The Welfare Events Guide

We are proud to continue our long creative partnership with the vital creative hub.

The Welfare is a cultural and social hub based in Ystradgynlais in the Upper Swansea Valley.  Their mission statement has access and participation at its heart and aims to preserve, develop and enrich the culture of the community in a variety of ways.

On 7th July 1934, the Welfare Hall was officially opened to the mining community of Ystradgynlais by the Hall’s then Chairman, and President of the South Wales Miners’ Federation, Jim Griffiths, who later went on to become the first Secretary of State for Wales following Labour’s 1964 general election victory.

The hall was built from the miners’ pennies and cost £9,000. The Main Hall, at that time, could seat approx 650 people! The opening ceremony was followed by a week of celebrations, including a grand production of “The Bells of Beaulieu” by the Ystradgynlais Juvenile Operatic Society, produced by Mr Cynlais Davies.