Chesterfield miners welfare club closes its doors for good - after 70 years

Holmewood Miners Welfare first opened in 1952, however the building had been used by locals since the 1930s.

Secretary and treasurer David Plant said the decision to wind up the club and apply for liquidation had “not been taken lightly”.

However he described how since the end of the pandemic and increasingly during the cost of living crisis it had operated as a loss.

Profits from the bar – run by Holmewood Miners' Welfare Social Club Limited – were ploughed back into charity Coal Industry Social Welfare Organisation (CISWO).

CISWO – which owns the buildings and grounds – used surplus profits to fund events at the club.

David, 75, says there is “hope” that the building may became another pub.

However he added: “Most of them (former miners welfare clubs) end up as building sites for new homes."

Speaking about the club’s dwindling membership, David said: “We only had 25 paying members when we closed in August – in 2008 we had over a thousand.

"You see it in every welfare – Old Whittington closed 18 months ago for the same reason. Clay Cross, Pilsley and Clowne have all gone.

"Insolvency practitioners have dealt with 50 closures in the last two to three years in mining areas.”

Speaking about the club’s heyday David, a qualified accountant, described how during bingo nights people were regularly turned away on from the pack-out building.

However towards the end this had dwindled to 12 or 13 members who attended a poker night.

He said: “You see it every day how pubs are closing – people don’t go out anymore. They go to the supermarket and buy £20 of booze and that lasts them all night.”