King, Queen and Prince William to visit Aberfan on 60th anniversary of disaster


Coal slurry crashed into Pantglas Junior School in Aberfan, killing 116 children and 28 adults, when a colliery waste tip collapsed in 1966 - Image © Getty Images

The King, Queen and Prince of Wales are set to visit Aberfan later this month to mark the 60th anniversary of the disaster which killed 116 children and 28 adults.

Pantglas Junior School and surrounding houses in the village near Merthyr Tydfil, south Wales, were catastrophically engulfed in coal slurry after the colliery spoil tip collapsed on 21 October 1966.

King Charles III, Queen Camilla and Prince William will join survivors, bereaved parents and members of the community on the anniversary to pay tribute to those who died.

The royals will visit the Aberfan Memorial Garden which stands on the site of the primary school, and go to the Aberfan and Merthyr Vale Community Centre.

Late Queen Elizabeth II's reaction to the disaster in Aberfan was said to be one of the biggest regrets of her 70-year reign.

What will happen on the royal visit?

A short prayer and a moment of silence will be held in the memorial garden, and King Charles and Prince William will lay wreaths. Queen Camilla will place a posy in memory of those who were lost.

During the visit to the community centre they will meet retired emergency service workers who helped respond to the coal tip collapse, including a 96-year-old woman who was a police officer at the time.

They will also look at an exhibition that shows the huge scale of the rescue effort.

(BBC article continues, with much more detail)

Singers underground as South Crofty mine prepares to reopen


The singers performed folk songs underground - Image © Tori Plummer/ Cornish Metals

The sound of music has echoed around a Cornish tin mine which is getting a new lease of life after a group of 21 shanty singers tested out its acoustics.

The Cadgwith Cove Inn Singers performed 25 fathoms (150ft, 45m) below ground at South Crofty in Pool after being given a tour of the mine.  They sang in an area where owner Cornish Metals has been tunnelling to allow ore-handling facilities as it prepares to reopen the mine and create 300 jobs.

Singer Bentley Orchard, who has also worked in mining, said the experience "was phenomenal" and the acoustics "were resounding, reverberating", as if "the old miners were throwing the words back at you".

The invitation followed a gathering at the pub where the singers perform regularly to mark the 28th anniversary since the mine closed.

The Cadgwith Singers had to go down eight at a time in a transport cage to part of the mine where the company has been extracting water and using as a training ground for their next generation of miners.

Cornish Metals ground production manager Steve Tarrant said it was a "steep learning curve" for the next generation of miners being trained there but he was proud of their progress.  The company said the visit "was a wonderful reminder of the traditions that continue to unite our communities".

The government invested £28.6m in 2025 in plans to reopen the mine.  A new workshop and stores facility opened in September 2026, providing maintenance, engineering and storage facilities for the mine.

**snip**

Buses are trackable by their owning company, not to a company that they are on hire to.

So there is no way that departure boards can show anything other than due time, and of course they disappear a minute after they're due to depart.

Little that can be done until tech is improved.

I can't place a "former ticket hall, which provides direct access to the Bakerloo line".  If anything, the one I'm thinking of on the Eastbourne Terrace side would be closer to the District line.

Looking down from the top of the steps, I felt it was far more potential than actually welcoming just yet.

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Having looked up ORR requirements, rail replacement buses must be shown on station departure boards in real time, so even somewhere like Melksham would show them on departure displays (although appears the departure board is whatever is there, (even a manual chalked up one)

The buses must also show correct destination (or rail replacement), not blank destination.  Inside they have to have audio and visual announcements of the next stop, and if automatic announcements are not working then driver has to clearly use PA to announce approach to stops.   (This has only been a recent 100% requirement, as transition since 2023 Public Service Vehicles Assessable Information legislation has now ended)

Seems to be more of a grey area regarding real time (eg GPS based) location data and times displayed on arrival boards.  Currently appears to be more of an aspiration than an requirement.