A first-hand account of the disaster and recovery of the Gresford colliery after the explosion by Mr. Parry Davies.
Editors note: This is Part 1, the disaster itself. A link to Part 2, the later recovery of the colliery can be found at the bottom of the page.
As a Captain of one of the Rescue Teams which were employed directly after the explosion, and later in the recovery of parts of the mine which possibly could be worked, I have often been requested to put into writing my actual experiences during the time that work was being carried out.
Many and varied were the reports that appeared in the Press and I wish at this juncture to pay tribute to all the Pressmen and Journalists which at that time were learning all the facts they could get hold of to enable them to place before the Great British Public, the position in which such a huge calamity had placed the little border town of Wrexham. How well they did their job, how hard they worked to do that job night and day, many of them without sleep, and very little food. My hat comes off all the time to these reports who, by their magnificent efforts, were in a very large degree responsible for the great response that was made by the Country to the Appeal made on behalf of those bereaved and destitute by the Mayor of Wrexham and the Lord Mayor of London. Often I have wondered what would have been the position if we had been left to shoulder our burden alone. No, such a thing cannot be considered or contemplated. We must at all times be prepared to marshal our every resource to afford the monetary assistance to those bereaved and distressed, and the assistance must on all occasions be immediate for it to be or real benefit.
I have no desire to reopen the wounds which have partially healed, but I certainly do consider that a truthful account of the conditions which obtained directly after the explosion took place is due is due to that public which proved itself of high value at the time.
A CALL FOR HELP
I am told that the actual explosion took place about 2 am. A time when all the surrounding district was peacefully slumbering, and in less time than it takes to tell, the news was being quickly circulated, officials were being awakened by telephone and ‘knockers up’. What is the matter?. An Explosion? My God! and in every stage of undress, very soon the pithead shows activity that had to be seen to be believed. No matter when the extent of the explosion may be, precautions must be made at the local hospitals to receive the casualties and while one section is making these arrangements, another is preparing to descend the Pit, to, they know not what. Those men who we down the pit at the time of the explosion, and who, by God’s Providence had not been affected ( working in another part of the Pit) and on this occasion unhappily only too few, have come to the surface, but very little information in the section have been accounted for, then it is realised by the trouble in the ‘Dennis Pit’ and naturally, that is the route taken by the first exploration party. In the meantime there had been a call has been sent to the neighbouring Colliery, Llay Main, for them to muster all their rescue men and send them immediately that short distance of one and a half miles which separate the two collieries.
It was 4.30 am on that fateful morning that I was awakened by some terrific knocking at the front door of my home (some knocking exactly similar to that which happened at 4 a.m. on Friday, December 11th. 1924 when an explosion occurred at Llay Main in the Two Yard Seam when nine men lost their lives. Was it a premonition? I was sick at heart as I answered that knocking. The message, “All Rescue man are needed at Gresford – 300 men down the Pit and only a very few have got out.”
What a request, and what hopes of doing a lot for 300 men ran through my mind. Good Lord grant that many of them have returned to the surface during the time that message has been in transit to me, but it is now two and a half hours after the explosion and those that are able would surely have come to the surface before this. From my past experience of explosions, I could see nothing but stark disaster and very little hope of rescuing those poor comrades. All this was flashing through my mind as I was throwing my clothes on. But what of my home?. Only the previous week I had lost my little daughter 5 years of age. The joy of my life and the very apple of my eye. The tears were still wet on my cheeks, and sighs were still issuing from my heart. Surely my cross was already heavy enough. I had a full load, and yet here was more. A call for help, and had the load been double, here was something which surely no one could refuse. my duty was pointed out to me quite clearly, and the home I was leaving must try to bear the burden and hope for the best.
Shortly before 5 a.m., we had collected a team of 5 men together at the Ambulance Room at Llay Colliery, and jumping into a motor lorry we were soon on the scene at Gresford. Apart from one or two odd, unattached rescue men employed at Gresford Colliery we were the only team then on the job, the complete Gresford Team being already below ground. The scene was indescribable, crowds of men and women and children grouped about in the Pit Yard waiting for news of their sons, husbands and fathers. Daylight was fast approaching and the weather was terrible. Raining and cold, maybe a deep and poignant feeling of distress was responsible for the cold feeling. were are able to learn some little information from those who have come out of the pit after the explosion. They had already been to their homes to give some little comfort to their loved ones, and the returned to the Colliery to be of assistance if called upon.
What a splendid spirit! No sacrifice too big to make, and if they only stopped to consider, they will appreciate the fact that they had already been very, very fortunate to be out, and that they are just tempting Providence when they re-enter the Pit, inviting a second throw of the dice. I am miserable we have no proper place to settle in, out equipment is dumped in an old cabin, and being knocked and kicked about by all and sundry. My life is going to depend on that apparatus and I am in no mood to see it jumped on. This is not good enough, nerves on edge, it is essential that my team are more settled or there is going to be difficulties when we are needed, and in a very short time after an interview with the manager of Llay Main, we are immediately transferred, men and equipment into the General Offices, where tea and coffee were soon on the go, prepared by the lady caretaker of the Offices.
Still no call for further assistance down below. The exploration party, by this time re-enforced by some of His Majesty’s Inspectors of Mines, are still searching for means of possible escape if any are yet alive, and in the meantime, a few dead bodies have been brought up and placed in a temporary mortuary on the Pit Yard. “Move your equipment again” this time to the Joiner’s Shop, the General Office is needed for conferences, off we go bag and baggage. This waiting period is far worse than the actual work. Good Lord when are they going to call us? Three hours and twenty minutes waiting, and by this time the whole of the Rescue Teams,18 men, have arrived on the job from Llay Main, some of them have already worked all through the night down Llay Main. It does not matter to them that they may have to do another 24 hours duty.
8.40 a.m. a team wanted down below! Now we shall soon see how we stand, and like a team of demons, the No. 1 team of Llay colliery don their apparatus. William Hughes one of the Gresford Team unattached accompanies them, he will be very useful as a guide. each man of the team fully experienced in the use of the ‘Proto’ apparatus he is wearing realises fully that his existence depends entirely on the functioning of those little valves in his intake and exhaust pipes. That he has sufficient reserve of oxygen in the round cylinder strapped on his back. That his nose clip is properly adjusted to obviate the possibility of him inhaling through the nose. All this they know and all this they must not forget.
No.1 team had not been down the pit for more than 20 minutes when a further call was received on the surface, this time to send only two rescue men. This was a strange call, a team of 5 men is trained as a single unit and each man of the team had definite duties while working with his team, and he can hardly be dovetailed into another team. What has happened? Have two of the first team dropped out? But no, that cannot be the reason, if any member of a Team is unable to go forward, then the rule is the whole team to retire. While I am still seeking a solution to the mystery, there came a further message for all available rescue men to be sent down. It is now perfectly clear that something had happened to the No.1 Team and as we hurried to the Pit Bank to be lowered down in the “Dennis Cage.” A very popular Manager at a North Wales Colliery who had just returned from below ground said these words to me “You can save no life down there. It is too late.” I swallowed a lump which rose in my throat and thanked him. It was a case of looking after ourselves as we could help none, but the Manager must not have known about the Rescue men who were in distress.
When the cage was lowered to the Pit Bottom and we stepped off, we were met by a Deputy whom I was well acquainted with. He told me to hurry my team up as the first Rescue Team had got into difficulties, and as quick as possible we travelled down the “Dennis Deep” to ’20’s Wind Road’, coming through a narrow passage to a shutter that had been knocked out of the brick stopping. There we met two rescue men who together with others were carrying the body of one of the first rescue team and we helped them along to a point where a doctor was waiting ready to render any aid that was possible. It must be made clear, that at this point the air was perfectly clear, and we had not yet had to use out apparatus, the road we were in, being a cross-connection between the intake and return airways. we then travelled along this road to a point within a few yards of the return airway and here we found an official who tried to rush us into a death trap, naturally, I refused to be hurried and demanded to know his qualifications and for what purpose were to go into an air course fully loaded with CO (carbon monoxide) and from where already one rescue man had been carried out dead. Did he want to see others in the same plight? I don’t think for a moment that he did but someone had made a blunder, and some careful thinking was needed before any further action was taken. For what reason had the team been sent into this return airway, when it was already known that it was utterly impossible for anything to be alive in such and atmosphere? Why was it considered necessary to send another team, with nothing to gain and the possible loss of further lives?
The heat was terrific and the fumes unbearable, these themselves sufficient indication, that nothing could live, unless they had the apparatus.. Questions elucidated the fact that other men of the first team were still in this airway and in difficulty. Then there was something to go for and the order is given to couple up the apparatus and make tracks into the foul atmosphere filling what was known as ’20’s Return Airway’.
We had not gone for more than 20 yards down when we came upon the C.F.A. lamp which had been used by the man we had met being carried out and travelling a further 150 yards we came across the body of the second rescue man, lying face downwards with his head towards the pit bottom. This was the body of William Hughes the Gresford rescue man who had accompanied the first Llay Main Team down the pit.
Still further down the roadway we could see a light, and this gave us an idea how long it would take to reach him, but first of all, we must get the body back that we have already got to. There is just a possibility that those wonderful Doctors working in the fresh air may be able to revive him and dragging, lifting and pulling we are at least able to deliver him into the hands of those good Doctors.
We are preparing to return to fetch the man back from where we had seen the lamp in the distance when the Inspector of Mines and the Gresford Manager called a halt and would not be persuaded to allow you to go back a second time. Members of the team implored them to give us the opportunity “Don’t let us leave him. The reputation of all the Rescue Men is at stake”, but all-out pleas had no effect and we were ordered out of the pit, and the order was given by those responsible officials to fence the roadway off. The Captain of the first team which had lost three good men, was himself very badly affected by the poisonous gas and had to be assisted to the Surface. He himself had struggled with the first man of his team that collapsed and had become so exhausted himself, that he was only just got out himself in time to be kept alive.
The experience of losing 3 rescue men and the first decent caused the operations to be suspended for a time until some definite plan of campaign had been formed, and as other teams and equipment had arrived from other parts of North Wales and Lancashire. It was decided to form shifts and relays of rescue men and at 4 p.m. to attack the job from the intake side where it was found that a fire was raging. It had already been ascertained that the return airway to the ‘Martin Pit’ was full of dense smoke, and although falls of the roof down the ‘Dennis Deep’ made it impossible to get at once to the seat of the fire. Steps were taken about erecting brattice cloths to keep as much air as possible away from the fire. Rescue men with apparatus and volunteers without apparatus worked continually through Saturday night, removing falls. Thousands of fire extinguishers were taken down the pit and even those from small private cars throughout the district were requisitioned. Loads of charged chemical extinguishers were brought to the colliery, and loads of empty cylinders were returned to Monsanto Chemical Works at Cefn for refilling.
We as a team we were, according to schedule, to report for duty at 5 am. Sunday and accordingly were lowered down the pit at that time and proceeded to continue the work which had been going on all through the night. Falls had been removed, twisted tubs and girders put on one side and the work was speedily approaching ’29’s Junction’.
There the whole of the Junction had collapsed in one huge fall, and the fire was still smouldering under the fall. If one moved a piece of dirt and allowed what little air there was to get to the smouldering timber, it would immediately burst into flame. Our object was to find the entrance to ’29’s Level’ which was completely closed up. After one hour’s solid hard work, handing the hot stones back to others and working in turn, the rescue team found the entrance. It had been considered possible that some of the men could be behind some doors just inside the entrance to this Level but “Bend down and look”. What a sight! The whole of the level end is just one mass of flame, the coal side of the roadway, burning in one white mass, and the more stones we removed to one side, the more air we put onto the flames, and the fire roaring away.
It was most peculiar to see the flames from that fire, all the colours of the rainbow, a sight which I will never forget. We were relieved at 9 a.m. and the other teams put on to follow up. No mention is yet made of abandoning this line of advance, although everyone realises that with the roadway burning in such a way, and the wooden roof supports on fire, that it is next to impossible to make the advance quick enough to be of assistance to those beyond. Later in the morning the Miner’s Representatives met us on the surface and asked what the position was. We told them there was no hope, and that it would be better to call out all the men as the pit looked to be on fire, and there was a grave possibility of a further explosion which would involve the lives of 200 more men who were engaged in rescue operations.
They would not listen to this at this stage and went down the pit to see the position for themselves. Owners, Mines Inspectors, and the Representatives of the men must all agree before there can be an abandonment of trying to find some living soul, and who will say they have not a very grave responsibility? After every avenue had been explored, none found practicable, and then there is only one thing that remains to be done. If we are satisfied that no lives can be saved and that to continue the operation there is a possibility of the Death Roll being increased and possibly nearly doubled, then there is only one decision to make. Withdraw all men and take steps to kill the fire by excluding all air from the fire. This decision was taken during the afternoons of Sunday and all men were withdrawn by the order of Sir Henry Walker, Chief Inspector of Mines by 6 p.m.
Let me record here the splendid work done throughout Saturday night and Sunday by the willing band of volunteers, many of them quite young lads, others who were down the pit for the first time and doing work to which they had never been accustomed, motorists form far and near volunteered to go down the pit, and one could see them walking very gingerly carrying cans of coffee and sandwiches up to the men working on the falls of ground.
This is the spirit which makes us all proud to be British. Did they realise the possibility of a second explosion? And if they did, did they care? Not a little bit.
SEALING THE PITS
Arrangements were made immediately all the men were withdrawn to seal off the top of each shaft and by this means to exclude all possible air from getting to the seat of the fire. The fan was stopped and stages built over the mouth of the pits and on these were placed hundreds of tons of sand and, sad to relate, whilst this work was being done, there was still another victim, one of the Gresford employees who was putting on the seals over the pits being killed by the force of a second explosion which blew off all the seals they had made. When it was realised, that the force of the explosion travelled up the shaft 700 yards deep, had lifted the seal, and also rolled the steel joists which formed the fan race, then one can understand the force on the explosion at its inception. Still, other explosions took place, 5 in all, and the pit must have been a burning hell. What caused the latter explosions will never be known. Some day it might be found what caused the first, but even this will be more or less conjecture!. After the seals were completed, there was a movement in the vicinity and the surrounding districts to erect a monument and to consecrate the pits as the tomb of those 265 men who were still down there.
DECISION TO OPEN THE PITS
After a period of five months had elapsed the authorities concerned decided to make an attempt to open the pits with trained Rescue Men, and to try to ascertain what was the cause in the first place of the explosion, and if possible to avoid such similar occurrence at other Collieries, A call was made through the Press of the country was made for volunteers to train for Rescue Work.
Hundreds answered the call, men of all occupations, men from London, Manchester, and Liverpool, in fact, every city and town was represented in the list of volunteers, but there was sufficient response from around the district, and special training at the Wrexham Rescue Station, with the Doctor from the Ministry of Mines and the Inspector of Mines, coaching and watching the men daily for a whole month. Some of the volunteers who were accepted had never in their lives had an apparatus on their back, although they all had pit experience, and they adapted themselves to the new conditions at the Station in a most remarkable way.
During the time this special training was being carried out, work constructing an airlock over the ‘Martin Pit’ at Gresford was being carried done so that by the time all the men were fully trained and perfectly fit the shaft would be ready for their descent.
The training proved to be pretty strenuous starting off at a rate of 4 miles per hour around the station Yard, full kit and breathing oxygen, each man, in turn, falling out to wheel a barrow load of sand, then into the specially constructed galleries building stoppings of woodblock, timbering, bratticing, and various other classes of work as done in the pit. Constantly under the supervision of the Doctor and the Inspector. The strict training we were undergoing was reflected in the face of each man. Everyone was getting as ‘fit as a fiddle’. Later during training, each team was taken to Hafod or Llay Main and sent down the pit to do actual repair work. My Team was sent to Llay Main and we had been supplied with a new apparatus to test.. This of course was the same type that we always had, except that the capacity of the breathing bag was much smaller, and at first this fact was rather embarrassing as when one had a little extra exertion, one was rather left gasping for breath, but after a few more practices, one became accustomed to them and we had a very great affection for them, as they were 7 lbs lighter than the old type.
Is there anything in the number 13? Personally, I never cared to be associated with the number, but it fell to my lot to have No.13 apparatus issued to me, and this was to be solely mine during the recovery work. I confess I felt a bit shaky, being a little superstitious, but after the first two or three days it proved to be a good friend, and during the whole of the recovery operations No. 13 never let me down.
Part 2, the recovery of the colliery
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