David Davies at Broneirion with his gundog

Description

David Davies was a remarkable man, born and bred in Montgomeryshire, in the 19th century. He left school at the age of eleven to assist his father as a farmer and sawyer. It was hard, unremitting work from an early age. It laid the foundation of a career that brought him immense wealth and influence.
He was born in 1818 at Draintewion, a small hillside tenement in Llandinam. When his father died in 1846, David became responsible for the family business. He began to speculate, undertaking contracts to build roads, bridges and railways, along with his farming business. He built several railways and became joint owner. In 1865, he turned his attention from railways to coal mining and after a few years, his success, enabled him to form The Ocean Coal Company. At the time, the Marquis of Bute held the monopoly on the means of transport and export of coal. David Davies broke the monopoly, building a new dock at Barry Island connected to his coalmines in the Rhondda Valley, with a railway 27 miles in length.
He was the Liberal MP for Cardigan, from 1874 to 1885. His nicknames were ‛Top Sawyer’ and ‛Davies the Ocean’
David Davies: sawyer, farmer, industrialist, benefactor, politician, & humble son of Llandinam

A strict Calvinistic Methodist, he generously donated to churches and education. He built at his own expense the Board School and teacher’s residence in Llandinam. Broneirion, built by him in 1864, was the family home and he died there in 1890.