Former tinplate works site preserving the oldest surviving tinplate complex in Europe, closed as museum in 2017 and currently under heritage review.
The Kidwelly Industrial Museum occupies the site of the former Kidwelly Tinplate Works, located on the River Gwendraeth Fach approximately two kilometres north-east of the town of Kidwelly in Carmarthenshire. Tinplate manufacture began on the site in 1737 when Charles Gwynn established a rolling mill on a plot of town lands called Bank Broadford, on the eastern bank of the river, building on an earlier iron forge already operating there. Production continued with successive owners and partnerships through the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, with the works expanding significantly under Jacob Chivers from 1860 and his son Thomas, who constructed the Upper Works in 1877.
After periods of closure and reconstitution, the Kidwelly Tinplate Company Limited took over in 1904 and continued production until the works closed in 1941. The site preserves original industrial buildings dating from between 1880 and 1919, including a water-powered mill, large steam rolling engines, and a range of pithead and processing structures. The engine house is listed Grade II* and several other structures are listed Grade II.
The museum closed in 2017 and the thirteen-acre site has been under the management of Carmarthenshire County Council since, with surveys and options appraisals ongoing to determine its future.
The history of the Kidwelly Tinplate Works begins on 14 August 1737, when Charles Gwynn of Kidwelly was granted liberty to erect a rolling mill and associated tin works on Town Lands called Bank Broadford, a site running along the eastern bank of the River Gwendraeth Fach about a mile north of the town. Gwynn took into partnership Anthony Rogers, who held a lease on a nearby iron forge, and Rogers subsequently bought Gwynn out. The site had earlier connections to industrial activity: a water-powered crushing plant had been installed there under Dr John Lane of Bristol, a mining adventurer granted a lease in 1717 to search for copper and other minerals on Mynydd y Garreg.
Rogers' son Lewis obtained the works and in 1758 entered into partnership with Robert Morgan, a Carmarthen ironmaster. Lewis Rogers died in 1776 and some years later the Lower Works were sold to Leonard Bilson Gwynn. In 1801 the partnership of Haselwood, Hathaway and Perkins acquired the Lower Works, and in 1808 a former trustee, Thomas Waters, took over.
The works were sublet during subsequent years, and in 1816 the renewal of the lease was granted to Philip Protheroe. From some point after 1829 until 1838, Thomas Hay, a civil engineer, held the tenancy. From 1838 the works were held by two brothers, Hugh H. Downham as manager and Henry Ridout Downham.
In 1840 the brothers formed the Kidwelly Iron and Tin Plate Company and the works expanded into iron-making. The works were offered for sale in 1846, but Hugh Downham, having secured William Briggs as a partner, returned to trade for several years as Downham and Briggs. In 1860 the works were purchased by Jacob Chivers, who enlarged the complex considerably and operated it under the name Gwendraeth Iron and Tinplate Works.
In 1877 Jacob's son Thomas Chivers took over and constructed the Upper Works on a site upstream from the original Lower Works. By the late 1880s the works were in decline. In 1887 Thomas Chivers, heavily in debt, closed the works and put them up for sale.
In 1889 the Gwendraeth Tinplate Company was formed, with Thomas Chivers remaining as one of its directors, and production resumed. However, recession during the period led to closure again in 1896. In 1899 the site was obtained by the Kidwelly Iron Sheet and Tinplate Company Limited, though production resumed only at the Upper Works; the Lower Works were later dismantled.
The company went into voluntary liquidation in 1901. In 1904 the Kidwelly Tinplate Company Limited was registered and took over the works, operating under that name through the early twentieth century. The works employed 150 workers in 1871 and 350 by 1908.
In 1939 the works were acquired by the Llanelly Associated Tinplate Companies Limited. Production ceased in 1941. The works were thereafter used for storage and finally dismantled in 1946.
The site was offered for sale in 1947. Industrial buildings surviving on the site date from between 1880 and 1919 and include the sorting room, hot roller building, cold roller machine house, and related structures. The engine house of the tinplate works was listed Grade II* in 1998; the works chimney, boxing room, and assorting room are listed Grade II.
The site also preserves a water-powered mill and a plaque of 1801 recording a rebuilding of that year, as well as large steam engines which powered the rolling mills. At the north end of the site, the headframe and winding engine transferred from Morlais Colliery were re-erected; the winding engine had operated from 1905 to 1981 and was manufactured by Andrew Barclay and Sons of Kilmarnock. A museum was developed on the site and the Kidwelly Industrial Museum operated as a visitor attraction focused on tinplate, local coal mining, and brick-making.
The Kidwelly Industrial Museum Trust took the decision to close the museum in 2017. Since closure, the thirteen-acre site has been managed by Carmarthenshire County Council's museums service. Surveys of the listed structures were conducted in 2022 and 2023, covering structural condition, collections, and ecology, with a draft options appraisal prepared from the findings.
A steer from Cabinet was anticipated by the end of 2024 to determine next steps for the site.