- Area:
- Wales
- Programme:
- People and Places
- Release date:
- 21 11 2012
Music, TV and Movie legends past and present have graced its stage during a rich history spanning a century. A building of national historical significance, it houses Wales’s finest example of an Art Deco theatre or cinema and preserves the memory of local men who tragically died during World Wars and in the local coal mines.
Now, after more than 30 years of neglect, the first phase in restoring the dilapidated Celynen Collieries Institute and Memorial Hall in Newbridge, South Wales, is nearly complete thanks to a grant of £500,000 from the Big Lottery Fund’s People and Places programme.
In a restoration project totalling more than £5.9 million, funding from the Big Lottery Fund (BIG) and the Heritage Lottery Fund will help leave a lasting legacy in the community by ensuring the buildings continue to be the centre of cultural, educational, social and community activity for another hundred years to come.
This week, planners revealed that the first phase of the project, which is to completely renovate and refurbish the Celynen Collieries Workmen’s Institute building, will be completed by March 2013. Funded by BIG, the refurbishment of the Institute building was due to be completed by December this year but progress has been hampered by bad weather. However, one of the first major milestones was achieved in September when a 10-foot high ventilation shaft, built by a local craftsman to replicate the original, was placed on top of the Institute building in a topping out ceremony.
Originally opened in 1908, the Institute building was financed by a group of local miners who wanted to improve the area’s social amenities. Once open, the newly refurbished premises will include a brand new library and IT centre, community meeting rooms and a new link building to the adjacent Memorial Hall which opened in 1925 to honour service personnel who died in World War I.
Howard Stone, the Chair of the project, has lived in Newbridge for over 50 years and was one of the locals who came to the rescue when there were threats to tear the unique building down and build a car park or a block of flats over the site: “The intention of this project is to return the building to the original use it was built for,” says Howard.
“The library was originally part of the Institute and was re-located to a pre-fabricated building across town in the 1960’s. But now it’s coming back.”
“The Institute library was apparently one of the best stocked libraries in South Wales. There were numerous first edition books here and lots of miners learned to read here - my father being one of them. Institutes like this were considered to be the Universities of the Valleys and people like Aneurin Bevan even taught themselves how to read in places like this.”
Highlighting the progress made on the project so far, Howard, says: “Bad weather has hampered some parts of the build and has stalled us with regards to putting down floors and other surfaces. However, we’ll be in a position to remove the scaffold soon and we’ve already chosen the finish for the floors. We hope to be able to finish the internal ceilings and walls by Christmas and we are definitely on track for March next year. We hope the building will be open to the public within weeks of completion.”
Project Manager, Rob Jackson, got involved in the plans over eight years ago after working on a similar project to breathe life back into the nearby Cwmaman Miners’ Institute. He’s looking forward to seeing the doors flung open to the public for the first time.
“The library alone is estimated to attract 40,000 visits on top of the 35,000 visits a year we are already getting through the doors in other parts of the facility,” he says.
“It’s going to be a real buzz seeing this magical place come back to life again and restored to its former glory. The Committee have been fighting over the last 10 years for this and the first major breakthrough was getting the Big Lottery Fund money. That’s what really released the floodgates to get the other funders onboard.”
Following the completion of the Institute building, a further grant of nearly £3 million from the Heritage Lottery Fund will be spent on the second phase of the project to fully restore and refurbish the Memorial Hall ballroom and the auditorium which houses the cinema and theatre. The auditorium, with its lavishly decorated interior, has been closed for over 30 years and is regarded as a hidden jewel lost to a whole generation since its closure.
Even in its current state of decline, the beautiful auditorium is still in demand and is regularly used as a backdrop for Film and TV productions since it last functioned as a cinema in 1972. Films such as ‘House’, ‘Very Annie Mary’ and ‘Flick’ (starring Faye Dunaway) were shot in the auditorium. More recently, scenes for BBC dramas ‘Doctor Who’ and ‘Sherlock’ have been shot at the ‘Memo’ and it was also used as one of the locations for ‘Shirley’, the acclaimed BBC drama charting the rise to fame of singer Dame Shirley Bassey.
Below the auditorium is a ballroom still in use and described as the largest in the South Wales Valleys. The ballroom’s stage has provided the backdrop for musical legends across the generations. From dance bands to punk rock, tea dances to teddy boys, and from rock and roll to heavy metal – the Memo has seen all styles in fashion and music. Sir Tom Jones is among the long list of notable people who have performed on its stage over the years.
In the 1970’s and 80’s, the Memo was on the national circuit for up and coming bands, many of whom went on to become rock legends in their own right. The Stranglers, Iron Maiden, Dire Straits, Motorhead and Whitesnake are but a few of the names who proved to be an inspiration for many locals to get involved with music and form their own bands - the most notable example being James Dean Bradfield. He worked as a barman in the Memo in the 1980’s and went on to become the lead singer of the Manic Street Preachers who dominated the music scene in the 90’s.
Highlighting the importance of preserving and developing the building for future generations to enjoy, Howard Stone says: “We believe that by investing in the heritage of the past, we will be able to bring benefit to the future. We will do this by creating a project that will provide access for all, enriching the cultural and educational experience of the people of Newbridge and surrounding area.”
“We intend to ensure that the building once again becomes a hub of activity for music, cinema, theatre, learning, heritage, community activity and access to new technology. This is our legacy to other generations who will be using this building.”
The official opening of the buildings will coincide with the centenary of the start of World War 1 in 2014.
Highlighting the importance of the People and Places programme, which part-funded the project, Big Lottery Fund Wales Committee Member and Chair of the People and Places Committee, Gareth Newton, said: “We are very proud of what this programme has achieved to date. But it’s not about how much money we give out - it’s all about the positive difference the money we award is having on the lives of people and communities most in need throughout Wales. It’s programmes like People and Places which deliver on our promise to use National Lottery funding to regenerate and revitalise communities, tackle disadvantage head on and leave a lasting legacy. I’m sure this project will do exactly that.”
The People and Places programme awards grants of between £5,001 and £1 million for a broad range of community projects. For further information about the People and Places programme and how you can apply for funding, please visit www.biglotteryfund.org.uk/wales
Further Information
Big Lottery Fund Press Office – Ben Payne: 029 2067 8224
Out of hours contact: 07500 951 707
Follow BIG on Twitter: www.twitter.com/biglotterywales
Find BIG on facebook: www.facebook.com/biglotteryfundwales
Public Enquiries Line: 0300 123 0735
Textphone: 0845 6021 659
Full details of the Big Lottery Fund programmes and grant awards are available on the website: www.biglotteryfund.org.uk
Notes to Editors
• In Wales, the Big Lottery Fund is rolling out close to £100k a day in Lottery good cause money, which together with other Lottery distributors means that across Wales most people are within a few miles of a Lottery-funded project.
• The Big Lottery Fund, the largest of the National Lottery good cause distributors, has been rolling out grants to health, education, environment and charitable causes across the UK since its inception in June 2004. It was established by Parliament on 1 December 2006.
• Since the National Lottery began in 1994, 28p from every pound spent by the public has gone to Good Causes. As a result, over £28 billion has now been raised and more than 383,000 grants given out across the arts, sport, heritage, charities, health, education and the environment.
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