Draft:Brecon Ironworks

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Brecon Ironworks was situated one mile north of Brecon, Mid Wales in a ravine on the east bank of the River Honddu. It comprised a charcoal-fired furnace and forge. Its proprietors, Benjamin Tanner, a local ironmonger, and Richard Wellington, the owner of nearby Hay Castle, erected it in 1720. In 1753 the ironworks was sold to John Maybery, an ironmaster from Pipton, Brecknockshire. The ironworks failed because of the competition from the many furnaces which sprang up in the South Wales Valleys. However, it was closely linked to the accumulation of an extremely large archive for Welsh historians. Arthur Maybery, a son of John Maybery, became a partner in a long-established firm of Brecon solicitors which, over the years, had drawn up the leases for the tenant ironmasters and their landlords. With the eventual retirement or death of all the members of the firm, the tens of thousands of accumulated papers became the property of Maybery. They remained undisturbed for forty years. Then, Maybery granted Welsh historian John Edward Lloyd access to them, who documented extracts to write his illustrated 1906 book The early history of the old South Wales ironworks, 1760 to 1840. After he had done so, he then donated the papers to the National Library of Wales in Aberystwyth, where they are held as the Maybery Papers.

The supplies for the Ironworks

The ironworks was built on the site of a former fulling or tucking mill that processed woven cloth which was produced by local farmers. It was erected in 1720 by Benjamin Tanner, a local ironmonger, and Richard Wellington, the owner of Hay Castle. Ironstone for the works was obtained from the top of the Sirhowy Valley, and iron ore and limestone were obtained from Hirwaun The ironstone from the Sirhowy Valley was loaded onto mule teams which were driven eastwards, down into the Usk Valley and, following the river, northwards into the town. From Hirwaun, the iron ore was transported on the backs of horses and mules, over the mountain track of the Bannau Brycheiniog and down into the town.

The ironworks was charcoal-fired. Initially the charcoal was produced from its adjacent woodlands. However, insatiable supplies of wood were needed. Consequently, wood was later obtained from the surrounding area, including Llangammarch and Llanwrtyd.

The leases for the Ironworks

In 1723, Tanner and Wellington took out a lease for the land from Edward Jeffreys, a barrister of the Inner Temple, who lived locally in the Priory, Brecon, in the grounds of what became Brecon Cathedral. Two new leases were subsequently granted. In 1750, William Tanner, the son of Benjamin Tanner, with the consent of both his father and Wellington, assigned their interests in the works to Thomas Daniel and Richard Reynolds, two iron merchants and dealers from Bristol. Then, in 1753, a lease for the land was granted to Thomas Maybery, the son of Thomas Maybery, who owned Powicks (present-day Powick) Forge, on the River Teme in Worcestershire. Maybery did not take out the lease for himself but for his son, John, from Aberlonvey (present-day Three Cocks or Aberllynfi), who owned a forge there. In 1753, the ironworks were sold to John Maybery.

The demise of the Ironworks

Like all the other ironworks in South Wales, the Brecon Ironworks was charcoal-fired. However, then the huge South Wales Coalfield was discovered. Consequently, the ironworks in the valleys mined coal, from which they produced coke, which is the best fuel for furnaces. Consequently, the ironworks in the South Wales Valleys became 'the foremost producers of iron in the world'.

Lloyd (1906) seems to have identified the start of the revolution. One of the documents to which he gained access was an 1803 partnership agreement for the creation of The Union Ironworks Co at Rhymney, the arrangements for which he described in detail. Having done so, he then made the following comment:

'And then appears the following remarkable provision: —

"It is also agreed that Coal may be used for manufacturing iron on the premises."'

Inevitably the Brecon ironworks ceased production and was demolished by 1780. The remains of Blaen Afon Iron Works, Clydach Iron Works and Sirhowy Ironworks exist as the most visible reminders of the widespread production of iron in the South Wales Valleys.

The Maybury Papers

The Maybery family

John Maybery married Anne, the eldest daughter of John Wilkins, the-then Deputy Prothonotary of The Crown for the Brecknock Circuit, and Sibyl, his wife, with whom he lived in the Tower of the Priory, Brecon. In 1757, he took out a lease from Lord Windsor to build an ironworks at Hirwaun. In 1760, upon the death of Lord Windsor, he took out, with John Wilkins, his brother-in-law, and Mary Maybery, his mother, a lease from Lady Windsor for the same land.

John Maybery died in 1784. He left two sons, Thomas and Arthur Henry Augustus, both of whom entered the legal profession. Thomas, his eldest son, succeeded William Wilkins, as Prothonotary for the Brecknock Circuit. And Arthur Henry Augustus, his second son, became the head of Maybery, Williams, and Cobb, the Brecon firm of solicitors.

The origin of the Maybery Papers

The 'Maybery Papers' were produced in Brecon and were held in private storage there for forty years. Then, around the end of the nineteenth century or the beginning of the twentieth century, Arthur Maybery granted John Edward Lloyd, historian, access to them. Lloyd recounted that he had come into the possession of a collection of ‘tens of thousands’ of documents about the South Wales iron works.

Lloyd attributed the origin of the collection of papers to the local firm of solicitors of 'Walter and John Powell'. He explained that the firm:

‘had the privilege of being largely employed and trusted by the chief Ironmasters, with the result that in the course of years a mass of documents relating to the South Wales Iron Works accumulated in their offices, and passed on to successive members of the firm … Eventually in 1860, every member of the firm having retired or died, the contents of the office became the property of Mr A. Maybery by descent …’.

Lloyd reported that the condition of the papers ‘was such as to make it a risk to health to make among them even a search of a few hours’ duration.’ Nevertheless he examined and reduced them ‘to some kind of order’. Eventually he reproduced what he considered were the most important papers in his The early history of the old South Wales iron works (1760–1840).

Lloyd's book documents the legal histories of most, if not all, the ironworks in South Wales. It comprises thirty-one chapters, which are divided into two divisions, a Western division and an Eastern division.

The locations in the Western division comprise Brecon Furnace and Forge and Aberlonvey Forge; Hirwain Iron Works; Dowlais Ironworks; Cyfarthfa Ironworks; Plymouth Iron Works; Pendyarran Iron Works; Neath Abbey Works; Afon, Ynis y Penalwch, Ynis y Gerwn and Dylais Forges; Ynis y Cedwyn Furnace; Melin Griffith Iron Works; Treforest Works; Aberaman Iron Works; Aberdare Iron Works; Abernant Iron Works and Gadlys Iron Works.

The locations in the Eastern division comprise Bute Ironworks; Union Iron Works; Tredegar Iron Works; Sirhowy Ironworks; Ebbw Vale Iron Works; Abercarne Iron Works; Blaenavon Ironworks; Nant y Glo Iron Works; Beaufort Iron Works; Clydach Iron Works; Llanelly (or Clydach) Forge; Llangrwyney Forge; The Forge or Trostre Forge; Abbey Tintern Iron Works; Monmouth Forge and New Wear Forge.

Davies (1965) documented the growth of the iron works from 1801 by citing three cases of the increases in population which occurred:

• the population of Monmouthshire grew from 45,568 to 157,418 in 1851
• the population of Merthyr Tydfil increased from 7,705 to 46,378 fifty years later
• the population of Aberdare increased from 1,486 to 14,999 fifty years later.

Davies observed that 'The new Welsh society sprang up within two generations’, the stimulus for which is traceable to The Maybery Papers.

References

• Black, Adam; Black, Charles (1856). Black's Picturesque Guide Through North and South Wales (Sixth ed.). North Bridge: The Authors. Retrieved 26 July 2024.
• Davies, E.T. (1965). Religion in the Industrial Revolution in South Wales. Cardiff: Unversity of Wales Press. Retrieved 25 June 2026.
• Jepson, Ursula (1997). "The Brecon Ironworks". Brycheiniog. 29: 47–52.
• Jones, Oliver (1969). The early days of Sirhowy and Tredegar. Risca, Newport: The Starling Press. p. 27-28.
• Jones, Theophilus (1898). A history of the county of Brecknock Containing the chorography, general history, religion, laws, customs, manners, language, and system of agriculture used in that county. Volumes 1-2. Brecknock: Edwin Davies.
• Lloyd, John (1906). The early history of the old South Wales ironworks, 1760 to 1840. The Bedford Press: London.
• Lundström, Johan (1969). The History of the Söderfors Anchor-Works. Translated by Hedia, Lars-Erik. Boston, Massachusetts: Kress Library of Business and Economics, Harvard University Business School.
• Minchinton, W.E. (1961). "The place of Brecknock in the industrialization of South Wales II. Iron and Tinplate". Brycheiniog. VII: 7–29.
• Morganwg, Dafydd (1874). Hanes Morganwg. Aberdare: The Author.
• Owen, Matthew (1911). The Story of Breconshire. Cardiff: Educational Publishing Co.
• Rehder, J.E. (1987). "The change from charcoal to coke in iron smelting". Historica/ Metallurgy. 21 (1): 37-43.
• Rowlands, John; Rowlands, Sheila (1996). The surnames of Wales. Federation of Famiy History Societies (Publications) Ltd. ISBN 978-0-8063-1516-4. Retrieved 18 June 2026.
• Shore, Leslie M. (2017). The Tredegar Company. Lydney, Gloucestershire: Lightmoor Press. ISBN 9781911038-20-7.