Llanidloes
From wool to leather
Following the almost total collapse of the Montgomeryshire flannel industry, the Spring Mills factory was purchased in 1906 for conversion into a tannery.
The buyer was Edward Hamer, a very successful businessman who specialised in Welsh mutton and held the royal warrant. The "Municipal History of Llanidloes" published in 1908 noted that "His industry has now become so extensive that it is able to supply a large portion of the British aristocracy, and a special van is employed on the railway between Llanidloes and the Metropolis".
Tannery at the
former flannel factory
at Spring Mills
Photograph by
kind permission of
Llanidloes Museum
Another son, George Frederick Hamer, purchased another former flannel mill, the Cambrian Factory, in 1931 for conversion to the leather trade
