WITH its unique position on the prom, with uninterrupted views and a garden to boot, no other Bournemouth hotel is so near to the sea. But no other Bournemouth hotel is like the Court Royal.

It's the town's most exclusive establishment because, to go on holiday there, you have to have been two things: Welsh.

And a miner.

Or at least to have worked in the industry for a certain number of years.

The Court Royal is celebrating its 60th anniversary today with a party for its supporters and trustees. It attracts thousands of visitors each year to stay in its 21 twin-bed and four single rooms and is a firm favourite with Welsh miners and their families.

For the majority of its life, Court Royal was a convalescent home for those who had suffered accidents in the mines or were coping with chest problems from years of exposure to coal dust.

It took up to 60 patients at a time and was run by a management board which included representatives of both the National Coal Board and the National Union of Mineworkers.

In recent years, as the mining industry dwindled, it became a hotel for miners, retired miners and their families.

Spokesman Andrew Morse, regional manager of the coal industry social welfare organisation, said: "Bournemouth has proven a great location for the Welsh Miners' Home, as it has always been known, and over the last 60 years has been a significant asset to the miners and their families."

The hotel is the equivalent of a three-star establishment and has provided a place by the sea for miners, many of whom suffer with respiratory problems, to rest and recover from illness and to enjoy a traditional family holiday. In addition to its guests it has often attracted visits from Labour politicians during party conferences.

Over the years, some poignant reunions have taken place there.

When Dilwyn Ptritchard, 62, and Isaiah Probert, 69, arrived at the home in 1982, each thought the other looked familiar. It turned out they had met 40 years earlier, when they were under heavy fire from the Germans and the Italians as they fought for the 10th Indian Army 22 miles outside Tobruk in North Africa.

In 2004, the Daily Echo visited the home to talk to a party of miners about the 20th anniversary of the year-long miners' strike of 1984-85.

Among the guests then was Horace Moss, aged 80 and a living symbol of the hardships some had suffered in the pits. He had lost a finger in the mines at the age of 14, before coal was nationalised, and had not received a penny in compensation. He was made redundant from Nantgarw shortly after the strike, with a payoff of £5,000.

The strike itself still divides opinion. George Edwards of Aberdare, who worked at the Tower Colliery, recalled: "We thought the rest of the working class, especially the trade union and labour movement, would have had enough common sense to realise it was their Waterloo also."

Court Royal has seen off two serious threats to its future.

As early as 1974, it looked as though plans for a conference centre on the West Cliff could mean the home's demolition. Bournemouth council issued a compulsory purchase order but lost an appeal to the environment secretary after failing to find an alternative site.

In 1994, the home faced another serious threat. Privatisation of the coal industry meant the Coal Industry Social Welfare Organisation would lose its 2p a tonne levy on coal. Contributions from wage packets had also fallen after the number of miners was reduced from thousands to a couple of hundred.

Bournemouth's then-mayor Ron Whittaker started a campaign to save the home. Supporters included former Labour leader Neil Kinnock, local resident Sir Jimmy Savile and shadow health secretary David Blunkett.

But the government announced to local MP John Butterfill that it would rescue the home with a £15 million grant to re-start the Coal Industry Social Welfare Organisation as a charitable trust.

There might be an irony in the fact that a home for South Wales miners, whose trade union was once the bete noire of Conservative governments, has thrived in true-blue Bournemouth. But the town has taken Court Royal to its heart.

Bournemouth's deputy mayor, Conservative Cllr Bob Chapman, said: "As a town we are extremely proud of the Court Royal Hotel. When many miners' homes have been closed down in the country it is most pleasing they have chosen to keep ours open."