Aberfan

[alun147]

Very bad memory that we think of down in south Wales and remember very sadly every year.  On Fri, 21st, Oct, 1966, at 9-15 in the morning a huge coal tip gave way, and collapsed into some homes and the Pantglas Junior School. A total of 116 children and
28 adults were killed. A day we will never forget and may God bless them all. 

[Dextrous63]

Sad day indeed.

[1955vintage]

My mother was evacuated to a village the other side of the hill. She and her little brother went to the local grammar school with children from Aberfan. I am the same age as the classroom that lost many children, so she felt it harder than most. When it came out that the Labour Government took money from the charity for the families to pay for the clean up, she never voted Labour again.

[JBR]

My mother was evacuated to a village the other side of the hill. She and her little brother went to the local grammar school with children from Aberfan. I am the same age as the classroom that lost many children, so she felt it harder than most. When it came out that the Labour Government took money from the charity for the families to pay for the clean up, she never voted Labour again.

Disgusting.  Just one of many reasons why I shall never vote Labour, although the Conservatives have also had their moments too.  😠

[alun147]

My mother was evacuated to a village the other side of the hill. She and her little brother went to the local grammar school with children from Aberfan. I am the same age as the classroom that lost many children, so she felt it harder than most. When it came out that the Labour Government took money from the charity for the families to pay for the clean up, she never voted Labour again.

I was only 16 at the time, but my father and his brothers worked underground in our local village coal mine some 10/11 miles from Aberfan. They were all brought straight up the pit and busses laid on to take them over in their working clothes, shovels and picks to the school, where they stayed for around 12 hours. He never once  talked about the day he spent over there to me for once  the rest of his life.

[Vlad]

A sad day indeed. and not to far from my home town,

[Alex22]

I remember Aberfan, even though I was a teenager that was something you don't forget.

[JBR]

I saw a film about Aberfan a few weeks ago.  It really made me realise what a terrible thing that landslide was.


One thing which remains in my mind was the classroom when the teacher, realising what was coming, told all the kids to get under their desks.  Probably a good idea at the time, but unfortunately the landslide was far greater than he realised, and they were all buried alive.

[em]

JBR,how do we know that he said that,if they all died?

[stellamaris]

I was only 16 at the time, but my father and his brothers worked underground in our local village coal mine some 10/11 miles from Aberfan. They were all brought straight up the pit and busses laid on to take them over in their working clothes, shovels and picks to the school, where they stayed for around 12 hours. He never once  talked about the day he spent over there to me for once  the rest of his life.

Sort of connected to your post, my abiding memory is the scene of young men, late teens, in their suits and pointed toe shoes standing in lines in the rubble, bare-handed, passing big pieces of bricks/concrete down the line.  They looked like office workers or similar who had managed not to work in the pit. It was a pretty futile effort when considered against what would happen today but to me it brought home the enormity of the tragedy.  So many stories about it, each one heart-breaking.

[JBR]

JBR,how do we know that he said that,if they all died?

I was referring to the film!  🙄


I have no means of proving the validity of how this was portrayed on the film, but you could ask the film makers.  Similarly, you could make enquiries of the rescuers, or those who dug out all the dead bodies, and ask them if the children's bodies were all found underneath desks.


Let me know how you get on!

[JBR]

Sort of connected to your post, my abiding memory is the scene of young men, late teens, in their suits and pointed toe shoes standing in lines in the rubble, bare-handed, passing big pieces of bricks/concrete down the line.  They looked like office workers or similar who had managed not to work in the pit. It was a pretty futile effort when considered against what would happen today but to me it brought home the enormity of the tragedy.  So many stories about it, each one heart-breaking.

It also demonstrates how when a disaster strikes, there will always be some who, even at risk of their own lives, are willing to help in any way they can.

[Michael Rolls]

a truly terrible day - I was 29 at the time, so remember it well

[Bucephalus]

I was 9, can remember watching the news with my parents, must have been the next day, was there live news reports at the time?

[alun147]

It happened at 9,13, on the morning of Fri, 21st, the last day of term (no school Monday), We were still a coal mining area and as the news came in all the local day shifts were brought up their pits to be taken to Aberfan to try to save lives, (my father among them). Will never forget,