Pantglas Wales Mining Disaster

Welsh historian peter stead described the disaster as one that takes us to the heart of the welsh.

Pantglas wales mining disaster. Keystone getty fifty three years ago disaster struck the small welsh mining village of aberfan which saw the deaths of. Fifty years ago this week the nation was brought to its knees when a massive coal waste tip crashed down the mountainside of the welsh mining village of aberfan killing 116 children and 28 adults. It was one of the united kingdom s worst tragedies and it was a man made disaster. Photo by pa images via getty.

On october 21 1966 the students and teachers of pantglas junior school in aberfan a small village in wales were about to begin their lessons when disaster struck. The aberfan disaster was the catastrophic collapse of a colliery spoil tip in wales on 21 october 1966. Wales had become famous for coal mining during the industrial. Rescue workers at the scene of the wrecked pantglas junior school photo.

The tip had been created on a mountain slope above the village of aberfan near merthyr tydfil and overlaid a natural spring a period of heavy rain led to a build up of water within the tip which caused it to suddenly slide downhill as a slurry killing 116 children and 28 adults as it. The moving mountain of coal sludge after the disaster at aberfan when the coal tip avalanched through the pantglas junior school killing 116 children and 28 adults. At around quarter past nine on the morning of friday 21 october 1966 disaster struck the coal mining village of aberfan in south wales. Aberfan is a former coal mining village in the south wales taff valley near merthyr tydfil.