Gleision colliery deaths: four miners mourned across south Wales valleys
Prayers and tributes shared as local community come to terms with loss of four men found dead in flooded mine
Gleision pays tribute to the four miners killed when a mine in the local colliery flooded. Photograph: Ben Birchall/PA
Steven Morris
@stevenmorris20
Sun 18 Sep 2011 13.59 EDT
Candles were lit, prayers said and fond memories shared as the four men killed in the Gleision mining tragedy were remembered and honoured.
Congregations at churches across the south Wales valleys were swollen by people touched by what for many is the worst mining disaster in living memory.
Around 100 people attended St John the Evangelist church in Cilybebyll, the closest village to the colliery, where they prayed for the men and their families and sang the hymns Abide With Me and The Lord's My Shepherd.
The Rev Martyn Perry told parishioners: "Our thoughts are with families around the area in communities surrounding ours who are in the process of preparing funerals for their loved ones."
Perry said it was easy to trust in God "when things are going well" but added: "There are other times, like this for example, when we can't see the purpose, we can't see a pattern and things are difficult and distressing. We wonder about our ability to trust God."But Perry said better times were ahead, quoting the last verse of the hymn Be Still My Soul, which promises that "love's pure joy" will be restored.
At nearby St David's church in Resolven, relatives of one of the dead men, Phillip Hill, carried home a candle lit in his memory.
Among the congregation was retired oil worker John Brown, 67, who had known Hill since he was a boy and was haunted by the thought of him dying as water poured into the mine. "It's beyond belief to think of the blackness and the water," he said. "I just hope at the end it was quick."
The Rev Peter Lewis said: "Phillip was part of the community and he was brought up here in a house just down from the church. A lot of people knew him, particularly those villagers who worked in the mines."
Messages of support have been sent to the Swansea Valley from as far afield as New Zealand and Alaska. An appeal fund set up to help the families of the men who died raised £30,000 within 24 hours. Prince Charles has become patron of the fund. A spokesman for Clarence House said: "He was invited to be the royal patron and he has close links to that area. He followed the story and was deeply saddened by what happened."
The alarm was raised on Thursday when the shaft the men were working in flooded. Three of the seven who were in the small drift mine – including Powell's son, Daniel – managed to get out but four were trapped 90 metres underground.
Hopes that the men might have found an air pocket and survived were dashed as the bodies were found one by one. All died close together in an area near where they had been blasting.
An investigation has begun into the cause of the flooding of the mine, which is owned by the company MNS. One key questions is how much the men knew about the area they were working in.
It is not clear yet if they were aware that gallons of water lay so close to the section they were working. While more modern mines are carefully mapped, records about historic workings like those around Gleision are not always kept.
On the lane near the colliery, the police cordon has been replaced by a line of floral tributes to Hill, 45, and the other men who died: Charles Breslin, 62; David Powell, 50; and Garry Jenkins, 39. One note for Jenkins read: "Sleep tight – we will always love you." Another, aimed at all four, said: "The day's work is done, your tools are on the bar, no more sweat and no more pain."