The Aberfan Disaster

At a quarter past nine on a wet Friday morning, a waste tip from the colliery above the village slid down the mountain and engulfed Pantglas Junior School and about twenty houses. One hundred and forty-four people died, one hundred and sixteen of them children, most of them aged seven to ten.

The tip had been built over a stream, and the danger had been reported before. The tribunal blamed the National Coal Board without reserve. The school site is now a garden, and the village graveyard holds two long rows of white arches.