The institute building first appears on third edition Ordnance Survey maps of 1919-26 (1) just to the north of Lumley Seventh Pit and across the railway lines from the brick works. The building is marked as an institute on OS maps right up to the sixth epoch maps of the 1960's (2), after which it is marked as a community centre. Maps show that the building has been extended and enlarged over the years and that it is now used as the Fence Houses and District Community Centre. As an institute and welfare centre for the mining community in the early 20thC the building is known to have contained war memorials connected with each of the World Wars but it is not known whether or not they have remained in the building to the present day (3-4).