Aberfan disaster

I was also in my teens Ruby - remember it well.  Very sad.

David 

It was particularly affecting for me, as a teenager, because we have family in South Wales and my Uncle John and one of my cousins (ex-miners both of them) helped with clearing debris and rescue attempts.  I don't think either of them were ever the same again afterwards. It was a tragedy which affected everyone.

You could say, though, that some good came about as a result of Aberfan, in that lots of Welsh valleys were cleared of the huge tips which had blighted them for years, and much of South Wales was greener as a result.

I was 13 at the time and just starting to get interested in news stories. I can distinctly remember the reporter - I think it might have been Cliff Michelmore - reporting from the scene unable to stop the tears as he was speaking. Very moving and such a sad event.

I was in my late teens, the announcement spurred many to drive to Wales and help with the desperate digging that had to be done. The valleys are so different now but in the old days people rushed to help each other. Very tragic day.

There is a programme on ITV tonight at 9pm about this tragic event.

Gosh, where have those 50 years gone! I was a very small child, but can remember my Mum crying while watching the TV. A terrible tragedy, all those young lives ended far too early, and the heartbreak left behind. 

I was 14 at the time.  I remember taking some coats and things to the Red Cross in Newport in answer to an appeal for extra/changes of clothes for the men digging; looking for survivors.

I still fill up when I'm reminded of it

Most people over the age of 60 will have vivid memories of that awful day.I well remember the black an white newsreel on the tv and the reports from the village and here we are nearly fifty years on.

peter.

It was particularly affecting for me, as a teenager, because we have family in South Wales and my Uncle John and one of my cousins (ex-miners both of them) helped with clearing debris and rescue attempts.  I don't think either of them were ever the same again afterwards. It was a tragedy which affected everyone.

You could say, though, that some good came about as a result of Aberfan, in that lots of Welsh valleys were cleared of the huge tips which had blighted them for years, and much of South Wales was greener as a result.

 

The  Slag  heaps  &  the  damage  wrought  were  pretty  well  foretold  in  Richard  Llewellyn's  pre-WW2  book  "How  Green  Was  My  Valley"  although  this  tragedy  could  not  have  been  forecast  by  him.

Of course this disaster at Aberfan was covered on the news world wide, and unsurprisingly im sorry to say for many tourists to South Wales the cemetery at Aberfan is on there to visit list who are all genuinely moved 

I myself have been three times in 50yrs once with school not long before I left , again after the renovations and about 6 yrs ago with relatives from Malta , each time many men and women with tears,

seeing the newsreels from that time and the photos of all those coffins in the ground all over again has certainaly not eased the sadness even after 50 yrs