The Terrible Price

We were all ready for bed.

I can see he was looking... he always cycled to work.

There was a big high wall by the door.

He had the cycle, his bike, against the wall.

And, he was pumping up air into the tyres and he was looking at us.

Mum said, "What are you looking at?"

"Oh, nothing", he said, "Goodnight. God bless".

That's the last I ever saw of Dad.

COMMENTARY: News depicts the scene of the disaster in North Wales.

'A big explosion in the Gresford colliery near Wrexham in the early hours of the morning

'occurred when men were working below.

'The exact figures cannot yet be computed.

'The scene as news is anxiously awaited tells its own story.

'The deepest sympathy is extended to the bereaved by the whole country.

# You've heard of the Gresford disaster

# And the terrible price that was paid

# 242 colliers were lost

# And three men of a rescue brigade... #

It sent shock waves throughout the country

because so many people's lives in the '30s

were caught up in coal mining.

It showed people just how dangerous the job was.

'Coal mining is the basic industry of Britain.

'The coal mines of the country employ 750,000 men.

'The miner works in a cramped position.

'Often, he has scarcely room to swing his pick.

'He works the seam, hewing out the coal.

# Down there in the dark they are lying

# They died for nine shillings a day

# They've worked out their shift and it's now they must lie

# In the darkness until Judgement Day... #

The conditions were shocking.

He used to work,

because it was so hot most of the time,

he used work in a pair of my mother's knickers, second-hand knickers.

That's all he wore.

In the '30s, it was blinking hot. It was like a baker's oven.

Everybody knew that it was hot but it was their job

and they couldn't say anything because there's no other jobs.

He was what they called a hewer.

They used to have to pick the coal.

His big pick used to sit in the shed at home.

He used take that with him.

They used to hack the coal out of the side after it had been propped up.

He'd sit down having a meal when he was in the kitchen.

He'd say, "I don't know how long I'm going to stick with Gresford.

"Under the conditions we work in, nobody should have to work".

He used to come home absolutely tired,

and black from head to foot, just like a negro, covered with coal dust.

I'd get up in the morning, his head would be on the table, fast asleep.

I think his wages then was around seven shillings a day.

His was a 12-hour shift, and by the time he got out from home,

he had no time to do anything at home.

The time was gone - 12 hours.

He didn't do very much. He used to go to church on a Sunday morning.

He went every Sunday morning and then he'd do the dinner when he came back.

Gresford - the coal cutters worked regularly.

They were always wanted, getting the coal up.

Occasionally, they wouldn't need the afternoon shift.

They used to blow the hooter and the locals would hear it, "Gresford hooter's gone".

The afternoon men wouldn't bother going.

He worked terrifically long hours when there was work -

WHEN there was work.

Many times I've come home from the grammar school or the church school

during the summer, and my father's been sitting on the step outside.

I never thought I'd remember this but I do. He was crying.

When I went up to him and asked him what he was crying about,

he said, "They have taken everything from us.

"Including our pride."

They looked down on miners in those days.

A lot of people.

But I'm proud of my Dad. He was a good dad.

# It occurred in the month of September

# At two in the morning that pit

# Was wracked by a violent explosion

# In the Dennis where gas lay so thick... #

My father and his brother were both employed as electricians at Gresford colliery.

They used to work alternate shifts.

It was Norris's birthday.

On his way to work that evening, he called at his parents' home,

probably because it was his birthday and so near to his work.

He called to see them. He wasn't feeling too good that night.

He was suffering from some ear trouble that he had.

My father offered to go down instead of him.

He said, "No, it's all right. I'll go down tonight.

"I'm off tomorrow, so that's fine."

Most of the men from our village...

..had changed their shift to the night shift that night

because Wrexham and Tranmere had a football match.

They wanted to go to the football match.

I left home with my father.

As we were cycling along towards Gresford,

two miners came out of a side street, they'd be neighbours.

There was four of us cycling along.

He said to me, "You'd better get on ahead".

I really should have been on earlier than most miners.

We were expected to be there to dish out the lamps.

I just cycled away and left him. I didn't see him again.

That was it.

My job was at one of the windows dishing out the lamps.

He was at another window.

There were two windows, they were split into two lots.

I didn't even see him to give him his lamp.

'The whole of today's news is overshadowed and darkened

'by a terrible mine disaster in North Wales.

'There was an explosion followed by fire at Gresford colliery.

The foreman said to me, "Go and get the ambulanceman".

I got to the ambulanceman and knocked on his door.

He shoved his window open and he asked what I wanted.

All I could say was, "You're wanted at the pit".

People were shouting, "Gresford's gone up, Gresford's blown up".

This knock came on the back door and I went down to see what it was.

It was Billy Bellis. I said, "What's the matter?"

He said I'd better get dressed and go to Gresford.

My grandfather was up very early the next morning.

I remember him telling me that he saw quite a crowd of people walking past his house toward the pit head.

He went down to ask where they were going, what they were doing.

He found out then that there had been an explosion in the early hours of the morning.

He obviously realised straight away the implications of this.

He went down there himself.

I don't know what time it was,

but I remember them bringing up men dead on stretchers.

They had to be dead with a blanket covering them.

They were just taken away.

'Six bodies were brought out within a few hours of the outbreak.

'The Ministry of Mines has been informed

'that the number of men still trapped in the pit is believed to be between 100 and 120.'

The yard was packed with people.

So, I walked through, met my boss and he said,

"Get a lamp and a safety tally and come down with me."

We went down the pit.

You've never seen such a sight in your life.

We had to go to where the fire was.

The fire was like looking up there,

right across, a bit further than that.

You couldn't get beyond that and that's where the men were trapped.

At one point, they came up against a terrific fall of coal.

My father described it as shifting and spitting out flames.

They realised then that there was little hope of finding anybody.

'Good progress is being made in subduing the fire.

'The rescue work is being continued in the hope of getting to the area where the men are cut off.'

There were crowds of people waiting in the teeming rain,

trying to find out what was happening.

Nobody could tell you anything.

We'd come up and we went to go down again,

and people was grabbing us, asking us, "Was there any chance?"

We were there first thing in the morning and all afternoon waiting for...

When we saw the pulleys coming up, we waited to see what had happened.

"My son's down there", and all that. They had tears in their eyes.

So, we just said, "Oh, aye", you know.

We just said they could be up.

Anything.

All these different people, all relatives or whatever they were,

were swarming around all the while.

I couldn't do anything, so I said to Billy,

"There's no use stopping here.

"I'll be in trouble if I don't go to work".

There was police, I remember the RAC and the AA on the road.

There was traffic arriving.

I remember a big van loaded with normal fire extinguishers.

They were unloading them. All kinds of things were happening.

I said to my mother, "We don't know what's happening in Gresford

"but it looks as if there's been a very serious accident."

"Oh, dear", she said.

I said, "There's only one thing I can suggest.

"I'll go there this afternoon after work".

She never said much. She was very calm.

I got to work at about half past nine and I went into the boss.

I said to him, "I'm very sorry, sir,

"I've been in an awful job this morning."

"What's the matter?"

I said, "As far as I know, my Dad's working in Gresford pit.

"There's been a nasty accident and it looks as if everybody down the pit's been killed".

All he said was, "I'm very sorry to hear it. Get your book."

I was there 'til about half past twelve or one o'clock.

That's all he told me. He wouldn't say no more.

He didn't tell me to go and look after my mother or nothing.

That's all he said. No interest at all in you.

Only money, that's all.

'We would like to express, on behalf of our listeners, our profound sympathy

'to the relatives of those involved in this terrible disaster.

We went to the canteen and had a cup of tea.

We come back out and the Inspector of Mines was there and he stopped us all from going down.

If we'd have gone down we'd have been dead, about 20 of us.

'The work is tragically difficult.

'Already, three members of a rescue party have lost their lives.

# The gas in the Dennis deep section

# Was packed there like snow in a drift

# And many a-man had to leave the coal face

# Before he had worked out his shift. #

It was five o'clock in the morning and my husband came from Gresford

on a bike to New Broughton.

He rang the bell, and I thought, "He's an hour early".

I went to open the door and he collapsed.

Newspapers were after him all the while.

We'd got a baby, hadn't we, just turned three weeks old.

These men were asking questions about the way he got out.

They were really a pest.

'From abroad as well as at home,

'condolences on the terrible happenings at Gresford colliery have been coming in.

'It is feared that the casualty list may be still heavier

'than the estimates published yesterday evening.

My grandfather waited there. He stood there for two days.

I believe it rained on one of the days.

They stood in the pouring rain just waiting and hoping some of the workers would be brought out.

Indeed, he waited all day on the Sunday.

On the Sunday, it was his 50th birthday as well.

We never sent him a birthday card, we never acknowledged his birthday

because he had spent his 50th birthday waiting for news at the Gresford pit head.

For him, he didn't want to celebrate his birthday after that.

I came up on a Sunday afternoon, George and me,

and the Salvation Army were playing and it broke my heart.

The place was crowded, on top of the coal wagons, everywhere there's people.

"Have you seen anybody?" I said, "I haven't seen anybody". Terrible.

'It is with the very deepest regret that we have to give you this statement.

'The mines department has just been notified by the Chief Inspector of Mines at Gresford colliery,

'that, in view of the grave and increasing risk of continuing the rescue operation,

'and being satisfied that none of the persons left in the mine can still be alive,

'His Majesty's Inspectors of Mines, representatives of the colliery management

'and representatives of the workmen employed, have decided to abandon the operations.

'All the persons engaged in them have been withdrawn from the mine.

As regards general management and supervision of the mine,

it is right in fairness I should first draw attention to the fact

that the average killed and injury rate at Gresford colliery,

during the five years ended 31 December 1933,

was lower than the rate for the remainder of North Wales and Great Britain.

'Every working day, four miners are killed

'and over 450 injured and maimed.

'Every year in Great Britain, one in every five miners is injured.

When you're in the pit, like with no other job,

you don't think about danger or anything.

Twenty past two on a Friday night is when they had their snapping.

That's the time it happened, twenty past two.

It is often difficult to state the exact place of origin and the cause of an explosion.

Even when inspection can be made of all the workings.

But when, as in this case, no inspection is possible,

the place of origin and cause become matters of conjecture, not capable of proof.

'The Davey safety lamp.

'When gas is present, a blue cap of flame appears round the lamp and warns the miner.

My father was adamant, and told me in later years in fact,

that the management knew that there was gas down the Dennis pit.

They used to take canaries in cages down there to test for gas.

And, erm...

..they lost quite a few of them.

Some of the deputies said if they found gas and cleared it, they did not report it in their report book.

All findings of gas should, in my opinion, be reported in the statutory report book.

All of a sudden, I saw my flame had gone out of my lamp.

I didn't know where I was, it was pitch black.

When he was asked if he had had any trouble with gas in that area,

the manager replied, "Never".

Further asked, "Not even in the headings?" he answered, "No".

This last evidence is in direct conflict with that of Mr JT Shaw, sub-inspector of mines.

When the next man come up, he said to the chap, went to him and said,

"There's someone here in the dark, and his lamp's gone out.

"There's gas somewhere in the face.

"Fetch the fireman as quick as you can".

The fireman came to me.

"By, you were lucky", he said. "Lucky you came off that coal."

If I hadn't had come off that coal face, I'd have been gassed.

The air measurements, said to have been taken monthly,

as required by Section 29 of the Coal Mines Act 1911,

were entered into the prescribed book.

Some 18 months later, in June 1936, the assistant surveyor, when giving further evidence, said,

that on the instructions of the manager, he had not made any measurements since June, 1934.

That the figures in the notebook for July and August were imaginary and he'd concocted them,

because the manager had told him to do so a day or so after the disaster.

My grandmother talked a little bit more about things than my grandfather did.

Before the Gresford disaster, she used to have long hair

which she used to wear swept up on top of her head.

After the disaster, she had her hair cut off. She cut it off.

These days, you read about counsellors.

I'm sure they're exceptionally good for people.

But I had counsellors - my aunties, my grandmother, all the aunts.

I used to just go from one to the other.

I used to just go from one, round to another, round to another.

He had quite a big family, my father.

She must have had a breakdown. She used to go and put the kettle on.

Always going to the back kitchen and putting the kettle on.

As if she was expecting somebody all the time.

Dad used to cycle to work.

And she used to stand there and she could see him coming,

and she'd start preparing the meal or get the tin bath out for washing.

You know, he'd be black as coal when he'd come home.

She was doing that all the time until Dr Melia, our doctor, said,

"Mrs Jones, I can't do any more for you.

"The only solution is to move from here".

That's how we moved from the house.

Norris and Mary had been married 10 months before the disaster.

They lived in Llau, a village near Wrexham.

My grandmother and Mary shared many interests.

They both loved needlework.

This was one thing they occupied themselves with after the disaster

as they were trying to deal with their loss.

I have a book that Mary bought for my grandmother, a book of needlework.

I know that my grandmother always treasured this book.

She did actually make a little stuffed dog that she called Peter.

She always had him on the sideboard.

She used to say that he was sewn with tears.

When they put this photograph up

with all the miners who had been in the explosion,

they put it up in the local, little village shop.

They put it up in the barbers, which most men of the village used.

They put it up in the shoe repairers' shop.

You couldn't get away from it.

# A fortnight before the explosion

# To the shot-firer Tomlinson cried

# "If you fire that shot we'll be all blown to hell"

# And nobody could say that he lied... #

Shot-firing in the 14th district was carried on

with little regard for the requirements laid down in the Explosives in Coal Mines Order.

The workmen were as keen to get the shots fired quickly as those who were firing the shots,

if they were to get through their shift's work.

He was a secretary for the miners.

He got blackballed because he disagreed with some of the things the management were doing.

They blackballed him.

They stopped him working in any local pit in Buckley.

He went to about five different collieries before he could get a job.

It is of importance that a large proportion of the persons employed at the colliery

weren't effective members of the North Wales Mineworkers' Union.

That was advanced as a reason why the union was inactive,

and why no mine inspection on behalf of the workers had been made for many years.

'A seven-and-a-half hour shift begins.

There was a considerable evidence that men were allowed to work, and did work,

longer hours permitted by the Coal Mines Regulation Act 1908.

In fact, the provisions of that act were, to all intent and purposes, ignored.

The manager, in his evidence, said he knew this practice was a breach of the act

but many of the men liked it and they asked for it.

# Down there in the dark they are lying

# They died for nine shillings a day

# They've worked out their shift and it's now they must lie

# In the darkness until Judgement Day

# Farewell our dear wives and our children

# Farewell our dear comrades as well

# Don't send your sons in the dark, dreary mine

# They'll be damned like the sinners in hell. #

Subtitles by BBC Broadcast 2004