Brynmawr Furniture

A small group of Quakers arrived in Brynmawr in 1928–9 intending to provide relief supplies and encourage social work. The group was led by Peter Scott, who began developing ways to encourage industries and employment. These were at first incorporated as Brynmawr and Clydach Valleys Ltd and included knitting, Welsh tweed, boot-making and furniture-making in a former boot factory.

In time it emerged that only boot-making and furniture manufacturing could provide sustainable employment for workers, the former because of retained local knowledge and the latter because of the inspirational leadership of Paul Matt.

Items were made to order in small batches, mostly with laminated panels slotting into a solid wood framework. A large fret saw was used to cut solid wood items like chair legs then the frame rebates were cut on a circular saw. The panels were added and the edges bevelled with a circular saw.

At the time it was unusual to use laminated plywood as it was considered low quality, but Paul Matt believed that using a framework made them more secure.

Imported oak was regularly used as there were excess supplies available in Cardiff and later a high quality laminated Australian walnut was acquired for use. Finished items were then finished with a hard wax.

Finished items were relatively expensive and sold in department stores such as David Morgan in Cardiff and at specialist exhibitions. Many of the designs used Welsh placenames, including the Cwmbran chest, Llanelli table and the Cwm-du chair, and the furniture was particularly popular with Welsh professional and academic customers.