A mum recalls waving her small daughter, Annette, off to school, jollying her along in case she missed the bus. Annette, waved back and went on her way. “That was the last time I saw her.”
It was 21 October 1966, in the Welsh mining village of Aberfan. At 9.15am, 150 tons of dense, soaking-wet coal spoil, a mass of slurry, slipped from a National Coal Board tip and engulfed the Pantglas Junior School. Annette was one of 116 children, along with 28 adults, who died.
This hugely affecting documentary, without narration, lets the women of the Aberfan Young Wives club tell their stories of catastrophic loss. “I used to go up to the cemetery and sit there in the dark,” says one mother, who could barely cope with her bereavement.
The culpable National Coal Board eventually paid £500 for the loss of each child.
Summary
Documentary marking the 50th anniversary of the Aberfan colliery spoil tip collapse by meeting the group of mothers who have met every week since the disaster. On October 21, 1966, thousands of tonnes of mud, rock and coal waste crashed down the side of Mynydd Merthyr and into the village of Aberfan, South Wales. Homes were destroyed, and Pantgal Junior School was crushed under the debris, adding 116 children to the 28 adults who died that day. Making use of archive footage and first-hand testimonies, this film details how the women of the community developed a decades-long bond that helped them deal with their grief.
