The Gresford Disaster - Sept 22nd 1934

Info about the video, images and music - please see lengthy note below.

Update Feb 2012:
There is an excellent BBC Radio4 programme about "Gresford - The Miners' Hymn" in the Souls Music series:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b01blj2b

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I made this slide show because, when I searched for the song "The Gresford Disaster", I was amazed how little information there seemed to be on the internet about the disaster itself.

The audio (original is about 17 minutes - very haunting and does not include the song) plus many of the photos are from the Welsh National Grid for Learning site: http://www.ngfl-cymru.org.uk/vtc/ngfl/2007-08/drama/irf25_gresford/

Most of the other photos are from pages on the Wrexham website:
http://www.wrexham.gov.uk/english/heritage/gresford_disaster/real_price_of_co...

I think that there might also be a couple of images from this website:
http://www.welshcoalmines.co.uk

There is also a short BBC news story from a couple of years ago about "Mine disaster documents found - Historic documents uncovered by chance record the inquiry into the 1934 Gresford mining disaster" including an interview with possibly the last remaining survivor of the disaster:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/player/nol/newsid_7120000/newsid_7122000/7122037.stm?bw...

I have never liked the song, "The Gresford Disaster". It is a bit too close too home and rather mixed up in my mind with Aberfan, which happened when I was at school in North Wales, and both events were rather terrifying as a child. That said, I have very happy memories of being a bell-ringer at Gresford church in my teens.

I hope this video is moving and informative and just a little bit terrifying, as it should be.

There are some other videos about The Gresford Disaster on YouTube already, some with the song as the soundtrack and with photos not included here.

Category:

News & Politics

Tags:

• Gresford
• North Wales
• Wrexham
• mining
• Gresford Disaster
• coal
• colliers
• miners

[msmousette]

aishamehmood That's great! :-) Check the info under the video. There are links to brilliant Welsh education web site where I found the music for the soundtrack and some of the images.

[alunhughes147]

Really well done....sent shivers running through me.....haunting.....thanks for this,,,,regards from the South

[msmousette]

@alunhughes147 It spooks me too! Best wishes, Lizzie

[shropshirebloke]

Somewhere I've got a recording of an hour-long Radio 4 documentary made to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the Gresford Disaster - if I can find it and figure out how I'll put it on here.

As already mentioned, it makes it very clear that witnesses were too frightened to tell the truth - for months before the disaster false records had been made about the conditions in the Denis Seam where the explosion occurred.

Listen to "Gresford" on here

[msmousette]

@shropshirebloke Thanks Shropshire bloke. Is it on tape or digital? If digital then you just need one image to turn it into a "video".

[MrTNA11001]

This is sooo sad : ' ( It makes me cry all the time i watch it!

[msmousette]

@MrTNA11001 It is very sad. I posted some related videos that explain that the miners who survived were too frightened by the mine-owners to tell what they knew about why the explosion happened. That will make you angry. It didn't need to happen. It was all due to the greed of the mine-owners.

[TedRob1958]

Why the Irish music?

[TedRob1958]

My nain lost five cousins in this disaster, she also discovered that she had an older sister she'd never met when the names were published in the Yorkshire Post and her name was given as a contact for grieving relatives. You cannot scratch many Welsh people North or South without striking coal. My great grandad died in Black Park, Chirk. I have many uncles who worked in the north Wales and Staffordshire coalfields and have a great uncle who died in the Naomi mine disaster in Phillidelphea 1906.

[415vids]

sub me its sam :)

[reubthebabe]

@4llPro You kiddin' me bro?

[reubthebabe]

Wow, I really appreciate the help with my school work, thanks :3