Family Reflections

From 1750 onwards, local landowners tried to involve Llanelli in the Industrial Revolution, and industrialists, entrepreneurs, speculators, businessmen, traders and workers, came to join the cut and thrust of the developing town.

As far as local government was concerned, the old social order was in decay and a new generation of wealthy industrialists was able to take advantage of the situation.

In 1807, following the Act of Enclosure, Llanelli’s local government was in the hands of a Portreeve and a number of Trustees, some of whom were more concerned with furthering their own interests than the welfare of the growing working population of the town.

The main population explosion had occurred after the turn of the 19th century when Alexander Raby, Charles Nevill (a button manufacturer from Birmingham) and his two sons, Charles Nevill (junior) and Richard Janion Nevill, along with General Warde and the Pembertons, came to town and developed their various enterprises.

Life was difficult for workers in industrial towns and the rural communities. Thousands came from the surrounding areas and further afield to seek a better life in Llanelli’s expanding industries. In the early part of the century, Llanelli could be described as a ‘frontier’ town, with no amenities and local government administration in the hands of a few wealthy, powerful businessmen.