A personal history of Brynamman Public Hall
If my home town of Brynamman is known for anything, it’s not its rugby team, its long gone industries or its famous sons. It is known for its Cinema. As a concept at least, and physically for the most part, it has survived war, depression, recession and the television age to stand tall and proud in the 21st century at the midpoint of Station Road. For, and by, the edification of the community.
The Cinema’s own website details the history of the establishment from its inception in the 1920s as the community Public Hall, paid for by deductions to the local miners’ wages and now run by volunteers, but it is my own memories of the Cinema that I will relate.
Certificate U
My earliest recollection of the ‘Hall’ was of its imposing presence at the bottom of the council estate I grew up on in the sixties. My mother would take me in my pushchair to visit my grandmother in Lower Brynamman. Down the hill through Heol-y-Gelynen and on to Hall Street, past the “Aelwyd” and then, to a little chap, below the seemingly insurmountable steps up to the front door of the Hall. What went on there was to remain a mystery to me for a couple of years yet until my father, always a fan of the “flicks”, decided I was ready to sample the low lighting, plush red seats and darting torches of the…
