The night shift in the Dennis Section of Gresford Colliery began at 10.00 p.m. On Friday 21 September 1934, David Jones, the fireman in 29s district, arrived at the colliery office at 9.30 and descended the shaft with some of his men at 9.45. At the pit bottom he called at the office of the overman and received his instructions: ‘fill coal on all faces, in order to have the place secured for the week-end’. He then walked ‘inbye’ (into the pit) as far as a junction known as the Clutch, along a road known as 142s Deep, and so to his own cabin, or ‘station’, just inside the turning that led to 29s (see page 41, Fig. 2). Here, in accordance with the regulations, he inspected the safety lamps of all the miners entering the district to see that they were properly adjusted and searched a sample of about 12 men for contraband—matches or other inflammable material. The haulage started up at 10.35 p.m. and soon afterwards he set out on the first of his routine inspections of the district, testing for gas wherever he went, until he arrived at the coalface.

There were men at work on most parts of the face and in the three roads that led to it. Some were filling coal into wagons, others setting supports for the roof, others cleaning up the coalface. At the bottom end of the face the coal-cutter was being turned round; elsewhere a man was drilling holes for shot firing.