History

The valley was filled with mills at one time, taking advantage of the power from the river Cych and being fairly close to the railway at Newcastle Emlyn. There were two others within 5 minutes walk of Godremamog:

- a finishing mill which now lies in ruins a short walk up the Mamog valley

- Dangribyn mill, a slightly smaller sister mill to Godremamog, which stood 5 minutes walk up the Cych valley, just beyond Godremamog's original weir. It was directly below Dangribyn Cottage, which is still inhabited today, as 2 homes.

Wool production was a major industry in West Wales and, in 1895, there were 325 woollen mills in the Teifi Valley area.

Godremamog Mill was a working woollen factory for 50 years from 1885 to 1935. It produced flannel which would have been used for workmen's shirts (e.g. for colliers and steel workers) and army uniforms. The woollen cloth was much in demand because it was extremely hardwearing and safer than cotton - colliers and steel workers working conditions were hard and they were in constant danger from fires. Woollen flannel is very hard to set alight, while cotton will burn easily.

The mill also produced wonderful traditional Welsh blankets such as this, which we believe was made at Dangrybin mill. It was traditional to give a pair of blankets or one of the wonderfully warm tapestry quilts to a young couple as a wedding gift.

At the height of production, the mill turned out about 50 - 60 rolls of flannel a week.

John Bowen with thanks to Jean Davies, John's great granddaughter

The mill was built by John Bowen, who was an important official in Newcastle Emlyn (the nearest town). He was born in 1847 in Cilrhedyn and baptised at Panteg chapel, which now stands in ruins at the top of the Mamog valley. He worshiped there all his life, becoming a pillar of it's Unitarian congregation, died on 19th August 1913 and is buried at Panteg. His family grave stone can still be clearly seen.

He grew up on Llwyneinon Uchaf farm, which had been in the family since at least 1800. He was the eldest of five brothers and four sisters. At some time between 1861 and 1871, his father moved to his father-in-law's farm Gwndwn Fawr in Trelech, leaving John in charge of Llwyneion Uchaf, together with his sister Rachel, who lived there with him for a while. An authority on farming, he won a medal at the 1875 Pwllheli National Eisteddfod for a farming handbook which he wrote.

John married Rachel Evans, the daughter of another local farmer, on 10th May 1873. Together, they had 14 children and only one died in infancy. The picture below shows all but the eldest, John and Mary, who may have travelled to America when the photograph was taken, and Anna.

Apparently, all the men-folk in the family worshipped at Panteg chapel up the Mamog valley, while the women went to Rehoboth Chapel, in the other direction down the Cych valley. Rehoboth used to hold concerts and recitals. The Carmarthen Journal records Olwen, Elizabeth and Tom taking part in one in May 1911.

John became an important person in Newcastle Emlyn. By 1880 he was the sanitary inspector for the town and had become a member of the Newcastle Emlyn board of guardians, which managed the local workhouse, a large and imposing institution. He chaired the South Wales Sanitary inspectors Association at one time and his reports often appeared in the Carmarthen Journal. He was an active member of the Parochial council, (at various times its Overseer and Clerk), a member of the management board of Newcastle Emlyn School Board (at one time the Chairman) and an active member of Newcastle Emlyn Cooperative Society.

In 1885, John built Godremamog Mill as a woollen factory. No-one lived at the mill at that time, it was filled with huge and noisy machinery. He didn't keep it for very long and, by 1888 he had sold it to H H Davies.

By 1892, he was described as a "farmer, formerly carder and spinner" in a notice of release of trustees. In 1896, he makes several appearance in the Glaspant diary, written in 1896 by Henry Howell of Glaspant, a large house in Capel Iwan, the nearest village. He is always referred to as "John Bowen Llwyneinon" and was clearly busy in local politics. Despite his great standing in the town, and his active membership of the chapel, John had a very human side - he is rumoured to have been "too fond of the beer" and his daughter Anna used to wonder "is the stream of babies never going to stop!"

John Clarke

The mill was bought by John Clarke and his brother Joshua in 1900. John lived at Dangribyn Cottage with his wife Ann and 6 children. He also ran Dangribyn Mill, which was a 5 minute walk upstream from Godremamog Mill. This picture shows Dangrybyn in Victorian times. It was smaller than Godremamog. The building was demolished in the 1950's for its stone and slate.

John died in 1939 and his will split his property between his three surviving children:

- Tom, who lived at Dangrybin

- Mary, who went to Capel Iwan Farm

- Elizabeth, who inherited John's share of Godremamog.

The family graves can be seen in Rehoboth churchyard, just up the hill from the mill. Interestingly, Elizabeth has the surname Clarke on her gravestone, despite having been married to Willie Jones for 46 years. The Clarke family clearly had standing in the area.

Production at the mill

The mill was originally built with two wheels, one to power the machinery and one to provide electricity. Today only one wheel remains and it is a tribute to the skill of Cardigan Engineering Co. that the wheel still turns as smoothly today as it did when it was installed over one hundred years ago.

Three storeys of the mill were filled with huge machines. There was:

· · a scribber (tears or loosens the woollen fibres of the fleece)

· a tenterhook willy (disentangles and mixes the fleece)

· two carding machines (fed with the output from the tenterhook willey. It turns the wool into a fluffy mass which is formed into “rovings” or unspun yarns)

· a twister machine

· a mule with 198 spindles (for spinning the yarn)

· an automatic hoffers feeding machine

· an automatic bobbin machine

· a machine for turning the yarn after warping into the cylinder of the power loom ready for weaving

· · one Hand loom (for weaving the yarn into cloth)

· · two power looms for weaving 28 inch wide and 24 inch wide Welsh flannel ( grey and fawn )

· · a rolling machine

· · a warping machine

The mill survived the massive dip in demand for flannel when the 1st World War ended and uniforms were no longer needed. The price of wool fell from 54 pence to 9 pence in the two years following 1918. However, Godremamog could not also survive the great depression and it ceased production in 1935.

Elizabeth & Willie Jones with thanks to Marion Hughes

Elizabeth Clarke had married William Jones in 1924 when they were both 30. He was a tin worker living in Pontardawe in Swansea at that time. She was still living at Dangrybin factory. The marriage lasted 46 years until Elizabeth died.

In 1938, they converted the top floor of Godremamog Mill into living accommodation and a new phase in Godremamog's history began - as a home. William was soon known by everyone as "Willie Godremamog". Willie and Elizabeth lived together at the mill for over 30 years, together with Elizabeth's uncle Joshua, who owned a share of the mill.

Elizabeth and Willie had one daughter - Tonwen, who is very fondly remembered locally. A lovely lady who could produce a wonderful spread out of nowhere when you visited! She went to Cardigan grammar school and had to board out during the week because the journey was too difficult to do every day. She went on to university and became a teacher. She taught at the same school in Mynachlog-ddu for 40 years. The crown for the Urdd Eistedffod held in Boncath in 2013 was made in her memory, 23 years after she tragically passed away.

Willie was the local postman and walked miles around the valley every day. Boys used race down through the woods, bringing their radio batteries for him to charge up from the wheel so that they could listen to the football - there was no mains electricity in the valley until 1956. You can still see the name "Willie" carved into one of the slate windowsills. This is a photo of him next to the wheel.

Elizabeth died in 1970 while on holiday with her cousin Katie in Torquay. Willie died just a few months later on a cold day in January 1971 when he slipped on an icy rock here at the mill. Tonwen was teaching in Mynachlog-ddu which was too far to look after the mill, so she sold Godremamog and the next chapter began when the mill was converted into holiday accommodation.

Memories from those days - with thanks to Glenda Gough

When I was a little girl in the mid 1940s I used to go with my aunt Hannah Catherine Morgan (Katie), to visit her aunt, Ann Clarke, at Capel Farm Capel Evan near Newcastle Emlyn, where she lived with her husband John.

Quite often we walked from the farm down through the woods to call with Katie’s cousin, Elizabeth Anne Jones (nee Clarke) at Godremamog Mill, Cwmorgan. It had ceased production some years previously and was purely residential. All I can remember is climbing up a flight of stone steps into the living room and chatting with “Lizzie” and her husband William, the local postman. My great uncle Joshua (Evans) was usually there, seated by the fire, but I remember no one else. Joshua had secured a share in the mill in its heyday and, being a bachelor, had stayed on there when he retired.

I do recall Katie telling me that Lizzie’s parents and Joshua had been woollen weavers and had run two mills, that at Godremamog at the confluence of the Mamog and Cych rivers and another, Dangribyn, upstream a mile or so in the Cych Valley. That mill was still working but I have no idea who managed it or if it was still in the ownership of a member of the Clarke or Evans families. On occasions we would walk there to see the finished blankets pegged out to dry on the field above the road.

My parents used to take the fleece from their sheep to Dangribyn and I still have five blankets woven out of that fleece. They are heavy, course, and far too prickly for use on our modern, tender skins so they are confined with moth repellent to a warm dark corner as curiosities.

Although their windowpane pattern is not the most common one in use at the mill, apparently the owners were quite prepared to change their style for special customers, family included. I am certain Dangribyn is their origin as that is where our fleece was always sold, and my mother proudly passed the blankets on to me as heirlooms with that assurance.

Glenda Gough

This photo shows Elizabeth standing in what was then the entrance to the mill. Things are very different today. The steps have gone and you enter the mill through the porch on the floor below. The windows have all been replaced with beautiful hard wood, double glazed windows. The attic has been converted and has velux windows in it. The walls have been re-pointed and, of course, the lower floors are now holiday apartments instead of being filled with redundant weaving machinery.

However, the water wheel still turns as it did in Willie and Elizabeth's time. The river still rushes past the mill. The birds still sing in the trees and Willie's signature can still be seen carved into one of the slate windowsills.

Holidays at the Mill

People have been taking holidays here at the mill since the 1970's. Some people who came as children to the mill in those days have brought their own families here in recent years and we have been able to find the entries in the old Visitor's books made by their parents and grandparents.

It was originally converted in 1971 by Joe & Col Arend. This is how the mill looked at that time. Joe and Col converted it into 6 apartments, added the fire escapes and landscaped the garden by the wheel, which was a vegetable garden in those days.

Joe & Col sold it in 1974 when the conversion was complete.

It was later owned by Ray Robathan, who lived at Mill Lodge in Capel Iwan. Returning guests have very fond memories of playing pool with him in his extension at the lodge. Since then, most owners have lived here at the mill, sharing their home with their guests (we have visitors books from 1977 - today, with a gap from the end of 1994 to 2000):

1986 - Christine and Islwyn (Eddie) Griffiths, who named the apartments Weavers Workshop, Carders Corner, Flannel Factory, Shuttle Storeroom and Bobbin Box. Amongst many improvements, Eddie built the walls protecting the mill from the river.

1995 - Elizabeth Ravens Mrs Ravens did not run the mill as holiday accommodation)

1998 - Keith Cardell and Belinda (Dee) Stokes, who turned it back into holiday acomodation - they improved the drainage and began the refurbishment of the apartments, buying the two beautiful hand-made four poster beds from Tony Woodman who lived in Dangribyn cottage no. 1 and is still local.

2005 - Christine and Samantha Hogarth, who refurbished all the apartments, including new water supplies, reinstated Bobbin Box and Wheel House. Re-named Spinners (Flannel Factory) and Wheel House (Shuttle Storeroom) added the entrance porch, hot tub, pool and BBQ hut, woodland walk and landscaped the gardens, adding lighting to the driveway and wheel garden. in 2013, they purchased Park Villa, which was fully refurbished (new wiring, drainage, plumbing, heating; new kitchen, bathroom and cloakroom, landscaped gardens and hot tub)and opened to its first guests in July 2014. This came with the 2 riverside meadows and Christine and Samantha added a riverside walk which links up to the woodland trail.