Three young men stand in line before a row of tanks in the bay of a large brick-arched chimney, fitted with wooden planks to control the airflow, which extracts process fumes. The men wear collarless shirts and rolled-up sleeves, rough leather aprons over tightly fitting trousers and boots. The two ‘flankers’ don simple caps. Their workstation or stow consists of a series of cast iron pots, set into brick and heated from below by coal fires. Process materials spill over the sides. The workflow moves from right to left. At the first station the tinman takes a 20" × 14" wrought iron sheet (previously rolled, pickled and annealed) and dips it into a pot of molten grease to remove moisture. Using tongs he transfers the sheet to a pot of molten tin for an initial coating after which the washman on his left plunges the sheet into a second pot of molten tin to complete the alloying process. He then withdraws the sheet, wipes both sides with a hemp brush and dips the sheet into a smaller pot of pure tin to erase brush marks. Finally, the third man or riser feeds the sheet through rollers immersed in heated grease to capture any excess tin and places the sheet in the rack on his left to cool. The riser looks knowingly at a bonneted young woman (branner) in a plain pale, collarless dress as she moves the sheets one at a time from the rack to the bran tub behind her, while the smiling washman engages in friendly banter. Elsewhere, teams of women use bran to remove residual grease and to polish the sheets by hand. In the foreground a thoroughly domesticated cat looks contentedly out of the picture. On the side of the bran tub is the artist’s monogram THT (Figure 1).
© Amgueddfa Cymru – National Museum Wales.
Thomas Henry Thomas monogram.
Thomas Henry Thomas, a fierce champion of Welsh cultural heritage, has captured the Trefforest workers’ collective spirit, dedication and dignity [1] in this fine pen and ink watercolour drawing (15×15cm), one of 12 he created for a set of tiles, later manufactured under his supervision (Beth McIntyre, National Museum of Wales). They were exhibited at the Cardiff Fine Arts and Industries Exhibition (1881) to raise funds for Cardiff Library, which they were destined to adorn [2].
Thomas was born in Pontypool (1839) and grew up at nearby Penygarn, where his father was President of the local Baptist College [3]. He studied at the Royal Academy, London, and specialized in portraiture, design and book illustrations. He worked in London as an artist for The Graphic, a weekly illustrated newspaper but eventually settled in Cardiff, where he stayed for the rest of his life [4]. His widespread interests included art, music, poetry, natural history and geology—a dinosaur footprint fossil he discovered bears his name—Brontozoum Thomasii. He was a noted supporter and preserver of Welsh art and his collection of antiquities and folk memorabilia became a key element of St. Fagan’s Natural History Museum, Cardiff. He also bequeathed over 1000 prints, drawings and watercolours to the National Museum of Wales, where he was a Governor and one of its founding fathers [4].
Major John Hanbury is credited with introducing ‘modern’ tinplating to Wales (Pontypool) ca. 1704 [5]. By 1890 there were some 25000 people working in 110 facilities creating a virtual world monopoly and a continuing source of employment and community focus for families in the region. However, during the first half of the 20th century US industrial expansion and the development of electrolytic plating saw Welsh supremacy gradually eroded [6,7]. Opened in 1794 and once the biggest plant in Britain, Trefforest Tinworks continued in production till World War II. Now Tata’s Trostre factory near Llanelli is the only industrial scale tinplate facility in Wales, employing around 700 workers [8]. Worldwide tin consumption reached a peak of 370000 tonnes (2007)—17% as tinplate metal packaging for the food and drinks, aerosol and paint industries [9]. Thomas died in his sleep from a heart attack 12 years before the National Museum officially opened (1927) but he would have been immensely proud to see the pair of dragons adorning Cardiff’s prestigious neo-classical building and the Ddraig Goch [10] flag flying high above it. Meanwhile, his beautiful watercolours with their documentary realism remain the only visual record of 19th century Welsh tinplating, prior to the sweeping changes that transformed and ultimately decimated this iconic industry.
Acknowledgements
My thanks to SOM stalwart David Williams who recommended this artist; Beth McIntyre, Curator Prints and Drawings at the National Museum Wales, Cardiff, who gave me access to the original watercolours and provided much additional information; and Robert Protheroe Jones, Principal Curator of Industry, National Waterfront Museum, Swansea, for extensive technical advice about the Welsh Tin Plating industry.
References
