The Men who Drowned Dolgarrog

This is the story of the 1925 Dolgarrog Dam Disaster. In 1907 the Aluminium Corporation Ltd decided to pitch their tents by the sleepy hamlet of Porth Llwyd in the Conwy Valley. The book also covers the history of the Aluminium Corporation which opened when the mines and quarries were closing and offered secure, well paid employment for a hundred years until its closure in 2007.

Review :
In the belief that there was an unlimited supply of water flowing off the Carneddau Mountains, they set about building dams and pipelines to enable them to generate cheap hydro electricity for their aluminium reduction furnaces. They renamed it Dolgarrog for those who would have had difficulty with the Welsh pronunciation. The story of the disaster hit national and international headlines after the dam collapsed on 4 November, sending a raging torrent a thousand feet down on to the unsuspecting villagers below killing ten adults and six children. This story has been repeated on every tenth anniversary of the event. Orchestrated by ‘Y Pobl Fawr’ (the big people) who had the most to lose - reputation and money, the reasons for the disaster was cleverly covered up with the aid of a suitably briefed coroner. The inquest found that a lowly official - now deceased and the man who mixed the concrete - who could not be found, were to blame. This is the first time that the evidence has been examined in depth and a picture emerges of the monumental incompetence of the designer of the dams and the criminal negligence of the managing director of the Aluminium Corporation. The book also covers the history of the Aluminium Corporation which opened when the mines and quarries were closing and offered secure, well paid employment for a hundred years until its closure in 2007. The site has now been developed by Surf Snowdonia, where enthusiasts can practice their sport safely on a man-made lake. It is late on Monday evening on November 2nd 1925 in the small hamlet of Dolgarrog, nestling below the Carneddau Mountains in Snowdonia. Most of the villagers are relaxing in their homes having eaten supper, others are watching a film in the Assembly Rooms on higher ground. They are among the lucky ones. The villagers are alerted by a low rumbling noise from above. They realise they are directly in the path of an engulfing tide of water from the two dams above the village owned by the Aluminium Corporation. Many manage to make it to higher ground; sixteen people are not so fortunate. The disaster was caused by the failure of the Eigiau Dam. The water in turn gushed down into Coedty Reservoir directly below, causing its earth-bank dam to burst, thereby releasing billions of gallons of water to cascade through the village below. Among the dead adults were two sisters, Bessie and Ceridwen Evans, one of whom was still floating on a mattress. Another who drowned was Harold Victor Williams, aged 30. He was buried the following Saturday, the day he was to be married. SIx children lost their lives. For decades, the disaster was considered to have been an unfortunate accident, an Act of God. It was nothing of the kind. The subsequent inquiries whitewashed the authors of the disaster. Even the inquests were staged in order to hide the facts. Now, almost a century later, the truth is exposed by an investigating author who had been haunted by the disaster since his childhood days. His meticulous detective work lays bare the uncomfortable truth. The author describes the disaster as ‘professional incompetence, criminal neglect and corporate cover-up’ by ‘Y Bobl Fawr’ (The Big People). He identifies the two chief villains as Ralph Freeman, the civil engineer who designed the dams, and Henry Joseph Jack (Harry Jack), General Manager and Company Secretary of the owners, who were also responsible for maintaining the dams. In Wales we have a sad history of being betrayed by the aftermaths of disasters. Think Senghennydd. Think Aber-fan. And although the loss of lives at Dolgarrog pales beside those two catastrophes, sixteen deaths in such a small community were sixteen deaths too many. Reading this book has left me with a feeling of anger over the fact that ‘Y Bobl Fawr’ are everywhere, still with us. And still getting away with it.