Miners buried underground by the Gresford Colliery Disaster in 1934 died with their last pay-packets in their pockets, according to the man fighting to preserve a vital piece of Wrexham\u2019s industrial heritage.<\/p>\n
George Powell said most of the 253 men whose bodies were never recovered had their wages with them \u2013 Henry Boycott, 42, from Offa Terrace, Ruthin Road, hadn\u2019t worked a full week so wasn\u2019t paid at all.<\/p>\n
And the owners of the mine refused to pay the families of the buried miners who had received their wages, saying they had already done so.<\/p>\n
Three of the rescue team also lost their lives in the dark, gas-filled tunnels of the Dennis Shaft.<\/p>\n
They had been trained at the Wrexham Miners Rescue Station, in Maesgwyn Road, where George and his team of volunteers have begun the restoration of the iconic Grade Two listed building which he estimates could cost \u00a31 million and take five years.<\/p>\n
George, who lives nearby, took on the task in 2014 when he bought the place where generations of rescue miners were trained from 1913 to December 23, 1986, when Bersham, the last of the Wrexham pits, was closed.<\/p>\n
His campaign to save the building is attracting support and among those to have rallied to the cause has been leading food wholesaler Harlech Foodservice Ltd who have donated through their 50th<\/sup> Anniversary Fund.<\/p>\n The Station had been partially destroyed by a previous owner but much remained of the red Ruabon brick structure on Maesgwyn Road which was paid for by the coal-owners under pressure from a series of tragic accidents in Britain\u2019s mines.<\/p>\n The Pretoria Pit disaster in December 1910, near Bolton, where 344 died in an explosion led to the legislation which forced mine-owners to train rescue teams and the rescue station for the North Wales coalfield opened three years later \u2013 but not before 429 died at Senghenydd in South Wales.<\/p>\n George said: \u201cWe\u2019ve opened a caf\u00e9 here and we\u2019re staging classes for different groups, we hold events for local children and we provide tours of the building.<\/p>\n \u201cThere is a lot still to do but it is such an important part of Wrexham\u2019s heritage \u2013 lots of people don\u2019t even know there was a North Wales coalfield and Wrexham was at its heart.<\/p>\n \u201cAt its peak thousands of men worked underground in North East Wales and many of them died there too.\u201d<\/p>\n Most famously the 1934 Gresford Colliery Disaster on September 22 claimed 266 lives and George added: \u201cWrexham were playing Tranmere at The Racecourse the next day and they were working a double shift so they could go to the game.<\/p>\n \u201cIt was Friday when they started and the explosion happened in the Dennis Shaft in the early hours of Saturday morning.<\/p>\n \u201cThey couldn\u2019t recover 253 of them and they\u2019re buried down there, many with their pay packets still in their pockets.<\/p>\n \u201cThe owners refused to pay the families because they said the money had already been paid.<\/p>\n \u201cAnd if the wife of one of the dead miners didn\u2019t have any children she\u2019d be turned out of her home which belonged to the mine-owner.\u201d<\/p>\n Harlech Foodservice Key Account Manager Jo Batchelor visited the Station to present a cheque for \u00a3250 and she said: \u201cIt is an incredible place and it clearly means so much to the local community.<\/p>\n \u201cIt is part of Wrexham\u2019s history and should serve as a reminder of the part that the coal industry played in the life of this part of North Wales and we\u2019re delighted to have been able to help them.\u201d<\/p>\n Although three of the rescue miners were killed in the Gresford recovery operation, according to George, the Miners Rescue Station had a very good record and training there was thorough \u2013 and gruelling.<\/p>\n He said: \u201cThey would be carrying 32 pounds of equipment and they\u2019d be sent into this warren of tunnels constructed here while smoke from oil-soaked rags was pumped through \u2013 you couldn\u2019t see your hand in front of your face and the heat was terrific.<\/p>\n \u201cThe teams would have to find and bring out a rescue dummy made from solid wood and weighing 15 stone \u2013 95kg – and then find their way out carrying the dummy.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019ve spoken to miners who were trained here and to firemen and they all said that the conditions they experienced here were far worse than anything they had to deal with in a coalmine or a burning house though rescuing real people was more stressful.<\/p>\n \u201cThe dummy is now owned by Ruth Lee Ltd, in Corwen, who make safety equipment but we have a replica and they lend us the original for special events.<\/p>\n \u201cThe miners stopped using the Station when the last Wrexham colliery, at Bersham, closed in 1987 but North Wales Fire and Rescue continued to train firemen there.\u201d<\/p>\n A recent visitor to the building was Hollywood star and Wrexham FC joint-owner Rob McElhenny who dropped in along with the club\u2019s Executive Director Humphrey Ker at Halloween when the Station ran a special spooktacular exhibition.<\/p>\n Harlech Managing Director David Cattrall said: \u201cWe are delighted to have been able to support this fantastic community effort to save this piece of North East Wales\u2019s industrial heritage.<\/p>\n \u201cIn the past 50 years we have grown from small beginnings into a major North Wales company with bases in Criccieth and Chester and we couldn\u2019t have done that without the support of our loyal customers across the region.<\/p>\n \u201cThe Wrexham Miners Rescue Station is a special place which serves as a reminder of how Wrexham grew to be the largest town in North Wales and one of the key centres of the Industrial Revolution in Wales.<\/p>\n \u201cGeorge and his team of volunteers are clearly a well-established and deserving local organisation and this is our way of saying thank you to the people of this community and putting something back into an area which has supported us.<\/p>\n \u201cWe have had a fantastic response to our setting up of the charity fund and over the coming months we will be looking at the applications we have had and deciding how we can best share out the \u00a310,000.\u201d<\/p>\n Harlech Foodservices was founded by Colin and Gill Foskett above a shop in Harlech in 1972 and now delivers up to 5,000 product lines to caf\u00e9s, restaurants, pubs and public sector customers across North and Mid-Wales, Shropshire, the Midlands and the North West from its modern bases in Criccieth and Chester.<\/p>\n Colin and Gill\u2019s sons and daughter are still on the board and the third generation of the Foskett family are now among a workforce which has grown steadily as the business has expanded to include NHS Wales, care homes and schools, colleges and universities.<\/p>\n For more on Harlech Foodservices go to https:\/\/www.harlech.co.uk\/<\/a><\/p>\n