From the time my mother interrupted me from doing my homework to come and watch the television news because something terrible had happened, I have always struggled at the very mention of the name Aberfan. Whenever the TV shows the grainy black and white images I recall from 1966 or shows the cemetery I have a job to see the screen clearly. I don’t think I can recall anything outside the family which even comes close for awfulness, all those children.
09.15 Friday I shall be having a few moments to think.
I delivered some concrete water pipes about a mile away from Aberfan some years ago and I stopped for my break and visited the memorial
I’ve never been so touched and emotional about anything but being there changed all that
Bless all those who died RIP
I remember it like yesterday Friday morning double science dewi our teacher walked in clas and said we are going home there been a terrible disaster at abervan 20 miles away no one could believe it I went home and my mother said to my older sister look after your brothers I’m of to abervan 2 days later she came home exhausted I still get upset every time I year the word abervan God bless them all and please if possible 9.15 minutes silence today regards rowdy ward
One of those awful tragedies that those who were alive at the time will never ever forget. I remember the TV news coverage at the time and it was probably the first disaster that had a national and worldwide impact because of that coverage. My thoughts today are with the bereaved families, survivors, and community of Aberfan.
I was delivering stone chippings to the new waterworks at aberdare , when i arrived the site was deserted except for an elderly watch man . i asked why there was nobody working he told me what had happened , tears were streaming down his face . this was about 2 hours after the disaster occurred . It wasn’t until i got home and turned the tv on that i realised the scale of the disaster . A day that i shall never forget . Dave
gazsa401:
I delivered some concrete water pipes about a mile away from Aberfan some years ago and I stopped for my break and visited the memorial
I’ve never been so touched and emotional about anything but being there changed all that
Bless all those who died RIP
Yes, I spent a quiet hour in reflection at the Aberfan memorial once while I was delivering nearby, it was incredibly moving.
I remember the disaster well, I was seven years old at the time. One memory I have was that my Mum bought a Matchbox car (at the time, a real treat for a seven year old) to send to the relief fund, and I asked her why they would want a Matchbox car. She said “that’s the sort of thing they’ve asked for, I suppose to take their brothers’ and sisters’ minds off of it”. It makes me well up just thinking about it.
I was in my first year at work (aged 15) and heard the news on a radio in a vehicle we were working on. Radios were banned at the garage I worked at so we sometimes sneaked a listen on a customers van if the foreman was out of the way. One of our customers owned a coal yard and collected his own coal from the Mountain Ash area and he sent his BMC chinese six tipper down there to help with the clearance work.
I listened to a guy talking on the Jeremy Vine earlier this week about it and he mentioned (as stated in the article above) about compensation being considered to those parent’s who were ‘close to their children’ and they would get compensation and those deemed ‘not so close’ would not!" This didn’t happen in the end but it was considered! Plenty of cover up in high places back then, things don’t change alas.
Watch this. I remember this day as long as I live
The Aberfan disaster fund received over 1.75 million pounds in donations from all over the world, that was a huge amount in 1966, of all that money only 50 pounds went to the families of the victims. Not one person at the mining company was even held responsible, the fund were divided amongst who knows ? The people of Aberfan had to collect over 180,000 to pay for the removal of the tip.
rward:
I remember it like yesterday Friday morning double science dewi our teacher walked in clas and said we are going home there been a terrible disaster at abervan 20 miles away no one could believe it I went home and my mother said to my older sister look after your brothers I’m of to abervan 2 days later she came home exhausted I still get upset every time I year the word abervan God bless them all and please if possible 9.15 minutes silence today regards rowdy ward
Your Mum is a heroine Roland but you already know that.
I remember seeing those terrible pictures on the 9 o’clock news fifty years ago. Two years later I was driving around the valleys in South Wales and there were still dozens of those massive high spoil heaps towering above the villages, often disappearing into the low clouds and I couldn’t help but think of Aberfan whenever I saw one.
Watching the same pictures on the news this morning still saddens me but today I feel even sadder when I think about what happened to those poor kids and their families on that day.
windrush:
One of our customers owned a coal yard and collected his own coal from the Mountain Ash area and he sent his BMC chinese six tipper down there to help with the clearance work.
Pete.
I remember at the time a news reporter saying that hauliers and plant operators from far and wide sent tippers and bulldozers to assist with the rescue. A fuel company sent tankers for refuelling the vehicles as and when required, no question of payment etc. If you watch the archive footage there was apparently no co-ordinated rescue teams, just ordinary people and miners pitching in to do what they could under the most appalling circumstances.
windrush:
One of our customers owned a coal yard and collected his own coal from the Mountain Ash area and he sent his BMC chinese six tipper down there to help with the clearance work.
Pete.
I remember at the time a news reporter saying that hauliers and plant operators from far and wide sent tippers and bulldozers to assist with the rescue. A fuel company sent tankers for refuelling the vehicles as and when required, no question of payment etc. If you watch the archive footage there was apparently no co-ordinated rescue teams, just ordinary people and miners pitching in to do what they could under the most appalling circumstances.
And I bet the government in London did Zb all to help
Plenty of cover up in high places back then, things don’t change alas.