LETTER: Iris D. Back (Mrs)¹ to Miss Patch. “On the way home from a holiday with cousins in Dyfed, I went through Carmarthen in the hope of tracing the site of Priory Foundry, where my great grandfather² and great uncles³ organised the repair etc. of water wheels and Victorian machinery of all kinds. To my joy I found that it was the very site of the Roman excavations now in process behind 110, Priory Street.
I am sending copies of the photographs of Mr & Mrs Tom Jones (who first bought and extended the foundry in about 1860) and the brother of Mr Jones (known to the family as “Nuncul⁴”).
Mr Jones and later his two sons Ben and “Jack a Mab⁵” ran the foundry up to and about the end of the century; they learned about electricity and later opened up their own electrical contracting business. My uncle⁶ ran “Morgan Brothers” electrical business in Watters Road and Mansel St., Swansea for over 50 years, and died a couple of years ago, in Haverfordwest, at the age of 94.
I thought you might be interested in the enclosed photographs and information.
Yours faithfully,
Iris D. Back (Mrs)”
¹ Mrs Iris Doreen Rodman, formerly Back, née Morgan (1918-1989).
² Thomas Jones, Priory Foundry (1817-1892).
³ Benjamin Jones (1847-1922) and John Jones (1848-1918) sons of T.J. Foundry.
⁴ John Jones (1827-1907).
⁵ Possibly a family name for John⁴. (No sons of John, or Benjamin, have yet been traced).
⁶ Thomas Jones Sydney Morgan (1885-1978)