A photo of Howard Elkington and his wife Anne Elizabeth Armstrong
and some of their eleven children.
A cousin called Thomas Richards Elkington of Suffolk had quite a
large family and many of them bore the same names the children
of Howard and Anne.

Plas Newydd, was a large house with 29 Acres of land attached to it and lay along the road from Kidwelly to Llanelly in the Parish of Pembrey, Carmarthen. On the ground floor there was an entrance hall with Tasselated floor and with a solid oak staircase leading from there to the first floor. There was also an inner hall, a library with round bay window and french window leading out to a verandah. The dining room also had a window which led onto the veranda. There was also a morning room with a round bay window and a glass conservatory with entrance from the house including a vinery.

Also there was the butler's pantry which was described as (burglar proof), a clothes closet. The principal staircase lead from the hall to the first floor and there was also a back staircase, housekeepers room, lamp room, servant's hall, kitchen with large range, scullery, dairy, and larder, outside sloping shed, coal house, oil shed, and 3 cellars in the basement.

The first floor, of which consisted of a drawing room, 6 bedrooms, bathroom, 2 W.C.'s, and a housemaids cupboard and quite a modern plumbing arrangement with two W.C.'s. There were also 8 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms and a W.C. on the second floor where it was usual to sleep the servants and probably the nursery and schoolroom would have been.

There were extensive outbuildings including, a stable with 4 stalls and loose box, a laundry, an ironing room, 2 W.C.'s, fruit room with loft over and a open shed probably for carriages.

Also there were large gardens outside the house which were well laid out and planned with a summer house, a large tennis court, a rockery and figure fountains. A glass conservatory stood in the garden with a potting shed and boiler house, heating both houses.

In 1881 Howard employed

Sarah Jane Lewis

and Six Maidservants

Mary Edwards

Margaret Emma Bennett

Alla Vickery

Louisa Thomas

Josephine Rian

Mary Williams

Governess Aged 23

Aged 46

Aged 16

Aged 27

Aged 19

Aged 30

Aged 30

Carmarthen, Carmarthen;

Haverford West;

Kemerton, Gloucester;

Buckland, Somerset;

Briton Ferry, Glamorgan;

Nantes, France;

Pembrey, Carmarthen.

There was a lodge to this house and the man living in it was a Coachman probably to Howard and his family.

PEMBURY HOUSE

Situated on the road from Burry Port to Pembrey, north of Pembrey Old Harbour. Pembrey House was built by Edward Gaunt in 1820 where he lived until his mysterious departure in 1842 after his bankruptcy.

This was the home of Howard's brother, James Balleney Elkington. James was married to Margaret Meredith born in 1834 in Warwickshire and married in 1854 at Harbonne, Warwickshire. They had two sons, George Meredith born in Dell Cottage in 1863 and James Llewellyn born in 1875 in Brighton, Sussex. Sadly Margaret died in 1886 when her youngest son was only 11 years old. In 1888, he secondly married Emily Jane Hilbers of Godstone, whose father was a J.P but they had no children.

Margaret is remembered in St. Mary's at Burry Port on a plaque.

Goodig [Goodwg]

Stands on a hillside, between Burry Port and LLanelli, overlooking the Burry estuary. Originally a farm, it was transformed into a small attractive house towards the end of the 18th century. It was not thought to have been an Elkington home, but Howard's fourth child, Ernest Howard Armstrong Elkington was born there.

Josiah Mason (1795-1881).

Josiah Mason was a rather strange character and was in partnership with George Richards Elkington of Birmingham Josiah was born in Kidderminster in 1795. His father and grandfather were both weavers, although the grandfather displayed some of the ingenuity as an inventor and an expert at repairing machinery. The family were not well off and Josiah had little education. However he taught himself to write, and with the proceeds of a business as a door to door salesman which he took up at eight years old, he sold bread, fruit and vegetables With this money, he was able to buy himself books on science, theology and history, and to enrol at the local Unitarian Sunday school. He married his cousin Anne Griffiths.

In 1842 Josiah Mason took a one-third share in the pioneering electroplating business of H & G. R. Elkington, bringing about great changes which im[roved the fortunes of the company. . For some reason, several years later Mason sold his pen making business to George Elkington and for a number of years the small number of pens the company sold in its own name were stamped 'G R Elkington, Birmingham'. Josiah Mason was knighted in 1782 and died in 1881, aged 86. His wife of 52 years, Annie, had died in 1870, aged 78. Even after he had given almost £500,000 to his various charitable projects, his estate was still worth £56,000.

Since copper forms the base of electroplated ware, Elkington & Mason required a substantial supply of the metal. For this purpose they built a copper smelting works, complete with workers' houses, school and church, at Burry Port near Llanelli in south Wales.

Large ships sailed from Llanelli and Swansea and other nearby ports taking coal out to the West Coast of America to Patagonia and bringing home Copper for the local smelting works. This was, to say the least a dangerous and difficult journey for it involved sailing round the Horn and many ships were lost at sea or wrecked off this coast. It can be seen from records that quite a few Welshmen left Wales and travelled to South America probably to work with the Copper. Many sailing ships had their bows fortified with Copper and again this was provided by Elkington & Mason.

Howard was joined in Wales by his sister Emma Elizabeth Elkington and her husband Apsley Smith who she had married on 1 November 1849 at Northfields, nr. Birmingham. They moved there with their baby daughter Rose Emma, who sadly died 5 months into her marriage. Another child was born in Wales, her name was Mabel and she arrived in 1857. 3 more children followed but they were born in Warwickshire. The family finally moved to London.

Apsley Smith, whose father Benjamin Smith worked for Elkington & Co. in London, was a well liked man. He was a manager of the company in charge of their coal interests and was a teetotaller. He was a religious man who never used unseemly language and was always ready to help any workman in difficulty.

Sometime after the birth of his ninth child, Daisy Elfreda in 1883, Howard and his nine children moved to Leeswood Hall near Mold, in Flintshire, North Wales. Here his last two children were born. In 1898 aged 63. Howard died and his wife moved to Kinsale Hall on the North Wales Coast with the children who still remained at home. Although he died at Leeswood Hall, he was buried in Pembrey Church, Carmarthenshire on 3rd January 1899, the Church which the Elkington family had endowed and where there are still memorials to them.

Howard had always kept a large number of servants as we saw from the census in Pembrey. When he moved to Leeswood he took on a whole new staff

Melinda S. BOURNE

Alexander RADWAW

Cathering JONES

Kate MILLINGTON

Kate THOMAS

Janet JONES

Beatrice A. TYRRELL

George H. FROST

Charles H. ROSSINGTON

Charlote CORFIELD

Lucy E. TALLIS

Governess

Ser. S

Ser. S

Ser. S

Ser. S

Ser. S

Ser. S

Ser. S

Ser. S

Ser. S

Ser. S

34

45

45

19

20

22

20

16

20

43

39

Governess

Butler

Cook

Kitchen Maid

Under Nurse

Schoolroom Maid

Under Housemaid

Page Boy

Groom

Nurse

Housemaid

Straford, Essex

Galgicia, Poland

Dudleston, Salop

Wrexham, Denbs

Chester, Cheshire

Penmaenmawr, Caernarvon

Taunton, Gloucestershire

Wroxton, Oxford

Long Clawson, Leciestershire

Lydburn North, Salop

Warwick, Birmingham

HOWARD MEMORIES

St. Mary's Church Burry Port [Pembrey Parish] was erected at the cost of the Elkington family. Opened December 9th 1877 and Consecrated May 3rd 1903. There is a memorial which says:

This Tablet is erected in grateful Recognition to

Frederick, James Bellamy[Balleney], Alfred, Howard and Hyla Elkington

For their generosity in presenting

This Church as a free gift to the

Parish of Pembrey

Opened December 9th 1877 St. Mary's Burry Port. Consecrated May 3rd 1903

There is another Elkington memorial in the form of a copper plaque inserted in the left wall of the chancel.

To The Glory of God

And in Loving Memory of

James Balleny Elkington

And Margaret Elkington [his wife]

This tablet is erected by their Sons

George Meredith Elkington and

James Llewellyn Meredith Elkington

1908

1827, the 50th Jubilee Year

~~~o0o~~~