Fragments of the school itself still lie embedded in the rubbish – chunks of green-painted classroom wall… Even more poignant relics lie in a corner of the buried playground piled haphazardly against a wall – some miniature desks and chairs, evocative as a dead child's clothes, infant-sized, still showing the shape of their bodies. Among the rubble there also lie crumpled song-books, sodden and smeared with slime, the words of some bed-time song still visible on the pages surrounded by drawings of sleeping elves.Laurie Lee
In 1984 during my geography degree I remember a 2 hour lecture from one of my lecturers - I think it may have been David Butcher, which took us through the circumstances leading up to the terrible events of the 21st of October 1966. Back then it was relatively recent.... today marks 60 years, and it WILL be remembered as always across Wales. I grew up in South Yorkshre where spoil heaps were part of the local landscape.The golf course I played on in my 20s was located on a reclaimed spoil heap just outside Rotherham.
The lecture explained the warning signs which were ignored back then. The evidence of movement that was already occurring ahead of that terrible day in South Wales. The springs on which the spoil heaps sat which lubricated the millions of tons of waste....
The BGS has shared a page here. A journal is also shared (PDF download) which analyses the causes of the disaster.
We will remember the 144 lives lost.
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