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 Coal,
copper, lead, iron, tinplate, the development of the railway and the
docks transformed Llanelli in the nineteenth century from a sleepy village
into a bustling industrial town.
John Herbert Evans
(1869-1933) and his brother William
Valentine Evans (1881-1967), a wheelwright who build the wheels
for Llanelli’s first mail coach, left the Carmarthenshire countryside
to found the Western Wagon Works at Gathen Yard which flourished there
or ninety years, fabricating equipment for the tinplate industry. The
business was run by John Herbert's son Griffith
Aneurin Evans (1899-1964) and then by his son Robert
Dewsberry Evans (1940-1994) until its closure in the 1980s.
 David
Thomas Edwards (1851-1918) and his family were among thousands of
Welsh workers who emigrated to the United States to work in the steel
and mining industries there.
 Evy
Thomas (1833-1874), son of a stonecutter, worked as a mason in the
tinplate works but died young after inhaling particles of stone. Three
of his sons worked in the tinplate industry and his daughter Lizzie
(1873-1943) married another mason Robert
Dewsberry (1874-1926).
Edward Wells (1829-1882)
was just over three feet tall and spent his days watching gas pipes
being laid in Llanelli. He became such an expert on their location
that he was known as Willy-bach-gas. According to the newspapers of
the time, as a child caution had to be exercised on his behalf "lest
some enterprising itinerant showman kidnapped him”. He’s buried in
Adulam Cemetery in Felinfoel.
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