Merthyr Vale. The local police Inspector was in charge and together with the village clergy, St John Ambulance Brigade, and teachers from local schools were tasked with placing the children in their new homes. Then on 7 July 1941, while on a training exercise from No. 53 Operational Training Unit, two Royal Canadian Air Force Supermarine Spitfires collided over the village. The first aircraft (X4024) of Sgt Gerald Fenwick Manuel (R/69888), 25, from Halifax, Nova Scotia, crashed into the home of the Cox family, at 1 South View Terrace (close to Mount Pleasant School) claiming the lives of Doreen Cox, 33, and her two daughters Phyllis, 14, and Doreen, 3. Husband James Cox, who was a shift worker at a munitions factory and was asleep in the house at the time of the crash, was thrown to safety; their three boys, Donald, Thomas and Len, were out playing. Neighbours tried to rescue the family - who had just returned from a shopping trip - but the heat from the fire was too intense. The second aircraft (X4607) of Sgt Lois "Curly" Goldberg (R/56185), 27, from Montreal, crashed into a field in Mount Pleasant, Treharris. The bodies of Sgt Manuel and the deceased family members were buried two days later in Ffrwd Cemetery, Merthyr Tydfil, while the body of Sgt Goldberg was interred in the Jewish cemetery at Cefn-coed-y-cymmer. 21st century The Coventry Playground was built in 1972 on the site of the old Merthyr Vale School, with the monies collected by the people of Coventry. The playground was officially opened by the mayor of Coventry but closed to children many years ago and now is Coventry Gardens, a small housing estate with 11 bungalows. Following the 1941 air crashes, in 2007 a mural was painted by local school children and unveiled by the Canadian High Commissioner shortly afterwards on the same site, while there is an ongoing campaign by the Cox family for a permanent memorial. In 2009, 100 homes in two streets of Merthyr Vale were demolished to make way for a redevelopment on the site of the old Merthyr Vale Colliery. It was to include 230 new homes, a new school, two shops, a restaurant and offices. After the first phase of the project – Ynysowen primary school – was completed, the school received its first pupils in 2010. Project Riverside was being jointly funded by the Welsh