Ynisymudw.
Terra Cotta Works.—This manufactory, now devoted to terra cotta goods, fire bricks, and sanitary pipes, was formerly an earthenware pottery, where ordinary blue printed ware was manufactured. It is situate in the Swansea Valley, about ten miles from Swansea on the Brecon road, is on the Swansea Canal (which extends seven miles higher up the valley), and about two miles from Pontardawe station, on the Midland Railway Swansea Vale section. It was commenced as a fire brick works (there having been a small common brick works there previously) in 1840 by Mr. William Williams and his brother, Mr. Michael Martyn Williams, of Swansea, who then took a long lease of the premises, and soon afterwards introduced, in addition, the manufacture of the now famed “South Wales Dinas Bricks” from the Cribbath stone, obtained near the top of the Swansea Canal. These bricks are still made there, and the “Ynisymudw dinas” are equal to the best “dinas” or silica bricks made. Terra cotta work was also introduced, and made in buff of good quality, with some success. About 1850 Mr. William Williams and his brother decided to add the manufacture of earthenware, in table, tea, toilet, and other services, &c., in common white, painted and printed wares, for home or local trade, and foreign shipment (chiefly worked for South America, crates sent to Liverpool per steamer from Swansea); and this was continued till about 1859, when the blue-and-white earthenware branch was discontinued (the copper-plates being purchased for the South Wales Pottery, Llanelly), and the works transferred to another brother, Mr. Charles Williams, and in course of a year or so it was disposed of to Messrs. Griffith Lewis and John Morgan, of Pontardawe, who carried it on under the style of the “Ynisymudw Brick Company,” “Ynisymudw Pottery Company,” and “Lewis & Morgan,” at various periods during eleven years, in the early part of which the manufacture of Rockingham tea-pots, &c., glazed stoneware bottles and similar goods, was for a time carried on. From the first, arrangements had been made for the extension of the manufacture of salt glazed sanitary pipes, using the three old pottery glost kilns for this purpose, and the manufacture of these, together with fire bricks and terra cotta goods, was continued till the end of 1870, when the works and business were transferred to Mr. William Thomas Holland, of the South Wales Pottery, Llanelly, by whom they have been continued. In 1871 Mr. Holland exhibited specimens of his fire bricks, glazed pipes, and terra cotta manufacture at South Kensington. The premises consist of ten kilns, with ample space for extensions, and the works are situate in a beautiful part of the Swansea Valley, on the river Tawe, with a tributary stream, the Cwm Du, running through the premises, giving a supply of good water. Probably the manufacture of white earthenware will ere long be revived at Ynisymudw as an addition to the present manufactures.