Tylorstown Welfare Hall,
East Road,
Tylorstown
CF43 3DA

Miners’ institutes and welfare halls – like the one right here in Tylorstown – are glories of Rhondda heritage. Built and maintained by contributions from the colliers’ own wages, they were social and leisure centres at the heart of the community. Their superb libraries housed thousands of books, periodicals and newspapers. They broadened minds and expanded horizons, giving readers a glimpse of life beyond the toil of their daily lives, visions of a fairer world and how it might be realised. Before the advent of public libraries, they were the ‘miners’ universities’ or what historian Dai Smith called the ‘brains of the coalfield’.

For more Rhondda heritage info and stories, go to http://rctourheritage.com/heritage-home