What3words for the box location: singled.crops.straying

This artwork pays tribute to the world-renowned pottery works established in Ynysmeudwy and situated on the banks of the Swansea Canal. It produced domestic earthenware and architectural ceramics from about 1845 to 1877. The location alongside the Swansea Canal enabled the easy transportation of the raw material to produce pottery, Cornish China clay (Kaolin).

The works were founded and built by two Cornish brothers, William and Michael Williams who bought the original site of the Ynysmeudwy farm, now the location of the Ynysmeudwy Arms, and known colloquially as “Y Smitw”. The name Ynysmeudwy translates as “the meadow of the hermit”.

The Williams brothers employed around 30 people, aged between 14 and 40 with several hailing from Cornwall. The works produced bricks, roof tiles, earthenware jugs and pipes, and chimney pots. The Williams family managed the works until 1861, when it was bought by local entrepreneurs Lewis and Morgan who also owned the Primrose Colliery in Alltwen. The works was purchased by the Llanelli Pottery in 1871 before it ceased production in 1877. At its height Ynysmeudwy was producing 20,000 items of earthenware products per week. Most of the pottery factory was demolished to make way for the Bryn tin works. Little remains of the original site but one of the bridges on the canal, Ynysmeudwy Uchaf Overbridge, is nicknamed the Pottery Bridge.

The artwork on the cabinet depicts the terra cotta window dressings of the St Peter’s Church Schoolrooms, built in 1856 and situated directly across the road from the cabinet. The terra cotta clay was mined from Mynydd Marchywel at Cilybebyll, the mountain opposite the village of Ynysmeudwy, before being shaped and fired in the kilns of the Ynysmeudwy pottery. The windows are the largest surviving example of products made by that works. The artwork on the cabinet also depicts examples of Ynysmeudwy pottery jugs placed inside the window.

Map reference SS 741 057