The Taylor Family Collection

The collection contains both the business records of Taylor & Sons Ltd and records of different generations of the Taylor family which are more personal in nature. Some records in the collection, such as the photographs, seem to have been collected with a view to creating a historical record of the family company (particularly in the period of the two world wars).

The business records in the collection consist of legal papers, including Memorandum of Association and deeds; financial records, including ledgers, share registers and cash books; records relating to industrial and manufacturing processes; technical drawings; business correspondence (with some more personal correspondence intermingled); personnel records; letters patent; advertising literature; sales catalogues and photographs.

The personal and family records in the collection include newspaper cutting books, records of family social activities; local historical ephemera and notes.

The family company of Taylor and Sons Ltd iron founders can trace its origins back over 200 years to the formation of the Neath Abbey Iron Company. In 1877, Henry Taylor left the Neath Abbey Iron Company to establish his own engineering business in Briton Ferry. In 1882 he went into partnership as Messrs Struvé, Eaton and Price. The Company changed again in 1896 to Taylor, Struvé & Co., before finally becoming Taylor and Sons in 1898. Over time, Taylor and Sons became a firm of international standing producing pickling machines for tinplate works for customers as far afield as North America.

No restrictions

A hard copy catalogue is available at West Glamorgan Archives.

Usual copyright regulations apply.

Accruals are possible.