Gloucestershire Cinema Gazetteer

BREAM

Miners Welfare Cinema

Gone but not forgotten:        Cinema

The remote community of Bream in the Forest of Dean was known for its coal mining and the Miners Welfare Hall built in 1927 became a cinema in 1939.  A conventional layout at first with 400 seats and Gaumont British Kalee sound.  During the war the screen end was reversed to provide a raised rear section of seats on the former stage.  The building was very badly damaged by fire in June 1946, but rebuilt and reopened in August 1947.

A wooden hut next to Pike House was Breams first cinema operating before World War One.  In 1916 the hut is requisitioned  by the army and taken away. www.sungreen.co.uk/_Bream/PikeHouse.htm

The cinema was always run by the hall committee and their records show both the changing fortunes of the areas mines as well as cinema attendance.  The cinema programme lasted three days so changed twice weekly, no shows on Sunday.  In the 1940s attendance averages over 1000 per week, rising in the early 1950s to 1500 by 1950 but by 1955 the figures are well below 1000 admissions per week.  The cinema ceases around this time and in 1960 the building becomes Bream Rugby Club, which it remains today.

A photograph of the cinema along with programmes and additional information can be found at these three links www.sungreen.co.uk/Bream-Forest-of-Dean/Bream-Miners-Welfare-Cinema.htm www.sungreen.co.uk/Bream-Forest-of-Dean/Bream-Rugby-Club.htm www.sungreen.co.uk/_Bream/BreamMinersStrike.htm