On Thursday, October 5th we caught a train up to Merthyr Vale to explore the hisotry of that part of the valley, naturally dominated by the Aberfan Disaster of 1966.
When our sizable group disembarked the train diver became curious as to why we were there and keen to stay for the first story, the making of the film 11 Rillington Place, a scene of which was filmed at the station. He gave us a friendly toot when departing.
Our first stop after that was the wooden sculpture at the site of the former Merthyr Vale Colliery. From there we walked up the steep valley side and onto the Taff Trail and up to the cemetery. After paying our respects to those who had lost their lives in the Aberfan Disaster we headed up to the valley to Aberfan Memorial Garden, site of the former junior school and tragedy itself.
