A MEMORIAL service to those lost in the Gresford mining disaster will take place later this month.

The Service will take place on Saturday, September 22 at 11am at the Gresford Disaster Memorial, Bluebell Lane, Pandy on the anniversary of the disaster that took the lives of 265 local men and boys.

A total of 253 men still remain entombed after a massive explosion ripped through the Dennis section of Gresford Colliery at 2am on September 22, 1934.

Just six men escaped with their lives from the affected area and 261 men were killed in the immediate aftermath with three rescue team members adding to the number.

A few days later a further explosion caused part of the seal to blow off hitting a surface worker leaving the final death toll as 265.

No village in the Wrexham County Borough was left unscathed by the disaster and family and friends waited for 48 years before they had somewhere to lay their flowers and wreathes.

Since the memorial was unveiled in 1982 a service has taken place at 11am on the anniversary date each year.

Margaret Jones, secretary of the North Wales Miners Association Trust, said: "Some of the deceased were at the very beginning of their working lives, too young to have married and raised families.

"Many children never had the chance to know their fathers. Some mothers lost three or more sons."

On the day Llay Miner’s Welfare Band will play their rendition of ‘Gresford,’ a hymn written by Robert Saint which is known as the miner’s hymn throughout the world.