After many years of dumping colliery waste on a mountain stream, the water content turned the tip, which was by now a mountain itself, into a river of sludge and mud. Concern for the tip had been growing for years but, despite the warnings, the tip kept getting bigger until it collapsed onto the town below. The school, which was right at the foot of the tip, was buried in mud. The mud was similar to the pyroclastic flow that devastated Pompeii in that it hardened immediately.

The final death count totalled 116 children and 28 adults, of which 121 were in the school. They were buried in a mass grave overlooking the town.

 

 

 

On the morning of Friday 21st October 1966 the children of the little Welsh mining community of Aberfan in the South Wales valleys were preparing for their half term holidays....then the world turned black.

I was going to post this on the anniversary of the disaster on the 21st but I couldn't get to the file so, in anticipation of the anniversary of the funeral which took place on Thursday 27th October 1966, here it is.