Aberfan

[Priory Doctor]

With the exception of Hillsbrough,I don't think I have ever been so moved by a disaster.

Possibly because I was a young schoolkid at the time,but it was such an emotional time. 

Watching that "Young wives of Aberfan " Documentary on ITV last night brought it all back to me.

Getting a long hug from my tearful mum when I got home from school that day, watching the bravery of the locals trying with their bare hands to rescue anybody who may have survived-miners rushing from work,exhausted and desperately trying to get into the school.

The heartbreaking story of finding a teacher killed while trying to shield four kids under their body.

Absolutely heartbreaking- wiping out most of a generation of a small town.

Incredible bravery from all concerned,and a disgrace that it was ever allowed to happen ,considering there had been warnings previously.

I don't know how that community survived and got through it.

[sir roger]

I still remember us all being taken into the school hall ( All Saints, Anfield ) when I was 6 and we sat there all day watching the disaster unfold, so like yourself PD it is , after Hillsbrough, the tragedy that had the most emotional impact on me. Absolutely horrific.

[Total Longo]

I read about this when there was a newspaper article on the 40th anniversary back in 2006. Absolutely staggering that the NCB allowed it to happen despite numerous warnings of the potential dangers. 

[thegreatelephant]

hearing on the radio yesterday that it happened a day before they broke up made me so miserable for the rest of the day. tragic, cruel and as said, preventable.

[Paulie Dangerously]

Was vaguely aware of this but just reading through the wiki.  heart breaking

[Mook]

Was vaguely aware of this but just reading through the wiki.  heart breaking

 

Me too, I'd heard of it before but just read a bit about it, what an absolutely horrific thing to happen.

[Dougie Do'ins]

With the exception of Hillsbrough,I don't think I have ever been so moved by a disaster.

Possibly because I was a young schoolkid at the time,but it was such an emotional time. 

Watching that "Young wives of Aberfan " Documentary on ITV last night brought it all back to me.

Getting a long hug from my tearful mum when I got home from school that day, watching the bravery of the locals trying with their bare hands to rescue anybody who may have survived-miners rushing from work,exhausted and desperately trying to get into the school.

The heartbreaking story of finding a teacher killed while trying to shield four kids under their body.

Absolutely heartbreaking- wiping out most of a generation of a small town.

Incredible bravery from all concerned,and a disgrace that it was ever allowed to happen ,considering there had been warnings previously.

I don't know how that community survived and got through it.

I watched the programme on ITV last night and I kept thinking of how those mothers reminded me of the Hillsborough mothers. Waving their kids off and never seeing them alive again. Then recounting how they learned something had happened and then watching it unfold desperately clinging on to the hope that their kids would be found alive. One of the hardest bits was when one of them was telling of not knowing if her daughter was in the makeshift mortuary. Her husband asked her what the kid was wearing and the poor woman couldn't remember. 

[aws]

Such a gutting and shocking tragedy.

 

And then the government took money out of the charitable fund raised for the families and used it to pay towards the tip removal.

[RedKnight]

My hometown is only about 10 miles from Aberfan so it's been well known to me from an early age. To be honest, when you're told about at it an early age it's difficult to comprehend what happened and why.

[Bjornebye]

Watched that last night fighting back the tears. What really got me was the sludge still moving like it was alive while people were digging into it. Heartbreaking absolutely fucking heartbreaking.

[Bjornebye]

Exactly 50 years ago to the minute

[stringvest]

unbearably sad, this.

[Champ]

I watched the programme on ITV last night and I kept thinking of how those mothers reminded me of the Hillsborough mothers. Waving their kids off and never seeing them alive again. Then recounting how they learned something had happened and then watching it unfold desperately clinging on to the hope that their kids would be found alive. One of the hardest bits was when one of them was telling of not knowing if her daughter was in the makeshift mortuary. Her husband asked her what the kid was wearing and the poor woman couldn't remember.

It's always the mothers isn't it?

 

I went to Dunblane Primary school and the pictures that are seared into my mind are the images of the women running along the road towards the school

[Anubis]

Terrible event. Horrific. Your thoughts have to be with the families.

[Guest Pistonbroke]

I visited the Bryntaf cemetery memorial years ago, it left a horrible sinking feeling in my heart. Their names will live on forever for all the wrong reasons, an avoidable disaster. 

[Ezekiel 25:17]

hearing on the radio yesterday that it happened a day before they broke up made me so miserable for the rest of the day. tragic, cruel and as said, preventable.

 

 

You can get seriously stressed out going into things like this, it's not even as much as a day that would have made the difference, had it happened a couple of hours later they would have left the school, and I think a few minutes later they would not have been in the classroom.

[Ezekiel 25:17]

I also think this is closer to murder than a tragedy, many parents who lost their children had petitioned against the site and were ignored, I can't remember the specifics but I'm sure that's true.

[Guest Pistonbroke]

I also think this is closer to murder than a tragedy, many parents who lost their children had petitioned against the site and were ignored, I can't remember the specifics but I'm sure that's true.

 

For 50 years up to 1966, millions of tonnes of excavated mining debris from the National Coal Board's Merthyr ValeColliery were deposited on the side of Mynydd Merthyr, directly above the village of Aberfan. Spoil heaps or tips of loose rock and mining waste had been built up above a layer of porous sandstone containing several undergroundsprings, and tips had been built up on top of the springs.

Local worries about the tip were generally dismissed. In 1964 local councillor Gwyneth Williams warned that if the tip were to move it could threaten the school. In 1965 a petition against the tip from mothers of children at Pantglas school was presented by headmistress Ann Jennings to Merthyr County Borough Council. Ms Jennings and many of the petitioners' children died in the disaster. Aberfan resident Dai Tudor said "I’ve warned and campaigned for years about that tip. Nobody in authority took any notice. This is not just the greatest tragedy in Wales. It is the biggest scandal."^[2][3]

One point of complaint did receive a reply. In 1963 Merthyr Tydfil Council raised specific concerns in letters to the NCB about the practice adopted in February 1962 of tailings (very fine material from colliery washeries) being included in material tipped on the mountain above the village. Because tailings tended to set hard when dry they were generally rewetted before tipping, exacerbating existing problems of flooding (in water-bearing tip waste) in the Pantglas area. Experience elsewhere in South Wales caused the Merthy Tydfil Borough Engineer to write a letter in July 1963 expressing concerns about possible tip movement as a result of tipping tailings, which were "so fluid and the gradient so steep that it could not possibly stay in position in the winter time or during periods of heavy rain". Local colliery officials did not immediately identify an alternative disposal method for tailings, and tipping of tailings continued. In March 1964 the NCB replied, "As you will appreciate, these tailings are very difficult to handle and we are very careful in disposing of this material, so as not to inconvenience any person or persons, and, therefore, we would not like to continue beyond the next 6/8 weeks in tipping it on the mountainside where it is likely to be a source of danger to Pantglas School." Nevertheless tipping of tailings continued intermittently until early 1965.^[4]

Photographs, diagrams and an analysis of the 1966 flowslide, as well as locations of earlier slides at Aberfan, are given in a paper by Prof. Alan Bishop.^[5]

[Ezekiel 25:17]

 

For 50 years up to 1966, millions of tonnes of excavated mining debris from the National Coal Board's Merthyr ValeColliery were deposited on the side of Mynydd Merthyr, directly above the village of Aberfan. Spoil heaps or tips of loose rock and mining waste had been built up above a layer of porous sandstone containing several undergroundsprings, and tips had been built up on top of the springs.

Local worries about the tip were generally dismissed. In 1964 local councillor Gwyneth Williams warned that if the tip were to move it could threaten the school. In 1965 a petition against the tip from mothers of children at Pantglas school was presented by headmistress Ann Jennings to Merthyr County Borough Council. Ms Jennings and many of the petitioners' children died in the disaster. Aberfan resident Dai Tudor said "I’ve warned and campaigned for years about that tip. Nobody in authority took any notice. This is not just the greatest tragedy in Wales. It is the biggest scandal."^[2][3]

One point of complaint did receive a reply. In 1963 Merthyr Tydfil Council raised specific concerns in letters to the NCB about the practice adopted in February 1962 of tailings (very fine material from colliery washeries) being included in material tipped on the mountain above the village. Because tailings tended to set hard when dry they were generally rewetted before tipping, exacerbating existing problems of flooding (in water-bearing tip waste) in the Pantglas area. Experience elsewhere in South Wales caused the Merthy Tydfil Borough Engineer to write a letter in July 1963 expressing concerns about possible tip movement as a result of tipping tailings, which were "so fluid and the gradient so steep that it could not possibly stay in position in the winter time or during periods of heavy rain". Local colliery officials did not immediately identify an alternative disposal method for tailings, and tipping of tailings continued. In March 1964 the NCB replied, "As you will appreciate, these tailings are very difficult to handle and we are very careful in disposing of this material, so as not to inconvenience any person or persons, and, therefore, we would not like to continue beyond the next 6/8 weeks in tipping it on the mountainside where it is likely to be a source of danger to Pantglas School." Nevertheless tipping of tailings continued intermittently until early 1965.^[4]

Photographs, diagrams and an analysis of the 1966 flowslide, as well as locations of earlier slides at Aberfan, are given in a paper by Prof. Alan Bishop.^[5]

 

 

 

I can't my head around it, they were told in black and white exactly what the danger was, and it was just ignored, they were told to cease tipping, and it was just ignored.

[Guest Pistonbroke]

I can't my head around it, they were told in black and white exactly what the danger was, and it was just ignored, they were told to cease tipping, and it was just ignored.

 

As you said mate, it amounts to murder without any of those responsible for getting any blood on their hands. 

[Total Longo]

A very difficult read indeed.

 

https://www.theguardian.com/media/greenslade/2016/oct/20/aberfan-a-reporters-letter-home-reveals-the-true-horror-of-the-tragedy

[Strontium]

I can't my head around it, they were told in black and white exactly what the danger was, and it was just ignored, they were told to cease tipping, and it was just ignored.

 

This is a common problem when the state fulfils the role of operator and regulator. There is nothing to make them accountable to anyone.

 

It's rather like playing a f**tb*ll match, and the referee is the opposition's manager.

[johnsusername]

I've always thought it's the most heartbreaking event in modern British history. All those children, such a horrendous way to die. The shifting of blame and treatment of the bereaved (and dead) has so many parallels to Hillsborough (and other British cover ups). The chairman of the NCB should have been hung. He didn't give a shit before and he didn't give a shit after.

 

As mentioned previously, it was easily avoidable and that's the most tragic thing.

[magicrat]

I did watch the programme last night and found it very moving,  Brought back memories of when I was a child and seeing my Mum in tears watching the news . Can still see my parents glued to the old grainy black and white pictures on the news and how angry my    

[halewood pete]

100% avoidable tragedy .scandal