Aberfan disaster clock to go on display at museum

Mike Flynn junior took the clock back to Aberfan for the 50th anniversary commemorations

A key item linked to the Aberfan disaster will be kept permanently at the St Fagans National Museum of History.

The small clock stopped at 09:13 - the time an unstable coal tip engulfed Pantglas Junior School on 21 October 1966, with 116 children and 28 adults killed.

Mike Flynn, whose dad attended the scene, had kept the clock safe since.

He has now donated it to the museum where it will go on permanent display.

It comes following an appeal to find homes for the clock and other items linked to the disaster in Merthyr Tydfil county.

• Permanent home sought for disaster artefacts

• The images Aberfan survivors can never forget

Mike Flynn senior had attended the scene with a paramedic group he had originally set up to assist the Territorial Army (TA) in Cardiff - where he lived - 20 miles (32km) away.

Amid the trauma of the day, the father-of-three unearthed the clock which was to prove one of the enduring images of the tragedy.

The clock recovered from Aberfan was used to help pinpoint the time of the disaster

The clock had stopped as the tonnes of debris struck the village and, in the inquiry that followed, was used to help pinpoint the precise time disaster struck.

"I am delighted that Amgueddfa Cymru - National Museum Wales has accepted the clock," Mr Flynn said.

"I always felt that the [St Fagans] folk museum, because it is a museum of Welsh history, would be the most appropriate."

Principal curator Sioned Williams said it would help "tell the story of an important part of Welsh history".

She said the museum hoped to collect more items linked to the disaster.