The frozen in time family business still going strong after 200 years

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Just a stone’s throw away from one of Cardiff’s busiest roads is a quaint and idyllic business that has largely been frozen in time for hundreds of years. Rumney Pottery on Newport Road has been in the same family for 200 years and has recently been taken over by Martyn Giles following the death of his father Robert, who ran it into his 80s.

The eighth generation of the Giles clan to take the reins of the historic business, Martyn said he is having to re-learn much of the trade as he carries on his father’s work. “My father was so passionate about this place,” the 54-year-old said. ” He was like a barnacle as he wouldn’t let go. He was here seven days a week from 8am right up until his 80s. He stopped suddenly when he became ill a few months before his death and now I’ve been thrown in the deep and taken it over.”




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Walking around the showroom and workshops, there are countless nods to the work of Martyn’s father and grandfather Ernie, as well as the many others who worked here before them. There is an old potter’s wheel that hasn’t been touched in decades with a 1960s calendar hanging above it and an old bottle kiln that likely hasn’t been used since the 1930s. There are also umpteen examples of beautifully crafted jugs, crockery and commemorative plates dotted around the place, with many older than Martyn himself.

Although the romantic white stone pottery and attached house likely date back to the 1830s, family legend has it that the site has been used for pottery since Roman times. Martyn said: “My father was told that there is a possibility that its foundations go back to Roman times. Just up on the hill nearby is the remains of an old Roman fortress. In ’80s we had a mains sewer pipe put through the ground and when they dug a 12 feet trench they found an old culvert which looked like a typical Roman drain.

“The pottery was attached to this culvert which went to the river. You can build a pottery anywhere but here was the perfect location. You had the river for importing and exporting and the supply of clay and then to fire the kilns you had access to coal.”

Martyn Giles who has taken over the Rumney Pottery which has been in his family for 200 years (Image: John Myers)
Robert Giles aged 68 (Image: Picture : Liz Pearce)

In generations gone by, Martyn said there would have been a large workforce manning the pottery, since the job once required more physical labour than it does today. He explained that there would also have been a higher demand for pottery since supermarkets hadn’t been invented yet. He said: “Mostly family members would work here. The men would make the pots and do a lot of the physical labour and then the women would do decorative work. It needed a big labour force to fill the big bottle kiln, which would fire for a good three days and three nights.”

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