Clywedog Dam and Aberfan

Following hard on the heels of the drowning of the Tryweryn Valley, Clywedog Dam was completed in 1967, despite protests in 1966 over the loss of 615 acres of agricultural land to provide water for Birmingham. 1966 was also the year in which tragedy befell the mining village of Aberfan. An unstable coal tip slid down onto the village and school. 144 lives were lost, 116 belonging to children. Condolences came from far and wide including, as can be seen, a wreath from San Remo.

Life was never the same again for the people of Aberfan after a Merthyr Vale Colliery spoil tip slid rapidly and fatally down the mountain (Mynydd Merthyr) on the morning of 21/10/1966. A series of tips had been built on top of porous sandstone and underground springs and were known to be unstable owing to earlier, minor slips. Warnings of instability had been ignored, the tips had never been surveyed and were being continually added to in a haphazard manner. The National Coal Board, owing to its lack of any coal tipping policy, was held totally responsible for the disaster which saw tonnes of rock and shale, in liquefied slurry form, inundating the village and school in minutes.