A New Way of Life

The woollen mill factories produced shirts, underwear and blankets. These proved particularly popular with the workers of the south Wales coalfields. By the 1890s there were over 250 woollen factories in west Wales with 23 in Dre-fach Felindre and the surrounding area. The growth of woollen mills and factories gave birth to a new way of life.

The woollen mills remained the largest employer in the area until the 1980s.

Lloyd George’s poetic idea

On 29 September 1914 the Welsh National Executive Committee was formed to recruit a Welsh Army Corps of 40,000 to 50,000 men. The recruitment was based on the Corps's unique Welshness, with the encouragement of Welsh-speaking officers and Welsh-language recruitment posters.

With the development of coal mining and the iron industry in south Wales during the nineteenth century, many people left rural Wales to seek employment. Emlyn Davies was one such young man; born in Newcastle Emlyn, he moved to Dowlais and worked as a shop assistant for J. S. Davies, Drapers. In 1898 he opened his own draper’s shop. Emlyn Davies was primarily a flannel merchant and purchased most of his stock from Cambrian Mills in Dre-fach. David Lewis, the owner of Cambrian Mills, would travel through the south Wales valleys collecting orders for flannel; the woollen cloth would then be sent to Dowlais by train from Henllan Station. The flannel would be made into shirts and underwear for the local colliers and workers at the iron works.

Emlyn Davies annual staff outing to Abergavenny, 1912

Colliers and iron workers wore Welsh flannel because it was extremely hard-wearing and excellent at absorbing the sweat of heavy labour. Working conditions were hard and the workers were in constant danger from fires. Wool is a natural fire retardant and Welsh flannel was the clothing of choice until the 1920s.

Emlyn Davies staff and family, 1914

Emlyn Davies was a credit draper, meaning that his customers would buy their goods on credit terms, paying small amounts off their bill each week. He would travel to the nearby towns collecting orders and delivering the goods the following week. He also had a market stall at the weekly market in Brecon.

Emlyn Davies silver jubilee 6th May, 1935

The flannel drapers enjoyed prosperity until the 1920s. The introduction of knitted underwear produced by the hosiery manufactures of the East Midlands, combined with the influx of cheaper printed cotton and mass-produced ready-made clothing, marked the beginning of the decline. This, combined with strikes, political unrest and the Great Depression in the industrial valleys, saw many drapers close down. Emlyn Davies’s business peaked in 1920, but from there it was in a steady decline until his death in 1937. Thereafter his daughter Miriam ran the business, selling cottons and mass-produced clothing, and the business finally closed when Miriam retired in 1962.

Miriam Davies in front of her father’s draper’s shop in East Street Dowlais c. 1917

Emlyn Davies outside his shop with friends and family Coronation Day 12th May, 1937

After the war 12 million yards of surplus flannel was sold on the open market by the government at ridiculously low prices, forcing woollen manufactures to also cut their prices. Flannel shirts, for example, sold at 52s 6d a dozen in 1916; by 1923 the price had dropped to 38 shillings. The woollen manufactures of west Wales failed to meet the changing conditions after the war, with some still producing inferior Angola as they had done in war time. Most of the manufacturers still concentrated on the production of flannel for shirts, vests and drovers, but demand for underwear flannel fell rapidly with the introduction of knitted underwear produced by the hosiery manufactures of the East Midlands, Scotland and the north of England.

On 11 July 1919 Cambrian Mills caught fire and the three-storey mill south building was destroyed.

At the time of the fire the Mill manager, John Davies, was on holiday in Llanwrtyd Wells with his family. His daughter Nesta Morgan remembers her father receiving a telegram at the hotel, but he was unable to read it as it was in English. A passing gentleman read the telegram telling him that part of the mill had been destroyed by fire. Her father was very upset and contacted David Lewis immediately to ask if he should come home; David Lewis responded that he should not but rather return the next day as planned.

David Lewis on the left of the photograph with the moustache and hat in the remains of Cambrian Mills

David Lewis used the insurance money to rebuild the mill only two storeys high, but considerably longer in length.

Rebuilt Cambrian Mills

Rebuilt Cambrian Mills

Cracked glass in Mill North from the heat of the fire in Mill South that is still visible at the National Wool Museum

The fire in Cambrian Mills was the first of 7 suspicious fires in mills in Dre-fach and the surrounding area, including mills at Frondeg and Meiros owned by David Lewis’s brothers Daniel and John Lewis respectively. Not all mills were rebuilt after the fire, however insurance companies were becoming suspicious that the fires were not accidents and insisted that the mills were rebuilt. Meiros was rebuilt in red bricks with the insurance monies paid in instalments as work was carried out.

Rebuilt Meiros Mill

Another 21 factories closed in Dre-fach Felindre and the surrounding area in the post-war period.

‘[Mill owners who made vast profits from war contracts] made no attempt to set their mills on a sound financial basis, content to bank the money or buy seaside cottages’

Geraint Jenkins 1967, the Welsh Woollen Industry, p. 278

Dyffryn Mill 29/6/1923

Frondeg Mill 7/2/1924

Aberbanc Mill 1926

Ogof Mill 1927