Aberfan survivors recall 1966 disaster on its 60th anniversary
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The gist
Survivors and a teacher who lived through the 1966 Aberfan disaster shared their recollections with the BBC on its 60th anniversary.
The disaster killed 144 people, including 116 children, and still shapes Wales' memory.
Background
Aberfan is a village near Merthyr Tydfil in south Wales. On 21 October 1966 a colliery spoil tip (a pile of mining waste) above the village collapsed, sending a torrent of black slurry down the mountainside into Pantglas Junior School and nearby homes. Sixty years on, the tragedy remains woven into Wales' collective memory and changed attitudes to industrial safety across Britain, and a memorial garden now stands over the school site.
How it unfolded
- Oct 21, 1966 09:15A coal tip above Aberfan collapsed, sending slurry down the mountainside and engulfing Pantglas Junior School and nearby homes. 144 people died, including 116 children, on the last day of school before the half-term holiday.
- Oct 21, 1966Dave Evans, whose home was one of the few in Aberfan with a telephone, is believed to have made the first call to the fire service that morning.
- Oct 16, 2026Nation Cymru reported a new graphic novel, Aberfan: A Family Story by Welsh artist and illustrator Jack Lewis, exploring the disaster through his own family's experiences.
- Oct 19, 2026The original fire service vehicle returned to Aberfan to visit the house where Dave Evans still lives, as part of anniversary events.
- Oct 20, 2026The BBC published recollections of survivors and a teacher on the 60th anniversary.
- Oct 21, 2026Keele University held a free 'Remembering Aberfan: A Geopoetics Walk' with writer and academic Ceri Morgan.
Who’s saying what
- Survivor
- Dave Evans, 86, called it 'the saddest day of my life' and said this anniversary feels more harrowing than the 50th.
- Survivor
- Jeff Edwards, rescued last at age eight, described hearing a rumbling sound his teacher said was thunder, then waking with the roof come in.
- Teacher
- Mair Morgan, then 25, said identifying dead children before they were cleaned up and before parents were told was 'very hard'.
- Survivor
- Denise Morgan, then 11, said her father identified her sister Annette at the makeshift morgue in the chapel: 'My life changed forever.'
Still unverified
It is believed, but not confirmed, that Dave Evans made the first call to the fire service that morning.