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54 years ago, at 9.15am on the morning of October 21, 1966, a spoil tip collapsed onto the Welsh village of Aberfan, engulfing Pantglas Primary School and other buildings. The disaster resulted in the tragic deaths of 116 children and 28 adults.

After the landslide stopped, many local residents rushed to the school and began digging through the deep sludge. Within hours, hundreds of volunteers had travelled to Aberfan to help.

Some of those volunteers included Swansea University students, who arrived at the disaster site in organised groups, using shovels and picks hastily borrowed from the Geography Department. In total, there were about 100 student volunteers who travelled to Aberfan.

In this clip, 1960s Economics student John Sparrow reflects on his experiences of the disaster (John Sparrow interviewed by Dr Sam Blaxland, Voices of Swansea University, 1920-2020. C0001/06. © Swansea University).

Pantglas Primary School after the disaster, Crefft student newspaper, 3 November 1966 (p.12)

The experience of the volunteers is described by a female student in the Student Union newspaper, Crefft:

“I dug until my arms felt like dead weights, then I went into a bucket chain to try and get rid of the stuff. I felt as if it were all a dream. I could not imagine children being under me. I joked with the person next to me in the line – but slowly the mounting toll of dead stopped the jokes, stopped the pains in my arms and back, I just wanted to help them get out but I felt so useless and impotent – I wanted to cry.”
(‘Aberfan’, Crefft student newspaper, 3 November 1966, p.12)

We will never forget – Remember Aberfan 21.10.1966

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