A roadside place I looking at as a break from water-powered mills last year.
Not reported on here as far as I know, but more of historical interest than anything particularly exciting to explore.
It’s a relict of the dairy industry, which in contrast to wool and coal, is at least still important in Wales.
Background. Pont Llanio was one of four creameries set up by the Welsh Milk Marketing Board after WW1.
The general idea was to rationalise the distribution network for milk products, providing a central point for processing and onward shipment to London.
The factory was built in 1937 in the yard of Pont Llanio railway station on the now defunct Aberystwyth to Carmarthen railway line.
Milk churns would be picked up by lorry from milk stands outside farms once a day, or twice in summer - these milk stands are still quite common on Welsh roads.
The plant was subsequently extended to make butter and dried milk, and at one stage employed over 120 people.
Architecturally it’s purely utilitarian - steel and reinforced concrete, part tiled inside, with asbestos cladding.
It closed in 1970 along with the railway line and all the equipment was removed.
Chatting to two old boys leaning on the railway bridge, they said they remembered it as a busy place with trains coming and going round the clock.
These days it’s just an empty shell except for storage of hay and farm equipment in a shed that used to house the lorries.
View from the railway bridge, together with a photo taken from the same position in 1965.
Water tank for trains next to the bridge from above...
...and below, overgrown platform on the right.
Cold-room with cork insulation.
Canteen.
Spray-drying tower.
A photo taken just after it opened in 1937.
Near the entrance was a building that looked like just another soggy Welsh cottage, so I didn’t bother at the time.
However on looking it up it turns out that this was actually an earlier milk and butter factory (1896), so I checked it out next time I was passing.
From 1906 the building was owned by Peter Davies, a butter dealer and haulage contractor who seems to have gone on to manage the lorry fleet for the new factory.
The place is a bit more substantial viewed from behind, but inside the un-reinforced concrete slab floor has mostly collapsed.
Among the rubble, metal tanks and lorry parts on the ground was an oil-cake grinder (common on farms, used for animal feed) and a pump driven through the line shafting.
The shafts were turned by an engine on an oily plinth, the corner of which can be seen on the bottom right of the picture below.
The little office contained old furniture and records for Davies’ business from the 1930s to the mid-60s.
A picture of the main factory in 1939, before the sloping awning was added, with Davies’ lorries in front.
Historical information and some of the old photos were taken from
https://www.peoplescollection.wales/story/378182 and
B. Malaws and M. McDonald, Industrial Archaeology Review, 2018, Vol 40, Issue 1, 25-38.
Not reported on here as far as I know, but more of historical interest than anything particularly exciting to explore.
It’s a relict of the dairy industry, which in contrast to wool and coal, is at least still important in Wales.
Background. Pont Llanio was one of four creameries set up by the Welsh Milk Marketing Board after WW1.
The general idea was to rationalise the distribution network for milk products, providing a central point for processing and onward shipment to London.
The factory was built in 1937 in the yard of Pont Llanio railway station on the now defunct Aberystwyth to Carmarthen railway line.
Milk churns would be picked up by lorry from milk stands outside farms once a day, or twice in summer - these milk stands are still quite common on Welsh roads.
The plant was subsequently extended to make butter and dried milk, and at one stage employed over 120 people.
Architecturally it’s purely utilitarian - steel and reinforced concrete, part tiled inside, with asbestos cladding.
It closed in 1970 along with the railway line and all the equipment was removed.
Chatting to two old boys leaning on the railway bridge, they said they remembered it as a busy place with trains coming and going round the clock.
These days it’s just an empty shell except for storage of hay and farm equipment in a shed that used to house the lorries.
View from the railway bridge, together with a photo taken from the same position in 1965.
Water tank for trains next to the bridge from above...
...and below, overgrown platform on the right.
Cold-room with cork insulation.
Canteen.
Spray-drying tower.
A photo taken just after it opened in 1937.
Near the entrance was a building that looked like just another soggy Welsh cottage, so I didn’t bother at the time.
However on looking it up it turns out that this was actually an earlier milk and butter factory (1896), so I checked it out next time I was passing.
From 1906 the building was owned by Peter Davies, a butter dealer and haulage contractor who seems to have gone on to manage the lorry fleet for the new factory.
The place is a bit more substantial viewed from behind, but inside the un-reinforced concrete slab floor has mostly collapsed.
Among the rubble, metal tanks and lorry parts on the ground was an oil-cake grinder (common on farms, used for animal feed) and a pump driven through the line shafting.
The shafts were turned by an engine on an oily plinth, the corner of which can be seen on the bottom right of the picture below.
The little office contained old furniture and records for Davies’ business from the 1930s to the mid-60s.
A picture of the main factory in 1939, before the sloping awning was added, with Davies’ lorries in front.
Historical information and some of the old photos were taken from
https://www.peoplescollection.wales/story/378182 and
B. Malaws and M. McDonald, Industrial Archaeology Review, 2018, Vol 40, Issue 1, 25-38.
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