Aberfan

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Aberfan (in Welsh, the 'f' is pronounced like a 'v' in standard English) is a small village 5 miles (8 km) south of Merthyr Tydfil in South Wales.

Aberfan disaster

On Friday, 21 October 1966, at 09:15, colliery waste tip number 7 (a 'slag heap', containing unwanted rock from the local coal mine) slid down Merthyr Mountain. As it collapsed, it destroyed twenty houses and a farm, before going on to demolish virtually all of Pantglas Junior School and part of the separate adjacent senior school. The pupils had just left the assembly hall, where they had been singing "All Things Bright and Beautiful", when a great noise was heard outside. Had they left for their classrooms a few minutes later, the loss of life would have been significantly reduced, as the classrooms were on the side of the building nearest the landslide.

The Aberfan Disaster 21 October, 1966

In total 144 people were killed, 116 of whom were children mostly between the ages of 7 and 10. Five teachers were also killed in the accident. Only a handful of children were rescued from the rubble.

Lord Robens of Woldingham, chairman of the National Coal Board, did not rush to the scene; he instead went to accept an appointment as chancellor of the University of Surrey. Subsequently, he misrepresented the cause of the slide to the community and falsely claimed that nothing could have been done to prevent it.

At the Tribunal of Inquiry into the Aberfan Disaster, the National Coal Board was found responsible for the disaster, due to "ignorance, ineptitude and a failure of communication". The collapse was found to have been caused by a build-up of water in the pile and, when a small rotational slip occurred, the disturbance caused the saturated, fine material of the tip to liquefy (thixotropy) and it flowed down the mountain. In 1958, the tip had been sited on a known stream (as shown on earlier Ordnance Survey maps) and had previously suffered several minor slips. Its instability was known, both to colliery management and to tip workers but very little was done about it. The Merthyr Tydfil Borough Council and National Union of Mineworkers were cleared of any wrongdoing.

The NCB was ordered to pay compensation to the families: £500 per child. In a controversial move, this payment was reduced by the amount that a publicly subscribed disaster fund paid to families.

After lengthy appeals, part of the fund was used to make the remainder of the waste tip safe and the Coal Board avoided the costs of doing the whole job from their own resources. They were, however, later made to pay back this money into the fund.

Merthyr Vale Colliery was closed in 1989.

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