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Aberfan Disaster 1966 Pantglas Junior School

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BernardR

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https://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/witness/october/21/newsid_3194000/3194860.stm

1966: Aberfan - a generation wiped out
It took just five minutes for the coal tip above Aberfan to slide down the mountain and engulf a farm, several houses and a school.
Pupils at Pantglas Junior School were just beginning their first lessons of the day when the rushing landslide of mud and debris flooded into their classrooms.Some children were able to escape, but 116 were killed. Another 28 adults also died. The local community was devastated by the tragedy and the whole country was shocked and saddened when the news hit the headlines.

Who can ever forget that day I can't - just 16 days after my Son was born.
 
Bernie, I had just had confirmation that I was expecting my second child (son) and my first was 3 years old,as the mother of a small child, to watch the images on TV of the despair of the parents was heartbreaking.
 
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It was 45 years ago today I was at school and didn't find out until I went home for lunch and my Mom was sitting in the kitchen crying. I will never forget that day it was terrible.
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Sorry my photo's won't upload from coppermine.
 
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I also remember going to my class that terrible day at Lozells St School. Our teacher that day was Miss Jones our Welsh teacher. She told us of the disaster that had occured in Aberfan crying as she spoke. We all said prayers for them .
 
I remember this so clearly even today. I was a teenager at the time and remember the terrible shock and horror of it all. It was the first time I fully realised how cruel and painful life sometimes is. I'm glad there's a dedicated memorial to all those who perished. But so very, very sad. Viv.
 
Aberfan happened during a very unhappy period in my life, and it brought home to me that perhaps I wasn't so badly off after all. In later years I had a customer nearby, and I visited the Memorial several times for a short period of reflection and private thought. It was good to see how well-tended the place is, not a trace of grafitti anywhere.

Big Gee
 
I was too young to understand what had happened at the time but in later years saw it on TV and also read about it. It makes me so sad to think of all the children and adults that lost their lives that day. Thank you for posting the pictures Dave M - it is lovely to see how they are all remembered.
 
I was a mother of a young son aged 6 at the time, it was heartbreaking and still is, almost a whole generation of the village children lost. I think the whole country was glued to the TV watching the desperate efforts of the emergency services doing their utmost to rescue the children and their teachers. The memorial garden is so well designed and tended. R.I.P.
 
like topsy i was also attending lozells girls school at the time of this awful disaster and special prayers were held in assembly..i can also remember watching the events unfold on the tv and seeing the pictures in all the newspapers...it seemed to me that the street was so quiet for days after...god bless them all..


lyn
 
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The garden is beautiful as it should be but quite a climb to get to.
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BERNIE
Ican recal the the disaster very well and the memories as i lived in wales for years during my growing up and i lived in the village of gilweren and i used to be a athlete and i have run competive races up and around the welsh village for a club called gilwen harriers whomarestill there in the village and i knew the school very well and at that particular time
i left wales and came back to birmingham to live and i had just started a job in a little bussiness
whom was a aluminum die casting making ali foot ball studs for boots
and the company was in king edwards rd ladywood and it was owned by a man gerrard street whom owned the fancy goods shop on the corner his name was george wilkinson [ die casters ] but any way i had only started there a month when this
accident occured and came over on the radio ; it sent shudders down my spine and brough tears to my eyes beleive me
i could vizulized the houses and the very school that i knewmy heart went thump for the commutity
at that time i will never for get the disaster in my life and for the familys that lost there young ones
such a tragicy Astonian
 
I remember this well I was on Guard duty at "Buck house", guardhouse which had a small b/w telly and I remember all the piquet crowding round to watch the terrible story unfold we were only young lads but all were
horrified by the disaster.
paul
 
Have a look on Wikipedia for information regarding the lead-up to the disaster, and what happened in its aftermath. It beggars belief.

Big Gee
 
I was on a school ttrip to Wales - Bryntail, on the clewydog (mid wales) that day, and only heard as the coach arrived back at school, where many parents were waiting for us, wondering if we had been involved.
I read a book some years later, written by survivors, and it was a horrifying event.

I have always wanted to go and look, and the pics of the cemetery have reminded me - it is a journey that must be undertaken - for definite!
 
Some years ago, on holiday in Saundersfoot, we met a young girl from Aberfan. She'd been born a few years afterwards - her older sister had been killed in the disaster, and the parents had decided to have another child. We were expressing our sympathies and she replied that if her sister hadn't died, SHE wouldn't have been born. Something we hadn't considered. I wonder how many other children came into the world as a result?
 
14 Moy Rd is the house directly opposite where the school stood - don't think i could live somewhere that directly confronts you with such tragedy
 
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