Bronze Age Gold from Wales

Exterior of Llanelli Shell Factory.

Llanelly National Shell & Rectification Factory, 1917. Richard Thomas & Co. Ltd. opened Burry Extension Tinplate Works in 1911, the name reflecting that its site was within a quarter of a mile of the company’s existing Burry Tinplate Works which had opened in 1875. In 1915 the Burry Extension Works was converted to the manufacture of six inch shells and in 1917 the works were considerably extended to permit the opening of a department to rectify 18lb shells to six inch shells. A total of 378,000 shells were manufactured and 286,000 shells rectified at the works which operated as Llanelly National Shell & Rectification Factory. The joint workforce of the shell and rectification departments totalled 323 men and 968 women. Between the armistice in 1918 and the cessation of operations in early 1919, the factory dismantled almost 1.7 million surplus shells. After the war Richard Thomas & Co. Ltd. reopened Burry Extension Works as a tinplate works and extended the operations of the tinning department into the former Rectification Factory.