As some of you will have seen on British news, today marks the 50th anniversary of the Aberfan Disaster, where the slag heap from the coal mines slid down into the village, burying the school, a number of houses and killing 144 people, 116 of which were children.
Sir and I both remember this, we were both around the same age as the children that lost their lives in the disaster. It's something we both remember very well, watching the news as people pulled out both survivors and those that didn't. It seemed to go on for weeks.
At 9.15am the school and the houses were covered. This morning at 9.15am BST a minutes silence took place throughout Wales and most of Britain in houses where people remembered this.
To quote a song written in Hull....
They say that the pit heap's an eyesore
So they landscape it, scrape it, and make it a hill
But still there's a lump in the throat of the men
When they think of the lives lost to build it so high
Aye, they'll make the place 'pretty' again
But what will they do for the men?
I'm not going to go into detail regarding the disaster. However, if you want to read more simply go to:
This report
Chat soon
I've just been reading about it - I remember it well, I was in my first year at University - half a century has gone by and it remains such a shocking - literally - catastrophe.
ReplyDeleteThanks for sharing, couldn't help but wept throughout reading this. Breaks my heart to see children lost lives due to human's foolish mistakes!
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