General Chat

I worked for the emergency services and I remember the shift leader coming in for his afternoon shift telling us the news and the silence that followed..

I was only 6 at the time I dont really remember a lot except going home to ask for
some money to bring in for all the little Welsh children who had been hurt. Didn't really understand what had happened.
Have seen a couple of documentaries and always remembered the name of the village but in all the years of visiting relatives in South Wales never went there.

Thinking of all those in need of comfort at this very sad time. <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3

I can remember waiting for OH to come home from work so that I could leave our son with him and go out to the phone box to ring my mother. How strange to think that we weren't on the phone then, and thought nothing of it!

I was 16 at the time and had just left school that summer but remember watching it on TV and crying for the family's and the village very sad watching today has well good to see Prince Charles there as I did read that the royals were to busy to attend I hope the country never forgets Aberfan and nothing like that never happens again <3 <3

I was very young at the time and don't remember the event, but I read an article about it in my teens, and was shocked and saddened.

Remembering all those who lost their lives, and all those who still live with the aftermath <3

I found it very poignant watching the lunchtime news today, seeing the little schoolchildren standing in silence and thinking all those who died were just that age. It's so awful to think that not only was it avoidable but, if the heap had stayed stable for just one more day, there would have been no children in the school.

Remembering Aberfan and those who still mourn.

Thinking of you AnnC <3

at our local psychiatric hospital, where I worked for nigh on thirty years we had several Aberfan residents as patients - for various reasons

we had a programme on last Wednesday evening interviewing one of the survivors - he's a grandfather now, and kept breaking down throughout the programme - he was actually in the school when he got caught up in it - he had been sent with his school friend to the senior school nearby for his friend to collect his dinner money from his sister. Then the slurry started to hit the houses and the side of a house fell on him trapping him - two firemen tried to get him out but they couldn't lift the debris, then water started flooding down the mountain and they had to hold his head out of the water to prevent him from drowning. Fortunately the force of the water shifted some of the debris and they were able to pull him free. He lost three of his fingers and his ear was torn off, but they managed to reattach it. On the programme he met up for the first time with the two firemen - very emotional indeed

I was in Singapore at the time, so must have heard it on the World News. It made an impression because I knew the Valleys from childhood and could visualise the slag heaps.

One thing I do remember was, several years later, reading the story of one of the children who survived. For whatever reason, he wasn't at school that day, but he felt guilty about not being dead, had lost all his friends and, however much they tried not to show it, the other parents resented him/his parents, because they still had their child. Eventually the family moved away. :-(

The one that always hits me is the very smartly dressed young woman in her little suit with her hair piled up very elegantly who is in the chain shifting rubble with the others.

All ready for and looking forward to something that needed her to look immaculate.

Ann <3

I watched the documentary on BBC4 last night, how sad it all was.

I was not old enough to realise the devastation of that little village, but the bravery of the mothers, miners and the rescue services.

Something came to light last night that I did not know, one of the rescuers said that when they were clearing one the schoolrooms, all the children were still sitting at their desks. It had happened so quickly, the children had no time to escape.

The haunting imagine that always makes me weep is the rows of arches, the memorial to the children and teachers.

I remember seeing it on TV. It was lunchtime and I was trying to persuade my 22 month old son to have something to eat. It was just terrible, I couldn't believe what I was hearing/watching. I still well up watching the old film.
Everyone knew those coal slags were unstable and dangerous and were an accident waiting to happen. If only that school had been empty, it would have been bad enough, but would have saved those little children.

Also thinking of you today AnnC <3

Aren't the mothers of the lost children wonderful? They have been featured on the television a couple of times in the last week and you can't help but marvel at and admire their strength and dignity.

In fact, everybody who has spoken of their involvement with the disaster has done so with such quiet dignity and calm.

We must all have steel inside. Lucky those who never have to find it.

I was only 9 years old when this horrific disaster befell Aberfan.
I can remember crying when I watched it unfold on the news.


Remembering the children and adults of Aberfan, who lost their lives on that heartbreaking day, 50 years ago <3 <3 <3

And also their loved ones who mourn <3 <3 <3

I remember seeing the news reports when I got home from work. The whole country went into shock. A moving mountain of waste from the mines engulfed the school in Aberfan.
Prior to that hardly anyone had heard of Aberfan. But from that day onwards, the word "Aberfan". brings back the horror, despair and disbelief of that day.
Slag heaps were part of the landscape in (at least some) mining areas.
I lived in the West Midlands and there were still a couple of mines in the area in the early 1960's. There were some slagheaps close to the mines, but they were not up a hill, looming over a village and its school.

I believe that some people in the Aberfan area had tried not get the huge slag heaps moved, long before the 21st October 1966. But had been repeatedly turned down.

R.I.P. all the victims, my thoughts go out to the friends and families of all the children who never got to grow up. And all the adults who died at their side.

This (unnatural) disaster, along with several others show just how important Health and Safety is

<3 <3 <3

<3 <3 <3

It was terrible. Remember it very well.

I was living in north wales and we started to wonder if the slate heaps from the quarries were going to fall onto the road.Anyone who has come over the Crimea Pass at Blaenau Ffestniog and seen the slate right near the road will see what I mean.

The terrible thing was that the so many young lives in the school were lost.
My children were of school age at that time and for a long time we could not forget this tragedy....it will never be forgotten.

there were coal tips which were turned into hills

coal was king at one time and there is evidence of the coal industry all across Wales - what angered everyone at the time was not only the fact that the NCB denied they were responsible for the disaster - they were ultimately proved to be responsible - but the fact that they used the disaster fund, made up from donations sent from all over the globe, to pay for the removal of the tip - after years of fighting the money was repaid into the disaster fund

Were there other, artificial hills, black ones made of waste?

Wales is beautiful now but I always had the impression that it was kind of overshadowed by it's exploitation really in that the quest for coal overshadowed everything and brought a lot of shadow into places where there should be sun.

Sorry if I seem to be turning into D.H. Lawrence for a moment but I always had a mental picture of the valleys being dark and overshadowed by coal waste.