The Aberfan Disaster: One of the UK's Worst Disasters

And you've probably never heard of it.

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[Davey-Boyd]

This disaster killed a whole generation of this village. There is still a generation gap in in the population there due to all the children killed. My grandfather was working on this day in a coal mine in the next valley in Penybryn. He was a part of the mine emergency rescue team. Within hours of the disaster he was on scene trying to dig out those lost. My whole family were devastated, not from personal loss but the callousness of the NCB (National Coal Board). I was born this year of the disaster (1966). My family vowed I would never work in the mines this day. I was the first male of my family never to work in a coal mine. I was the first ever to get the chance to go to university or any other 'advanced' education. I ended up working for international aid agencies in disaster relief. Though Aberfan was the year I was born, it shaped my family, our thinking and my life. Bless every person who died, suffered or lost loved ones that day. Shame on the NCB and government that tried to hide their utter contempt for the working people and the literal murder of children.

[thomasjones]

Hats off to Simon for handling this topic with the greatest respect for the victims involved in this horrific tragic event. 🙏

[matphillips]

I deliver to Aberfan weekly and on one occasion there was a thunder storm and an elderly couple would not answer the door... a week later they apologised and said when they here loud noise they are terrified.... it brought me to tears to witness this first hand ....

[pansprayers]

My biological father was is a federal mine inspector in the US. This disaster is still used in his training courses for why safety is so important. This had an impact on policy all the way in America.

[fraserwood]

I too was 7 years old and I remember Dad watching the news and crying. This was the only time I ever saw Dad cry over non family affairs. Years later I visited Aberfan and walked the memorial garden, planted over the footprint of the foundations of the school and I too cried.

[athena]

To make it worse, in the early days, the Disaster Relief Fund guys were making parents prove they were "close" to their dead kids before paying out benefits. You can imagine how well that went over.

[katiebryant]

I grew up here! Long after the disaster, but alongside survivors who remember being pulled from the wreck and family members who are still grieving the loss of their loved ones! It’s a profound feeling of loss and anger the permeates every aspect of the community! The coal tip is now long gone but there’s still a very eerie silence around the place!

[MrJjones]

I'm really glad he didn't do his usual, "I'm not going to ask if you enjoyed that" when it comes to darker stuff. I'm glad he just let it end.

[johnsuffill]

This occurred just 3 days before my 7th birthday. I watched the news that day and imagined what it would have been like to have my school smothered by a slag heap like that. An image I remember even now when I am nearly 62. There are tears running down my cheeks now, thinking about the children that should have had full lives in front of them, killed by corporate incompetence.

[NobletheSavage]

With this video and your equally heart breaking video on the Hillsborough tragedy, you really do show your range as a presenter .
Brilliant work Simon and the team .
Thank you for giving these horrible circumstances the tone they deserve . Rest in peace you little angels.

[Jash]

I'm welsh and this still gets talked about yearly in our house. This effected my mother greatly when she was a child to the point where she used to have nightmares and difficulties in school. To the point her way of healing was to raise money by taking my grandads bucket up and down our village to help those that were in harm.

[sethrivers]

This one always hits me hard. My grandparents were all teachers; my parents and aunts and uncles are the same age as the students of Pantglas Junior School. I grew up in the age of school shootings but this sort of industrial disaster is a whole different level of horror.

[Boe-Temeraire]

It really makes me so incredibly, indescribably sad to think of all those people that died. Especially the kids. I was born well after this disaster but I still feel an incredible grief at the thought of this.

[malahammer]

I was 9 years old in 1966 and remember this so vividly. My class were of the same age as some of these children and we lived in Ireland. Most children of this age at this time everywhere in Wales, Ireland, England and Scotland were deeply affected by this horrible tragedy. Well done Simon for highlighting this again. Aberfan should never be forgotten.

[kevinrussell]

My two sisters were teenagers at the time of the Aberfan Disaster, and they organised a fund-raising collection of my local area to raise funds for the families of the children lost in the disaster. When they went to City Hall to hand the donations in, the Lord Mayor was so moved by the local generosity and the enterprise and compassion of the two girls that he immediately launched a Lord Mayor's Appeal to raise even more donations.

To find that the NCB refused to take financial responsibility for the disaster - instead using the appeal funds to pay for remedial work - would have grated enormously those who'd raised money and donated in good faith that their money would go to the families.

[simonjackson]

My son worked on The Crown episode that covered the disaster... it was filmed in a neighbouring village and was handled with great care and respect, both on screen and on location... he said the atmosphere around the location was totally different to any other production he worked on...

[Darkflowerchyld]

As an American born in '87 I'd never heard of this. Watching it play out on The Crown was the first time I'd ever seen a thing about it. Thank you for putting the story out so more can learn from it.

[not-a-raccoon]

The fact that nobody was held responsible is not surprising, but still absolutely criminal..

[jasonbailey]

Perfect conclusion. No masquerade, no show other than a show of remembrance.
Simon....you are becoming, if not already, a master of storytelling.
Simon is able to tell the emotion in the story, right along with the hard facts. No pulling punches. No loss of compassion. Just pure story told by a master.

[lauren]

We in West Virginia understand and empathize with the residents of Aberfam. Slurry pits have broken open, fouling the ground water. Brown/black sludge comes out of the faucets. And some people refused the offer of free bottled water because they feared retribution from the coal company. This was in the 21st century, not in the 1800s when coal was king and the company store owned the miners. Greed has no nationality, no soul.