This archive had been held on deposit with West Glamorgan Archives Service for more than twenty years and, as a rare survival of engineering drawings from the early period of the industrial revolution, constituted one of our most important collections from both a UK and a Welsh national perspective.
The foundry at Neath Abbey was built in 1792 by the Cornish Quaker firm of Fox & Co., and continued in business until 1885. Its period of operation coincided with the opening up of the South Wales Coalfield and the growth of industry in South Wales. The foundry produced a variety of products, including railway locomotives, engines for ships, machinery for gas works and pumping and winding engines for mines.
The collection consists of about 8,000 engineering drawings, which were produced as working drawings from which the commissioned machinery was made. This collection is of high importance not just to Wales and the UK, but more generally. The ironworks produced machinery for a worldwide client base: orders came in not only from across Wales and England, but as far away as South America, and the orders for overseas clients reflect the growth of industry and mining technology overseas.
