Fonds GB 0210 GWALIA - Gwalia Oddfellows Records,

The Gwalia District, which was established in 1916 following the amalgamation of the much older Aberystwyth and Dolgellau Districts, was affiliated to the Manchester Unity of Friendly Societies. The District was governed by the District Meeting composed of a management committee and deputies appointed by the Lodges. Gwalia District officers comprised a chairman, also called the Provincial Grand Master, a Provincial Deputy Grand Master, the Provincial Corresponding Secretary or Prov. C.S. and the Immediate Past Provincial Grand Master. The District had both supervisory and disciplinary powers over Lodges in that the accounts of each Lodge were checked annually by the District and, in cases of non-compliance of a District resolution, a Lodge could be fined monthly until such resolution had been complied with. The Rules of the Order of Oddfellows and the District were binding on all Lodges, and in cases of inconsistency the Rules of the Order were to prevail over the Rules of the District, and the Rules of the District over those of the Lodges. The District, through its District officers, also had the power in cases of mismanagement or misappropriation of funds to call a special committee of the Lodge and to take temporary possession of Lodge records and securities.

Members of lodges paid a small contribution into a common fund once every four weeks. The funds provided sickness and funeral benefits for members, funeral expenses of a member's wife, medical assistance, assistance when members were travelling in search of employment, and for assisting members in distressed circumstances. Some of the contributions raised were also paid towards defraying the costs of District management and towards levies required by the Unity. The role of the insurance side of the friendly societies, however, was further enhanced by the passing of the Friendly Societies Act of 1875, and, under the the 1911 National Insurance Act, the societies were given a new role as agents in the state scheme of national health insurance. The 1911 Act in fact created a new type of member, one that simply joined in order to take advantage of the 1911 Act without taking any part in the society's other schemes nor in its ceremonies. This part of the society's work within the Gwalia District was invariably called the state side, as opposed to the remainder of its functions which were called the independent side.

Members met monthly in a local public house, or in a local schoolroom, chapel room or restaurant to transact buisness. Both District and Lodges held open-air processions, with bands, banners and uniforms. Indoors, Lodges conducted initiation rites, using mystical symbols, private codes, grandiloquent titles and regalia, similar to the freemasons.

The growth of the Welfare State ultimately heralded the end of the Gwalia District. In 1921 the District had 2078 members; in 1959, by which time one Lodge had already been dissolved, there were only 582 members. In 1972 there were only four Lodges left with a combined membership of only 300. Sometime after 1976 Gwalia District itself was dissolved and the last surviving lodge, the Rheidol in Aberystwyth, was transferred to the Montgomery district.