Aberfan was once a thriving Welsh village. For more than a century the inhabitants had mined its deep coal veins. The waste was deposited in the hillside forming a ‘slag-heap’. Unbeknown to the village-folk this was precariously perched above an underground spring. Then one fateful autumn day, the ceaseless rain tipped the balance. In one fell swoop the slag thundered down the hillside into the village engulfing all that stood in is path.
On the 21st October 1966 in one crushing instant a majority of a generation of children was taken. The pride of the village Planglas School elementary school was right at the heart of the disaster.
On the 23rd 23rd August 1989, the village had to contend with a second disaster, with the closure of Merthyr Vale Colliery. Where the miner’s lamps had once lit up Aberfan, there was now darkness and silence. In those early years the village plunged into a vicious circle of unemployment, hopelessness and despair.
Although much time has passed and there is a continuing Government Regeneration programme in place. The scars are still visible; the High street is littered with boarded up shops, the colliery an unused patch of sparse land and the school site a memorial garden. The losses of Aberfan are still reflected as an emptiness within the social clubs, streets and terraced homes.