Newcastle Emlyn History Society
Old Library
Market Hall
Market Square
Newcastle Emlyn
SA38 9AQ
Hanes Emlyn
Town Bridge 1790
Market Hall
H
A
N
E
S
E
M
L
Y
N
The Cow & Gate Milk Factory which still incorporates parts of the old Workhouse around 1970.
More Workhouse
The first Master of the workhouse was David Davies with his wife Esther as Matron and the last was Lewis Morgan with his wife Sarah as Matron.
It was known as a hard workhouse, casual inmates having to break up stone for road making, the stone having to be of a certain size to pass through the grids. Refusing to do your quota meant a visit to the magistrate and inevitably a term in Carmarthen Gaol as one gentleman from Sunderland found out. He was sentenced to two weeks hard labour.
There were a few problems in the Workhouse during the Rebeca Riots, Rebecca accused the Master of not giving the inmates proper and sufficient food and also not allowing them any soap to wash with. A very pointed letter being sent from Rebecca to the Master. The Dragoons were billeted there when trouble was expected, but were not needed The number of inmates never justified the cost and were getting lower and lower in the early 1900’s.
In 1918, two local men, Tom Davies, Bronwyon and Jones Penwenallt tried to rent part of the Workhouse for Cheese production.
They did manage it in 1922 and survived until 1924 when the Company, The West Wales Farmers Dairy Society went into liquidation.
The Union held out against the turning of part of the Workhouse into “Wards to accommodate Vagrants”
Around 1924 some of it was turned into flats for people awaiting housing in Aberarad and Concerts and Eisteddfodau were held.
Cow & Gate came in 1931 and they opened as “Dried Milk Products. They started making cheese in 1934 with 500 galls of milk a day, this rose to 30,000 gallons in 1946 and eventually to 92,000 galls in 1979. They sold out to the MMB in 1979 which closed down the Dairy Crest factory in 1983 with a loss of 200 jobs.
Briefly Mann & Balkham made goats cheese in 1988 then Dansco (Mcaine Foods) took over and started making Mozzarella cheese in 1989.
The Workhouse and Aberarad around 1934 after it had been taken over by Cow & Gate