Would you like to help? Your stories and photos of Welsh quilts and woven goods, mills, and other related subjects would be welcome additions to this page.
Buasem yn hoffi cael llyniau nwyddau o Ffatri Penmachno yn arbennig.
Send to: mail @ melin-y-coed.co.uk
OAKLANDS FACTORY
Once a factory producing Woollen Goods, here is Oaklands Factory as it looks today:
"My grandfather lived in Oaklands Factory and worked for the Blackwells in the 1900's" - Hester
In 1851 There were Blackwalls living in Oaklands and a host of Evanses living in Oaklands factory!
Cheers, Patricia
(Williams, historian)
Here they are:
John Blackwall aged 61, retired linen merchant born in Lancashire
Jane Blackwall his wife, aged 32, born in Cardigan
John Blackwall their son, aged 14 scholar born in Denbighshire
Frances Blackwall their daugher, aged 8 and also born locally
Thomas Blackwall their son aged 5 born locally
Thomas Blackwall, the brother of John, unmarried and aged 62, also a retired linen merchant but born in Derbyshire.
Mary Jones a 23 year old spinster was their house servant. She was born in Denbighshire.
Elinor Roberts was their cook. She was unmarried, aged 24, and born in Caernarvonshire.
Oaklands Factory in 1851
Edward Evans Head of the Household was 53 and identified himself as a Factory Holder, born in Denbighshire.
Elinor Evans, Edward's wife, was 51 and also born in Denbighshire.
Morris Evans their unmarried son was 18 and born in Caernarvonshire.
Edward Evans another son was 15 and also born in Caernarvonshire.
Elinor Evans their daughter was 13 and born in Caernarvonshire.
Another daughter, Jane Evans, was 10 and born in Merionethshire.
Daughter Anne Evans aged 7 had also been born in Merionethshire.
At Oaklands Factory in 1871, where woollen fabric was produced, lived William Evans, 45, a Wool Spinner from Cyffylliog, with his wife Mary, 44, born in Eglwysfach and son Edward O, a scholar. The factory servants were Joseph Jones, 20, from Llangollen and Owen Williams, 15, from Betws y Coed.
In 1881 John Parry, 35, a slate quarrier from Caernarvon lived there with his wife Catherine, 31, who had been born in the United States. Their daughter Jane, 5, had been born in Penmachno.
Another Edward Evans had been living at Oaklands factory, but had died at the age of 20 as under:
1830 3 Jun Edward Evans 20 yrs Oaklands Factory
1811 Aug 15 Elizabeth Roberts was baptised, born on the 10th, the daughter of Robert & Catherine Roberts of Oaklands
1825 William Roberts 71 yrs Esq Oaklands buried 5 August.
1793 Mar 8 Frederic Roberts s/o William Roberts Esq. and his wife Catherine, Oaklands
1837 John Blackwell son of John Blackwell Gent and Jane his wife, Oaklands, baptised 28 February.
1839 Mary Blackwell daughter of John and Jane Gent Oaklands baptised 18 Feb born 10th.
1832 Thomas Fannin son of Eustace and Frances Surgeon Oaklands baptised 19 September.
In 1871, County Magistrate John Blackwell, lived at Oaklands with his wife Margaret, 27, born in Anglesey, his daughter Margaret, 3, and son Robert 1, born in Llanrwst. Mary Lewis, 55, was the Cook, Grace Roberts, 28, was Nurse, and John Jones from Ysbyty was the groom. .In 1881 Mr Blackwell was 44, his wife 36, and their sons Robert M, 11, Thomas W., 9, William S, 5, and Hugh E, 3. The housemaid was Jane Roberts, 20, the Nursemaid Catherine Williams, 16, and the groom Griffith Williams, 17, all born locally.
Twenty years later the residents of Oaklands were Edwin Clutterbuck, 35, from Hertfordshire, his wife Ruby, 33, from Norfolk, and niece Eveline Dorothy Watson, 8, born in Berkshire. They had Irish women as Governess and Sick nurse, Grace Eileen McCull from Dublin, 20, and Adail Ruth Starke, 33, from Kildare. The cook was Ann Dickinson, 50, from Bootle, Lancashire, and the housemaid Jessie Martin, 25, from Holyhead. The kitchen maid Alice Jones, 18, was from Wrexham.
TREFRIW WOOLLEN MILL
(www.t-w-m.co.uk)
DAYS GONE BY
Above: an early photo of the Trefriw Woollen Mill, showing the fast running River Crafnant turning the water wheel and thus powering the machinery. It was originally a fulling mill or "pandy". The river water was also used to wash the wool.
An interesting illustration of an early fulling mill from Georg Andreas Böckler's Theatrum Machinarum Novum, 1661, can be found on Wikipedia's entry on "pandy". According to Wikipedia, the earliest fulling mill or pandy in Trefriw dates back to the fifteenth century, fulling being the process which cleans and thickens the wool. The article goes on to say a new pandy was built in 1820 which still carries the name "Vale of Conwy Woollen Mill". A water-powered fulling mill replaced the previous cottage-industry type process, but it took Thomas Williams' purchase of the mill to see any serious development of the industry. The original buildings are sited behind the modern 1970s premises.
Wikipedia says: "Fulling mills, from medieval times onwards, were often water powered. In these, the cloth was beaten with wooden hammers, known as fulling stocks. There were two kinds of fulling stocks, but in both cases the machinery was operated by cams on the shaft of a waterwheel or on a tappet wheel, which lifted the hammer".
An illustration depicting Scottish women on en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fulling_mill shows how fulling was carried out in 1770 - with their feet. Other words for fulling are "tucking" or "walking" ("waulking" in Scotland), from which are derived the names given to the worker - fuller, tucker, or walker.
Back in Roman times, fulling involved having slaves standing ankle deep in human urine or "wash" for the ammonium salts to cleanse the cloth. In medieval times a clayey material called fuller's earth or impure hydrous aluminium silicate was used, probably in conjunction with "wash". Later, soap was used. After the fibres had been matted together for strength the wool was rinsed with water. The water mill where this took place was known as a fulling mill, a walk mill or a tuck mill, or, in Wales, a pandy. They are known in one form or another from Persia in the tenth century and became widespread during the thirteenth century. Cervantes' Don Quixote had a run-in with the fulling process when six fulling mill hammers thumped several pieces of cloth all night, to his consternation.
The photo above was taken about 1880 and includes owner Thomas Williams (bottom right). Thomas Williams came from Pentrefoelas and bought the mill in 1859, by which time it had been in operation for over thirty years.
It is still owned and run by the same family.
Above: Thomas Williams in later life.
The mill and staff in the 1920s.
THE MILL IN THE TWENTY FIRST CENTURY
Above: Laying blend in the Mill as it is today.
1) Laying a blend. Several different types of wool are used in a blend. The quantities are weighed and are laid in layers to form a mound. Wool oil is added to help the wool pass through the machinery. The oil is synthetic and comes out when the wool is washed.
The wool is picked up like a sandwich so that slices of the different wools are fed in together. The first two machines known as the "shaker" and the "fearnought" both consist of one big drum covered in sharp teeth which blend the wool lump by lump.
Above: Carding Engines
2) Carding engine - The blended wool is fed into the carding engine which consisits of large rollers covered in metal teeth known as card clothing) which get progressively finer as the wool travels down the machine. At the end of the machine the wool is rubbed into "slubbings" similar to threads but with no twist and therefore no strength and are collected on condenser bobbins.
3) The condenser bobbins are taken to the spinning mule. The mule has 360 spindles on a carriage which moves in and out stretching the slubbings and twisting them into a spun thread.
Two threads are twisted together to make a stronger yarn (doubling). The yarn is wound onto hanks ready for the dyeing process. The hanks are taken to the dyehouse and washed, dyed and dried. The yarn is then wound from the hanks onto cones for warping.
Above: Spinning Mule
Above: Warping
4) The warp is the vertical threads in the cloth and the correct number of threads have to be arranged in a colour sequence for weaving.
The cones for the warp are set up in a creel and wound onto the warping mill in sections. The warp is wound from the warping mill onto a beam in one sheet and fitted into the back of the loom.
All the machines date from the 1950's and 1960's.
Above: Weaving
5) Trefriw Woollen Mill's Welsh "tapestry" bedspreads are woven on Dobcross looms with 16 shafts. They are plain double weave which means that two cloths are woven on top of each other and the pattern is formed where the bottom cloth is brought to the top. The looms have long chains with pulleys and washers. The wider chain controls the shafts to make the pattern and the narrow chain controls which shuttle will be used. i.e. the weft and the colouring.
Above: The finished product.
6) The bedspread pattern has been woven here for over 100 years.
See the variety of designs and colours at www.t-w-m.co.uk in the form of bedspreads, cushions and throws.
The "Fabric" page at www.t-w-m.co.uk shows tweeds in houndstooth and herringbone designs used for clothes, soft furnishings, purses and bags.
The "Soft Furnishings" pages shows smaller repeats of the same designs as the bedspreads, forming designs for double weave fabric used for curtains, table mats and a variety of useful items.
The Mill despatches goods (which can be ordered on line at www.t-w-m.co.uk) to destinations around the world.
PENMACHNO WOOLLEN MILL
Sadly, the woollen mill at Penmachno is no longer in operation, said by locals to be a matter of modern safety standards and the proximity of certain working parts to the stream. Many internet tourist sites seem to think it is still operational. Sorry! The buildings still stand in a delightful position by a bridge over the Machno River.
In the nineties it was operating as a factory and a sales outlet as well as a historical site for tourists. One unusual feature was the dummy of a man sitting on the old long drop toilet, which jutted out over the Machno River.
"When I was young the business was known as Hannah Jones and Son, and the son was running it and quite old - he opened a shop in Llanrwst on market days. When he died in the late 1960's a Mr. Simpson from Yorkshire bought it and wove some lovely modern double weave bedspreads etc. He later ran a mill in Llangollen. When he sold the mill it was bought by Craftcentre Cymru who were taken over by Edinburgh Woollen Mills. It is now closed and has been for sale for some time." - EW
One man remembers as a boy raising two orphan lambs. In time they increased to 20 lambs, and he took the wool to Penmachno Woollen Mill to raise pocket money. He says the owner, John Rees Jones, an old bachelor who wore a night cap, died at a great age, when the mill was sold.
Above: The Mill owner examining blankets in 1952 (Y Cymro)
Above: 1932 in Penmachno Woollen Factory. Ritchie Thomas and Robert John Jones at work.
Another photo of Richie Thomas, this time in 1952 as published by "Y Cymro". Richie Thomas worked at the Penmachno Woollen Mill from 1921 until his retirement in 1971 and was also a famous Welsh singer. A cousin of his on their fathers' sides was Rhiannon of "She Fashions" in Llanrwst.
IN THE HOME
The design above is Trefriw's "F" pattern, designed by Freda Williams in the 1940s and recently discontinued. This blanket appears to be from the early 1940s. This was photographed in a historic home next to a fireplace whose supporting beam is formed from a timber salvaged from the Spanish Armada.
Above: at least forty years old, the owner believes it to have been made in Penmachno, though other opinion states that Penmachno did not produce this design, though Trefriw did.
Above: A honeycomb quilt showing both sides.
Again, over forty years old and thought by the present (not original) owner to have been bought in Penmachno.
The bedspreads in the T3 or Caernarvon pattern could have been woven in South Wales in the 1960's, possibly at Derw Woollen Mills.
The F pattern (bedspread with crosses) was probably woven in Trefriw (50's - 70's) though the pattern was also used by Rhyd-y-bont mill in South Wales.
This cushion cover may also have been woven at the Rhyd-y-bont mill as, although it is a Trefriw "R" pattern, these are not Trefriw colours.
This page will continue to grow over the next few months.