The decades-old shipwrecks that claimed the lives of two playing children in beach tragedy

August 20, 1959 saw Aberavon beach basking in a "scorching hot day", drawing hundreds to revel in the weather and scenery. It was the height of holiday season in the golden years of Port Talbot's seaside community, with day-trippers and families coming from across Wales to enjoy a day on the sand.

But tragically, a beautiful day turned to sorrow when two young children lost their lives while playing on a pair of old shipwrecks located just 200 yards from the promenade. Colin Walters was present on that fateful day and recalled the harrowing event with vivid clarity. Despite being only a teenager back then, he described the incident as "absolutely awful" and previously said it felt "like it was yesterday". For the latest Welsh news delivered to your inbox sign up to our newsletter

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Speaking in 2021 aged 75, he said: "I was 14 then, nearly 15, and it was a scorching hot day and the beach was very, very crowded with a lot of day-trippers there. I was there with friends on the beach and the tide was coming in and it came up to the two wrecks near the pier.

"I was further down the beach when it actually happened and I could see crowds gathering so my friend and I went over and there was a big circle of people. Right in the middle of them were the two children. I saw two boys lying there and our family doctor was actually working on one of them."

The two children spotted by Mr Walters on the sand were identified as eight-year-old Keith Williams from Gwaun-Cae-Gurwen and 10-year-old Sandra Chamberlain from Briton Ferry. They had been playing on the SS Brodland and SS Ethelwalda shipwrecks near Aberavon's old pier, along with three others who were fortunately rescued.

"As children growing up in Aberavon we were always taught not to play in the wrecks," said Mr Walters in 2021. "So even though I didn't witness the incident unfold I can imagine what did happen.

"Day-trippers would be dropped off at the pier and they would settle near there and the children would go out to sea. You could see the outlines of the two wrecks and in the middle of them was sand. When the tide was further out the children would go into the wrecks and play in the sand and the water used to come in, surrounding both wrecks. The children wouldn't necessarily notice they were slowly getting surrounded by the water and that's what unfortunately happened there."

Mr Walters said there was one reason in particular why this day stuck so vividly in his mind - seeing the friends and families of the children looking so upset later that afternoon. "The reason I remember it so well is because I was playing cricket in the evening with the local under-15s Port Talbot cricket club. Where I lived then I had to walk past the local hospital where they took the children. When I walked past there were ambulances there and lots of people, probably relatives and fellow day-trippers, outside by the emergency department which was right near the road. They were all crying and it was terrible to see.

"We were used to things happening on the beach, people falling off the pier and things like that, but this time it was so surreal because those children were there with a large group and they didn't go home. What really hit me was seeing the boy there – I was about five yards away in the crowd."

The seriousness of the incident meant it was widely reported that week including in the South Wales Evening Post. It was reported that hundreds of holidaymakers stood watching the children's "grim struggle" and the attempts made to save their lives.

A further article was written after the inquest into the two deaths concluded. The coroner called for the fatal wrecks to be removed after a doctor named William Stephenson told the hearing the two children could not swim and had died of "asphyxia due to drowning". The coroner recorded the deaths as misadventure.

The two lethal wrecked ships had been on the beach for about four decades before this disaster happened. Crew aboard the SS Ethelwalda met their fate while entering Port Talbot's docks on October 30, 1911. The ship was carrying a cargo of pit-props at the time according to local history website Swansea Docks. The boat was built by John Readhead and Sons of South Shields in 1890 and was owned by the Whitby-based J H Harrowing Steamship Company.

A picture held by the National Museum of Wales shows 14 crew members who had made it safely to shore following the wreckage. However, the caption reads "the others were not well enough to be photographed". It is unclear how many others were on board and what happened to them.

Two years later the SS Brodland followed in its footsteps. On January 20, 1913, the ship fell victim to "heavy seas and a fierce gale" as it was driven ashore near to the North Pier in Aberavon. It was carrying 2,500 tonnes of Welsh coal at the time which was bound for Puntas Arenas in southern Chile, according to Swansea Docks.

All 42 crewmen were brought safely ashore by a rescue team in an operation that lasted three hours - during which time hundreds of workmen raced to the beach to give assistance.

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According to Port Talbot Historical Society, four young boys also fell victim to the ships while examining them on the beach in 1932. However it was only the most recent incident in summer 1959 that triggered action to clear the deathtrap ships from Aberavon beach, which came about in 1961. In a cruel twist of irony, it was discovered during the removal operations that the SS Brodland had been constructed from materials manufactured at the nearby Port Talbot steel works.

Local resident and former Afan Lido worker Harry Worth remembered what happened after the initial removal operation, which proved only partially successful. Speaking in 2021 aged 73, he said: "After the children drowned the local authority decided to blow them up – with limited success. They removed a lot of it but then in 1974 they reappeared – you could see skeletons of both ships.

"The local authority again did work to remove what they could [in 1976]. It was quite dangerous when they were just covered with water because children could run down the beach not seeing them. We haven't seen them reappear on the beach since then though."

Though the remains of the two ships can no longer be seen at Aberavon beach, their legacy remains in the form of the RNLI lifeboat station on the seafront, which was established in the years that followed the 1959 disaster. There, you can find a large anchor from the SS Brodland. It stands as a poignant reminder of those impacted by the shipwrecks, including the children who lost their lives and the crews aboard the two vessels.

Robbie Harris, former RNLI secretary at the Aberavon station, played a part along with Mr Worth in bringing the anchor to the station in 2000 from council land where it had been sitting since its discovery in 1972.

Speaking in 2021 aged 69, he said: "The local authority had to move the wrecks because at that point in time the beach was becoming very popular. A lifeboat station was then established, because of the drownings, around 1966. A group of local businessman and local workers got together and decided a lifeboat was required on the beach due to it being busy.

"[Mr Worth] was a local authorities manager [in the 1990s] and he prompted me about the old Brodland anchor that had been recovered following the wreck. It was basically just in a council yard doing nothing so I spoke to a few local councillors and they decided to give us the anchor. I arranged with builders from Andrew Scott, who were very helpful with the lifeboat station for a number of years, and they picked the anchor up from the council yard – it had been there for 40 years.

"We arranged with the builder of the station to put two plinths down and the council kindly donated it to the station and it's there now with a little plaque made by apprentices in the steelworks."

The plaque, which is still there today, reads: "Plaque commemorates saving of 33 lives from the SS Brodland, wrecked on Aberavon sands on January 20, 1913. The anchor from this vessel was kindly donated by Neath Port Talbot county borough council."