'Aberfan: Black October' exhibition, National Library of Wales 2016

Description

A time-lapse video of the exhibition team setting the central installation. Each piece of coal in this installation represents one of the 144 lives which were lost in the Aberfan disaster.The exhibition took place in the Gregynog Gallery Annexe, 17/09/16 - 14/01/17."On the morning of Friday, 21 October 1966, tragedy struck a small mining village in south Wales. The valley around Aberfan had been piled high with spoil from the nearby Merthyr Vale Colliery, and, a little after 9am, 'Tip 7' began to move. Within minutes a vast landslip of shale and coal dust hurtled down the mountain, becoming liquefied by underlying water and engulfing everything in its path. 1,000 tonnes of colliery spoil wiped away two farm cottages, several houses, and tore into the side of Pantglas Junior School. 144 people were killed, 116 of them children, triggering a profoundly emotional response across Wales and throughout the international community. Thousands rushed to help with the rescue effort while sympathies and financial support poured in from around the world.Over a period of fifty years since that black October, a myriad of poems, photographs, musical compositions and films have commemorated the tragedy and the lives lost. Today we look at the disaster, the responses that followed the terrible event, and commemorate anew."

• https://www.llgc.org.uk/collections/activities/exhibitions0 (link opens in new window)