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These tremendous pictures were kindly
offered to the site for display by Graham White. They show two
notable incidents that occurred in the area in the 1950s.
The site is very grateful to Graham who would like to dedicate the pages
to his father,
Mr
Ivor Lionel Graham White.
Friday evening, July 24th 1959 and
Blaentillery School is ablaze. The school had only a few hours
before been closed for the summer holidays. In the evening it was
used by the Blaentillery Youth Club. At just before 7.30, the warden
Mr. Eric Cox spotted the fire and promptly contacted the Abertillery
Fire Service who were quickly on the scene. Mr. Glyn Hughes, a
member of staff at the school arrived as well and he saved the
school's log books before the fire developed into a raging blaze.
The fire totally gutted the upper school as pupils and former pupils
looked on in tears. Thankfully, there was no loss of life.
Around the same time as the
Blaentillery School Fire, another tragic incident occurred in the
area when a lorry laden with steel overturned in Alexandra Road, Six
Bells and crashed in the fronts of some of the shops killing its
driver. The circumstances behind the crash are not too clear - if
anyone has further information perhaps they could contact the site.
The view looking
down Alexandra Road at the scene of the lorry crash.
One of Abertillery station's appliances that
would have called at the scene of the incidents above.
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