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22-573: The National Wool Museum , located in Drefach Felindre , Llandysul , Carmarthenshire , is part of Amgueddfa Cymru – Museum Wales . Historically and into the 19th century, the woollen industry in Wales , including spinning and weaving, surpassed even coal as the most important of Wales' industries. The Teifi Valley was the centre of the West Wales woollen industry, earning itself

44-401: A nave , chancel , porch and a wooden bellcote . Interior fittings include a pipe organ and some stained glass windows , three of which are by Heaton, Butler and Bayne and are of high quality. The Unitarian chapel of Penrhiw was converted from a barn in 1777. In 1952 it was dismantled stone by stone and rebuilt at St Fagans National History Museum in 1956. The chapel originally had

66-527: A celebration of the life of Ellen Jones, Graigwen, Alltpen-rhiw who returned with her father from Patagonia to live in Camwy in the village of Felindre in 1901. A blue plaque to commemorate the occasion of her return was unveiled on the house wall. The romantic and excruciating life of Nel Fach y Bwcs has been recorded in the book O Drelew i Dre-fach as well as in television programmes. Dre-fach Felindre has little industry today. The mills still stand as monuments to

88-542: A large collection of images which can be viewed website People's Collection Wales website. The Stori Fawr Dre-fach Felindre committee have also commissioned the famous artists Meirion and Aneurin Jones, Cardigan, to paint a large mural reflecting the history of both villages. The original mural, is displayed permanently in the National Wool Museum. In the village on Saturday, 4 July 2015, the committee arranged

110-497: A loft but this was taken out in the 19th century when the present gallery was inserted. The stone seats, now located outside the chapel, were used at preaching festivals. Services are still held in the chapel at its new location, and burials still take place at the cemetery at its original site on a grassy slope overlooking Felindre. Bethel Baptist Chapel is situated in Drefach, and was built by Daniel Davies in 1889–90. It has

132-747: A plastered frontage with wooden tracery. Aneirin Talfan Davies Talfan Davies was brought up in Gorseinon . During the 1930s Davies worked in London as a pharmacist before returning to Wales and settling in Swansea . He was the brother of Sir Alun Talfan Davies QC, with whom he founded the publishing company, Llyfrau'r Dryw (later succeeded by Christopher Davies  [ cy ] ). Aneirin Talfan Davies, who

154-621: The 1850s, the power loom was introduced, the need for water power increased and there was a great expansion of the industry. Substantial mills, some employing 50-100 people, were built at Drefach, Felindre, Drefelin, Cwmpengraig, Cwmhiraeth and Pentre-cwrt by the first decade of the 20th century. The population increased in Drefach and Felindre and houses were built for mill workers and mill owners, shops opened and St Barnabas' Church and other places of worship were built. Overflow settlements occurred at Cwmpencraig and Cwmhiraeth, where more factories, mill owner houses, worker houses and chapels clustered in

176-593: The Nant Bargod, Nant Esgair and Nant Brân, where their steep-sided valleys open out into the Teifi Valley. In the 19th and early 20th century it was an important centre for the woollen industry and was given the epithet, "the Huddersfield of Wales". As the population increased, the villages of Dre-fach ( Welsh language , small town ) and Felindre (Welsh language, mill town ) extended and merged to form

198-616: The National Flat Textile collection. As well as historic machinery , a raised walkway gives a view of textiles in production at Melin Teifi, the site's commercial woollen mill. In 2005 a Research and Collections Centre opened which includes a room dedicated to hands-on learning opportunities. The renovation was part of a £40m museum strategy for Wales and opened by National Assembly for Wales Culture Minister Alun Pugh . The strategy embraces three existing site-specific museums;

220-591: The National Wool Museum, the National Slate Museum at Llanberis ; Big Pit National Coal Museum in Blaenavon ; and development of the new National Waterfront Museum in Swansea . Drefach Felindre Dre-fach Felindre is a village in Carmarthenshire , West Wales . It is located four miles south-east of Newcastle Emlyn . It lies at the confluence of three fast-flowing streams,

242-601: The community park, Parc Puw. There are two pubs in Dre-fach Felindre, the Red Lion and Tafarn John Y Gwas. The poet and broadcaster Aneirin Talfan Davies was born in the village. The historian Gwyn Alf Williams , author of When was Wales?, lived in the village until his death in 1995. A small chapel-of-ease to Penboyr parish had been founded by the early 18th century, within what was to become Felindre. By 1750 Holy Trinity Chapel, also known as Capel Bach, which

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264-410: The damage caused was estimated at £20,000. A workman on the top floor had a lucky escape when, having found his exit route blocked by flames and smoke, he climbed onto the roof and was rescued with the aid of a long ladder. The mill was subsequently rebuilt despite the recent decline in orders for woollen textiles. In 1965 the mill was put up for sale with 30 people being employed at that time and in 1976

286-615: The letters of the artist and poet David Jones , whose influence can be discerned throughout his work. He wrote an anonymous satire in the Western Mail (under the pen name of Theomemphus), to which he was a frequent contributor, following Bishop Glyn Simon 's attack on the workings of the Electoral College of the Church in Wales (1961). He was a prominent Anglican and Christian themes characterised much of his writing. He

308-674: The museum was opened to the public. Both the mill and the village of Drefach Felindre are a national heritage site . Launched as the Museum of the Welsh Woollen Industry in 1976, it reopened in March 2004 as the National Wool Museum following a two-year, £2 million refit partly funded by the Heritage Lottery Fund . The restoration work includes a glass roofed courtyard and a new gallery which displays aspects of

330-414: The narrow valleys. The woollen industry declined from the 1920s onwards and the mills closed one by one. At its peak, there were ten mills on Nant Bargod and twenty four in the whole village. As the textile industry flourished, so did the social, cultural and religious institutions in the village. Because Dre-fach Felindre was reliant on industry rather than on agriculture like the surrounding countryside,

352-419: The nickname "The Huddersfield of Wales." David Lewis erected Cambrian Mills on the site of a former small water-powered weaving workshop in 1902. The new mill was to supply the need for woollen cloth for working men in the coal and steel industries. In 1915, a hundred people were employed and flannel was produced for military uniforms for WWI. In 1919, fire broke out in the carding and spinning department and

374-463: The outlook of the inhabitants was different. It resembled that of the South Wales valleys with their billiard halls, brass bands, male voice choirs and football teams. In 2013 it was decided to launch a Dre-fach Felindre Social History Project to be called Stori Fawr Dre-fach Felindre. They decided to collect all aspects of the history of the area during the 20th century and have already created

396-571: The past but have been put to other uses. One now houses the National Woollen Museum, another a furniture warehouse and others have been converted to residences or accommodation for holiday visitors. There is a post office, a few shops, a church, several chapels and a primary school, Ysgol Gynradd Penboyr. There is a community hall, the Red Dragon Hall, and a children's playground. The football club, Bargod Rangers, plays at

418-664: The present community. The Museum of the Welsh Woollen Industry, now the National Woollen Museum , was opened in 1976 in the Cambrian Mill. Little development happened in this area before the late 18th century and it is not clear why Dre-fach Felindre became such an important centre for the production of woollen cloth in Wales. By the early 19th century, four fulling mills were established at Pentrecwrt , Dolwyon, Drefach and Cwmpencraig. Spinning and weaving were done by hand or in small workshops at this time. In

440-589: Was possibly a post-medieval foundation, had become "dilapidated". It was eventually replaced by St Barnabas' Church in 1862. St Barnabas' Church was built for John Campbell, 2nd Earl Cawdor , who was born of 11 June 1817, St Barnabas' Day . The earl also built the church of St Barnabas at Rhandirmwyn . The churchyard is bounded to the north by the B4333 road. The church is built in the Gothic Revival style, of Pwntan sandstone with ashlar dressings. It has

462-652: Was a regular worshipper at Eglwys Dewi Sant in Cardiff and at Llandaff Cathedral . His son, Geraint Talfan Davies was Controller of BBC Wales from 1990 to 2000, co-founder of Glas Cymru (a predecessor of the now Dŵr Cymru Welsh Water ), co-founder of the Institute of Welsh Affairs , and Chairman of the Welsh National Opera . This article about a poet from the United Kingdom

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484-519: Was known by the bardic name of Aneurin ap Talfan , also founded the Welsh language periodicals, Heddiw (English: Today ) and Barn ( Opinion ). He was Head of Programmes Wales at the BBC and produced broadcasts of early works by Dylan Thomas . Following Thomas's death, he wrote a critical study of Thomas as a religious poet. He also translated the poetry of Christina Rossetti into Welsh, and edited

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