What happened?
The build up
It as 9am on Friday 21st October 1966. In the village of Aberfan in the heart of the south Wales coalfield it was raining; as hard as it had been for days, running into weeks.
The 240 pupils made their way to the Victorian, red brick Pantglas Junior School. As the children gathered for morning assembly, they were excited. At midday the half-term holiday would begin. Their daily singing of ‘All Things Bright and Beautiful’ was postponed that morning. They would instead sing it before they went home when the head teacher planned to wish her pupils a safe and enjoyable holiday.
Nearby, Merthyr Vale colliery was one of the largest coal mines in the Welsh Valleys for which had dozens of mines scattered around it. The back-breaking work of miners had recently powered Britain through World War Two. By 1966, however, the coal industry in the UK had been in decline for 30 years: oil was becoming more popular and several pits had shut. In Aberfan though, there were still a lot of miners, making it a central part of the community there. Something looked down on Aberfan though from the top of the mountains. Any coal waste from the Merthyr Vale colliery was regularly taken by cart and dumped at the top of mountains above the village of Aberfan.
On Sundays though Wales' religious tradition was strong. Multiple churches were open and were full. But Christianity had competition. The National Coal Board (NCB) took control of mining in all of the UK and it had a god-like power in South Wales due to its strong hold over the Welsh Government.
There had been multiple mining disasters in the past few years and many complaints had been made to the NCB about the dangers of one of the seven gigantic coal-tips (or slag heaps) that loomed high above the village. A few years earlier in 1963, the Pantglas school had actually written a petition asking for them to stop dumping coal so close to the school but it was ignored. The NCB brushed complaints aside. The tips were notorious for sliding but there was particular concern about Aberfan’s ‘tip number seven’ which had begun in 1958 and had risen to a 111ft (34m) heap of coal waste.
At approximately 9.15am on that day, the bottom of the coal-tip on the mountain shot out from underneath it. The collapse was caused by the build-up of water in the accumulated rock and shale tip, which suddenly slid downhill in the form of slurry. The glistening black avalanche covered rocks and trees as it came down the mountain, increasing its speed of its murderous descent towards Pantglas Junior School. Seconds after it hit, everything went quiet.
The disaster
A loud, thunderous noise was heard as thousands of tonnes of black coal slag made its way towards the school. The children and adults became trapped by the mud and slurry that quickly filled the classrooms.
Rescuers from the surrounding valleys arrived quickly at the scene and began to dig, hoping to pull survivors out. Some rescuers frantically dug with their hands as they heard the cries for help. The miners from the Methyr Vale colliery hurried to join in with the rescue attempt. They worked together to tunnel into areas of the school.
Some children were found alive in the immediate aftermath and they were passed along to the waiting ambulances. No survivors were found after 11 o’clock that morning. All was silent.
In total, 144 people lost their lives (116 of which were children.