Aberfan Disaster Documentary
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- Опубликовано: 9 янв 2007
- Thank you all for the kind comments and unbelievable stories of personal accounts. May all their innocent souls rest in peace.
This was my first college project I did back in 2006. The archive footage is not mine, I don't hold any rights to it.
I simply edited them in along with my own footage and interviews, along with the research I did.
rachelevans.4ormat.com/
The way that the families & village were treated afterwards is unbelievable! R.I.P angels x
I was seven years old and living in Huntingdonshire when this tragedy happened. I still remember it very vividly. I remember my Mum crying. I remember the pictures. Your documentary is very well done. Thank you.
i was working in a London hospital at this time.
The images of this disaster unfolded on the television. and shocked us all.The desperation of this effort to rescue the children
and the enormous loss will be forever etched on my mind.
My dad ran out from work, jumped in the car and dashed over the valley to help,I was in school just over the valley ,the head teacher stopped assembly, some teachers were in tears. As an 8 yearold I was shocked to see what was going on around us.As the day unfolded it became apparent who bad it was.A WHOLE generation wiped out.So to that stupid person who made those comments,get help as you are so sick. RIP children and teachers who lost their lives on that October day in 1966.
I shouldn't be able to remember this day, I wasn't even 3 years old. Living in North not South Wales. My males relatives & neighbours.were Steelworkers, not Miners. But tough, strong men not given to displays of grief. I remember it because all these men around me were crying.
Your profile picture really doesn't fit the mood of the comment
Oh, and here's something - 1,740,000 Pounds raised for a relief fund - with only F**king
FIFTY POUNDS paid out to the families? Why wasn't that considered the most cruel and inhumane grand larceny ever? Who got paid off? Surely SOMEBODY knew who the thieves were. The Company should've paid out of their own pockets for the destruction they caused.
The local Labour party kept it and only paid some of it back in 1999 (I think) without interest. We will never forget, or forgive. I was four at the time and my mam at the time just hug me and cried, though we were a steelmaking family from Casnewydd.
Rhob The £150,000 was confiscated from the relief fund in order to pay for the removal of the remaining tips. The money was only repaid without interest by the Labour government in 1999 (the money was taken by the Labour government of the time). The bereaved families were only paid £50 each out of the relief fund because it was felt, at the time, that “poor people would not be able to cope with being given a large amount of money”. The authorities often had condescending attitudes to people of ‘working class’ and children at the time. The rest of the relief money was put towards a community Centre and a swimming pool. I would love to know how the memorial garden on the site of the Panteglas school came about.
@@ginajones1003 The NCB initially offered £50 to each bereaved family, but eventually raised it to £500 (about £9,000 in 2021). The fund set up immediately after the disaster eventually paid £5,000 to each family. Other grants and payments were given to those that lost homes or suffered other significant damage.
The Garden of Remembrance - which now stands on the site of Pantglas Junior School - was funded by the Aberfan Disaster Memorial Fund.
I remember it as though it were yesterday. I'd never heard of Wales, never mind the tiny village of Aberfan. I watched the news in my home in Kent that evening and cried because the children who died were the same age as me.
I now live in south Wales and have visited the memorial garden where Pantglas school used to stand. It's a very sobering experience.
Freimaco I plan to do the same in 2020. I got off the train at Harrow & Wealdstone earlier this year and I stood right where the accident happened. A chill went down my spine! It felt that real!
It took me nearly 55 years to do it, but on 1st July 2021 I drove the 140 miles to pay my respects.
There is something about this particular tragedy that has always haunted my mind and I believe always will!
I'm sure I'm not the only one.
What an utterly and unimaginably sad time for all those hard working people concerned, who still have to live with it all these years later! I couldn't for one second begin to conceive what you have been through.
jiggermast I was only 18 months old when this terrible disaster happened and despite growing up in Hertfordshire I knew about from an early age. I guess I first heard about it listening to a anniversary report on radio 4 as my parents were avid listeners so it was on all the time in the house. I have recently read Gaynor Madgewick’s book about the tragedy and found it very moving.
I was working and my pay was £4.00 a week we all give a pound to the fund. I think often about all the people who died on that day and the people who died a long slow death.
@@jacquelinejob2766 So very very sad Jaqueline, I'm a Christian & ashamed to say I'm not certain my faith could have handled a loss like that, I hope it could have, but I don't know, I mean how in the world do you even begin to tell those poor families of the love of God! I wouldn't have had the nerve myself. Being from a small Colliery town in Cumbria that saw many terrible mining disasters & one in 1910 that took the lives of 136 men, I would very much like one day to visit the cemetery in Aberfan.
@@ginajones1003 So sorry for the late reply Gina, I shall have to read it, thanks for the recommendation. God bless.
I remember this day so well. Watched the disaster on tv. Such a sad, somber day in welsh history.
i was seven and came home from school to see my mother cry for the first time. when i saw this i joined here. god bless them all.
Over £1m was raised worldwide following this disaster, but only £50 went directly to those affected, also the people of Aberfan had to raise over £150,000 to remove the tips because the NCB refused to accept resposibily for this disaster. This is a well made documentary my friend. I was only a baby when this event happened and only learnt about it years later. Coming from a coal mining area, my grandfather was a collier, my sympathies are with the people of Aberfan. Great docaumentary pal.
I was 7 when we came home from school and mam was breaking her heart I asked what was wrong when she pointed at the telly and said your dads there helping,she then said it could have happened at anytime and any where, we are about 30 miles away I'll never forget that day and feelings I cry unashamed every time I see anything to do with this tragedy god bless you all
at 2:40 thats my grandfather carrying the girl out!
Popped in to cemetery to pay my respects couple of years back. What touched me was to see the names of parents and grand parents now buried years later with their children. Happened on my dads birthday so will never forget. "Yea thou I walk through the valley of the shadow of death , thou art there, thy rod and thy staff they comfort me"
I was the same age and can remember this vividly! We had a collection at our school to send. I can remember my parents crying when this cam on the television, sooooooo tragic.
I was in Aberfan today and visited the memorial garden. I also saw the Karl Jenkins concert on S4C on Sunday. So sad.
I remember my Mams face.
I was 5.
I had never seen anything so painful!
I haven't since.
I recently went to Aberfan after years of wanting to go there but living in England. Me and the missus bought a bouquet to show respect for all lives taken. With the exception of my own children being born, this was the most emotional I have ever been in my entire life and it very nearly broke me.
Sleep tight angels xxxx
Hi, I'm hoping to get your permission to download this video to use for a school assembly. Some of the moments in this footage are heartbreaking and they would really help us explain the event to our kids.Thanks
how do we get a UK wide 2 minutes silence on 21 October this year, everyone write to the Welsh Minister, Plaidy Cymru etc? The government shouldn't need prompting to do this RIP, classmates together in Heaven
coming from a mining back ground il never forget ...RIP ye lost souls
+stevie rielly my grandad mines rescue from staffordshire England xx great words buddy
"From which it will never recover?" Sorry lad, Aberfan has long recovered stronger, smarter, better than ever before. This tragedy does not define us, it has embolden us to lives full of gratitude for every moment of life we are blessed to live. Living the life of a sad, perpetual victim, as you have just portrayed, is not the way we live nor does it describe what a beautiful way of life new generations have brought to Aberfan.
On 1st July 2021 I drove the 140 miles to Aberfan to pay my respects. I was just 13 years old when it happened.
I had to ask directions twice; for the Memorial Garden and the cemetery, and although it must have been obvious to those I spoke to as to why I was there, I found the locals to be both friendly and helpful. Having said that I still felt like an intruder after all this time.
The graves and garden are beautifully kept.
I worked there over the following week and we were taken care of by the Sally Army.I will never forget the children of Aberfan and I visit the graves every chance that I get when I return home to Wales from germany where I now live .I thank you from the bottom of my heart for making this Film.Dave Williams
Rachel--I am seeing this for the first time. Thank you so much for it. Laura
Before you comment please remember that these were innocent children
may their little souls rest in peace forever
I remember it very well. Some of the children were the same age as me (10 years old). I think of them every year at the time of the anniversary.
Well where did the rest of that £1 million that was raised go to if only about £5000 of it went to the families? that takes the piss!. This video of yours is gonna rocket up in view count within the next couple of weeks with it being the 50th anniversary of it next Friday. This is the go-to documentary about it, it's very well done. It should have been on TV. Was it?
Makes you wonder, obviously £150 thousand was given to the government from the charity commission towards the cost of the removal of the tips, they should've fought this but they weren't on the side of the people of Aberfan, really don't know what has been spent out of the fund maybe other people know because all documents to do with the fund came under the 30 year rule. But I don't think anyone donating at the time and my family did thought money would go to the government, we were sending money to help the bereaved parents, it was a lot of money and could've really helped each family financially, this wouldn't bring their children back of course but this was a poor mining community and the money would've been a help.
It was more than a million, it totalled near-on 1.75 million.
@misshoppy Thank you so much for this disturbing but moving clip. I was eight at the time and now 52yrs. I can distinctly recall the teacher telling us about the disaster in class that very day and it has always stayed with me. I hope to one day visit the memorial and pay my respects. Thank you once again xx
the Welsh national football team went to the memorial garden to pay their respects before their game last week
Very moving and it brought back vivd memories from my childhood. Thank you for the piece.
My wife and I recently visited Aberfan from Australia to pay our respects to the people who perished on that awful day.
I had read about it, watched videos about it, but the true horror was not evident until I walked the length of those graves of so many children and adult and read the heart wrenching epitaphs.
Towards the end, I found it hard to read through my tears.
My heart goes out to all the people of Aberfan.
Boed i bawb orffwys mewn heddwch
I never understood why the piles of refuse from the mines were allowed to accumulate. Such a terrible tragedy.
This terrible tragedy haunts the world and should never be forgotten. When I visited Wales, back in the '80s, we traveled near the village and I immediately remembered... Thank you for posting this. It is heartbreaking, horrible, but people need to know... ;(
In 1966 they had the 'factories act' it was a good act but the problem was it didn't protect people outside the factory gates. After this terrible disaster that could of been avoided things had to change which is why in 1974 the Health & safety at work act was introduced which placed a duty of care on companies for what happens outside their gates.
The anniversary approaches. 50 years........but the blink of an eye to those families. My heart is with you.
I was18. I couldn't cry I was from Merseyside. The Westminster governments should have been shot for what they did to ordinary people. Why? Money and power. RIP the dead of Aberfan. I now shed a tear for you.
A superb documentary, thanks very much for this.
still an incredible and chilling documentary achievement here
2:48, that brave mother, amazing hope and heart-breaking resignation
This wonderful documentary reminds us again what can happen to beautiful, harmless people when their rulers put money not safety, first. And nothing has really changed in our society has it ?
my gran had friends who died in the disaster. so i feel a strong sense of compassion for all who were involved on that sad day. i was 6 when it happened, and my brother was 7. the same age as some of those beautiful little ones who perished. i send my deepest love to the people of Aberfan. may love and healing be around you always. all my love, xxxxx
gosh i have never herd of this, thanks for bringing it to my attention, I will pass this on so no one forgets....
I was thirteen at the time, growing up without a father in a poor family without a television, this is the first time I have seen this footage. I am not of a soft nature but I cried throughout.
so glad you did this. i have begged a couple friends who are authors to look into this before all the living witnesses are gone....for such a momentous disaster, there has not been enough, imho, witnessing and public attention.
My wife and myself where visiting my grandfather that night, we heard it on the news. I remember we all sat there stunned for some time. We have visited Aberfan many times to pay our respects. as time goes by the pain is just the same. God be with the people of Aberfvan.
good work. i'm an Aberfan boy and my mam was in that school that day, but she was one of the lucky ones. An whole generation is missing from Aberfan.
can we please have a follow up to this story? i know 45 years is a long time but i think 80% OF THIS COUNTRY would like to now xx.
I was six and at my grandmothers, Uncle Colin the one who drove the lorries was there, I was playing happily Then he took my on his knee on his knee and told me "I had a little boys arm on my lorry today." I smiled happily and asked" Did you?" He smiled back and said yes. his voice broke. Aunty Jean said "Colin." And he left the room, It would be a long time before he slept peacefully..
The WashingtonsSate Mudslide reminded me of this as disasters do from time to time.
Please do something for the survivors if you can.
I feel awful. Did you lose anyone you knew? Because if you did I'm very sorry for your loss
no thankfully no one from my family was effected.
Me and my drama class are currently doing a play about the disaster that happened at aberfan. I am touched by this and all the survivores and parents quotes that we all learned and read. I hope we can film our play and put it on youtube. RIP children and teachers of the Aberfan School
I was at Aberfan with the Civil Defence on the Saturday. I will never forget. Today we talk about the future of climate change and deny it , yet it is the legacy we are leaving of our children in the same way this heap of black sludge was left to bury these poor little children
hearts with all families 😓 anyone know what this song is called ???
Thank you Rachel.Being a 6yr old Ebbw Vale boy at the time I remember Aberfan as if it were yesterday,the tears of my mam and dad at the time I'll always remember.R.I.P Plant annwyl.
I was their age when it happened, I remember it on the news, one of the first news stories that really affected me. I'll never forget them.
When news of this terrible disaster came on the radio, my friend's dad left work in the West Midlands and rode his motorbike to Aberfan to try to help. A very well made documentry of a heartbreaking event.
We're in the midlands mate
I just showed my 12 year old son this documentary. I remember my parents the night it happened. Dad thought it was the pit behind his village school where he grew up as he heard the news on the train from London. So many villages were put in this situation. It could have been anyone of them. Those poor little children and teachers. I'll never forget....none of us will.
Correction needed - the last child's body recovered was the day AFTER the mass funeral
After this , they cleaned up all our village (to the West) slag heaps on the mountain tops , it's quite beautiful now and of course the mines are all closed .
OFF-Topic question : Why British coal industry was disbanded coal mines shut down and miners left unemployed? It's weird for me because for me every country should be as much independent as possible when it comes to energy supply .
I was 10yrs old when I saw the news of the Aberfan Disaster on TV. My mum was crying by the TV set. She told me what had happened I watched the news as it unfolded, it was heartbreaking. I never forgot it, or the 116 little souls and 28 adults that lost their lives that day, 5 were teachers. It was a terrible tragedy. Then I see comments from ignorant people who have nothing better to say and it makes me sick, Shame On You.......
this will live with me for the rest of my life, it was only 48 years ago, yet why don,t our youngsters
know nothing about it, shame on our education goveners I say.
I agree with you! I only just started learning about it in drama(im going to do a performance on it in memory) I had never heard of aberfan before yesterday. RIP
I doubt someone who could post this would be capable of giving anyone a good dicking.
I learned about this in school in the '80s
I was nine when the disaster occurred and still remember that day. I was a pupil at an army school in germany at the time. Special services were held in classrooms the next day with newspaper clippings tacked to the walls. I gave a week's pocket money to the fund and was 'delighted' to learn that the NCB got their mits on it. for 'cleaning up' operations.
Since then I have visited the memorial gardens while passing the area and paid my respects.
How could I not?
beautifully and poignantly told. A very moving piece so many congratulations well deserved.
Hi there. Any chance you can send me the original. I do drama work based on the drama and your footage and interviews look most moving. Moira
OMG. How irritating this doesn't have the commentary. This has the best footage I have seen plus the interviews. I could really use this in my classroom. Most moving.
i was 16 years of age when disaster happened and 45 years later it is still a nightmare and i will watch this every day, my heart still goes out to these people who lost there children, daughters sons brothers and sisters parents and grandparents, the people my sound alright but believe me they were heartbroken xx.
As a 19 year old I worked alongside Eddie Thomas (Boxing) inside the school that day,I had driven my car to a position adjacent to the school across the valley,I worked at first on the roof of the school,there were so many people digging and we were getting nowhere,so I climbed through the window into the school to be confronted by a sight that will remain with me all my days.I was an Apprentice stonemason with Mountain Ash UDC my mate Ted Palmer from the village lost a niece in the tragedy.
It was the last day of school before the half term holidays. and I was 5 years old. I can remember my mam picking me up from school and she weas crying. This disaster has stayed with me and it's something I'll never forget. There was a huge outpouring of grief and the British Public donated money to a disaster fund to help these poor families. Unfortunately, the families were "means tested", which is a panel decide if you really need the money and it was up to the panel how much you'd get
I was on HMS Tiger berthed at Cardiff on the 21/10/66 when we got a call of help from Aberfan, what a tragic waste of children's lives, all I could think of latter, it could have been prevented.
i was 10 when this happend im comming up to my 60th and still seems like yesterday god bless each and everyone,
I find it absolutely disgraceful that a grieving village had to put up the money to remove the potential threat of the other tips. Where was the givernment in all of this? Surely they could have made the coal board remove them under order? A really good documentary. Well done.
I was 66 on December 22nd and I well Remember the Aberfan Disaster I was to young to understand and when I saw the old film from that Village 50 years later I was Shocked;and it Must never be allowed to happen again
I hadn't heard of this tragedy until my parents gave me an encyclopedia year supplement book for the year of my birth in the 1990's. This video made me weep. All of the people who perished and their families having to put their lives back together in some form, then to have the ones who caused it treat them in such a manner is heinous. Rest In Peace to the children and the adults.
I was such a small child at the time. We were driving back from Cardiff to Abercanaid and the police stopped us on the road. We had to drive the long way home. And the worst thing is that we went on playing on the tips. For years. No-one told us the tips weren't safe. No one did anything.
We watched this in English today as we are to create a radio commemoration on it, I had never heard of it before today. My heart goes out to all the people who sadly lost their lives and the families that are probably still grieving today. I hope nothing like this happens ever again, any where
Watching the third season of The Crown purely for entertainment I learned of the terrible disaster for the first time. In 1966 I was 9 yrs old. My heart is broken for the children and adults lost, their families and the community. I cannot comprehend the courage and strength it would have taken to move forward. Even these 53 years later I send my very deepest sympathies to all whose lives forever changed that day.
a mins silence yesterday before the Swansea city v Watford game was played
Nice work. Being an American I was forced to use closed captions. 'Bringing with it mud and slurry' was translated as 'bringing with it Madam Sorry'. Kind of appropriate to the scope of this tragedy.
This is so sad, may they always rest with the angels, truly heartbreaking....
I've just been at a drama course and we did a play on Aberfan. It was beautifully done. We were all very emotional about the subject and my heart goes out to everyone who lost their lives and to their families. I cannot stress enough how sad I was when our director told us the story. Most of us were in tears and the ones that weren't were strong people who very rarely cry. RIP precious souls.
xxxxxxxxxx
well done, very well made ............. made me sob . i was 8 i remember the news that day
Absolutely heartbreaking. RIP little ones, and all who lost their lives.😪 ⚘⚘⚘
Over one million pounds donated and the families who lost loved ones only got fifty pounds. What a slap in the face. I'm surprised that wasn't investigated. Who took the money
Thanks for making that video. I have just finished reading a book about the trajedy. So where did all the financial aid that was sent go!!!!!!!!
You cant like this clip,you also not unlike this clip.A sad day for Wales 45 years ago today
This happened three years before I was born, and I never heard the sad story until I was about 22 in 1991. My family (Watkinses, Jenkinses, Joneses) being of mostly Welsh heritage, I immediately took interest. I asked my father about it, and he told me he remembered hearing about it here in Newfoundland at the time--it made international news. As I read more about it, the most bizarre thing I learned was the fact that so many people claimed to have foreseen this in dreams and the like.
RIP.
thinking of those dear children and teaching staff and others 45 years later God bless xx
No words could ever describe the tragic loss of life that day......
Such a dreadful thing to happen. I was 10yrs old at the time this happened and was terribly upset by the disaster at the time. I am now 55, but am still brought to tears when I read or see anything related even after all this time. Those poor families, my heart goes out to them. The Coal Board (if it still exists) management team should be very very ashamed.
very well put together very sensitive the true price of coal a generation gone
I did my dissertation project on this terrible event, it would mean so much if you could check it out!
RIP those innocent souls.
Here we are in 2012 worrying about the "credit crunch" and eurozone "debt crisis". Talk about a reality check. 144 people, 116 of them aged between 7 and 10 years killed needlessly in the blink of an eye. RIP the innocent babies of Aberfan.
I was 5 years old when it happened, living in Argentina and from 1991 in Israel. I never heared from this before untill today. I watched a video from Vicente Fuentes about "prophecy" and he put this event as an example, where many people, including a little girl, dreamed of it some days before. I am so sorry!! It was a big negligence. Poor parents. Poor people. May God give you relief!!!
This is such a sick tragedy that's happened. The poor children+teachers+parents! Bless their hearts rest in peace thinking of you all x.
It was George Thomas (Viscount Tonypandy) who suggested to Harold Wilson that the money to move the tips should be taken from the fund. It was replaced - a few years ago - by the Welsh Government., but no interest was paid.
My great great great grandad helped out in the aberfan disaster and he survived
Ehlana Thomas My Grandfather was a fireman that helped dig towards the children.. it was the only time that my mum remembers him being completely broken at what happened...such a strong man that still here today
Ahhh
how good for him knobhead. what about the kids who suffered ib the capitalist bloodstained hands!
wtf is that for a comment? you should be ashamed. kids died and all you care about is q old fucking coward..
David Spencer Don’t be so disrespectful to the memories of the people who help save the few children who could be saved. The relatives of these people have every right to feel proud of them. You are a troll and need help because you obviously are bitter and twisted for some reason; or perhaps you are just evil.
rip 2 all the children and teachers that lost their lives on this tragic day
A great documentary. Simple and honest. But very, very moving. 144 people, 116 of them children. Not the fault of the NCB, apparently. Which is why the money from donations had to be spent by the villagers on removing the remaining tips. "No, I'm afraid he's underneath the rubble". Can you imagine those brave words being spoken at such a tragedy today? So quietly, so hopefully, so politely? Those few words are enough to make anyone cry. Is it really only 40 years ago? Seems like a different age.
This happened when i was on holiday very near the area.It was on my 13th Birthday so remember it well.Visited the memorial garden and grave site 3 years ago and remembered that nearly all the local children had died that day.
I remember this happening as if it were this morning.. I was a child who was safe at home. Aberfan is always going to haunt my soul .
I'll always remember this tragedy, I was 8 years old when, our headmistress told us all in assembly what had happened & we prayed for the victims and their families. It was my first true experience of death, and because the victims were all children just like me, I cried, and still cant stop the tears even now so many years later. God watch over all those who suffered on that terrible day.
Sad beyond words.