Today marks the 89th anniversary of the Gresford Colliery explosion that killed 266 men and boys

Few in North Wales need reminding of the significance of September 22. The loss of 266 lives on this day, in the Gresford Colliery disaster of 1934, is an indelible part of our history.

In my 10 years as a journalist on the Daily Post, from 1989, the tragedy was something we often wrote about, writes Ian Herbert. It’s called to mind by the memorial to the lost – a huge wheel reclaimed from the pithead winding gear which was finally erected at Pandy, in the grounds of the Gresford Colliery Club, in 1982.

When the chance arose to write a book charting the extraordinary last few years in Wrexham, Gresford had to be a cornerstone. I have called the book “Tinseltown”. It weaves the stories of the people and the places, the history and identity, which make the place what it is. A chapter of my book is devoted to Gresford.

A total of 500 men clocked on for a double shift all those years ago, preparing to work through to Saturday morning, so they could be free to go and watch Wrexham v Tranmere Rovers on the afternoon of Saturday, September 22. An exciting fixture was expected. Tranmere led the Third Division Northern section with 11 out of a possible 12 points. Wrexham, also unbeaten, were just behind them on 10 points.

READ MORE: ‘I watched as they brought the bodies up, hoping to find Dad’ – mining disaster’s last witness dies

At 2.08am that morning, without warning a massive explosion ripped through the Dennis section of the mine, where over half of the men on that shift were working. Fire broke out, blocking the access routes to all the other sections. Over 250 men were trapped, on the wrong side of fire, gases and collapsing rocks, with no means of escape and no hope of rescue.

Only six men working this section survived. Just 11 bodies were recovered. Geoff Charles, a young reporter on the Wrexham Star, was one of the first on the scene after the explosion, having been tipped off by his girlfriend who was a nurse. Hospitals and doctors had been quickly alerted to the explosion, to be at the ready for an influx of casualties.

Charles had just completed his training in disaster reporting, specifically in covering mining disasters. He knew the quickest way to get a good indication of how many miners were missing was to go straight to the lamproom at the pithead.

The pit owners had issued a statement to say that possibly 100 miners were trapped underground, and this number was widely reported in national newspapers. By finding out how many lamps were missing, Geoff Charles reported with some conviction the figure was likely to be at least 200.

The paper was initially criticised for inflating the figures, but Charles’s claims were soon proved correct. The medical staff duly waited for the influx of casualties but received none.

No one was rescued. There was no middle ground in this disaster. You either died underground or you survived unscathed.

Overnight, families were decimated. Fathers, brothers, sons were gone. Women were widowed, children were fatherless. Families were penniless.

Most lived hand to mouth, scrimping and scraping to make one week’s wages last until the next. Bereaved families also lost the pay packets that were burned and buried with the men who had collected them before they went down the pit on their fateful last shift.

Many of them had no means of feeding their children for the next week. In what seems like the height of outrageous, penny-pinching insensitivity, widows collecting their late husbands’ pay packets the following week found that the pay covered the exact number of hours their men had worked in their final week, docking pay for the hours lost on the final shift from the moment the explosion occurred.

Most of the men who perished were from the town of Wrexham, now a city. The list of victims includes 38 with the family name Jones. There were 19 with the name Davies, 18 Roberts and 12 Williams. The youngest victim was Bill Jones, aged just 14, just one of 10 or so who would never

The sister wheel to the memorial wheel, recently reclaimed and restored, will form the centrepiece of the new Kop Stand at the Racecourse Ground in recognition of the town’s mining heritage, and as a proud and permanent reminder of the links between Wrexham AFC and the Gresford Mining Disaster.

That link has been strengthened by a redbrick building, just a couple of minutes’ walk from the Racecourse, tucked away among the terraced houses of Maesgwyn Road. It is the Mines Rescue Training Station, another link to Wrexham’s coal-mining history, and still very much a rescue station, although of a different sort these days.

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It was built in 1913 as a base and training centre for North Wales’ mines rescue teams. It contained tunnels, shafts and enclosures that could be filled with smoke, steam, gas and heat to test protective and breathing equipment and simulate likely conditions during a rescue. Much like a lifeboat station, it depended on teams of local volunteers who would run to the station to gear themselves up whenever needed.

A small building with a huge heart, the Rescue, as it is called these days, exudes warmth and kindness: at once a community hub, a cafe, a warm space, a safe space for people with educational needs, an art classroom, a coal-mining museum, a venue for Hallowe’en fright nights or Santa’s grotto (always and only for charity) – and the unofficial headquarters of the Friends of Gresford Mining Disaster Memorial.

On most days there, you will find the people who are its heartbeat. Margaret and Alan Jones, the driving team behind the Friends of Gresford Disaster Memorial, who do most to keep alive the memory of those lost; George Powell, who bought the building after one-time Wrexham FC owner Neville Dickens planned to redevelop it and sent out a JCB to flatten it.

Powell’s wife, Sharon, runs weekly classes for 100 of the most vulnerable people in Wrexham’s community. The football club’s success has played a major part in helping the Rescue to thrive but behind its distinctive green doors, the vital fund-raising effort is ongoing.

In their own mission statement for Wrexham, Rob McElhenney and Ryan Reynolds promised: “Appropriate and respectful observance of the Gresford Colliery Disaster will remain sacrosanct. Respectful observance of the Gresford Colliery disaster will be achieved by the inclusion of 1934 on the nape of the shirt for the 2021–22 season

Last week, Wrexham AFC manager Phil Parkinson invited George Powell to the Racecourse to deliver a talk to the players, to give them a deeper understanding of the club and town they represent. On the anniversary of the disaster last year, Parkinson took a number of the club’s younger players to the Rescue Station to unveil a memorial wall, on which the names of the lost are recorded.

“It’s important for us all to understand the tragedy and we have a responsibility to represent all the people who lost their lives,” Parkinson said. “Not just at the weekend but every time we pull on the Wrexham shirt.’

• Article abridged from Tinseltown: Hollywood and the Beautiful Game – A Match Made in Wrexham, by Ian Herbert. Available at Bookabookshop.co.uk, Waterstones and all good bookshops.