The Colliers

I visited Charlie's Car Wash today, just across the road was this reminder of a sad event.

The Gresford  Colliery Disaster occurred on 22 September 1934 at Gresford near Wrexham, in north-east Wales, when an explosion killed 266 men and boys.

Gresford remains one of Britain's worst coal mining disasters and mining accidents. Only eleven bodies were ever recovered. 

Gresford Colliery closed on economic grounds in November 1973. In the 1980s the site was redeveloped as an industrial estate. In 1982 a memorial to the victims of the disaster was erected nearby; it was constructed using a wheel from the old pit-head winding gear.

The song "The Colliers" on Seth Lakeman's 2006 album Freedom Fields is about the disaster.

For more information - Gresford Disaster (Wikipedia)