DOZENS gathered at the Gresford Colliery Memorial this morning (Sunday, September 22) as a remembrance service was held to mark the 90th anniversary of the Gresford mining disaster.

Huddled under umbrellas on a grey and showery morning in Wrexham, Reverend Huw Butler welcomed members of the miners’ families and those from the wider community who had come to pay their respects.

It is 90 years to the day that an explosion in the Dennis section of Gresford Colliery resulted in the deaths of 266 people in what remains one of Britain’s worst mining disasters.

A wreath was laid at the foot of the memorial by representatives of Wrexham AFC. An identical wreath had been placed on the pitch at the Racecourse Ground during the club’s match with Crawley Town yesterday.

The wreath was joined by several bouquets and a display of mining helmets, tools and artefacts, including the traditional oil lamps which were lit in remembrance of those who had been lost.

In his opening address, Revd. Huw Butler discussed the importance of this regular memorial services adding that it was not only significant for the miners’ families, but also for the wider community as an acknowledgment of the mining heritage of Wrexham and North Wales, something the Revd. said was “in our DNA.”

The service also featured a Gresford Colliery Brass Band playing each of the hymns and a reading of The Colliery Disaster, the winner of the Gresford Colliery Disaster 90th Anniversary Poetry Competition, written by 10-year-old Ava, a pupil from Ysgol Penygelli.

(Image: MD)

Speaking to the Leader, Reverend Huw Butler said: “People have been asking me [ahead of the 90th anniversary] about why it is important to keep up this observance and as I mentioned in the sermon, its important for the families themselves but its also important for us as a community because the mining heritage runs deep in our veins.

“To learn from the values that those communities demonstrated particularly during the disaster in terms of the compassion and that sense of solidarity. That’s something that we must try to emulate as people in our own lives.

“I think the sense of us being together is so important and that was what was so pleasing about the turnout today, it’s really important that the schools are present and there’s a sense of offering our memories and demonstrating those values that I mentioned.”