"and Prince Philip visited Aberfan on 29 October 1966. After the disaster the Mayor of Merthyr immediately launched a Disaster Fund to aid the village and the bereaved. By the time the Fund closed in January 1967, nearly 90,000 contributions had been received, totalling £1,606,929. The Fund's final sum was approximately £1,750,000 (£22.3 million equivalent in 2016 after inflation). The concerns of the village and donors grew about how the money in the fund would be used: some felt it should be used to compensate the bereaved, whilst others felt it should benefit the wider community. The funds paid for"
"used as a temporary mortuary where victims were taken to be identified by relatives. The chapel was demolished in 1967 and a new chapel erected in 1970. By 2007 the chapel had fallen into disrepair and was closed; memorial items from the disaster were relocated to Cardiff Bay. In 2015 a fire was reported at the chapel in the early hours of 11 July. Fire crews from Merthyr, Treharris, Abercynon, Aberbargoed, Pontypridd and Barry attended, spending a total of eight hours at the scene. Nearby houses were evacuated. A 27-year-old man was later arrested in relation to the fire. Aberfan"
"Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974 and the formation of the Health and Safety Commission and the Health and Safety Executive. In addition to news and historical coverage, the Aberfan disaster and its aftermath have been described in books, including histories of what happened, personal memoirs from those involved and collections of poetry, in music, song and on film. Merthyr Vale Colliery closed in 1989. In 1997 Ron Davies, the Secretary of State for Wales in the incoming Labour government, repaid to the disaster fund the £150,000 that it had been induced to contribute towards the cost of"
"Welsh-speaking areas. The period following the Second World War saw a decline in several of the traditional industries, in particular the coal industry. The numbers employed in the South Wales coalfield, which at its peak around 1913 employed over 250,000 men, fell to around 75,000 in the mid 1960s and 30,000 in 1979. This period also saw the Aberfan disaster in 1966, when a tip of coal slurry slid down to engulf a school with 144 dead, most of them children. By the early 1990s there was only one deep pit still working in Wales. There was a similar decline"
"or prosecuted as a consequence of the Aberfan disaster or for evidence given to the inquiry. During a parliamentary debate on the disaster, Margaret Thatcher—then the opposition spokesman on power—raised the situation of one witness, criticised by the inquiry, who had subsequently been promoted to a board-level position at the NCB by the time the report was published. In 2000 Iain McLean, a professor of politics, and Martin Johnes, a research fellow in Welsh history, undertook a study of the Aberfan disaster and its repercussions; their work included government papers released in 1997 under the thirty-year rule. Their opinion is"
"Prince of Wales colliery in Abercarn exploded in 1878 causing 268 deaths. The Llanerch Colliery in Abersychan exploded in 1890 causing 176 deaths. The Albion Colliery in Cilfynydd exploded in 1894 causing 276 deaths. In the 20th century there were numerous further fatal accidents The Universal Colliery in Senghenydd had Britain's most fatal accident when it exploded in 1913 killing 431. In 1966, 116 children and 28 adults were killed in Aberfan when a coal spoil tip collapsed onto them. On 15 September 2011, seven miners were working a narrow seam at the Gleision Colliery drift mine in the Tawe"
"expanded over many years. Cyfarthfa, the former home of the ironmaster William Crawshay II, an opulent mock-castle, is now a museum. It houses a number of paintings of the town, a large collection of artefacts from the town's Industrial Revolution period, and a notable collection of Egyptian tomb artefacts, including several sarcophagi. On 21 October 1966 a colliery tip slid down a mountain at Aberfan, 4 miles (6.4 km) south of Merthyr, covering the village school and causing the Aberfan disaster. In 1992, while testing a new angina treatment in Merthyr Tydfil, researchers discovered that the new drug had erection-stimulating"
"the citizens of Aberfan—their regulatory failures fell in line with the interests of the NCB, the organisation they were supposed to be overseeing. During the rescue, the shock and grief of parents and villagers was exacerbated by insensitive behaviour from the media—one rescue worker recalled hearing a press photographer asking a child to cry for her dead friends because it would make a good picture. The response of the general public in donating to the memorial fund, together with over 50,000 letters of condolence that accompanied many of the donations, helped many residents come to terms with the disaster. One"
"the worst railway disaster in Britain. The 33 people who died are buried in a mass grave in the local churchyard. A sanatorium was built just outside Abergele in 1910. In 1914 this was acquired by Manchester City Council. A children's sanatorium was built on the same site. The sanatorium was taken over by the newly formed NHS in 1948 and was closed later, when the introduction of antibiotics made the building redundant. On 30 June 1969, the evening before the investiture of Prince Charles in Caernarfon, two members of Mudiad Amddiffyn Cymru (Welsh Defence Movement), Alwyn Jones and George"
"in the industrial south, were fiercely opposed to any form of devolution. Hughes ended up caught between these two wings, and disappointed those who had anticipated a greater move towards devolution. In 1968 Hughes was succeeded as Secretary of State by George Thomas, whose views on the subject were fundamentally opposed to those of his predecessor. Hughes's term of office was also deeply affected by the tragedy at Aberfan in October 1966, when a colliery spoil heap engulfed the primary school, leaving 144 dead, the vast majority of them children. Hughes immediately flew to the scene, and helped direct the"
"and the Duke of Edinburgh planted a tree at the Aberfan Memorial Garden. In October 2016, the fiftieth anniversary of the disaster, memorial events took place at the garden and at the cemetery; the Prince of Wales represented the Queen, and government ministers were present to pay tribute. At the time of the anniversary Huw Edwards, the BBC News journalist and presenter, described the need to continue learning lessons from Aberfan; he wrote: What we can do, however—in this week of the 50th anniversary—is try to focus the attention of many in Britain and beyond on the lessons of Aberfan,"
"College, Southampton. He then worked as a teacher in both London and Cardiff. Elected to Parliament in the Attlee landslide at the 1945 general election, Thomas held Cardiff Central between 1945 and 1950 and Cardiff West between 1950 and his retirement from the Commons at the 1983 general election. When the Labour Party came to power under Harold Wilson in 1964, Thomas was made joint Under-Secretary of State for the Home Department, In April 1966 he was appointed Minister of State for Wales, and was one of the first on the scene of the Aberfan disaster in October 1966. Thomas"
"Aberfan, burying 20 houses and the Pantglas Junior School in a landslide, thirty feet deep, of water-saturated slurry that killed 116 schoolchildren and 28 adults. Despite the enormity of the disaster, Robens felt that he had no alternative but to go ahead with his installation as the first Chancellor of the new University of Surrey before going to Aberfan, and he did not arrive until the evening of the Saturday following the day of the disaster, a blunder that was compounded by the actions of NCB staff, who falsely informed the Minister of Power, Richard Marsh, that Robens was at"
"by Powell Duffryn, then later nationalised by National Coal Board in 1947. At the time, there were 991 men employed. The mine closed in 1966, but with the tips threatening a disaster similar to Aberfan, a two-phased scheme to reduce the steep gradient of the spoil began in 1974 and was completed two years later. On October 27th, 1913, a severe thunderstorm produced tornadoes that touched down in South Wales, Shropshire and Cheshire. The tornado measured T6 on the TORRO scale. Three people were killed, including one from Cilfynydd. This was the worst confirmed death-toll for a recent UK tornado."
"1853 Straffan rail accident The Straffan Rail Disaster on 5 October 1853 occurred when a goods train ran into the back of a stationary passenger train a quarter of a mile south of Straffan Station in County Kildare. The Great Southern and Western Railway line from Dublin to Cork was only in operation six years when 18 people died in what is still the island’s third worst railway tragedy, having since been surpassed by the Armagh rail disaster of 1889 (80 killed) and the Ballymacarret Junction (Belfast) disaster of 1945 (23 killed). At 6:20 pm on 5 October 1853 the"
"Abercarn colliery disaster The Abercarn colliery disaster was a catastrophic explosion within the Prince of Wales Colliery in the Welsh village of Abercarn (then in the county of Monmouthshire), on 11 September 1878, killing 268 men and boys (though an exact number of casualties remains unknown). The cause was assumed to have been the ignition of firedamp by a safety lamp. The disaster is the third worst for loss of life to occur within the South Wales Coalfield. Shortly after midday on 11 September 1878, with 325 men and boys working underground, a large explosion ripped through the Prince of"
"over the years to form large spoil tips. Shortly after 9:00 am on Friday 21 October 1966 one of these tips collapsed, sending thousands of tons of semi-liquid waste hurtling towards Aberfan. The point of impact was Pantglas Junior School, where morning lessons were beginning. The school was half buried; inside, 109 children and 5 teachers were killed. A further 7 children and 23 adults lost their lives outside the school, in the streets or adjoining houses. In the immediate aftermath, Davies visited and consoled the bereaved families in Aberfan, and the following day he led a party which included"
"availability of oil. From 15,000 miners in 1947, Rhondda had just a single pit within the valleys producing coal in 1984, located at Maerdy. In 1966, the village of Aberfan in the Taff valley suffered one of the worst disasters in Welsh history. A mine waste tip on the top of the mountain, which had been developed over a spring, slid down the valley side and destroyed the village junior school, killing 144 people, 116 of them children. In 1979, Margaret Thatcher became Prime Minister of the United Kingdom. Her policies of free market economics soon clashed with the loss-making,"
"includes the subsidiary summits of Twyn Brynbychan and Twyn Sych. To the northwest lies Mynydd Aberdâr. Much of the hill has been planted with coniferous forest. Its flanks are heavily scarred by mining. The village of Aberfan sits at the foot of its eastern slopes, the scene of a tragedy on 21 October 1966 when a coal tip above the village slipped and engulfed the village school killing 144 people of whom 116 were children. The entire hill is composed of sandstones and mudstones dating from the Carboniferous Period. There are also numerous coal seams within the sequence, most of"
"of Merthyr Tydfil launched an appeal for financial donations—soon formally named the Aberfan Disaster Fund—to alleviate financial hardship and to help rebuild the area. A makeshift mortuary was set up in the village's Bethania Chapel on 21 October and operated until 4 November, from the disaster site; members of the South Wales Police force assisted with the identification and registration of the victims. Two doctors examined the bodies and issued death certificates; the cause of death was typically asphyxia, fractured skull or multiple crush injuries. Cramped conditions in the chapel meant that parents could only be admitted one at a"
"bereaved mother said ""People all over the world felt for us. We knew that with their letters and the contributions they sent ... They helped us build a better Aberfan."" A study published in the ""British Journal of Psychiatry"" (BJP) in 2003 found that half the survivors of the disaster had experienced post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) at some time in their lives, that they were more than three times more likely to have developed lifetime PTSD than a comparison group of individuals who had experienced other life-threatening traumas, and that 34 per cent of survivors who took part in the"
"£1.75 million. The remaining tips were removed only after a lengthy fight by Aberfan residents, against resistance from the NCB and the government on the grounds of cost. Clearing was paid for by a government grant and a forced contribution of £150,000 taken from the memorial fund. In 1997 the British government paid back the £150,000 to the ADMF, and in 2007 the Welsh Assembly donated £1.5 million to the fund and £500,000 to the Aberfan Education Charity as recompense for the money wrongly taken. Many of the village's residents suffered medical problems, and half the survivors have experienced post-traumatic"
"civil service as a 16-year-old clerical officer in 1946. By 1967, aged 37, he was one of the two deputy heads of the coal division of the Ministry of Power, with the rank of assistant secretary. In 1967 Dearing had responsibility for two major issues arising from the 1966 Aberfan Disaster, in which a huge coal waste tip collapsed onto the town of Aberfan in Wales, killing 144 people including 116 school children. Dearing briefed the then Minister, Richard Marsh on the question of the possible removal of Lord Robens as chair of the National Coal Board in the wake"
"married the Welsh Rugby international Barry John. He died at his home in Penarth on 1 November 2000. Davies entered Gray's Inn and qualified as a barrister just before the outbreak of World War II. As a barrister he specialised in industrial cases and was retained by the National Union of Mineworkers. He was appointed as a QC in 1961. Davies was a counsel to the public enquiry into Aberfan tip disaster of 1966. From 1967 to 1990 he was Chairman of the Trustees of the Aberfan Fund, which allocated the money raised by public subscription following the disaster. Davies"
"the UK government Cabinet Office judged that ""as far the fund is concerned and what it achieved, it is important to note that it did help in alleviating the suffering and was a focus for the grief of many"". In 1988 the Aberfan Disaster Fund was separated into two entities: the Aberfan Memorial Charity and the Aberfan Disaster Fund and Centre, the second of which is administered by Merthyr Tydfil County Borough Council. The Aberfan Memorial Charity oversees the upkeep of the memorial garden and Bryntaf Cemetery, and provides financial assistance to ""all those who have suffered as a result"
"lessons had just begun; 5 teachers and 109 children were killed in the school. An official inquiry was chaired by Lord Justice Edmund Davies. The report placed the blame squarely on the NCB. The organisation's chairman, Lord Robens, was criticised for making misleading statements and for not providing clarity as to the NCB's knowledge of the presence of water springs on the hillside. Neither the NCB nor any of its employees were prosecuted and the organisation was not fined. The Aberfan Disaster Memorial Fund (ADMF) was set up on the day of the disaster. It received nearly 88,000 contributions, totalling"
"all competing for traffic, and the upper sections, particularly the pound at Aberfan, was suffering from severe subsidence as a result of the coal mining. An inspection was carried out, and the canal was closed from Merthyr to Abercynon on 6 December 1898, to safeguard the village of Aberfan. The takeover of the canal by the Marquess of Bute was a little too late to have any great effect. Improvements at Cardiff involved the construction of a new lock, Number 51, which raised the water level between there and Crockherbtown lock, so that the junction canal and the West Bute"
"of Ebbw Vale (at the time Michael Foot's constituency) which was abolished at that election. Merthyr Tydfil and Rhymney (UK Parliament constituency) Merthyr Tydfil and Rhymney () is a county constituency represented in the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. The constituency is noted for containing the former coal mining village of Aberfan, where a catastrophic collapse of a colliery spoil tip resulted in 144 deaths, 116 of which being children. 1983-1997: The Borough of Merthyr Tydfil, and the District of Rhymney Valley wards Nos. 5 and 14 to 20. 1997-2010: The County Borough of Merthyr"
"group's involvement. The Abercorn was on 7-11 Castle Lane in central Belfast and housed a ground-floor restaurant and upstairs bar. It was owned by 45-year-old Bill O'Hara, a Catholic businessman. On Saturday 4 March 1972 it was packed with late afternoon shoppers when an anonymous caller issued a bomb warning to 999 at 4.28 pm. The caller did not give a precise location, but advised that a bomb would go off in Castle Lane in five minutes' time. The street, located in the busy Cornmarket area, milled with crowds of people shopping and browsing as was typical on a Saturday"
"Trust. On 9 September 1966 the University of Surrey was established by Royal Charter and by 1970 the move from Battersea to Guildford was complete. On the day before the installation ceremony of the first Chancellor of the University of Surrey, the Aberfan disaster occurred. Alfred Robens, Baron Robens of Woldingham who was appointed the first Chancellor, was also the chairman of the National Coal Board, and as such was expected to visit the site of the disaster. Robens decided instead to continue with the ceremony in Guildford to become Chancellor. Early visitors to the new campus were Led Zeppelin,"
"to the 1966 Aberfan disaster with a libretto by Mererid Hopwood and commissioned by S4C, premiered at the Wales Millennium Centre. The concert was broadcast the following evening on S4C and was released as an album by Deutsche Grammophon. Jenkins holds a Doctorate in Music from the University of Wales. He has been made both a fellow and an associate of the Royal Academy of Music, and a room has been named in his honour. He also has had fellowships at Cardiff University (2005), the Royal Welsh College of Music & Drama, Trinity College Carmarthen, and Swansea Metropolitan University. In"
"the mine workings was piled on the hills close to the village which grew nearby. Tipping went on until the 1960s. Although nationalised, the National Coal Board failed to appreciate the danger they had created. In October 1966, heavy rain made the giant coal tip unstable, resulting in the Aberfan disaster. The recent dumping of small particles of coal and ash known as 'tailings' seems to have been partly responsible. A black wave tore downhill across the Glamorganshire Canal and swept away houses on its path towards the village school. 114 children and 28 adults were killed. The Rhondda Valleys"
"block. Aberafan also endured the storm surge of 1607 and the Great Flood of 1768, when the river flowed into St Mary's Church. Aberavon was the birthplace of Dic Penderyn, a key figure in the Merthyr Rising of 1831. St Mary's Church is the site of his grave. The castle site was built over between 1876 and 1897 and its foundations now lie underneath the streets around the church. There have been reports of a ghost, a white lady seen floating above the castle ruins. The ghost is speculated to be Jane de Afan, the last occupant of Aberavon Castle."