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 The
Llanelly Pottery was the last of the South Wales potteries (read about it here).
Sarah Jane Roberts
(1859-1935) was the main decorator of the cockerel plates which became its trademark. Her father Thomas Roberts (1833-1904)
was a glost fireman and three of her sisters Annie (1856-1886), Margaret (1864-1921) and Elizabeth (1868-1940) were
also paintresses although their work was not as well known.
 Thomas' father William Roberts (c1803-c1845)
was one of the many potters from Burslem in Staffordshire who moved to South
Wales when William Chambers opened the business in 1839. Richard Guest (1803-1862)
had been thinking about emigrating to America with his son when he heard
about the new pottery, changed his mind and walked the 170 miles south. He
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)
remained, as did the Henshalls, Martha Cartledge (b1814), the Tofts, a Wedgwood and the
Tunstalls who ran a cafe in Cowell St under the slogan “T for Tunstall,
Tunstall for Tea”.
 Working conditions at the Llanelly
Pottery appear to have been better than those at some of the English potteries.
Thomas Chapman Dewsberry
(1817-1892) 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)
gave evidence to a Royal Commission on child labour (read it here)
describing his twelve hour working day at a factory in Burslem.
Workers in any pottery business could be exposed to high quantities of lead.
Was that responsible for the wasting illnesses that killed Sarah Jane Roberts
and her sisters Emma (1874-1944)
and Elizabeth (1868-1940)?
“They seemed to get smaller and thinner until they faded away”.
The Llanelly Pottery was forced to close in 1875 but was re-opened two years
later by David Guest
(1825-1892), helped by his brother George Guest (1831-1903) and their nephew Richard Dewsberry (1841-1906).
The business remained in the family until, under pressure from cheap foreign
imports, it closed in 1922 and was subsequently demolished. Nothing remains
on the site now although a blue plaque was recently unveiled on the wall of
the new shopping centre that stands nearby. (read about it here)
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