I WAS very interested in the photograph and write up about Cinderford Miners Welfare Hall and the laying of the store by our Labour MP Mr David John Vaughan in 1929.
It now appears to me that Bream Miners Welfare Hall was the first to be built in the Forest of Dean.
Bream was built in 1926/1927. The hall opened in April 1927 for a dance. My father, the late Mr Jesse Miles was secretary and the late Mr Albert Brookes was the Chairman. The dance band came from Cheltenham. The fee for the band was £3-10-0 and admission was one shilling. Admission with mum and dad, both members of the hall committee. I was taken as an 11 year old, as a special treat to enjoy the evening. I was put to sit up stairs on the balcony. The treat my parents gave me was because I struggled with a wheel barrow with a four and a half gallon jar of ginger beer pop that another had made to help raise funds.
I am now 94 years of age and I still remember the evening. The hall today is now the home of Bream Rugby Club.
I am enclosing a copy with reference to the Miners' 1926 coal strike which all happened about that time.
During that period a great deal of voluntary work was done at the hall by the miners during their nine week strike.
Mr Hylton Miles, Cinderford