Try " Gresford, the anatomy of a disaster" by Stanley Williamson. ISBN
0853239029, published in 1997. Very comprehensive book which looks at the
disaster, it's cause, the rescue, the aftermath etc.
Should be able to get it through your local library
Regards
Phil Clifford
Mines Rescue Research at http://freespace.virgin.net/kathryn.c
Lovat Scouts Research at http://freespace.virgin.net/plg.research
-----Original Message-----
From: mining-history [mailto:[log in to unmask]]On Behalf Of
JOHN BERRY
Sent: 28 July 2002 03:54 AM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: mining-history Digest - 26 Jul 2002 to 27 Jul 2002
(#2002-46)
Talking about pit disasters, is there a good source on the Gresford Disaster
in
North Wales? My earliest memory is of hearing adults talking about it: it
had
occurred shortly before I was born.
Also thankyou to Gareth for pointing out that a miner was then dying every
six
hours, I'd been looking for confirmation of that for a while. Where can one
find
out more of the details behind that statistic (numbers per year over a long
period, breakdown by type of colliery, region, cause, etc.)? And, just in
case
they're all collected in the same place, I'm also interested in the
death/accident for the herring and cod fishing industries.
Incidentally, the worst coalmine disaster that I know of was the Wankie
(Zimbabwe) explosion in 1971 or 1972. Killed several acquaintances, led to
the
deaths of more. It was a dust explosion and killed over 400 men, blew the
head
frame 3/4 mile (so I'm told - I was 400 miles away!). The difference was
that, in general, the accident rate at Wankie was low: this was a freak
accident
in a sense. It was also very democratic: it killed almost the entire
management team, who were underground on an inspection visit at the time.
It's
not really British Mining except for the fact that about half the
supervisory
people killed would have been British.
What amazes me in hindsight is that we all took these things so
fatalistically:
attitudes have changed so radically throughout industry within my lifetime
that
it's hard to understand the people we were.
John
John Berry Assocs - Remote Sensing Services
5013 Westview Drive, AUSTIN, TX 78731
Ph: +1-512-452-8068 Fx: +1-512-452-8068
Mo: +1-512-293-8068
e-mail: [log in to unmask]
---
Incoming mail is certified Virus Free.
Checked by AVG anti-virus system (http://www.grisoft.com).
Version: 6.0.380 / Virus Database: 213 - Release Date: 24/Jul/2002
|