Onllwyn Miners' Welfare Hall opened on 23 July 1955 at a cost of around £30,000. Providing a cinema and public hall, the Welfare Hall was part of the overall miners' welfare scheme in Onllwyn which included the football field, bowling green, tennis courts, children's playarea and the sports pavilion all of which opened in the course of the 1920s and 1930s. The Welfare Hall remains in use primarily as a social club.

On 26 October 1984, members of Lesbians and Gays Support the Miners (LGSM) travelled from London to the Onllwyn Miners’ Welfare Hall, which was, at the time, the centre for food distribution, meetings and social evenings to support striking miners and their families. The mutual support between LGSM and the mining community during both the miners’ dispute (1984-85) and the HIV crisis is celebrated in the film ‘Pride’ (2014).

Lesbian and Gays Support the Miners' Group members and the Neath, Dulais and Swansea Valley Miners' Support Group held a 30th anniversary reunion at the hall in March 2015, and a concert to mark the centenary of the Miners' Welfare Movement was held at the hall in January 2019.

RCAHMW, 2022.

Site Record

Onllwyn Miners' Welfare Hall