Aberfan: 50 years on

[Antman]

What I'm trying to point out is I find it a bit strange that there some to be people who think it needs to be taught about, but then don't bring up the subject themselves. Although I was aware of the event (I can't remember if it was ever mentioned at school or not), I think I learnt a lot more about it from documentaries I've seen on TV, which have either mentioned it or been about it. I certainly don't see it as being something that has been forgotten about.

Incidentally, does anyone know if it is mentioned in any displays at the National Coal Mining Museum (a place I've been meaning to visit)? It definitely should be given the effect it had on a whole community.

I said that I didn't know why it is seemingly not mentioned in schools today, it certainly was in my school days and obviously it's a significant event

 

[bramling]

I'm around the same age as your daughter, born in England but have lived most of my life in Wales. I too never knew about the disaster until I came across it by chance when reading about the Gresford disaster.

It certainly was never mentioned in school when I went.

It's certainly not a name which has entered the national vocabulary in the same way as, for example, Lockerbie or Hillsborough.

Obviously those who were alive at the time will doubtlessly remember, but I'd place a bet that many born (or arrived in the UK) since won't have heard of the disaster. I think I was my mid to late 20s when I first heard about it.

I write the above merely as an observation, however it does on reflection seem a little strange that it's an event which certainly hasn't caught the nation's attention as much as others.

 

[jamesbwxm]

I grew up in Gloucestershire. Probably 25 years ago one of my teachers held a special assembly to tell us about the disaster, he was one of the many people that travelled down to try and help. That disaster has always stuck in my mind and probably indirectly lead of my distrust of the establishment. Most people of my age hadn't heard of it until the stuff in the press this week. I live in North Wales now and I think it's fair to say that more people in Wales were aware of it than the England/Scotland/etc. I'd say "murdered by the NCB" was a fair comment.

 

[TheKnightWho]

My daughter comes home for dinner time and she just said that nobody had mentioned it.
As a matter of interest how many schools still have an assembly, it is a legal requirement but apparently the majority don't bother any more.

Please take your pessimistic politics about schools out of this thread. Just as your snide comment about the day before very short above was inappropriate, so is stuff like this. It's not the time.

 

[AJM580]

My late father came from South Wales and although he moved to Norfolk in the 1950's he still referred to Wales as home. His eyes always moistened at the mention of Aberfan, probably because while all those children were being buried, he could look at his own new-born son (me). I paused for a minute to reflect on their loss, yet others I work with were oblivious to the meaning of it.

 

[AndrewE]

It's more a problem with any organisation is left to regulate itself. It isn't always about profit, but it is about money. Corners get cut to save money, whether that's to increase profit or whether it's to try and defend a business that's losing money. The NCB were tipping as they were because it was cheap; they didn't do anything about it because it was expensive.

The biggest mining disasters, like Gresford, all come from the same place: cutting corners and killing people as a result.

Well said.

As has been pointed out, there was specific guidance about the risk dating from before the NCB was created. The TV programme (using the transcript from the inquiry) pointed out that the NCB had adopted it and even sent out an instruction that all Mine managers and local Civil engineers should co-operate to review their own areas. The two at Aberfan ignored it. I can't understand why they weren't jailed, or how Robens escaped unscathed after his behaviour either.

I remember it happening, later I enjoyed geography at school and studied geology at university but like other people I don't ever remember it being mentioned in any classes or in an assembly.

 

[Busaholic]

Was John Humphrys not the the first reporter to arrive on the scene following the Aberfan disaster? I was going to post something on this earlier today but was not sure if it would be remembered.

We were taught about it at school. Loads of schools still have an assembly although more often than not without the religious connotations.

From what he said on 'Today' this morning, then probably not, as it was 'several hours' before he reached Aberfan. I can only say that as someone who was 18 when it happened I've not only always been aware of it but have encountered the (only?) contemporary TV footage of the aftermath on numerous occasions over the years, and I really did think it was embedded in the national psyche.
--- old post above --- --- new post below ---

That's what you get from private corporations seeking profit all the time. Oh, just a minute ....

Consecutive governments of the 1960s/70s/80s chose Chairmen for the National Coal Board who would keep the National Union of Mineworkers in check, as they were seen as the most potentially militant of all the unions once the dockers had done themselves out of jobs/fallen victim of containerisation (delete to suit political prejudices). Alf (Lord) Robens is not often spoken of today, but this ex-Labour MP should imo be viewed in a much more unfavourable light than Beeching.

 

[Harbornite]

I've been aware of what happened for a good few years, it was such a tragic event but it was only this year that I learned about the incompetence of the NCB and Lord Roben. Rather than bickering about teachers and curriculums, we should show respect to the victims, both dead and alive.

On another note, I brought up Aberfan in a recent conversation about health and safety on facebook. People like to complain about the "nanny state" and all that but I'd rather have health and safety than schools being destroyed by collapsed slag heaps (as mentioned earlier in the thread).

 

[Springs Branch]

For me personally the Aberfan Disaster is one of those 9/11, JFK or Death of Diana moments - i.e. you still remember just what you were doing when you first heard about it. Maybe it's because I grew up in a coal mining area and was still at school at the time.

 

[RichmondCommu]

The saddest thing is that the miners living in the village knew that the waste heap wasn't safe due to the two streams running underneath it and yet the NCB never listened. Even after the waste heap moved twice still nothing was done. The damn thing was only supposed to be twenty feet high and yet it was a more like a 100 feet high.

In fact what's even sadder is that the miners themselves were digging out their dead children from the ruins of the school. As a parent myself (to now grown up children) I would have simply collapsed with grief rather than being able to walk home and tell the waiting family that the body had been found. I would not have had the mental strength to do that.

 

[Arglwydd Golau]

In fact what's even sadder is that the miners themselves were digging out their dead children from the ruins of the school. As a parent myself (to now grown up children) I would have simply collapsed with grief rather than being able to walk home and tell the waiting family that the body had been found. I would not have had the mental strength to do that.

My thoughts exactly. Watching the newsreel clips over the last week or so it was heartbreaking to see the local people scrambling over the detritus. It looked uncoordinated, but who wouldn't attempt to rescue ones own children?
At the time of the disaster, I was eleven, first year of grammar school. Assembly, was I recall, very sombre.We didn't have a TV until a few months later, but I do have a memory of the pictures in my father's newspaper, and of course everyone talking about it.

 

[rf_ioliver]

I was brought up knowing about Aberfan - coming from Pontypridd (child of the 70's) it was something that everyone just knew. My father told stories that if you were able bodied or not you volunteered to help. Men were walking up the valley from Pontypridd carrying picks and shovels from home.

For those of you here who speak Welsh I recommend Eurig Wyn's book Y Drych Tywyll a Storiau Eraill - a collection of short stories one of which describes a very ordinary morning in a typical Valley's household in the 1960s. It ends with the young girl being sent to school. I think you can guess which school is being referred to.

The Wikipedia article has a very good description of the whole cover-up of the disaster along with one of the worst uses of the 30 year secrecy rule I've seen. What happened to the disaster fund is shocking as is how the Blair government tried to "repay" the money used by the Aberfan families to remove the tip some 30 years previously...

It is also said that during the Queen's visit, it was the only time she has come close to showing emotion. The thing that always pains me here is that after that visit effectively nothing happened; compare with Edward VIII's "Something must be done" speech...of course after trying to affect national politics look what happened to him.



t.

Ian

 

[Polarbear]

Although I was only young when this happened, I've been aware of the tragic events at Aberfan for a long time. Probably down to having Welsh parents who took interest in such things. I was also told (quite graphically) about the Gresford mining disaster in the mid 1930's.

As it happens, I went down to Aberfan a few weeks before the 50th anniversary commemoration. It's a moving experience to walk around the memorial garden that marks a lost generation of the whole village/town.

 

[krus_aragon]

When I was a teenager, my father took me to the Aberfan memorial. I only had the dimmest awareness of the tragedy beforehand, which surprised my father. He was a teenager at thr time of the disaster (living at the other end of Wales) and consequently had far stronger memories of the event.

Fast forward to last Friday. I am now a father myself, and at quarter past nine I'd just finished leading a classroom assembly on the topic of Aberfan, followed by a minute's silence. Safe to say my perspective's changed a bit.

I think of the Aberfan memorial as being one of the most important sites in the history of Wales, along with Cilmeri (Where Llywelyn, last Prince of Wales was killed), Yr Ysgwrn (bard Hedd Wyn's home) and Llyn Celyn (village drowned to make a reservoir: when the water's low the foundations can still be seen). Just as my father took me to these sites as I grew up, so I'll be taking my children when the time comes.

 

[cjmillsnun]

Was John Humphrys not the the first reporter to arrive on the scene following the Aberfan disaster? I was going to post something on this earlier today but was not sure if it would be remembered.

We were taught about it at school. Loads of schools still have an assembly although more often than not without the religious connotations.

No. Local newspaper reporters were on scene within an hour but their conscience and the lack of coordinated professional emergency services on scene meant that they put down their notepads and cameras and helped with the rescue efforts. By the time national news got there most of the rescue efforts were being done by professionals so reporters reported.