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Sep em er' .... L, .
The History of W.H.Owen, Ironmongers, 6 Broad Srreet, B1Jll.TH \VELLS-,
by Petet Henry (h.-I.-en.
My 11r5>1 thought is to explain that I am fi-om Families \vho have been
continuously in business in Builth Tm,vl1 and Dis,'tt'ict lOt' a very long time.
My father's family has been in Builth for L1.e last 170 years.
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at'eas a4,ioining Builth, ofBeulah, Llan\\1rtyd and Abergwesin since long
before the year' 1800
This is refening back to the time ofDavid Jones (1680) of Dugoidy and
'Vauog, who \'vas the benefactor' connected with the building ofthe Chapels of
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Peter Jones of Lh'v)'ndenv v",ere alllar'ge scale sheep fanners and in the
business of supplying V35>1 quantities of ....,;lool to the Government for
manufacturing uniforms tor the military during the Napoleonic Wars
As regards more modenl times, my Or'eat Gnmd:father William Owen
came from Dolfanog, on Lake Talyllyn at the foot ofCader Idris. He \vas a
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must have been quite adventu"tous for he vvorked, and walked, his ....vay tlom
Dolfanog to Newbridge on Wye. He mauied in 1837, a fanners daughter',
Elizabeth Price from Penlan in Nantmel and set to work, beginning \vith tltting
out Chapels .A lot of local Chapels vvere built about this "time.
n"vas not long befor'e he moved to Builth, soon after 1837 ,and
vvas quickly involved in building ".votk He built those large houses in Hay
Road, "The Vie"'...." and others, and later built a house called 'Hazeldene' for
himself in Hav Road, .He carried out a lot ofbuilding

\VOlt all around fue area
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William O\Vel1 had four sons and a daughter, As at1 appt'enticeship task
his four sons built a set of eight cottages, making fuem completely; From the
footings and the dr'ains to the i1nish, making all the doors ,vvindows &1ail:"Cases
_ . . 1
and the together \vith the internal fittings,
co,,\' in het' bar'n in the city ofChicago v/hen the cow kicked and knocked ovet
the oil lamp , setting the bam on tire, At this time Chicago \-vas a Fmntier
town, mOf>lly a very hit'ge shanty town Ofvlooden buildings, in fact, the only
stonebuilt SlIucti.lt'es ivere the 'Water TO\VffS' \vhich were used to
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absu'act drinking water from the Cliicago river. The tire raged,
overwhelming the tiretlghting f\.."rces, The city was completely destroyed, TIle
To\vers' only, left standing. "
TIle Chicago City Authorities "vere deter'mined to rebuild their
city, but they had a great problem, thet'e were not enough builders to carry out
the Vlort to make the city they wanted, They responde(! in a typical

The City Father's put out adver1isments wodd\vide, inviting experienced
building workers to come to Chicago to rebuild the city,
The O\ven saw advertisements and resolved to go,
They set out from Liver'pooL They "vere all expert carpenters, the tirt;1 job my
Grandfather had "vas tixing roof shingles, aftetliVaHls he was those huge
double entry, \vinged ,f>vveeping staircases. His younger brother Thomas \vas
making counters and shelft1ttings for the very large city &'tores.Tlley all had
"york and "vere living in the multistorey lodging houses made for the vvorker-s
in t1e centre of Chicago, near TIle Haymarket , The \'Ilinters were very severe,
The end of 1883-4 \vas very cold.
TIlOusands Vlere unable to vvork; soupkitchens \vere set up and
conditions became e:\1remely bad, Even the carpenters were beginning to be
laid
At the westet'n side ofChicago lay a large factory which vvhich had been
roe-constructed suftlciently enough to enable production to begin again_
It employed a large number' ofpeople, It \'Il3S the" MCCOtn13Ck
Reaper'Vorks"_
It manufactur-ed horsedrawn corn cutting machines for use on the
prairIes_
TIle owner- was Comelious MCCOtnlack who was a very stt-ict employer
lvho demanded a vety hig,h volume ofpr'oduction at lmvest possible (O&i.
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in \Vages offifteen pen:ent. This ,ofcourse, caused 311 upr-oar among the
employees and they resolved to go on strike, America did not recognise Trade
Unions, and a cont1ict was imminent.
What McCormack kne\v , but the Su'iket's did not know, vvas that two
shiploads ofimmignmb from Ea;-,1emEUt-ope had just arrived in Ne".... York; all
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Of course, vvhen the trains arrived, immici;mts \vere all directed to
the Rellpet' whet'e McComUick "'e!comed them, paying the lower
wages.
TIle dismissed worker"s held a meeting in TIle Haymarket on May 4th
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and among them was a 'Velslunan, a Baptist IVlinister. He harangued the crovvd
with zeal and got them going with the HVlyl !L
McCormack had taken the precaution ofcalling on the Police just
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Commander, ordet'ed them to disperse the (1'"o\vd.
A4ioining the platll.1t1il of\vagons, \-vas a small cuI de sac :li"0tl1 lvhich an
object was seen to be t11fo\-vn_ It landed among the Police, and exploded,
hvo Policemen. TIle Policenlen responded inlIuediately, USL.flg fueir
guns, they :tIred into the crO\vd killing hvo people and injuring several more,
the cro\vds in the Haymarket quickly dispersed, The Haymarket Squar-e \vas
very soon emptied_
Captain Schatz ordered a search to be made for hvo men reported to be
seen in the cuI de sac. The search was made tht-ough the a4.ioining streets
sunounding the Haymar'ket \vhere many ofthe \-vot"lal1en \vere lodged_ One man
was reported as being very tall and fair hair"ed and the other short and dark
haired.
TIle police \vere not well organised and in their- search, went do\-vtl one
side of a 51:reet, searching the lodging houses as they went along, and returned
along the other side of the same street. They then sear'ched fue par-allel str"eet
which was back to back with the fit'st street with a nar-r-ow setvice ..'oad
between This enabled the men along one side ofa sh'eet to escape through the
back door into the next par-allel street as the Police sear'ched their- way
along..After" the search was completed the men returned to their lodgings in the
same way.!!!!
The tall fait man was RudolfSchnabel who reported himselfto
the Local Police Station the following day and claimed he thre\N fue bomb_ He
was about 6ft 8 inches tall arId \-vith the build to match_ He lvas told to go a\vay
as he 'vvas not believed. He continued :for several days to call at the Police
station with tlle sarne result.
The shOd dark haired man escaped the Police search in the same
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This man vvas Thomas (}vven \1;;110 caned on his brother
William, \vho lived in the opposite lodging house, TIle ht'other told him to "get
out oftown as quickly as he could" and gave him $37 to help.
Thomas Owen made his vlay to Pittsburgh, Pensylvania whet-e he
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cemetat}i at a place called Homestead, a suburb of Pittsburg.
RudolfSdUlabel made his \-vay to Buenos Aires "vhere he later
admitted he i.'la;; Li.e one vvho actually threw the bomb and that Thomas O\ven
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together in the CuI de sac.
My Grandfather, Henry Owen,vvho "vas in Chicago at this time
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on the Panama Canal, retuming to Builth in the eat'ly 1890's, The other brothers
also Non Union, \vere, John ,and the \Villiam , \-vho gave TIl0mas the $37 'To
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.John returned to Britain and settled in Wallesley Liverpool and
established a building business. William also retumed and lived somewhere
near to Wrexham
Later On his return to BUilth, Hem}' resumed the family building
business, follo\ving his father Vlilliam Owen, and built a number of houses i.n
Gar1h Road in Builth. Henry married a lady ft'om The Pistill Far'm Ne\vbridge
and my father "vas born in 1895.
The other brothers JolUl and William also made their way back
home. They t'eturned to make their homes in Britain. John settled in
Liverpooli'Vallesleyand es1ablished a a building business and t1u-'ived there
and had a large family.
William settled some"vhere near 'Vrexham and also engaged in
the building Trade. He and my father kept in contact, William came to Built11
for t1le funeral ofhis sister !I.'fafy Anne in about the year' 1935 and I remember
him complJmenting my father on making a good job ofre-building the shop in
Broad Street. }\nd also, most impottant1y he gave me a 'half dollar-' ( a half
cro\vn).
My father, William Herrry Owen,\vas trained as a carpenter by
his father,HetltJ, and also did an apprenticeship as a plumber and painter. He
\'laS called up into the .Anny in 1914 and setved in India, retuming in 1919 by
which time my Gt-andfather had died.
On his t'e1:UUl tt-om India my fathet had resumed the family
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in Market SU'eet, soon after coming home, paying him 300 tor t1le goodwill of
the he thnt rvlt Willi2 hnd
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using the customer list he had sold my father tor 300 111
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purchase a premises in Broad Sreet . This is "vhere they really settled dm,vu
and developed the business into a thr-iving shop selling, over time, a very large
r-ange ofgoods_ The principal goods to begin with \vere paints and decorating
materials, pluulbing items, china and and hat-dvvare, as
time ,"vent by the 5tock expanded into, radio, and a very popular- item in the
1930's, gnllnophones and records,and also fumimre _
Later still,continuing the building connection, follo\ving the 1939-1945
war- when a lot ofproperties were in a poor condition, \ve mo\!ed into kitchen
fumiture and tlreplaces_ At the sarne time the local farms Vlere were
encouraged by means ofAgriculmral grants into milk production_
TIlis r-equired that they had proper water- and hot ,"vater systems,
which enabled us to expand the plumbing business to include the domestic
items such as bathrooms and later centt-al heating systems and the popular
Raybum Cookers_
I well r-emember- visiting one particular farm to measure up for a ne""
water supply, this "vas early in the 1950's and the farmer,my father and I
walked acr-oss the tlelds to measure the length ofthe water course ,my fathet
carried with him a thin metal rod which he drove into the ground to tef:.t for ease
of digging_ At one particular- place the rood hit something in the ground with a
distinct metallic: t-ing_ The fanner said 'Oh that must be one ofthe bombs that
the Germans dropped during the war-' _Several times in the war the Genl1an
aircraft on their way to Liverpool jettisoned their bombs on the Eppynt_
This was one that did not explode_We changed the tt-ack ofthe water
course_!
TIle shop in Broad Street continued from the early 1920's until I
retired in1998_ The shop had been open well over 75 years in all.
My father retired in 1960, tiom which date my,"vife and I
continued the business, further increasing the variety ofstock. By no\v \ve had
two sous \vho did rather \vell at school and continued to University, gaining
good Degrees in Engineering_ Philip my eldest son now has his o\'.;'n business
doing reseach projects tOt- manufactut-ers, and, Michael , the younger, is a
consulting Engineer tor an American Intemational Company_
Up to this point everything appeared to be going to plan and the
futur-e looked very bt-ight. However, disa&ter sttuck when my "vite beca.me ill
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At the same time the ""hole stmcture ofmnning a business began
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to change. The rising tide supermarkets begai1 to take eftect. TIle 11rst
sign, \-vas the difficulty ofobtaining s,10ck to sell in the shop" The supermarkets
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businesses "vhe; supplied the retail trade" 111is meant going directly to the
manufactures, by attending various Tr"ade Fairs in Birmingham and London,
and purchasing goods in much larger quantities \vhich meant more Capital was
employed, and physically a more stress,1Ull life style .Someho\v the business
and I survived ,ai1d in fact gre\-v again,
The supetlllarkets themselves were no,v ofter"ing dir"ect
competition even though the nearest were many miles a\vay. The answer lay in
pt"oviding even mote variety, and among other things I could ofter a technical
service by attending to maintainance of oil tired appliances, this I was already
ptoviding with the oil t1red heating boilers and the Rayburn cookers to quite a
large number ofthe fanns ",,,,here I had installed them. Time was passing very
quickly, but I seemed to be una"vare of it ,ho\vever the staff I employed were
quite concerned and wor"ried as the shop trade \vas being overtaken by the
'eAiemal lobs' Ii,vas c311ying out"
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}\t this time there was a 'depression' taking place Ul the retail tradeand
many shops were reporting a drop in sales and finding difficulty Ul coping with
a drop in turnover" The Ladies \vho \-'lorked tor" me wai1ted me to 'take it easy'
as they thought it was 'too much for me at my 'age'.
At tIrst I dismissed the thought, but later changed my mind, although the
business \-vas turning over quite well .It occurred to me that were
becoming very diftlcult to sell and that I might not have a buyer" and I was
becoming older. I was now 72 years old and consulted my Accountant, "vho
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unknown to me was looking fot" a larger pt"emises.
I \vas most sur"pr"ised when he made me an offer; I accepted his offer" ,
and sold in 1998" n!!
So since 1998 I have joined the t"anks ofthe 'RETIRED' and to occupy
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111)''''C1l. HdVt;; 1<11'<t;;11 LV \'1",U11It5 WC 11IV1'= CJLVU... pml'" Ult;; liliVllU. dVVUl
that at another time perhaps.