{"id":27,"date":"2016-04-15T15:18:00","date_gmt":"2016-04-15T15:18:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/rwgevans.com\/family\/?p=27"},"modified":"2026-02-21T12:53:37","modified_gmt":"2026-02-21T12:53:37","slug":"llanelly-pottery","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/rwgevans.com\/family\/llanelly-pottery\/","title":{"rendered":"Llanelly Pottery"},"content":{"rendered":"

Sarah Jane Roberts (1859-1935)<\/a> was the main decorator of the cockerel plates which in the early twentieth century became the trademark of the Llanelly Pottery<\/a> the last of the large scale potteries in South Wales. Her father Thomas Roberts (1833-1904)<\/a> was a glost fireman and three of her sisters Annie (1856-1886)<\/a>, Margaret (1864-1921)<\/a> and\u00a0Elizabeth (1868-1940)<\/a> were also paintresses although their work was not as well known.<\/p>\n

In the mid ninteenth century, working conditions at some of the English potteries were hard. Thomas Chapman Dewsberry (1817-1892)<\/a> told how he fainted through hunger at the Herculanium Pottery in Liverpool, often going a whole day without food. In 1841, eleven year old George Guest (1831-1903)<\/a> gave\u00a0evidence to Samuel\u00a0Scriven’s Royal Commission on child labour<\/a>\u00a0describing his fourteen\u00a0hour working day at Enoch Wood’s factory in Burslem.<\/p>\n

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“I ought to be at work at half past six, when the quarter bell rings; I am allowed half an hour for breakfast, and take it in stove room; I do not take half an hour to eat it, not more than ten minutes; must eat it as sharp as I can; I can please myself though about that; I take it quick ’cause John takes his quick and gets to work pretty sharp; should like a play in the yard, but caana have it; I go home to dinner and then take my hour; leave work at six on Mondays, and at half-past eight other days; when I get home my legs ache; I am too tired to play then, but get my supper and go to bed. Some<\/span>times father tells me to read a chapter: he prays to us every night; I can read pretty\u00a0<\/span>well; don’t write, but I shall try soon”<\/span><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Thomas’ father William Roberts (1805-c1845)<\/a> was one of the many potters from Staffordshire who moved to Llanelli with his family when William Chambers Junior opened the Llanelly Pottery in 1839.\u00a0 A report in the Llanelly Star in 1925 said:<\/p>\n

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“whether the proprieter started the works as a hobby or as an ordinary commercial venture, with an eye to the development of his estate (on which the town was largely built), cannot now be decided”<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

It suggests that the Pottery paid the expenses of some of the first pottery workers and some of their families to travel from Staffordshire to Llanelly.<\/p>\n

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“The route was\u00a0 by canal barge to Runcorn, Liverpool to Swansea by packet and road to Llanelly, the journey occupying seven days.”<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

According to Gareth Hughes and Robert Pugh’s book ‘Llanelly Pottery’ stipulation was placed in many of the contracts that employees were required to:<\/p>\n

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“refund by weekly installments whatever monies may have been advanced to him for the purpose of bringing him here”<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

According to John Edwards in his 2001 book Llanelli Story of a Town, <\/em>Chambers:<\/p>\n

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“.. made sure that there were good homes for his workers by building substantial houses for them in Pottery Street and Pottery Row (later Pottery Place).”<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Despite that,\u00a0Richard Guest (1803-1860)<\/a> told his family that when he arrived in Llanelli, people were inhospitable, reluctant to give him lodgings, and unable to understand his English. In shops he had to point to what he wanted. Richard Guest returned to Burslem but his son David (1825-1892)<\/a> remained, as did the Henshalls, Martha Cartledge (b1814)<\/a>, the Tofts<\/a>, a Wedgwood and the Tunstalls who ran a cafe in Cowell Street under the slogan “T for Tunstall, Tunstall for Tea”.\u00a0 Thomas Roberts kept his Staffordshire accent throughout his life.\u00a0<\/p>\n

What happened to William Roberts senior is not clear.\u00a0 By 1851 the census records his wife Sarah as a widow living in Burslem with three of her six children; William, Thomas and Annie who are all working in potteries.\u00a0 \u00a0In her memoir, June Sinclair suggests the family may have spent three days in the workhouse.\u00a0 Subsequently Thomas Roberts returned to Llanelli where he lodged with Margaret Wells.\u00a0 He married her daughter Jane in 1856.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Thomas and Jane Roberts had 11 children, seven of whom survived beyond infancy and worked in the Llanelly Pottery<\/p>\n

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Back Row L-R Emma, John Wells, Mary (Polly), Elizabeth, Front Row L-R Sarah Jane, Margaret<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n