Village Trades - Tanning, Smithy

Extracted from Efailwen to Whitland - Vol 1
Tanning
There were once two tanneries in the parish, one at Cwmmiles (the property of the Thomas family which remained open until the 1930s) and the other north at Llwynrhiw, midway between Pantycaws and Backsylw, where the Hughes family operated over a few generations.
The writter recalls that there would be stacks of bark at Cwmmiles, and many pits containing chemicals with noxious smells.
Skins would first be cleaned in water to remove any blood and dirt. Then in lime and water until the ipper side of the skin changed.
Normally the hair that was removed would be given to plasterers.
Bark would have been collected in the late spring - the skins were then washed in solutions of bark and water, then moved to another pt with a stronger bark solution. It was a slow process that could take a few years - also the drying was very slow.
The thickest leather would be used for soles, with the thinnest for the boot uppers - with the medium used for harnesses. Horse saddles were normally made oif pig skin.

Blacksmiths
Of the local worthies the name 'Twm Gof o Login' is given a certain priority (Thomas Morris). He probably started to make metal ploughes in the 1830s - being among the first in the county of Carmarthenshire to do so.
He seems to have brought iron from Cwmdwyfa Iron Works near Carmarthen. One of the ploughes he made was used 1937 when it was donated to the Folk Museum at St Fagans.
Before then most of the plough was made of wood - which involved much co-operatiom between the carpenter and smith.
In the 19th century there was a smithy at Penygraig.