Aberfan Disaster left a lasting impression on this 13-year-old Edinburgh boy – Steve Cardownie

On this day in 1966 a terrible tragedy unfolded in the south Wales mining village of Aberfan where 116 children and 28 adults were killed when a gigantic slag heap (or spoil tip) engulfed the village and Pantglas Junior School where 240 pupils were in attendance.

The scene at Aberfan, Glamorgan, after a man-made mountain of pit waste slid down onto Pantglas School (Picture: PA)

There had been numerous complaints made to the National Coal Board (NCB) about the dangers posed by the tip that towered above the village, including a petition from the school itself in 1963.

Such tips were well known for sliding but Aberfan’s “tip number seven”, which was started in 1958 and had reached a height of 34 metres, was of particular concern as it was built on sandstone which was highly porous with streams and underwater springs running beneath it.

It had already slipped three years before and had bulged at the bottom as water liquified the spoil, forming thick, black quicksand. The NCB did not respond to the complaints.

At 7.30am that Friday it was reported that the tip had sunk by 20ft, and an avalanche of thick black mud quickly ensued, eating up trees, rocks and farm cottages, rupturing a water main, which added to its strength as it reached speeds of up to 50 mph hurtling towards the village below.

Tragic timing

Had it happened 20 minutes earlier the school would have been empty but tragically it was not so and the school, full of young pupils, was enveloped in the thick black mud. The crises whistle at the colliery sounded and miners ran to the school where women were trying to reach children who could be heard crying.

Rescuers attempt to find survivors in the wrecked school (Picture: PA)

Clawing frantically at the murderous slurry, their efforts were in vain as the children perished under the huge volume of mud.

The bodies of the children and adults who had succumbed were laid out in a nearby Bethania Chapel and a policeman described the gruesome scheme thus: “I would write a description of each child or adult and detail any possessions in their pockets – a handkerchief, sweets, anything that might help with identification. The little ones were laid out on the pews, the adults on stretchers across the tops of the pews – males to the left and females to the right.”

Gone to school, never to return

By the end, the registered deaths were of 116 children, the majority between the ages of seven and 11, five teachers and 23 residents from the farm cottages up the mountain and a row of terraced houses next to the school where the victims ages ranged from three months to 82.

The graves of disaster victims in the cemetery at Aberfan (Picture: Barry Batchelor/PA)

On one day, there was a mass funeral for 81 children and one adult, a mother who was killed in her home and who was buried with her two sons, killed at the school.

I well remember the news bulletins at the time and, as a 13-year-old, I can still recall the feeling I had as I watched stretchers taking away bodies of children of a similar age to me who had gone to school that morning, never to return.

A tribunal of inquiry into the Aberfan Disaster was established in 1966 and it placed the blame on the NCB which paid out £160,000 in compensation – £500 for each fatality plus money for traumatised survivors and damaged property. They got off lightly!

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