Forest Town "Welfare" : The Early Years

The official grand opening of the new Forest Town Miners Welfare took place on Wednesday 8th April 1908 and was opened by Oswald Bainbridge (Jnr).

When it opened the Forest Town institute already had 250 members. The institute itself cost £5000 to build and furnish and was known locally to be one of the largest and better facilities in the area.

The 1908 building comprised of:

Ground Floor:- 2 Billiard Rooms, a smoking room and other smaller rooms and a bar with seating accommodation.
First Floor: - a large concert hall accommodating 350 people, a comfortable library and a reading room plus a committee room.
A care taker also had his own apartment on the grounds.

By October 1910 membership was still just four shillings (20p) and the Forest Town Institute had over 400 members. By this date ladies were now allowed to use the club but only the library room – which housed over 400 books. They were also able to make use of the reading room. It was also restricted by the fact women could only eligible for this if they were members of the Tennis Club which had a membership cost of 5 shillings a year (25p).

Next: Modern Facilities