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In December 1915, six children from Gatewen Road, Broughton near Wrexham received the news that their father, 37 year old miner William Arthur Lloyd, had been killed. His wife knew nothing of how he died or of the highly secret nature of the work he had been undertaking in France.

Now new light is being shed on this special breed of men, mainly miners, who fought perhaps the most terrifying war along the Western Front. Their job was not to charge over the top of the trenches into No Man’s Land, but to sink explosive-packed tunnels deep beneath it.

The allied tunnelling companies operated in such secrecy that little was known of their exploits for years after the war. Working in total silence up to 100ft underground they set out to detonate mines beneath the enemy’s trenches.At each step of the way they had to search out and destroy German tunnellers busy digging the other way. Remarkably this deadly war of nerves was waged by civilians, mainly miners with little or no military training.

Nearly one hundred years later, archaeologists have unearthed the World War One tunnels, dug by the 179th Tunnellers and located William's final resting place behind a blocked gallery.

Writing at the end of 1916, Field Marshal Haig, commander of British forces on the Western Front, noted that ‘The Tunnelling Companies still maintain their superiority over the enemy underground, thus safeguarding their comrades in the trenches. Their skill, enterprise and courage have been remarkable’. Welsh miners were prominent amongst those men who volunteered to undertake this dangerous and difficult task: it is estimated that 4,500 South Wales miners served as tunnellers, of whom over 200 were killed in action.

Location: Gatewen Road, New Broughton, Wrexham, L11 6UP
Image shows Gatewen Road, Broughton in 1914 and 2014
Archive image of Gatewen Road courtesy of Michael Griffiths
Includes film from Birdsong courtesy Working Title Ltd

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