The first time the Queen wept in public
Ipublic as she grieved for the mining village. She wept as a girl handed her a posy, bearing the inscription: “From the remaining children of Aberfan.”
It created such a bond with the community, that day was the first of four visits to Aberfan so far during her reign.
The colliery spoil tip engulfed the school on October 21, 1966, within five minutes. Days of rain caused the rock and shale tip that had been built up over 50 years to slide downhill at up to 50mph.
More than 1.4million cubic feet of debris swamped the village, with pupils and staff of Pantglas Junior School dying from the impact or from suffocation.
At the time, the Queen’s children Andrew, then six, and Edward, two, were both at home. It was nine days after the disaster when she travelled to Wales.
Her private secretary Lord Charteris later said that failing to visit the site sooner was her biggest regret.
When asked by former Tory MP Gyles Brandreth if the Queen had ever put a foot wrong, Lord Charteris replied: T was one of the most terrible tragedies to hit her kingdom. But the Aberfan disaster in 1966, which claimed the lives of 116 schoolchildren and 28 adults, is also remembered as one of the few moments the Queen misjudged the mood of the nation.
Instead of visiting the devastated Welsh village immediately, she accepted the advice of courtiers and delayed.
The highly emotional day when the Queen did finally visit Aberfan is being recreated for Netflix drama The Crown.
These pictures capture Olivia Colman, 44, who has taken over from 34-year-old actress Claire Foy, dressed identically to the Queen more than half a century ago.
Olivia and Tobias Menzies, who inherits the role of Prince Philip from Matt Smith, were filming in Cwmaman, 15 miles from Aberfan, with series three and four of the show spanning 1964-76.
In her 66 years on the throne the visit to Aberfan is a day the Queen will never forget. It was the first time she cried in