Prince of Wales.

The committee of Friends of Gresford Colliery Disaster Memorial is made up of representatives from relatives, ex mineworkers, Gresford Colliery Sports & Social Club, North Wales Miners Association Trust, Gwersyllt Community Council, Wrexham County Borough Council and Rev. Huw Butler, Vicar of Llay who replaced Rev. Canon David Griffiths when he retired due to ill health after conducting the service for 33 years.