‘We've been there in grief, loss, happiness and family life’: Inside the building at the heart of Garforth

If you casually stroll down Garforth high street one building in particular might jump out and catch your eye.

Nestled in between shops and a dentist office, the Miners Welfare Hall has been a part of the community in the Leeds’ town for more than a century and is home to the Garforth Community Association. Turn up on any day of the week and you are likely to run into people of all ages taking part in one activity or another.

From archery to quilting, wedding parties to children’s birthdays, it provides a much needed place for Garforth residents - and visitors from further afield - to socialise, pick up a new skill, or nurture a hobby.

In the age of doom scrolling, the cost of living crisis, and the loss of third places (spaces for people to meet outside of work and home), the hall is proving to be an ever more vital part of the fabric of the town.

The Yorkshire Evening Post went down to learn more about its incredible bounce back post-pandemic as part of our In Your Corner series.

“We’ve got a much wider range of activities now”

The Garforth Community Association is run by volunteers, including the increasingly busy booking secretary as the demand for its hall continues to grow. David LaRoy has been the chair since the turn of the 21st Century and he was keen to impress how it is continuing to thrive.

Dating back to the 1920s, the hall was originally built by the miners institute - hence its name - but has been a home for community activities for half a century now.

One of the biggest changes David has noticed in his years as the chair has been the “variety”.

He explained: “The variety of activities has changed. Nowadays, we get much more diverse (users). We've had Diwali parties here, we’ve had wedding parties, and we’ve had a few, sadly, funeral parties.

“But we get dozens and dozens of children's parties nowadays. We've got a much wider range of activities now.”

“We need volunteers”

Despite going strong for decades, that doesn’t mean the Garforth Community Association doesn’t have its challenges.

Looking ahead to the future, David, a 77-year-old retired resident of Garforth said the most important thing is “the maintaining of the committee that runs it” by adding some fresh blood.

He added: “Unfortunately, we're not getting any younger. I think it's a symptom nowadays of many societies and organisations that trying to get volunteers to come along and look after organisations, it is quite difficult.

“We are going to have to at some point replace the officers of our committee, myself included. I'm not going to be eternal.

“We need volunteers all the time to join the committee to learn how it's done. It's not an onerous task but it's something that has to be done.

“And if we're going to guarantee the future. We need to have some sort of committee and organisation that goes ahead for the next few years.”

Asked about how people can get involved, David explained: “We try to have a committee meeting once a month, that's all.

“We all take a turn in, being what we call greeters. In other words, if somebody's coming for the first time to the hall, they will be met by somebody from the committee or from a list of volunteers that we've got, to show them around. Show them all the facilities we've got, just make sure that they're welcomed.”

‘Gives a sense of community’

Outside the Miners Welfare Hall in Garforth is a bulletin board listing all of the regular activities taking place on a weekly basis. It is a very busy programme and features some groups that have been meeting for decades.

The Patchwork People have used the building each week for their meet-ups since the 1990s. Inside the hall itself, the walls are decorated by some of their creations.

Regular attendee Sue Lewis, 78 from Wellington Hill, said: “Oh I think it’s great, it’s been going since the 1990s. We’ve been making quilts for ourselves, our families, and for charities as well.

“We have made quilts for charities in Africa and the current charity we support is Barnardo's. We make them over the year and the representative comes in about November time to collect them and distribute them.

“As a group, we’ve known each other quite a long time now. We’ve become friends and supported each other in grief, loss, happiness, joy, and family life.

“It is very difficult to get younger people involved because we meet during the day and if they are all working that is not possible. We are still crafting away and enjoying crafting and sharing each other's work.”

For young people who might be interested in coming down to Patchwork People, Sue spoke in glowing terms about the “sense of community” and also the opportunity to “try a new craft”.

“It is very creative, it’s using colours and patterns or if you like, stitching of any sort. The skills you can learn doing those sorts of things can lead into other types like dressmaking.

“Sometimes it is nice for young people to mix with older folk.”

“Brought back fond memories”

Discussing some of his favourite moments in his years as Chair, David said: “The 100-year celebration that we had in 2024. That was a very satisfactory time.

“Looking back at what's gone on over the 100 years was quite something. We managed to amass an enormous amount of memorabilia and photographs from people in Garforth and there were a lot of people who turned up.

“So it brought back fond memories of what they'd been up to in their childhood.

“I don't know how many hundreds of people we get through here in a week. It’s an awful lot of people and I know our booking secretary has a lot of trouble fitting people in. We have a very, very full diary.

“Some people are booking now a year ahead.

‘We are doing better than before the pandemic’

Looking back to the start of the decade and the impact of the pandemic, he said: “We went through a hard time then. It was very, very difficult to keep going.

“We have a lot of children come through here. We have a lot of dance classes and children's dance classes and they suffered very badly. In fact, we all did.

“It did take a while to come back, but I think we're actually doing better than we were before.”