Newbridge's Memo is bidding to win £3 million in the BBC's Restoration programme a bid which the Argus is backing. MIKE BUCKINGHAM meets some of those for whom it is a reminder of their own history

GHOSTS recline in the plush seats and laugh as Charlie Chaplin and the Keystone Cops caper, and the spirits of hundreds of thousands who have thrilled to the black-and-white pictures at Celynen Collieries Workman's Institute and Memorial Hall linger.

Horace Prosser, of Chapel of Ease, is 92 and can remember the foundation stone of Newbridge 'Memo' being lowered into place.

"I can see it all in my mind's eye," he said, nodding towards a seat in the dance hall which is directly under the cinema.

"I can see a woman and her daughter I knew sitting there as they did all those years ago. Dead now, of course."

Nothing quite prepares you for your first sight of the auditorium, intact in every detail since its opening 80 years ago. There is a strange feeling that your intrusion has brought to an end some spectral performance in which bright, expectant faces are turned towards the flickering screen where stars of the 20s and 30s still perform.

"There is a tangible feeling that thousands of memories have left an imprint here," said Howard Stone, 64, chairman of the Friends of the Memo which hopes to win a £3 million prize offered by the BBC's Restoration programme.

The Argus is backing the bid and is its official newspaper.

"The vaulted ceiling with the plaster detail, the ornate panels surrounded by wreaths; the wonderful art-noveau effect of the windows; and a decorative feature which looks a bit like fish-scales are just as they were in 1924. Nothing has been changed and nothing spoilt.

"Like many thousands of others, I've known and loved this building all my life. The institute which is connected to the Memorial Hall is unusual in that miners rather than the mine owners paid for it to be built by taking out a massive mortgage in 1907.

"In 1918 a further mortgage was taken out to build the Memorial Hall in remembrance of the men from Newbridge and district who had fallen in the Great War..

"I remember the dances and the pantomimes but one of the great treats was New Year's Day when there would be films for us children, after which we were given an apple, and orange and a silver threepenny bit.." In the institute part of the building the names of the men who fell in the Great War are joined by those who fell in the Second World War.

"For many people this is a memorial in a very personal sense, " said Diane Tilley, of Beechwood Close, Newbridge, pointing to the names of her two brothers, both of whom served in the RAF.

"Richard was a pilot on Lancaster bombers and Stan was a navigator who started out in Halifaxes, and they died within 12 days of one another in August 1944. Stan is buried near St Omer in France and Richard just outside Munich, so there is a special meaning for me.

"Also, I met my husband, Bill, here 50 years ago. I feel that if the Memo is allowed to fall into disrepair we will have done a disservice not only to the memory of the men who gave their lives in war but also to the memories of countless thousands of local people."

Bill Pinney, president of the Newbridge branch of the Royal British Legion which now meets at the Memo, enthusiastically concurs.

"This was built by the community for a solemn purpose," he said. "If we neglect this place we neglect the memory of those brave men." On July 20 BBC viewers will be able to see the Memo put its case for the top prize along with its rivals, Cardigan Castle and a workhouse in Powys. Voting goes on until midnight the following day and the national finals will be held in London on August 8.

"The Memo closed in February 2003 but we found the money and the manpower to open it up and make the place useable again," Howard Stone said.

"A head of steam began to be built up after April 2003 when Don Touhig, our MP, called a public meeting attended by several hundred people. "The very next day we formed a committee which I was asked to chair and within weeks the Tuesday night dances were going again.

"We are particularly proud of the fact that Newbridge Celynen Band now meets here, having had a somewhat nomadic existence.

"The junior band is being recorded by BBC Wales Today in the cinema, which is the first time live music will have been played there for 40 years to my certain knowledge."

A tribute to 1920s workmanship is that of the parts of the Memo not as yet re-opened, the art noveau cinema, with its vaulted roof and ornate panels and plaster swags on the balcony, are in the best condition.

Directly below it the dance floor - reckoned to be one of the best in Wales - has been brought back into commission.

Throughout much of the building there is evidence of bland and partial refurbishment in the 50s and 60s.

"But a lot of this is superficial. Underneath the temporary dance hall ceiling for instance, there is the old moulded plaster ceiling in its full glory," Howard Stone says.

Wondrously, the glittering dance hall ball which revolves from the ceiling and scatters dancing light in a thousand directions is still in place and still working, probably 70 years since it was installed, a fact which delighted Mr Prosser when he heard.

"That marvellous," he said.

"I hope it's an omen. I saw this place built and I saw it in its declining years.

"Now I hope to live long enough to see it once more in its glory."