Jordan Davies
BBC News, reporting from Aberfan

Brenig Parker, now 74, was 14 when he narrowly avoided the coal tip collapse, but two of his friends died.

“I only missed it because I walked into the senior school, it must have been coming towards me as I was going in," he says.

“I just heard a rumble, I turned around and the doorway behind me was full of stone. There was a tree in a classroom - the sewing room."

He says his two friends now rest in the cemetery.

“I lost friends that day - I haven’t been in Aberfan for quite a few years."

With a tear in his eye, Brenig tells me: "You never forget it, I can’t explain it... it’s always with you."

Gaynor Madgwick, who was eight, described hearing a tremendous sound like a hurricane, before a black mass crashed into the classroom.

She woke up unable to see her legs, and was half-buried along with other pupils, some alive, some who had died.

Gaynor remembers crying as her grandad smashed the window to rescue her, before her parents hugged her, and then ran off to find her siblings.

"I was told Carl and Marylyn [her brother and sister] had died, and all my friends had gone as well," she said.

"My life changed forever."

Image source, Getty Images/ BBC

Image source, PA Media

The Central Beacons Mountain Rescue Team has paid tribute to those affected by the tragedy which "hit hard upon our team's hometown and neighbouring valley communities".

"Soon after 09:15 our team members responded alongside other rescue agencies, coal miners and members of the public, to assist the rescue and recovery effort at the Aberfan disaster," it said.

A small group of team members joined the memorial service in Aberfan.

"As on this day every year, our thoughts continue to be with all those involved and affected," it added.

Gareth Jones was talking to children at Troedyrhiw Primary about how he survived the Aberfan disaster when a pupil put his hand up and showed him a photo.

It was of 10-year-old Noah's great-grandad Stephen Andrew who had pulled Gareth from the rubble.

He had always known the school caretaker saved him, pulling him to safety through a window, but he had never seen a photograph of him before.

"I was absolutely gobsmacked... that a bit of the jigsaw has come together," said Gareth.

Noah had grown up hearing stories about Stephen's heroics that day, after he had lost two of his own sons in the disaster.

After suffering from pneumonia, Janett Bickley almost stayed home sick, but was determined to go in for the last day before half term.

She remembers seeing smoke in the distance getting closer and closer to the window, and instinctively put her head on her desk with her book over it.

When she awoke, Janett was covered in soil and muck, and remembers sucking in water when she tried to breathe.

A classmate next to her had died, but another was walking around and helped dig her out.

She remembers children gathering in the hallway, waiting to be pulled out of a window by a teacher, and one little boy not moving, just standing there stunned.

"I was pulled out and never knew what happened to him," she said.

"Then I found out years later he'd died of a heart attack before being rescued."

Image source, Family photo/ BBC

Prince William was seen greeting and shaking hands with pupils during his visit to Ynysowen Community Primary School to unveil the Aberfan Memorial Tree.

The school was built in the village to carry on the legacy of Pantglas Junior School, which was destroyed in the Aberfan disaster.

Image source, PA Media

For almost 60 years, many of Aberfan's lost children have watched over living rooms, hallways and family gatherings across the village.

Some were painted from faded school photographs. Others were shaped by the memories of grieving parents, who wrote letters to an artist describing the children they had lost - the colour of their eyes, their favourite clothes, the flashes of personality that made them unique.

The portraits arrived in the years after one of Wales' darkest days. And for many families, they became far more than paintings.

In a new BBC programme, Unseen: The Aberfan Portraits, some have shared their paintings and spoken about how the art helped them grieve.

Unseen: The Aberfan Portraits is available on BBC iPlayer

One of the first emergency vehicles sent to help rescue people returned to the village ahead of the 60th anniversary.

It has been restored by Henry Cotton and is kept at the Norfolk Fire Museum.

Children from Ynysowen primary joined staff from Merthyr Fire Station in finding out how the engine helped save people following the disaster.

“Seeing this appliance back in Aberfan has been a deeply moving experience," said firefighter Sam Gill.

"It is an important part of our shared history and today has been about helping young people understand the courage, compassion and community spirit shown in the face of unimaginable tragedy."

Image source, South Wales Fire and Rescue

Rescuers believed David Davies, who was eight, had died in the disaster and placed a blanket over him in the playground.

But he had been knocked unconscious by falling debris.

"Someone saw my foot move," he said.

"The doctor re-examined me and I was evidently still alive and I was taken to hospital."

Image source, Getty Images/ Family photo

Image source, PA Media

An Aberfan memorial tree is being unveiled today as part of the anniversary.

The metal structure was designed by ArtMetal - a metalwork company in Powys.

Adam Barrett says it was a "huge honour" to be asked to create this "bittersweet" memorial.

"You would rather it never happened. But hopefully what we've done is create something hopeful," he added.

Prince William is at Ynysowen Community Primary School for the unveiling.

"If it hadn't been for Nansi Williams, then instead of 116 children dying that morning it would have been 121."

This is the view of Paul Harries, who is now 66.

He describes dinner lady Nansi Williams as his hero, because when her body was found after the disaster, she was crouched over five children, protecting them.

Paul is one of those that owes her his life, and added: "She gave everything to give us a future, and she lost everything."

A purple plaque, external is set to be unveiled recognising Nansi's selfless act.

Image source, Family photos

Image source, Getty Image

Prof Iain McLean, the co-author of Aberfan - Government and Disaster, has questioned why nobody was ever prosecuted for the Aberfan disaster.

Speaking on the BBC Radio Wales Phone In earlier, he said the tribunal that took place in 1967 was "devastating" in the words of then-Prime Minister Harold Wilson.

He added: "And so one of the other failures of the government of the day is their, to me, incomprehensible failure to sack Lord Robens and his senior directors."

Robens was the chairman of the National Coal Board at the time, and faced numerous complaints about the dangers that loomed a quarter of a mile high above the village.

One of these included a petition from Pantglas school in 1963, three years before the disaster.

In 1997, McLean met three of the counsels who had appeared before the 1967 tribunal and asked why no legal action was taken.

"They all said 'nobody thought of it at the time'," he said.

Tony Brown and Huw Thomas
BBC Wales

We've worked on the story of the Aberfan disaster many times before, including the 50th anniversary in 2016.

But returning for the 60th anniversary felt different.

Aberfan is not just a story in Welsh history, it's a defining moment that continues to shape lives today.

With every year that passes, there is a greater urgency to record memories before they are lost and to ensure future generations understand what happened here.

Spending time in the village, we were reminded how deeply the disaster still resonates.

The tip slide robbed Aberfan of half a generation of children and teachers, while the fight for justice left many families feeling betrayed by those in power.

Sixty years on, the emotions remain raw. For many people, the disaster is not history, it is something they still live with every day.

What stayed with us most was that this is not a community trapped in the past.

While Aberfan will never forget the children who died, it is also a community that has endured and rebuilt.

We met extraordinary people who have spent 60 years carrying its legacy forward.

The responsibility to remember remains as strong as ever, and we feel privileged that so many people trusted us to help tell that story.

It is one of the most famous photographs of the disaster aftermath, and it won Mel Parry British News Photographer of the Year in 1966.

In it, PC Victor Jones is shown carrying an eight-year-old Susan Maybank through the crowds to safety.

But Mel, who was an 18-year-old apprentice at the Merthyr Express, admits it haunts him.

He puts capturing it down to chance, as he was on a bus travelling through Aberfan, when somebody shouted "the school has fallen down".

Despite it resonating and winning awards, Mel says he wishes he never took it, and later abandoned his career as a photographer.

Image source, Getty Images

An official inquiry found the National Coal Board was responsible for the disaster - but survivors and bereaved families have long pointed to the many injustices they feel they have suffered.

Money was taken from a public disaster fund to help pay for the removal of remaining coal tips above the village, while compensation payments were limited.

They also said there was little help to deal with the trauma, and survivor Jeff Edwards recalled a psychologist telling him to think of birthday parties when he had nightmares.

But he said many children who attended those parties had died, adding: "There was no help. It was basically self-help."

Prince William spoke to survivors, bereaved parents and other members of the community.

He said "there are no words to express" how appalling the disaster was.

Disaster survivor Jeff Edwards has just spoken at the community centre, thanking the royals for their support.

He was the last child to be brought out alive, after rescuers spotted his white hair in the rubble.

Jeff remembers hearing a lot of screaming and shouting immediately after the slurry hit, but this got less and less as children died from trauma and a lack of air.

He believes he was lucky as he had "a balloon of air" around him, adding: "The fire service broke through the window from the hall, and somebody saw my white hair.

"They started digging and eventually they got me out, passing me in a chain from one fireman to another."

It was just after 11:00, and the local greengrocer took him to hospital in the back of his van, with the cabbages and carrots.

Jeff spoke at the community centre in the village, where the King, Queen, and Prince William met survivors and bereaved parents.

He says he and the late Queen Elizabeth II got to know each other well over the years and she referred to him as "the little boy with the blonde hair".

Image source, Getty images/BBC

Residents Alison and Colin met Prince William when he walked over to the crowd.

Alison said she corrected his pronunciation of Aberfan - after he pronounced it with an f sound, rather than a v sound as it should be - adding: "I absolutely love him, he’s so lush and he’s just like his mother."