Aberfan, Cymru, 21 October 1966. 144 people, including 116 children died when the spoil heap colapsed and slid onto the village, engulfing the school. The cause was the collapse of a spoil heap from the colliery that was undermined by spring water. Despite the subsequent enquiry putting the blame squarely on the NCB, nobody lost their jobs or was even fined, let alone imprisoned for clear negligence. Lord Alfred Robens, chairman of the NCB and clearly part of the institutional problems that led to the disaster, went on to become the chair of a Health and Safety committee. Originally a Labour politician and union leader, by 1979 he was living a luxurious lifestyle and had aligned with Thatcher's Conservatives.
That Other Child
Derbyshire, 1966
mum dropped me at the school gates
wrapped against October's chill
She made sure I wasn't late
Another Friday for that boy,
in the shadow of the mine
closed down just the year before;
the pit head stayed, a kind of shrine
or monument to colliers past
the slag heap hill was out of bounds;
too dangerous to climb back then
but meanwhile, as the clock unwound,
other children laugh and play,
sitting in their tiny chairs
never saw their mums again;
just an accident of birth
that they, not I, died on that day
in that pit village, far away.
Tim Fellows 2020
Images from Wikipedia
No comments:
Post a Comment