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- Jul 19, 2020
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On this day 54 years ago a clock stopped at 9:15am - and with it stopped the lives of 116 children & 28 adults when a spoil tip from coal mining became waterlogged and crashed down a Welsh mountainside engulfing a small school and all it‘s occupants.
In a moment an entire generation from a small community was wiped out.
It happened the year before I was born but we were taught about it as kids, we visited the cemetery too pay our respects and schools do the same today lest we never forget.
My father worked in Ebbw Vale steelworks was one of several hundred who answered the urgent call for able bodied men to help with the rescue attempt - they laboured with picks and shovels or bare hands where there were no more tools.
To his last days he could not look at the cemetery as we drove through the valley past the village without breaking down in tears, something I’ve seen repeated with others who were there. We take a minutes silence to remember and pray those left can forget some of the grief and pain they still carry with them.