Caerphilly District Miners’ Hospital could be bought and turned into a community centre.
The Caerphilly Miners Community Centre Management Committee was set up last year with the aim of keeping the historic main building open for community use.
The group has now been formally established and has secured £4,000 of funding from charity UnLtd for development work towards its final goal.
Caerphilly District Miners’ Hospital will be closed down once the new £172.7million Ysbyty Ystrad Fawr hospital is opened in autumn next year.
Much of the hospital site will be turned into affordable housing but the future of The Beeches building, which was built in 1924, is unclear.
The building was paid for by the miners of the Rhymney Valley after they each put aside 6d out of their weekly wage of 12s 6d to raise the £30,000 needed.
Because of its history and how it was built it is a powerful community symbol and one people want to see kept.
The committee is developing a business plan and working behind the scenes to try and get the Welsh Health Estates, which owns the site, to agree to sell it to them.
They also want to get the building put into the Local Development Plan for Caerphilly County Borough.
Caerphilly’s Labout AM Jeff Cuthbert is chair of the Caerphilly Miners Community Centre Management Committee.
He said: “I’m delighted with the progress made so far. The partnership arrangement is working well.
“There are still important hurdles to overcome and there are no guarantees. But the efforts made so far are valuable and will hopefully lead to a positive outcome.
“I’m extremely grateful to all the members and supporters of the Miners’ Hospital Group and I look forward to a successful conclusion.”
For more information visit the committee’s website at www.caerphillymcc.weebly.com or its Facebook group.
hello, im 14 years old and i was born in the miners hospital. Im very upset that the miners will be closing and removed to ystard which i fink is very stupid…Unlike all the other hospitals the miners is a nice sized hospital, its not to big and its not to small and i know its very old but the staff are very nice and kind and that the building eiint modern but lots of people like it and i was hoping in the futher i would have my kids there:(. i eiint the type of person to stay at hospitals but the miners i would love to stay at because its got brilliant historic memorys so if i had to ID KEEP THE MINERS OPEN!!!thanks.x ps:i would love for the miners to stay open i would be fantasic x x x 🙂
by the way i am live Caerphilly my self and when i am older i want to work as an nurse assistant at the miners because it dont scare me like the big modern hospitals these day soo please try and find a way that you could save the miners. I was thinking that if you kept the miners open, once the miners get overload, like the beds av run out well you should send the waiting patients over to the new hospital in ystard and i say that my idea is good;) thanks x x x
my 3rd comment oh yes 🙂 another thing is that it would be great for the kids in the futher to see the miners and to see what background it has, it would be a amazing experiance;) x