Senghenydd

100 years ago today an explosion ripped through the pit at Senghenydd and killed 439 miners. A rescuer also lost his life bringing the total in Britain's worst mining disaster to 440. Only 18 of the men trapped below were rescued.

This was not the first time that tragedy had visited this mine. 12 years earlier an explosion had killed 81 miners and the subsequent report made recommendations which should have been implemented by an extended deadline of September 1913. This deadline, just six weeks before the disaster, was missed.

Today a memorial was unveiled to mark the sacrifice made not only by those who lost their lives at Senghenydd but in all mining disasters in Wales.

On the way home I went to the Gresford Memorial which was unveiled in 1982 to remember the 266 miners who lost their lives there on the 22 Sept 1934. I blipped it before here.

You might like to listen to the haunting brass band tune, Gresford, also known as the Miner's Hymn.