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Waddle’s Patent Fan & Engineering Company

1802 Hugh Waddle came to Llanelli from Spittal, Berwick-on-Tweed and started his foundry and engineering works around 1802, in the New Dock area of the town, the exact location of the site is open to speculation. He founded the town’s first engineering works and was one of the most notable figures in involved in the industrial growth of Llanelli.

1831-1831 Waddle was mentioned in Pigot’s Trade Directory of 1830-31 as being an iron founder and steam engine manufacturer at Lanmore Iron Works.

1843 When the Voter’s List was published in 1834 Hugh Waddle was entitled to vote in respect of property in Water Street.

1835 Waddle was listed in Pigot’s Directory of 1835 as an Iron Founder but no location was given.

1841 According to local tradition Waddle moved his engineering factory into new premises in the Wern district of Llanelli around 1841, but Pigot’s Trade Directory of 1844 (Iron Founders and Engineers) lists Llanmor Iron Company at New Dock. (Hugh Waddle had formed a company with his son John Roberts Waddle which traded as Llanmore Iron Company, New Dock).

1846 Hugh Waddle died in 1846 and it was probably around this time that John Roberts Waddle moved to the Wern premises.

1849 The Hunt & Co. Trade Directory of 1849 indicates that John Roberts Waddle was trading as an Ironfounder, Engineer and Steam Engine Manufacturer at Llanmore Iron Works.

1851 The 1851 census reveals that the Waddle family was living in New Road.

1866-1966 A Trade Directory of 1866 shows that John Waddle, Esquire lived at Caeglas, Greenfields, and it was around this time that he invented a colliery ventilator known as Waddle’s Patent Fan. The Waddle Patent Fan revolutionised colliery ventilation. Before this, air was circulated around underground workings by a furnace kept burning at the bottom of one of the shafts. With few safety regulations the consequences of such actions was extremely hazardous. John Waddle had achieved a social standing sufficient to be considered among the ‘Gentry’ of Llanelli.

The first fan made at the Waddles’ Llanmor Engineering Works was sent to a colliery known as Bonville’s Court in Saundersfoot. It seems that the colliery closed and became derelict several years after the arrival of the fan, but the fan itself remained intact for almost 100 years. When the fan, which was 25 feet in diameter, was in its 99th year, it was broken up in a drive for scrap during the Second World War. The Bonville Court colliery fan was not the largest produced at Llanmor – some were 40 feet in diameter and weighed 15 tons. Waddle fans were installed in all the British coalfields, in the coalmines of Bengal, gold mines of South Africa and South America, and the asbestos mines of Rhodesia.

Although Llanmor specialised in ventilating equipment, and supplied the modern steel and tinplate companies, including the large Llanwern complex, the firm also diversified into other areas of engineering including contracts, which included steel window frames for atomic energy plants.

The Llanmor Works at the Wern were a curious mix of ancient and modern, with the machine workshop being housed in a stone-built 18th century flour mill. Across the yard from the machine room was the fabricating shop, which was of the most modern design for its time.

1980 Even though the engineering works modernised and diversified it was not to escape the fate that beset so many and was forced to close in 1980, ending an era that had spanned more than 170 years in the town.