Aberfan disaster remembered 50 years on

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Tributes will be paid to the 116 children and 28 adults who lost their lives in the Aberfan disaster at events on Saturday.

It will be 50 years on 21 October since a coal waste tip collapsed and submerged a school near Merthyr Tydfil.

Veterans from The King's Own Royal Border Regiment will lead a parade to Aberfan's memorial garden.

Schoolchildren from around Wales will also perform a rendition of Myfanwy at St David's Cathedral, Pembrokeshire.

After heavy rain on 21 October 1966, a build-up of water in the accumulated rock and shale caused it to suddenly slide downhill in the form of slurry. 1,400,000 cu ft of debris smashed into the village in a slurry 39 ft deep. The slide destroyed a farm and twenty terraced houses along Moy Road and slammed into the northern side of the Pantglas Junior School and part of the separate senior school, demolishing most of the structures and filling the classrooms with thick mud and rubble up to 33 ft deep. Mud and water from the slide flooded many other houses in the vicinity, forcing many villagers to evacuate their homes.

The disaster caused the deaths of 144 people, 116 of which were children.

Aberfan 'lost generation' remembered in events 50 years on

BBC News
15 October 2016

Rescue workers at the scene of the Aberfan disaster the following day

Tributes will be paid to the 116 children and 28 adults who lost their lives in the Aberfan disaster at events on Saturday.

It will be 50 years on 21 October since a coal waste tip collapsed and submerged a school near Merthyr Tydfil.

Veterans from The King's Own Royal Border Regiment will lead a parade to Aberfan's memorial garden.

Schoolchildren from around Wales will also perform a rendition of Myfanwy at St David's Cathedral, Pembrokeshire.

The parade in Aberfan on Saturday is one of a number of events in Merthyr Tydfil county leading up to the anniversary of the disaster on Friday.

It starts at 11:00 BST when the veterans leave Aberfan Community Leisure Centre and march to the memorial garden, where they will lay a wreath.

Many tributes have taken place or are planned around the anniversary, with the Welsh football team visiting the village recently.

Real Madrid and Wales footballer Gareth Bale in the Aberfan Disaster Memorial Garden

Another event on Saturday called A Tribute to Aberfan will see schoolchildren from across south Wales perform, led by by the Llanelli-based Hywel Girls' Choir and Hywel Boys Singers.

They will sing Myfanwy in Welsh costumes, with the song left unfinished and a single red rose left on stage in memory of the lost generation of Aberfan.

The Hywel choir had begun performing worldwide before the disaster.

Conductor John Hywel Williams said: "On numerous concert tours around the world over subsequent years, people would come up to the choir and reference Aberfan.

"The pain of Aberfan in losing a generation in those fateful seconds was felt by a global community."

144 people, 116 of which were children, were killed in the disaster on 21 October 1966


Aberfan 'lost generation' remembered in events 50 years on - BBC News

 

[Curious Cdn]

I remember this horror.

The mining industry is pretty much gone (for now) from Wales. It left mountains of tailings, bare pits and an unemployed Wales behind it.

 

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I remember this horror.

The mining industry is pretty much gone (for now) from Wales. It left mountains of tailings, bare pits and an unemployed Wales behind it.

It's the same all around the country, not just Wales. The British landscape is now dotted with ghostly and empty mines. Some have been turned into mining museums.

The Left blame Thatcher for her closure of coalmines throughout the Eighties, but Labour PM Harold Wilson closed more of them than she did.

 

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Wales has fallen silent as the country remembered the Aberfan disaster 50 years ago.

On 21 October 1966, a mountain of coal waste slid down into a school and houses in the Welsh village, killing 144 people, including 116 children.

A day of events to commemorate the disaster included a service at Aberfan Cemetery at 09:15 BST on Friday.

Prince Charles is visiting Aberfan memorial garden before unveiling a plaque in memory of the victims.

He will also attend a reception with the families of some of those who lost their lives, before signing a book of remembrance.

First Minister Carwyn Jones had called on the people of Wales to pause for the minute's silence.

Aberfan disaster: 50th anniversary marked with silence

BBC News
21 October 2016

Wales has fallen silent as the country remembered the Aberfan disaster 50 years ago.

On 21 October 1966, a mountain of coal waste slid down into a school and houses in the Welsh village, killing 144 people, including 116 children.

A day of events to commemorate the disaster included a service at Aberfan Cemetery at 09:15 BST on Friday.

Prince Charles is visiting Aberfan memorial garden before unveiling a plaque in memory of the victims.

He will also attend a reception with the families of some of those who lost their lives, before signing a book of remembrance.

• Aberfan: The mistake that cost a village its children
• In pictures: The tragedy of Aberfan

First Minister Carwyn Jones had called on the people of Wales to pause for the minute's silence.

Prime Minister Theresa May agreed the nation should mark the occasion and remember those who died, when she led tributes in the Commons this week.

Silences were held at all Welsh Government offices, Westgate Square in Newport, Ffos-y-Fran open cast site in Merthyr Tydfil, and the University Hospital of Wales, Cardiff, among other places.

Rob Williams of NAHT Cymru, the school leaders' union for Wales, said: "As a country, and as school leaders, we must always remember."

It was at 09:15, five decades ago, that the tip gave way and thousands of tonnes of liquefied slurry slid down into Pantglas Junior School and nearby homes.

Mike Flynn with a clock his father - one of the rescuers at Aberfan - dug up. It stopped at 9.13am and was used in the inquiry to determine what time the disaster happened

Mike Flynn, from Cardiff, said his father Michael had been a paramedic in the Territorial Army and went to Aberfan to help in the rescue when he saw it on the news.

He dug up the clock and gave it to the police for use in the inquiry but they gave it back to him when the inquiry was over, with it later passed to Mr Flynn.

He said: "The last time it ticked was in Aberfan when they were all still alive. It stopped at the time 144 people stopped with it. I felt it should be here in Aberfan today."

Mr Kirwaun said it was only because of his grandchildren he had recently been able to talk about what happened

Gerald Kirwaun was eight years old at the time of the disaster, and was at the school.

"I think Aberfan should never be forgotten. I don't think it ever will," he said.

"It's nice for the children of the future to know exactly what went on that day and what happened to us."

Cynon Valley MP Ann Clwyd, a trainee reporter at the time, recalled how she had headed to Aberfan on the day when she heard the news.

"Everybody was too shocked to speak," she said.

Simone Roden, headteacher at Ynysowen Community Primary School, where a minute's silence took place, said: "These children are the future generation of Aberfan.

"The children know about what happened a little bit. To remember and commemorate this year they've been involved in choir events at the Millennium Centre and Senedd singing for assembly members.

Mr Jones said the disaster was "one of the darkest days in modern Welsh history".

"Remembrance is important so future generations understand what happened in Aberfan," he said.

"It is a truly heart-breaking moment in our history and no-one who learns about the disaster can fail to be profoundly moved by it."

The memorial service at the cemetery is being led by Father Mark Prevett and involves the official laying of wreaths.

Politicians including the First Minister and Welsh Secretary Alun Cairns are among those laying wreaths, as are members of the emergency services.

A service of remembrance was also held at St Margaret's Church, in Mountain Ash at 09:00.

This service, open to all, has been organised by Rhondda Cynon Taf council because of the area's strong links with the community of nearby Aberfan.

Coal miners from Mountain Ash and surrounding areas played a vital role during the rescue operation, many being called from their shifts underground to help.

A quarter-peal - 45 minutes of bell ringing - rang out at St Tydfil's Church, in Merthyr Tydfil after the minute's silence. The ringers were selected to be the same age as the children who died would have been today.

The National Assembly is flying its flags at half mast as a mark of respect to the victims, and a book of condolence has been opened in the Senedd.

Further books of condolence will be available for members of the public to sign in Aberfan Library, Merthyr council's civic centre and Cyfarthfa Castle Museum.

Media captionSchoolchildren in Aberfan observed a minute's silence St David's Church in Merthyr, will be open until 16:00 for people to pray or have time for quiet reflection.

At 19:00 there will be a service at St Mary and the Holy Innocents Church in Nixonville, Merthyr Vale, at which the Rev Irving Penberthy, the Methodist minister covering Aberfan at the time, will preach.

The Assistant Bishop of Llandaff, David Wilbourne, who will address the congregation, said: "This is a time for us to come together as a community, sharing grief which is still so sore, despite the passage of time, and giving thanks for the lives of every one of those who died in the disaster."

Aberfan disaster: 50th anniversary marked with silence - BBC News