The Prince of Wales visits Wrexham to mark St. David's Day
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The Prince of Wales has visited Wrexham on St. David’s Day to celebrate Welsh culture and the city’s vibrant community spirit.
His Royal Highness first travelled to the Turf pub next to Wrexham AFC, where he was greeted by club co-owner Rob McElhenney, and heard about the positive impact the venue and the club has had on the local community. The Prince of Wales then visited the Racecourse Ground to hear about the club’s redevelopment and historic rise over the past three years since the takeover by Rob McElhenney and Ryan Reynolds. The year 2020 purchase of the club by Canadian actor Ryan Reynolds and American actor Rob McElhenney and the attendant publicity from the docuseries Welcome to Wrexham had a significant impact on the club's visibility, leading to its acquiring a new global fanbase with no precedent for a team who were then in the fifth division.
Wrexham's home stadium, the Racecourse Ground, is the world's oldest international stadium that still continues to host international games. The record attendance at the ground was set in 1957, when the club hosted a match against Manchester United in front of 34,445 spectators. More history here .
Following this, The Prince of Wales visited Ysgol Yr Holl Saint/All Saint’s School, to engage with its St. David’s Day celebrations and hear about the work pupils have been carrying out to learn about Welsh history and culture. During the visit His Royal Highness met pupils taking part in activities including Dawnsio Gwerin - traditional Welsh folk dancing - and baking Bara Brith, a Welsh tea bread flavoured with dried fruits and spices.
Whilst in Wrexham, The Prince also paid his respects at the memorial of the Gresford Mining Disaster ¹, one of the most serious disasters in British coal mining history. This year marks the 90th anniversary of the tragic event (1934) which saw 266 men die following an explosion at the mine.
Note ¹ :
GRESFORD COLLIERY EXPLOSION - WREXHAM. 1934
GRESFORD. Wrexham. Denbighshire.
22nd. September, 1934.
The Gresford Colliery was owned by the United Westminster Wrexham Collieries, Limited and was at the village of Gresford about two and a half miles to the north of Wrexham. The mine had two shafts the downcast, which was known as the "Dennis," and the upcast, which was called the "Martin." Coal was wound at the Dennis and materials down the Martin shaft. Men were raised and lowered in both shafts. The sinking of the shafts started in 1908, and coal was first wound in June 1911, so the mine was not "newly opened" within the provisions of the Coal Mines Act, 1911 and the provision that there must be two intake roadways from each seam did not apply to the colliery.
The mine employed about 2,200 persons, 1,850 below ground and 350 at the surface. Three seams were worked at the colliery. They were the Main, Crank and Brassey but by the time of the explosion, the workings in the latter were idle. The Dennis section of the Main Seam, in which the explosion occurred, was made up of five districts each worked on the longwall system. These sections were known as 20's, 61's, 109's (which included 92's), 14's and 29's and employed 280 men on the day shift, 240 on the afternoon shift and 195 on the night shift.
Coal was got and wound on the morning and afternoon shifts and some coal were wound on Friday and Saturday nights. The packs and faces were moved during the night shift. The weekly output of coal from each of the Districts during the ten weeks prior to the explosion was 928 tons from the 20's, 732 from the 61's, 813 from the 109's, 1,617 from the 14's and 1,340 from the 29's.
Mr. William Bonsall, the manager, had occupied that position since 1917, and for three years previous to that, he had been assistant manager to Mr. Groves. Previous to that, he had been a deputy for three years, an overman for three years and undermanager for two years at Swanwick Colliery, Derbyshire. Before that, he had worked for nine years as a filler, holer, and contractor at Pinxton and Cotes Park Collieries and for four years as a haulage hand at Birchwood Colliery, all in Derbyshire.
Until two years before the explosion, there was also an agent, Mr. T.H. Cockin, but that office had not been filled, and Mr. Bonsall was left to work the mine without guidance from any technically informed official. He visited several districts in the Dennis Section from time to time, but before the explosion, he had spent most of his time in the Southeast section where belt conveyors were being installed. He had been underground during the night shift, but it was so long ago that it emerged at the inquiry that he could not remember when it was.
For many years, Mr. Thomas Hughes was undermanager, but in 1933, he fell sick, and Mr. Edward Alan Roberts acted in his place. After January 1934, there were two undermanagers, Mr. Edward Alan Roberts and Mr. Andrew Williams, Mr. Roberts supervised the South-East and No.1 North Section of the Main Coal Seam and the Crank and Brassey Seams and Mr. Williams, the Dennis Section of the Main Coal Seam. Since 1914, Mr. Roberts had been employed as an overman at the colliery. Before 1934, Mr. Williams was not employed at the colliery but, up to nine years before he had been employed at the Hafod Colliery for 24 years. During the time he was not in the North Wales Coalfield, he was the manager of the Blaenhirwaun Colliery in Carmarthenshire. Supervising only the Dennis Section, Mr. Williams was underground daily but not at night. he arrived at the pit about 5 a.m. each day and left at about 5.30 p.m. but very often returned to the pit. He was underground during the night shift of the 27th April to see that repairers working on the 142's deep and on the night shift of the 7th August he visited the face of the 14's district to see how a newly installed coalcutting machine was working.
Electrical power was used for coalcutting and conveying, and the chief electrician at the colliery was Mr. Josiah Ernest Hague. Mr. Sydney Erwin Hayes was the Colliery surveyor, and he was assisted by Mr. William Idris Cuffin, who was also given additional duties under the manager's directions for taking air measurements and the collection of dust samples. There were three overmen on each shift, but only one of these, Mr. Frederick John Davies, on the night shift, exercised any supervision in the Dennis Section and that only occasionally. Previous to the explosion, the last time he had been at the face of any of the workings in the Dennis Section was on the 21st. August when he went along the face of the 14's District. Sometime during August, he had been along the face of 29's district and on the 19th. August, he was in 20's district but did not visit the face. In June, he had been in 23's face and 109's district, and in March, he went round the 95's district and in two or three faces on the 20's district. At the inquiry, Mr. Davies stated that he devoted his time to the Southeast section of the Main Coal Seam and only went into the 'Dennis' now and again. This meant that except for the time that Mr. Andrew Williams, undermanager of the Dennis Section, was underground. That section of the mines was supervised by 15 deputies. They were Richard Owen, T.B. Tune and William Salisbury in the 20s, J.T. Jones, W. Swinnerton and William Salisbury agent, in the 61's, N. Parry, R.T. Edwards and S. Matthews in the 109's, J.H. Thomas, H. Amos and R. Jones in the 14's and H, Thomas, W. Davies and D. Jones in the 29s on the Day, Afternoon and night shifts respectively. The remaining deputy, Edwin Chester was employed on the night shift when he supervised men in the drift at the inbye end of the Dennis main haulage road beyond the "Clutch" and travelled and reported on that haulage road and the Martin return airway.
Three-phase current at 3,300 volts was taken down the Dennis shaft to two transformers at the bottom of the shaft where the voltage was reduced to 570 volts top work the haulage engines, coal cutting machines and conveyors. Each transformer was connected to a separate switchboard. The lighting at the pit bottom was supplied from a small transformer at 110 volts. There was one main cable installed in the Dennis main intake airway, which carried the whole of the current inbye for the section. The cable was controlled at its origin by a switch and fuse. Some of the coal cutting machines and conveyors were certified flameproof, but others of another design were used, which were supposed to be flameproof. The bells were certified flameproof, but the magneto telephones were neither intrinsically safe nor in flameproof casings.
The haulage in the Dennis Main Intake and 142's Deep was by endless rope driven by an electric motor placed near the Dennis shaft bottom. The districts generally had tail and main rope haulage driven by electricity and compressed air.
The mine was generally dry, but there was a pump and a small one for pumping water from the Dennis shaft sump to the Martin shaft sump lodgement pump at 500 feet fro the surface between the two shafts and a small pump for emptying the Martin sump into tanks in the cages in that shaft and wound to the pit bank.
Thirty electric lamps were used by the electricians, but most of the lamps were flame lamps of the Prestwich Patent Protector Type. The ventilation was produced by a double inlet Walker fan placed at the surface and steam-driven. There was no proper airlock at the top of the upcast, Martin shaft. Platforms called "butterfly boards" or "policemen", raised by the cages as they came up, were relied on to prevent the air from the fan flowing directly from the surface to the fan.
The explosion occurred shortly before 8 a.m. on Saturday when there were 480 men at work. News of disaster became known only early on Saturday morning, and relatives of the night shift men rushed to colliery. Rescue men from Gresford and Llay Main Collieries rushed to the colliery to fight fire, and doctors and nurses, St John Ambulance men and Wrexham Fire Brigade were quickly on the scene. A party went down the mine, including Mr. T. Boydell, the Divisional Inspector and District Inspector when it was found that the location of the explosion was about three-quarters of a mile from pit bottom and that fire and smoke were intense.
Within a short time, seven bodies had been recovered and brought to surface and rescue parties under Mr. H. Herbert, superintendent of the Rescue Station at Wrexham, equipped with gas masks and apparatus, were working underground.
There was continual activity at pit head with cages being raised and lowered at frequent intervals containing the rescuers and large quantities of sand in paper bags, then in sacks, then loads of stone dust and dozens of fire extinguishers. One of the rescuers described the scene underground as "a blazing wall of fire." Rescue appliances were rushed from Lancashire, and batches of men arrived from various parts of the county to offer their help.
Lorries loaded with sand continually drove into the pit yards and were unloaded at the pit head into sacks by a host of volunteers, including the Vicar of Rhosddu, The Rev. G.R. Davies. Dozens of these sacks were taken underground, but the bulk of them remained at the surface to underline the seriousness of the situation. The pile of sacks led to rumours that the mine was to be sealed, but this was denied by management.
Relays of rescue workers were going down the pit in teams of four and grim realisation of what had happened came to hundreds of silent men, women and children on pit banks when the bodies of twol of rescue men were brought to the surface. They were taken to the ambulance room where artificial respiration was tried for half an hour before they were pronounced dead and removed to the temporary mortuary.
They were: Daniel Hughes, Second Avenue Llay and William Hughes, Jackson's Cottages, New Rhosrobin, both members of Llay Main Rescue Team and were in the first party to descend after the explosion. To add to the bitterness, news came that a member of the same party, John Lewis of Railway Terrace, Cefnybedd, was missing and had not been recovered.
The "Leader" reported of the scenes at temporary mortuary:
What a tragic sight, a scene which brought tears to the eyes of many while a comrade sat silently weeping in the rescue station.
Writing about the rescue men, the "Leader"
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