Aberfan Disaster: 50th Anniversary to Be Marked With Silence

[Tom Hark Preston Park]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-south-east-wales-37689736

I've posted a version of this before on NSC. I make no apology for posting it again.

Today, 21 October 2016, is the 50th anniversary of the Aberfan disaster, when a mountain of coal waste from the nearby coalmine slid down on top of the Welsh village of that name and engulfed Pantglas Junior School, killing 144 people, including 116 children.

I was just 9 at the time. Dad was taking me to watch Scotland play Wales at Ninian Park, Cardiff, 20 miles down the road from Aberfan, as a belated birthday treat. The match was scheduled to take place the day after the disaster, when the enormity of the devastation was only starting to become fully known. Nowadays they would have cancelled the match. Instead they held a minute’s silence. I’d never seen grown men cry before, didn’t realise they could. After the minute’s silence, myself and another little boy were picked up and passed over the heads of the packed crowd, down to the front, and over the wall, to sit at the side of the pitch, watched over for the whole match by a policeman.

They didn’t want us to get crushed you see.

RIP children of Aberfan

x

 

[Soulman]

Indeed RIP. A sad day.

 

[Napier's Knee]

I was six when it happened, and can still remember the news reports. Did the reporter cry? I know my mother did and my dad sat and watched in stunned silence - probably trying hard not to cry. Terrible, terrible. RIP

 

[Norman Potting]

I was six when it happened, and can still remember the news reports. Did the reporter cry? I know my mother did and my dad sat and watched in stunned silence - probably trying hard not to cry. Terrible, terrible. RIP

Same here, same age. It was the first "really bad thing" I can remember, a terrible event.

 

[Thunder Bolt]

I can remember exactly where I was & can still picture it now, it was such devastating news.

 

[ManOfSussex]

I remember visiting Aberfan in the late 80's when I was at primary school and the enormity of it struck me then by just comparing the number of children lost, to me and everyone I was at school with being killed.

 

[aberllefenni]

My late uncle was a fireman based in Pontypridd at the time of the disaster. I was always under the impression that he never ever talked about it, for obvious reasons. It was only at his funeral, when my father read the eulogy, that I discovered that he had opened up once. He told my father that he did get flashbacks particularly when he was at a rugby match when the ref blew a whistle, as that was the signal that another body had been found.

I was three at the time so have no memory of the day,but, years later, I worked for a housing association who had properties in the village. My over-riding impression was of a community bowed but not beaten.

I know it's a bit short notice but please, if you can, observe the minutes silence at 9.15 today.

 

[LamieRobertson]

I remember it well...a dark dark day

 

[Gwylan]

My cousin is at Aberfan cemetery today, remembering the 144. It's going to be an emotional day for her

I'm wearing my leek in memory and ready to stand in silence,

Remember also that the powers-to-be were warned of the dangers and ignored them: no-one was sacked, no-one was disciplined and the parents who lost their children had to pay for the clean--up. A shameful episode in our history

 

[pearl]

Same here, same age. It was the first "really bad thing" I can remember, a terrible event.

same here, actually feel sick now thinking about it

 

[studio150]

I watched the BBC documentary earlier in the week, and was surprised by how shocked and sadden I was by these events of 50 years ago.

It also struck me as how insensitive football supporters were back in the 70s and 80s given the songs sung about the disaster aimed at opposing Welsh fans, I would like to think that to-day a similar event would be mourned in the correct way.

A sad day

 

[Thunder Bolt]

[tweet]789372386231537664[/tweet]

 

[Boys 9d]

I was visiting relatives a few miles away and remember how much grief there was even among people who were not directly affected. In some ways the reaction amongst people, including myself, was like our locality following the Shoreham Air Crash.

 

[attila]

MY NINTH BIRTHDAY

I’m sure it won’t surprise you to learn
I was a proper little show-off.
‘Too clever by half’
said my Victorian grandmother
who lived in the flat downstairs.
‘You spoil him, Muriel.
Children should be seen
and not heard.
Be quiet, John!
When you begin to pay a little
Then you can begin to say a little.’
There were plenty more such epithets.
If I asked what was for tea
on the days she was in charge of me
she’d always say
‘Air pie and a walk round’
or ‘Bread and pullet’
and when she read about the latest exploits
of the royal family
or anyone else remotely wealthy or privileged
in the pages of her beloved Daily Express
she’d often exclaim, with heartfelt satisfaction,
‘It’s not for the likes of us!’
(When, years later, I read
‘The Ragged Trousered Philanthropists’
by Robert Tressell
and heard that ghastly, servile catchphrase again
I felt retrospectively vindicated
in my instinctive determination back then
to do the exact opposite
of nearly everything she told me.)

Despite my grandmother’s best efforts
I was seen, heard
and then some -
in school and out.
Self-assured and confident.
Playing the violin and recorder.
Writing little poems and songs
and about to begin a massive project
about the American Civil War
based on the battle stories printed on the back
of the unbelievably gory bubblegum picture cards
we boys bought on our way to school.
Cards with titles like ‘Crushed By The Wheels’
‘Wall of Corpses’
and ‘Messenger of Death.’
(Two old pence for two cards
a fake Confederate dollar bill
and a piece of gum.
If you’re male and over 50, you’ll probably remember.
After endless swapsies and games of flickers
I eventually got the whole set.
That’s when I started the project.)
My form teacher liked me
and let me help other kids in class.
I had lots of friends
and if wannabe bullies had a go
I had a go back.

It was my ninth birthday.
At Manor Hall Junior School
when it was your birthday
you couldn’t wait till lunchtime -
but you had to.
Then you stood in front of everyone else
in the canteen
a big, colourful plastic cake was brought out
with proper candles on it
you blew out the candles
everyone sang ‘Happy Birthday’
(even the kids who didn’t like you:
the teachers made sure of that)
and you got the chance to grab a handful of sweets
from a big jar.
As far as I can remember
I was the only one
with a birthday that day
so I had everyone’s undivided attention.
I was really looking forward to it.
But I never got to show off
and I didn’t want to show off.
My ninth birthday was different.
It was October 21st, 1966.

Before we went to the canteen for lunch
and my little birthday cameo
we were told there was going to be a special assembly
in the school hall.
Everyone wondered what had happened:
even I realised they wouldn’t have one
just because it was my birthday.
The headmaster, Mr. Young,
came in looking very sad
and told us that earlier that day
a huge mountain of coal waste
had engulfed a junior school like ours
in a Welsh mining village called Aberfan
and many children the same age as us
had lost their lives.

He asked us to pray for them.
We all did.
Some of us cried.

They still sang ‘Happy Birthday’
in the canteen
a few minutes later
but it wasn’t a happy birthday at all.
I kept thinking about those children.
After I’d got home
and talked to my parents
and had my birthday tea with my friends
I tried to write a poem for Aberfan -
but I couldn’t.
The poem I wanted to write
was far too big for a nine year old.
We did a collection at school
the money was sent to the disaster fund
and then
as happens when you’re a child
with loving parents
at a supportive school
other things quickly came along
to take the sadness away.
But on my birthday
for the next few years
I always thought about
the children of Aberfan.

Years later, I learned
about the underground springs
below Colliery Waste Tip No 7
on the hill above the village
which caused the coal waste to turn to slurry
and crash down on the school -
springs easily spotted on maps
which were never even consulted.
I learned about the negligence
of the authorities
and the insensitivity of the press.
Some things never change.
I learned about the father who -
as the inquest into his child’s death
declared the cause to be ‘asphyxia and multiple injuries’ -
shouted out
‘No, sir. Buried alive by the National Coal Board.’
I learned how a ruling was made
that parents had somehow to prove
their childrens’ deaths had ‘caused them anguish ’
before they could benefit
from the disaster fund -
and that some of the money
from that fund
was used to clear the other waste tips
above Aberfan
because the Coal Board
refused to pay for it to be done
despite the fact that everyone lived in dread
of the same thing happening again.
I learned about the long-term psychological effects
of the disaster
on the whole village.
In short
I learned how the lives
of working class people
- of working class children -
were held cheap.
So cheap.

But that was much later.
Back then
I was just a child.
A proper little show-off
who didn’t want to show off
on his ninth birthday
trying to write a poem
for children like him -
for the children
of Aberfan.

 

[Mackenzie]

My next door neighbour's mum was an Aberfan survivor, only seven of her class climbed out through a broken window. My mother in law was a student teacher in Manchester when it happened, she took the train down to help with the dig.

There is a sad subdued feeling in my district, it still hurts after all these years. The grief of the losses, the denial of blame by the Coal Board and the heartlessness of the government asking for 10% of the disaster fund to remove the remaining tips were just too much.

RIP

 

[Lord Bracknell]

I have friends who come from Merthyr Tydfil. I remember, about ten years after the Aberfan tragedy, being with them in a Brighton pub and they were talking about people they knew from back home. One of them suddenly said to her sister "You know, xxxx from Aberfan ..."

It was a startling thing to hear, impossible to ignore. And I just went quiet.

I still remember that conversation. It was simply shocking to realise that, so long after the event, the mere mention of the name Aberfan, in a routine conversation, could have such an effect on me.

This was something that touched so many people in ways that can barely be imagined by folk who weren't alive at the time.

 

[Lower West Stander]

I was a week old.

My mum still tells me the story of reading about it on the hospital ward while I was asleep. She always reminds me of how easily young life can be lost using Aberfan as an example. For these reasons it has always had a special meaning for me

I visited the village a few years ago when I was in South Wales on a business trip, it is unthinkable now how such a large tower of waste could sit so precariously without anyone doing anything. And the behaviour of the Coal Board was an absolute disgrace.

 

[Tom Hark Preston Park]

I visited the village a few years ago when I was in South Wales on a business trip, it is unthinkable now how such a large tower of waste could sit so precariously without anyone doing anything. And the behaviour of the Coal Board was an absolute disgrace.

It was flagged up as a serious concern well in advance of the disaster by the Borough & Waterworks Engineer in his official capacity. Tho was tragically not acted upon.

https://www.nuffield.ox.ac.uk/politics/aberfan/let1.htm

'Mr. T. Ritchie
District Public Works Superintendent.
Reservoir House
Treharris

24th July, 1963

Dear Sir,

Danger from Coal Slurry being tipped at the rear of the Pantglas School

In connection with the above Councillor Mrs. Williams has advised me that the National Coal Board appear to be taking slurry similar to that which was deposited and gave so much trouble in the Quarry at Merthyr Vale, up on to the existing tip at the rear of the Pantglas Schools.

If this is a true statement of the position then I regard it as extremely serious as the slurry is 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.

Before writing to the National Coal Board I thought it would be advisable if you called to see the position for yourself and I will leave it to you to decide whether you call at the Merthyr Vale Colliery to see the manager before you pay the visit. If you do this it may be a good thing as the manager would probably decide to go with you and show you exactly what they are doing.

Yours faithfully,

D.C.W. Jones

Borough & Waterworks Engineer'

 

[Leekbrookgull]

Well if that is not a warning i don't know what is.

 

[Leekbrookgull]

I was six when it happened, and can still remember the news reports. Did the reporter cry? I know my mother did and my dad sat and watched in stunned silence - probably trying hard not to cry. Terrible, terrible. RIP

Maybe it was this ? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FvBq5ucFw90