Aberfan disaster
White arches in Bryntaf Cemetery, Aberfan mark the graves of children killed in the disaster.
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| Date | 21 October 1966 |
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| Location | Aberfan, Glamorgan, South Wales |
| Coordinates | 51°41′41″N 3°20′51″W / 51.69472°N 3.34750°WCoordinates: 51°41′41″N 3°20′51″W / 51.69472°N 3.34750°W |
| Deaths | 144 (28 adults, 116 children) |
| Inquiries | Lord Justice Edmund Davies |
| Passing of the Mines and Quarries (Tips) Act 1969 | |
The Aberfan disaster was the catastrophic collapse of a colliery spoil tip in the Welsh village of Aberfan, near Merthyr Tydfil, that killed 116 children and 28 adults on 21 October 1966. The collapse was caused by the build-up of water in the accumulated rock and shale tip, which suddenly slid downhill in the form of slurry.
More than 1.4 million cubic feet (40,000 cu metres) of debris covered a section of the village in minutes. The classrooms at Pantglas Junior School were immediately inundated; young children and teachers died from impact or suffocation. Many noted the poignancy of the situation: if the disaster had struck a few minutes earlier, the children would not have been in their classrooms, and if it had struck a few hours later, they would have left for the half-term holiday.
The official inquiry blamed the National Coal Board (NCB) for extreme negligence, and its chairman, Lord Robens, for making misleading statements. Parliament passed new legislation regarding public safety in relation to mines and quarries.
In 1966 the Aberfan Disaster Memorial Fund (ADMF) received 90,000 contributions and reached a total of £1,606,929. The remaining tips were only made safe after a lengthy fight by Aberfan residents who were resisted by the NCB and Labour Government of Harold Wilson. Clearing was paid for by a government grant and forced contribution of £150,000 taken from the charity fund. In 1997 Tony Blair's New Labour Government paid back the £150,000 to the ADMF and in 2007 the Welsh Assembly donated £1.5 million to ADMF as recompense for the money wrongly taken.
For 50 years up to 1966, millions of tonnes of excavated mining debris from the Merthyr Vale Colliery were deposited on the side of Mynydd Merthyr, a ridge directly above the village of Aberfan. Spoil heaps or tips of loose rock and mining waste had been built up above a layer of porous sandstone containing several underground springs, and tips had been built up on top of the springs. Since 1947, the mine had been operated by the National Coal Board.
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