Aberfan - 50-year anniversary

[Martyn Sadler]

Today is the 50th anniversary of the tragedy of Aberfan, when a spoilheap slid down a hillside and enveloped a primary school, killing the vast majority of staff and pupils.

 

144 people, including 116 children, lost their lives.

 

The loss of life was even more tragic because it was so unnecessary. All the miners in the area knew that the spoilheap was unsafe and some of them had warned the National Coal Board of the danger. But nothing had been done.

 

I recall being at school myself at the time and a priest coming into our class, telling us about the tragedy and asking us to pray for the families of those who had been affected. By then I had given up on religion, but we all said a class prayer whether we were believers or not.

 

There was a minute's silence this morning in Aberfan, after the current headmistress spoke to the children at the school today about the tragedy. I heard it on Radio5Live and it was very moving.

[tim2]

Another scandalous episode in the sad history of the lack of interest in the well-being and safety of miners and their communities over the years.

 

The spoil heap broke the Coal Board's internal guidelines but nobody ever resigned or got fired. The chairman was heavily criticised in the report but stayed and later became chairman of a health and safety committee. You couldn't make it up.

[bazzzz65]

I was fifteen at the time but I can remember the day. There was an appeal to raise money and the biggest scandal was that money from the appeal fund was used to clear the remaining spoil heaps. Fortunately this money was refunded many years later.

[Saintslass]

Today is the 50th anniversary of the tragedy of Aberfan, when a spoilheap slid down a hillside and enveloped a primary school, killing the vast majority of staff and pupils.

 

144 people, including 116 children, lost their lives.

 

The loss of life was even more tragic because it was so unnecessary. All the miners in the area knew that the spoilheap was unsafe and some of them had warned the National Coal Board of the danger. But nothing had been done.

 

I recall being at school myself at the time and a priest coming into our class, telling us about the tragedy and asking us to pray for the families of those who had been affected. By then I had given up on religion, but we all said a class prayer whether we were believers or not.

 

There was a minute's silence this morning in Aberfan, after the current headmistress spoke to the children at the school today about the tragedy. I heard it on Radio5Live and it was very moving.

I was two years old at the time and so I don't remember it live but I've always known about it and I watched a programme on it last night which was very moving.  The image that stuck in my mind was the story told by the last child to be brought out alive and he had spent two hours buried alive with the head of a dead girl on his shoulder.  He still occasionally has nightmares about it even now and it doesn't take much imagination to realise why that might be.

 

What I found most shocking about the whole episode, even more than the utter negligence of the National Coal Board and their disgusting resistance to moving the slag heap after the devastation of the landslide, was the fact that the NCB stole - for that can be the only way to describe it - some of the money donated by individuals the world over towards the support of survivors to help pay for the removal of the slag heaps.

 

And nobody was prosecuted; not a single person was disciplined or sacked. 

 

When I think about all the attention Hillsborough has (rightly) had over the years I want to know why there has been silence over Aberfan?  Why hasn't anyone been held to account in the decades following in the way that we now see those at Hillsborough being held to account?  I find it sickening that nobody has. 

[tim2]

 

When I think about all the attention Hillsborough has (rightly) had over the years I want to know why there has been silence over Aberfan?  Why hasn't anyone been held to account in the decades following in the way that we now see those at Hillsborough being held to account?  I find it sickening that nobody has. 

 

In this instance the report was damning - "Blame for the disaster rests upon the National Coal Board. This is shared, though in varying degrees, among the NCB headquarters, the South Western Divisional Board, and certain individuals … The legal liability of the NCB to pay compensation of the personal injuries, fatal or otherwise, and damage to property, is incontestable and uncontested"

They offered the families £50 each, later upped to £500 which they called generous.

Labour did at least in 1997 make partial amends for their shameful role in taking £150000 from the fund to help with the clearance by paying it back in 1997. but you're right - it was too little, too late and all governments since 1966 are culpable. Since the NCB no longer exists and the guilty parties are dead there is no=one to pursue any more. The truth was starkly laid out in the report and the eye witnesses are considered credible. We can hope that the written and recorded words keep the truth alive.

[Futtocks]

It happened before I was born, and I stumbled upon the story much later, probably on a previous anniversary of the disaster. Very shocking.

 

Then, a few years after that, I read I can't stay long by Laurie Lee, which contained a chapter on Aberfan. Some powerful and moving writing there.

[Trojan]

In this instance the report was damning - "Blame for the disaster rests upon the National Coal Board. This is shared, though in varying degrees, among the NCB headquarters, the South Western Divisional Board, and certain individuals … The legal liability of the NCB to pay compensation of the personal injuries, fatal or otherwise, and damage to property, is incontestable and uncontested"

They offered the families £50 each, later upped to £500 which they called generous.

Labour did at least in 1997 make partial amends for their shameful role in taking £150000 from the fund to help with the clearance by paying it back in 1997. but you're right - it was too little, too late and all governments since 1966 are culpable. Since the NCB no longer exists and the guilty parties are dead there is no=one to pursue any more. The truth was starkly laid out in the report and the eye witnesses are considered credible. We can hope that the written and recorded words keep the truth alive.

Anyone who had any dealings with the NCB management in the past will know that it was notoriously corrupt,  Backhanders and kickbacks were commonplace. Not for nothing was it said that NCB stood for No C++t Bothered.

The kids of Aberfan paid the price for this. As did numerous other mining communities, like Lofthouse, where the management were warned that water was coming into the mine and they ignored the advice, costing 7  miners their lives. Nothing like the slaughter at Aberfan, but an indication of management's attitude to safety in the pits and mining areas.

The first indication of the Lofthouse disaster was when a hole opened up in the middle of a field.  They had opened up old workings. My father in law who was editor of the local paper at the time asked the NCB man why they didn't know it was there.  He said  "no" the area was riddled with old workings, my father in law said "but your house could be built on one"  and the NCB man said "ssh."  This for me typifies the kind of attitude that caused Aberfan and continued for years afterwards.

[Padge]

I was 7 at the time but remember the news breaking as a vague memory, and any mention of it brings a black and white TV memory up in my head of the news.

 

There was a moving interview on BBC breakfast this morning with a survivor who was in the school, his story was gut wrenching.

[Bedford Roughyed]

When I think about all the attention Hillsborough has (rightly) had over the years I want to know why there has been silence over Aberfan?  Why hasn't anyone been held to account in the decades following in the way that we now see those at Hillsborough being held to account?  I find it sickening that nobody has. 

 

 

Maybe because there wasn't a cover-up, the children weren't wrongly blamed for causing the disaster, witness statements weren't altered, etc.

[JohnM]

There was a cover-up over Aberfan, though.

[Trojan]

There was a cover-up over Aberfan, though.

There was a natural spring beneath the tip.  The NCB management had been warned about this, and they ignored the warnings.  The chairman of the NCB at the time was Lord Robens.  I think he was implicated, but nothing came of it.

[Bedford Roughyed]

There was a cover-up over Aberfan, though.

 

 

I thought the inquest found out the whats, hows and whys at the time?  

[JohnM]

Yes, you are right, I think it did, so not of the same magnitude as Hillsborough, but before during and after the tragedy, those in authority behaved similarly.

[shrek]

To young to remember it myself, but nice to see Wigan Council flying flags at half mast across the borough yesterday as a mark of respect.

[Padge]

Yes, you are right, I think it did, so not of the same magnitude as Hillsborough, but before during and after the tragedy, those in authority behaved similarly.

 

It did. in the past, used  be harder to question the authorities. 

 

Fortunately times change, but comparing what people power could do 50 years ago to now is pointless.

[chuffer]

. There was an appeal to raise money and the biggest scandal was that money from the appeal fund was used to clear the remaining spoil heaps. Fortunately this money was refunded many years later.

This was way before my time but when I heard about this particular aspect of the story on the news I was utterly gobsmacked that they had the gall to try that shithouse manoeuvre and people let them

[JohnM]

Agreed. Seems it wasn't just the Ncb but the Govt as well.

[Tyrone Shoelaces]

Robens should have been fired but the Wilson Government thought he was doing such a good job keeping the Miners happy whilst closing pits they daren't pull the trigger. Keeping the lid on the whole issue became Government policy.

[Bleep1673]

I was 4 at the time, and although it seems silly, but I remember it, because the TV was on, not the radio (in those days tv wasn't 24 hours), and I remember my Mum crying. That was the only time I ever saw her cry, even after my Father died she didn't cry.

[Phil]

Robens should have been fired but the Wilson Government thought he was doing such a good job keeping the Miners happy whilst closing pits they daren't pull the trigger. Keeping the lid on the whole issue became Government policy.

This is why governments, all governments can't be trusted