It is interesting to add that the copper-plates formerly in use at the other earthenware potteries in South Wales—now discontinued working, viz., the Landore, the Ynisymudw, and the Cambrian Pottery, Swansea—were purchased for the South Wales Pottery, and selections of patterns made from these (as well as more modern styles) have been introduced in patterns and shapes. Mr. Holland was an exhibitor at the International Exhibition of 1862.
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.
Nantgarw.
These short-lived works, whose history is so mixed up with those of Swansea, Derby, Coalport, Pinxton, and other places, were commenced on a very small scale, in 1813, by William Billingsley,[59] the famous flower-painter of Derby, and his son-in-law, George Walker; the former at that time passing under the assumed name of Beeley, which was simply a contraction of his own name B’ley or B[illings]ley. Shortly afterwards, having applied to the Board of Trade for patronage and, of course, Government aid, Mr. Dillwyn, of the “Cambrian Pottery,” at Swansea, went over to examine and report upon the ware; and this examination resulted in his entering into an engagement with Billingsley and Walker, by which they, with their recipe, their moulds and other appliances, removed to Swansea. In about two years this engagement was brought to a close, and Billingsley and Walker returned to Nantgarw, where they again commenced the manufacture of china of the same excellent and peculiar kind for which they had become so famous. The proprietors appear to have met with liberal friends to assist them in their undertaking. The Hon. William Booth Grey, of Duffryn, is said to have subscribed £1,000 towards the undertaking, and other gentlemen almost equally liberal sums. The whole of the money subscribed, understood to have been about £8,000, is said to have been expended in little more than two years. This in great measure appears to have been caused by experiments and trials and alterations in buildings, &c., and by the immense waste in “seconds” goods, or “wasters,” which were invariably broken up, instead of, as now at most works, being disposed of at a cheaper rate.
That Billingsley and Walker, with Mr. Young, who appears to have come from Swansea to join them, as also Mr. Pardoe, from the same works, who was formerly of Staffordshire (with Mr. Turner), and afterwards of Bristol, and who was a clever painter, were the proprietors of the renewed works, seems evident, and they were carried on with considerable success.
Fig. 657.—Nantgarw Works.
The productions of Nantgarw were, as far as beauty of body and of decoration, as well as form, are concerned, a complete success, and the works gradually, but surely, made their way in public estimation. The London houses—especially it is said Mr. Mortlock’s—found it to their advantage to support the manufactory, and there was thus no difficulty in finding a good and profitable market. A service was made and presented to the Prince of Wales (afterwards King George IV.); “the pattern was a green vase, with a single rose on every piece, and every rose different.” This beautiful service was painted, I believe, partly by Billingsley and partly by Pardoe. It helped very materially to make the works fashionable, and it is said that they were visited by numbers of the nobility and gentry, “as many as forty gentlemen’s carriages having been known to be there in one day.” A considerable quantity of the Nantgarw ware was sold in the white to Mortlock, who had it painted in London, and fired at the enamel kiln of Messrs. Robins & Randall of Spa Fields. Webster, one of the painters of the Derby China Works, thus decorated a deal of this ware in London. The trade which was thus beginning to prosper being felt to be likely to some considerable extent to affect that of the Coalport Works, Mr. Rose (of those works) entered into an arrangement with Billingsley and Walker by which he bought up their concern, made a permanent engagement with them, and at once removed them and their moulds, and everything else to Coalport. The manufacture of china was, therefore, closed at Nantgarw. In 1823 Mr. Pardoe died. Mr. Young removed, I am informed, to Droitwich, where he carried on a salt-work. Billingsley and Walker, as I have already stated, removed to Coalport, where Billingsley died in 1827 or 1828. Walker ultimately sailed for America, where he established a pottery, still, I believe, in operation.
