It was on 21 October, 1966 in Aberfan the children were excited because it was their last day before the autumn school holiday.
Aberfan is a small mining village in South Wales. There was only a small school in the village with over 120 children for the younger ones.
There were coal tips all around at the back on the hillside. It had been raining heavily for two days and at 9.15 am the coal tip no 7 which was at the back of the school started to move. The coal dust was saturated with rain water.
More than 1,400,000 cubic feet of coal slurry took just a few second to cover the village. The main impact took the school. In those few second 116 school children, 5 teacher from the school and 28 adults were killed. At some points the slurry was 40ft deep.
One man lost his wife, two sons and his house. He has not even got a photo of them.
Men and women tried desperately to dig out the children and adults. It was in vain for the majority. Only 25 children were found alive. The village became known to have lost a whole generation.
It feels incredible that 50 years have already gone by and most of children found alive and the rest of the village have not moved and still living there.
Parents of the few children found alive kept them indoor for a months for not to hurt parents who lost their children.
To add insult to injury the National Coal Board did not accept responsibility for the disaster. Parents who lost one or more children were just paid £1,000 compensation with the pathetic excuse that they were from a poor area and would get spoiled with large sums of money.
Furthermore, the villagers had to spend £150,000 from their charitable fund to flatten the remaining slug heap.
On the 21 October, 2016 there will be a premier of a major new choral work created to mark the 50th anniversary of the Aberfan disaster. There is also a CD made. A memorial service will be held for the villager on the anniversary which falls again on the last day before the autumn half-term holiday.
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