seeing as the cat is well out the bag here might as well chuck a report up.
History
It was Wales' only long-term, mature students residential education college and was established in 1927 by Thomas Jones (T. J.), Cabinet Secretary to both David Lloyd George and Stanley Baldwin, to continue the work of Workers' Educational Association in a residential environment, with Ben Bowen Thomas as its first warden. 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, with Ieuan Jeffries-Jones as warden, Coleg Harlech began offering a two-year diploma course validated by the University of Wales, which became a preparation for university education for those who had missed out on earlier education: it became well known as a "second chance" college, often for people who, for economic or social reasons, never had a first chance.
By the 1980s and 1990s, higher education institutions generally were growing, and expanding access opportunities wider than before. This began to threaten Coleg Harlech’s niche, and ultimately Coleg Harlech, once funded as a unique institution in Wales, came under the funding regime with other further education colleges, and became less distinctive.
Coleg Harlech always had a close association with the WEA and merged with WEA (North Wales) in 2001 to become Coleg Harlech Workers' Educational Association (North Wales), subsequently merged into Adult Learning Wales - Addysg Oedolion Cymru, which now operates the site. The college's residential students were once supported financially by bursaries from the Welsh Government, previously the Welsh Office but as access to higher and further education widenened and the college's provision became less distinctive, these came to an end, in effect bringing about the termination of residential courses.
In February 2017 it was announced that Coleg Harlech would be closing as an adult education site at the end of the academic year.
We first visited part of the old collage when we moved up this way back in 2017, the original explore was St Davids Hotel up the road, this is a fetid pit of desperation of an explore but it was nice to be above ground for a change.
Any more than two pictures is a bit of a waste of space, but its enough to get the idea of the place.
After spending a grand total of ten minutes in the place our attention was drawn to the drab concrete structure down the road, it looked better suited in the East end of London but here it was in the Holiday town of Harlech.
Heading across the bridge towards the building it was clear that it was in a shit state, no one expected much but it was a easy access job and had the bonus that if we could gain entry onto the roof it looked across the sand dunes of Harlech towards the mountains, and off over the Peninsular, shame the weather was shite but its Wales what do you expect?
The roof off the old Coleg residents was the highlight, which we made the most of by revisiting during the warm summer months to sit up top and just chill out.
Taking in the amazing views their was just one view we couldn't forget..
The rest of the Coleg, we sat debating whether or not it was actually shut, it looked run down but it still looked slightly active.
A date set we made the drive back to check the rest out, we started of snooping around the older looking part, we now know this is the library.
Peering through the windows we could see offices set up and pc's running, time to move on as it was still live and we didn't fancy having to explain why we was in the grounds.
On the way back we scooped out what we thought at the time was some sort of cinema, after five minutes a guy appeared at the window, this must all still be live, we headed off and decided we would keep an eye on things.
Now this is where things start to get a bit more interesting, searching the forum and a new report form Gronk pops up Harlech Theatre, he'd only gone and got in, im not gonna lie i was pissed, we'd kept an eye out all this time and it was snatched away, obviously i was annoyed at myself i think most explores will admit that there is a healthy competition between us all and everyone likes a first, nothing wrong with that its good for the hobby.
Anyway we didn't hang about and got straight down their, it was as good as it looked in Gronks report and we was all glad to see this amazing structure.
Gaining access we made our way to the main foyer, now this explore has been kept out the main public eye for nearly a year and for good reason but unfortunately it doesnt look like this anymore, i didn't take any photos on my last visit but this is mainly stripped now, kids have been in and smashed stuff up and let off fire extinguishers etc.
Moving on from the Theatre [as there will be a couple of reports dedicated to it that i know of] is the final piece of the puzzle, The Library, this had evaded us through the whole exploring sager of Harlech, but time and patience and local kids [ who don't mind ripping shit out of stuff] paid off, we was finally able to say " completed it mate"
[/quote]
History
It was Wales' only long-term, mature students residential education college and was established in 1927 by Thomas Jones (T. J.), Cabinet Secretary to both David Lloyd George and Stanley Baldwin, to continue the work of Workers' Educational Association in a residential environment, with Ben Bowen Thomas as its first warden. 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, with Ieuan Jeffries-Jones as warden, Coleg Harlech began offering a two-year diploma course validated by the University of Wales, which became a preparation for university education for those who had missed out on earlier education: it became well known as a "second chance" college, often for people who, for economic or social reasons, never had a first chance.
By the 1980s and 1990s, higher education institutions generally were growing, and expanding access opportunities wider than before. This began to threaten Coleg Harlech’s niche, and ultimately Coleg Harlech, once funded as a unique institution in Wales, came under the funding regime with other further education colleges, and became less distinctive.
Coleg Harlech always had a close association with the WEA and merged with WEA (North Wales) in 2001 to become Coleg Harlech Workers' Educational Association (North Wales), subsequently merged into Adult Learning Wales - Addysg Oedolion Cymru, which now operates the site. The college's residential students were once supported financially by bursaries from the Welsh Government, previously the Welsh Office but as access to higher and further education widenened and the college's provision became less distinctive, these came to an end, in effect bringing about the termination of residential courses.
In February 2017 it was announced that Coleg Harlech would be closing as an adult education site at the end of the academic year.
We first visited part of the old collage when we moved up this way back in 2017, the original explore was St Davids Hotel up the road, this is a fetid pit of desperation of an explore but it was nice to be above ground for a change.
Any more than two pictures is a bit of a waste of space, but its enough to get the idea of the place.
After spending a grand total of ten minutes in the place our attention was drawn to the drab concrete structure down the road, it looked better suited in the East end of London but here it was in the Holiday town of Harlech.
Heading across the bridge towards the building it was clear that it was in a shit state, no one expected much but it was a easy access job and had the bonus that if we could gain entry onto the roof it looked across the sand dunes of Harlech towards the mountains, and off over the Peninsular, shame the weather was shite but its Wales what do you expect?
The roof off the old Coleg residents was the highlight, which we made the most of by revisiting during the warm summer months to sit up top and just chill out.
Taking in the amazing views their was just one view we couldn't forget..
The rest of the Coleg, we sat debating whether or not it was actually shut, it looked run down but it still looked slightly active.
A date set we made the drive back to check the rest out, we started of snooping around the older looking part, we now know this is the library.
Peering through the windows we could see offices set up and pc's running, time to move on as it was still live and we didn't fancy having to explain why we was in the grounds.
On the way back we scooped out what we thought at the time was some sort of cinema, after five minutes a guy appeared at the window, this must all still be live, we headed off and decided we would keep an eye on things.
Now this is where things start to get a bit more interesting, searching the forum and a new report form Gronk pops up Harlech Theatre, he'd only gone and got in, im not gonna lie i was pissed, we'd kept an eye out all this time and it was snatched away, obviously i was annoyed at myself i think most explores will admit that there is a healthy competition between us all and everyone likes a first, nothing wrong with that its good for the hobby.
Anyway we didn't hang about and got straight down their, it was as good as it looked in Gronks report and we was all glad to see this amazing structure.
Gaining access we made our way to the main foyer, now this explore has been kept out the main public eye for nearly a year and for good reason but unfortunately it doesnt look like this anymore, i didn't take any photos on my last visit but this is mainly stripped now, kids have been in and smashed stuff up and let off fire extinguishers etc.
Moving on from the Theatre [as there will be a couple of reports dedicated to it that i know of] is the final piece of the puzzle, The Library, this had evaded us through the whole exploring sager of Harlech, but time and patience and local kids [ who don't mind ripping shit out of stuff] paid off, we was finally able to say " completed it mate"
