Coleg Harlech

Coleg Harlech was Wales' only long-term, mature-student residential education college. It was established in 1927 by Thomas Jones (Deputy Secretary to the Cabinet under four prime ministers including David Lloyd George and Stanley Baldwin) to continue the work of Workers' Educational Association in a residential environment. Ben Bowen Thomas was the first warden, with other early staff including Lily Pincus. Plas Wernfawr was acquired at a knock-down price from a seller sympathetic to the project to be the base for the college. Starting with just six students, mostly from the South Wales Coalfield area, numbers increased to 30 in the 1930s, 70 in the 1960s, serving the whole of Wales. Then,…

The Great Hall, part of Walton's original design, was destroyed by fire in 1968. It was replaced by a brutalist theatre building, designed by Gerald Latter for Colwyn Foulkes & Partners. The theatre building was opened as Theatr Ardudwy in 1973 but subsequently changed its name to Theatr Harlech. It was operated by a separate body from the college until the Coleg closed its doors to learners in 2017. It is considered by The Twentieth Century Society to be a building at risk, along with the college's 12-storey residential tower, also designed by Latter in 1968. after previous reports of police investigations into earlier plans. In 2025 the South Wales Building Preservation Trust was awarded…