The Crown and Aberfan

maltrab

Administrator
Staff member
If any of you have seen the new series of the crown, then you will know that episode three is very moving, a friend of mine who is terminally ill was involved on the day and below is a mail he sent me this week.

I was one of the first police cars to arrive at Aberfan that morning, together with a Chief Inspector Davies, my boss, with a police van with about 10 policemen aboard. Arriving at the pit to be told a coal tip had come down the mountain onto the village. Not knowing what we about to face. He quickly got us together and were ordered to double march up to the school. The roads were lined with people, some crying.

We then led into the school yard, it took our breath away. We tried burrowing in from the windows, to face a wall of sludge moving at a snail pace towards us. I was on the window sill when I heard the retaining blackboard snap and the wall of sludge faster, I shouted get back, get back as it came towards me, and jumped into the yard, ran to the back of it away from the wall. A part door, and part of the blackboard came through the the window. Absolutely terrifying. All happened so quickly. The whole game operation was by Glamorgan police by Chief Inspector E Sanger, of our traffic. Who by the way was my tutor at the training school, but he was a Sergeant then.

I STILL HAVE RECURRING NIGHTMARES OF THAT DAY.

I was there for 11 hours. When I got home, my mother in law had my eldest son in the lounge, he came running to me, I was filthy with coal sludge. I hug him, I hugged him so hard I was hurting, I was sobbing , my mother in law was trying to get me to leave him go. My wife had gone next door, to get my Sargent, and he managed to get me to release my son. My eldest boy still remembers that.

Yes Netflix has shown it, I have watched it, but it was human greed and jealousy that caused it. They don't show that .
 
That's so heart breaking. I get so annoyed at people who slate police, fireman and ambulance services, those people are the ones running towards death and disaster while others are running from it, they never forget the horrors they see, some never get over it. Terry thank your friend for his service to us.
 
I remember that day so well. It was so horrible, even to a point where one thought that surely it can't be that bad as we listened to the news. But it was that bad. Everyone was so deeply shocked. You are right Pearl, who would want to have been on duty on that day having to search in the mess for children. I am filled with admiration for the people who do those jobs.
 
Terry, this is a chilling first hand account of one of the greatest tragedies this sceptred isle has suffered and to read this very personal, harrowing account evokes extremely sad memories of that tragic day and the subsequent days when the real extent of this tragedy unfolded . I would like to echo the views that Pearl expounded, I was angry and really upset at the criticism of effectively guilt by association that those brave firemen who attended the blaze were targeted with when the first stage of the Grenfell Tower report was released when all they should have received was praise.

I cannot hope to imagine what your friend and his colleagues faced that day, it is unimaginable . You can fully understand his reaction on returning home . It must have been extremely difficult for your friend to recount that day to you in print , thank your friend so so much for sharing this very personal and heart wrenching view of that day with us.
 
I understand that Family, Friends and People of the Valley must still relive that day with great sadness. And in our own way like Maltrab, Peripheral and Myself and all those people who listened or watched as the day unfolded who can remember that sad day so well. Heart braking.
 
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