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The Miners' Welfare Fund was established by a 1927 parliamentary Act and
forced coal companies to provide baths and other welfare amenities by imposing a
compulsory levy on the sale price of coal. Prior to 1927 the voluntary system of
provision had failed to provide any real betterment in miners' conditions.
The Ocean Coal Company - operating in south Wales - opened its seventh
pithead bath installation in November 1933. Several others were also under
construction at that time.
This film - found for the National Screen and Sound Archive of Wales in a
building housing the Boys' Clubs of Wales office - showcases not only baths etc.
provided by the company for its employees but also the recreational facilities
that would benefit them and their families. It appears to be a corporate film,
aiming to promote the company as a caring employer. In 1934, around the time the
film was produced, the worst of the depression was over but the bitter 1920s
strikes in the south Wales coalfield were still fresh in workers' memories.
Forced by law to offer improved workplace conditions and amenities, mine owners
may also have been motivated to act by an awareness that miners could well balk
at anything they felt to be less than their due.
Mary Moylett
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Complete film (5:45)
