Aberfan Disaster




Aberfan, on the West slopes of the Taff valley about four miles from Merthyr Tydfil in South Wales, grew up as a colliery village supporting the Merthyr Valley coalmine, opened in 1869. By 1966 the population of the village had risen to 5,000. Originally spoil from the colliery was deposited on the valley bottom, but by the 1910s tipping started on the slopes above the village. By 1966 there were seven tips comprising 2 million cubic meters of waste. Tip 7 was the only one in use, it was about 110ft high and included “tailings”, fine coal ash which becomes similar to quicksand when wet.

At 9.15 in the morning of 21st October 1966 water saturated material broke away from the base of tip7 above the village of Aberfn. The movement caused the material to liquify and it raced 700yds down the hill at 11-21mph in wave 20-30ft high engulfing 2 cottages and killing the occupants. It continued on down the hill bursting 2 watermains which added further water to the spoil. This avalanche hit Pantglass Junior School engulfing the structure and filling the classrooms with mud sludge and rubble just after the pupils had arrived for their last day before half term.

Once the slide came to a halt the material solidified and a huge mound of slurry up to 30ft high blocked the area. Nanci Williams and Dai Beynon both died trying to save pupils. Nanci, a dinner lady, died using her body to shield five children, who all survived, although she didn’t and Dai Benyon, deputy head, used a blackboard to try to shield children from the slurry. He, and all 34 children in his class were killed.

The first miners from the colliery arrived within 20 mins having been raised from the seams where they were working. They directed the early digging, working in organised groups under the direction of the pit managers. Of the 144 people who died that morning, 116 were children, mostly between the ages of 7 and 10. 109 of them died within the school. 5 of the adults who died were teachers, in addition 6 adults and 29 children were injured.

Tip stability is affected by water conditions and three tips, including tip 7, were built on streams and springs The presence of springs was well known in the area and had been marked in Ordnance Survey maps since 1874. In 1944 part of tip 4 slipped down the mountain and stopped 450 yards above the village. In 1963 tip 7moved twice but the National Coal Board (NBC) stated that it was not a slip, just movement from the top of the tip. In 1965 Merthyr Tydfil Council corresponded with the NCB on the danger of coal slurry being deposited at the rear of Pantglass School, they agreed to take action but by October 1966, when the tip collapsed, no action had been taken.

Lord Robens, Chairman of the NCB, visited the site on 23rd October and, when asked about responsibility for the disaster answered “I wouldn’t have thought anybody would have known there was a spring deep in the heart of a mountain. If you are asking did any of my people know that there was this spring water. The answer is no, they couldn’t possibly….it is impossible to know there was a spring in the heart of this tip which was turning the mountain into sludge.

I have no space here to tell of the Aberfan Tribunal. Its twists and turns, and the excruciating antics of the NCB to try to avoid any responsibility for the disaster and of the government to pay compensation to the people of Aberfan.

A mass funeral for 81 children and 1 adult took place at Bryntaf Cemetery in Aberfan on the 27th October. Because of the quantity and consistency of the spoil it was a week before all victims were found.





Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Obscure Occupations - Greensmen

Everyone knows what a greensman is, right?  Or do they?... ..     Non-obscure greenkeepers care for golf courses and do horticultural things like looking after the grass and the plants.  But that is not the occupation that I am going to look at. My obscure greensmen (aka greenspeople or greens for short) have an interesting job that I didn’t know existed, and I might want to be one when I grow up.  The obscure occupation is ....... greensperson in the film industry.     These professionals are part of a film’s art department and they have a crucial but usually unnoticed specialist role. Greenspeople read the script and note where any vegetation is required. Then they research, source, place, maintain and care for all the trees, plants and vegetation on set, ensuring that every bit of foliage contributes to the visual story and matches the movie’s aesthetic. Think Deliverance, The Hobbit, The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe, ...
Read more

The Four Idols

Image
  Francis Bacon was an English scholar and philosopher who lived from 1561 To 1626. Amongst other things he wrote and thought about thinking.   I was Googling “idols” and Francis Bacon’s Four Idols kept cropping up, so I read a bit about them and it seemed very difficult and complicated. Then I kept on reading about them and actually it’s not that difficult, in fact I think it’s really interesting.   As I said, Francis Bacon thought about thinking and, long before the birth of modern psychology, he understood that the human mind doesn’t always reason correctly. He argued that this fact needed to be understood before new ideas could be developed.   He advocated using inductive reasoning and experiments to gain insight and to prove or disprove a theory.   He wrote a book called Novum Organum and in it he outlined the Four Idols which (I think) basically described four major errors in mental processing that result in obstacles to new and innovative thinkin...
Read more