Aberfan da,

miller1098

miller1098

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It was a typical Autumn day and this morning we decided to take a day.I don't know if you know the tragedy of the Aberfan disaster but it was the 50 years anniversary this October .The accident happened when a coal tip that had been waterlogged by a stream plunged down the side of the mountain and engulfed the school killing 116 children and 28 adults that had just started their school day.The NCB had many warnings over years about the problem but ignored them,and then stole charity money to clean up the mess.Its part of our recent Welsh history and is remembered every year.We went today to give our respects.Ive been to war graves in France and it's moving but what hits you as soon as you slowly pass the first few memorials are the ages of the innocent children all cruelly taken at that fateful moment,brothers,sisters even a mother and her two daughters the teachers who tried to protect their pupils.its tough but worth it . Needless to say after a cuppa we took the scenic route home
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miller1098 said:
It was a typical Autumn day and this morning we decided to take a day.I don't know if you know the tragedy of the Aberfan disaster but it was the 50 years anniversary this October .The accident happened when a coal tip that had been waterlogged by a stream plunged down the side of the mountain and engulfed the school killing 1116 children and 28 adults that had just started their school day.The NCB had many warnings over years about the problem but ignored them,and them stole charity money to clean up the mess.Its part of our recent Welsh history and is remembered every year.We went today to give our respects.Ive been to war graves in France and it's moving but what hits you as soon as you slowly pass the first few memorials are the ages of the innocent children all cruelly take at that fateful moment,brothers,sisters even a mother and her two daughters the teachers who tried to protect their pupils.its tough but worth it . Needless to say after a cuppa we took the scenic route home View attachment 44493View attachment 44494View attachment 44495View attachment 44496View attachment 44497View attachment 44498View attachment 44499View attachment 44500
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Such a terrible tragedy Hugh, I remember it well enough. What would those little ones have become now, 50 years on ..................................... :(

Tony.
 
I was 4 years old when that happened but obviously it made an impact as I can even remember it now.
 
I was 10 Mike and even then I struggled to taken in the enormity of what had happened to the village.

Tony.
 
I must (rather ashamedly) admit I'd never heard of this until the anniversary was on the news last week.

There's so much press over Hillsborough, Lockerbie and other tragedies involving children, but this has passed me by for the last 34 years.

Shocking and genuinely upsetting.

I hope you enjoyed your day @miller1098 - enjoyed seems the wrong word but you know what I mean.
 
I was 17 at the time and remember the enormity and disbelief of what had happened unfolding on black and white TV news bulletins.
I like your post Hugh but clicking `like' would not be appropriate in this context.
 
I clearly remember watching it on tv, black and white then which made it look grimmer still. Would have been 10 then!! Also remember watching the funerals of Winston Churchill and Kennedy. The reporter was saying Kennedys son who was there holding (presumably his mothers hand) was too young to know what was going on. God am I that old !!!
 
A terrible tragedy and in particular so many children lost their lives.
 
They were saying on the radio on the morning of it happening 50 years ago that those children have been denied their lives, the chance to build careers and have a family and all those things everyone else have had. Makes you wonder what they would all have been doing now.
 
P.S Another boot rack on the wrong bloomin way! Yeah I know it aesthetically looks better when the case is absent ;)
 
I was 9 at the time but can remember it as if it were a recent memory, in fact 1966 wasn't a very good year for our family. During the preceding months I lost both of my Grandad's and my younger brother was hit by a car outside one of my Grandparents house while we were there comforting Grandma.

My brother made a full recovery, even though he suffered a fractured skull in the accident. Only a few months before he fell in a local canal and had to be rescued.
 
I was six and remember it happening and worrying as a child that the hill would come down on our school.On a lighter note in the retail park we bumped into Mrs @zedwheels as we walked into the tea shop she was loaded with bags and an empty wallet ;). And the drive home lightened the mood as it always does when your driving your favourite car in such inspiring countryside :thumbsup:
 
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Desperately sad. I was 6 and knew that something terrible had happened but didn't really understand what. I do however have vivid memories of sitting on the living room floor with my mum parceling up some of my toys to send to the disaster appeal.
 
cracking pics, and my local area too.... i have been over the area a few times on my bike and sat in the memorial grounds... devastating thing that happened there.... not long after a school that I was in was closed down it was right on the mountain I was at the school, and we were re-schooled temporarily but we had about 6 months off during this time :)... the school has since been pulled down but is only about 2 mins walking from my house.... great to see the pics of talybont on usk we were there only a few weeks ago... all local places to me i assume you went ponsticill reservoir way and down through the merthyr mountain railway ? stunning i put a pic up of the train i took a few weeks ago..
 
A disaster of unimaginable horror born of corporate greed and inaction and worse still caused by a nationalised organisation.
Thankfully nowadays it's a great deal easier to make sure those accountable are put in the spotlight for public scrutiny. It's horrific that it took so many years for the double wrong done to the families of those poor children and the wider community to be in some way put right.
The whole story is a shameful chapter. The fact that it helped break the us and them in this country in no way compensates the losses and pain. Not even time will heal.
Thanks for sharing and reminding us Hugh.
 
heres the ponsticill to merthyr steam train i could not have timed this better.. i ran up the banking as heard it coming and got about 3 shots of it coming past.. this is inbetween the two reservoirs at pontsticill.... if you ever get chance to get ther...

 
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