By Rafe Calder
The waterwheel at Melin Tregwynt is inside the building. That is the unusual part. It is an iron overshot wheel, likely from the late nineteenth century, according to Wikipedia’s entry on the mill. It once drove hammers for fulling cloth, and later powered carding engines and looms through leather belts. It is still functional, Wikipedia says, but it no longer powers any machinery.
That wheel is a fair summary of the place. Old equipment, kept. New equipment, added. A craft adjusted carefully, not replaced.
The valley
Melin Tregwynt lies in a wooded valley close to the Pembrokeshire coast, off the Pembrokeshire Coast Path, a short way from Fishguard, according to the mill’s own site and the Wales.com listing. A local walking company calls it the Abermawr valley. The mill gives its address as Castlemorris, near Haverfordwest. Wikipedia places the hamlet of Tregwynt in Granston parish, on the Pencaer peninsula. The buildings are whitewashed stone, and the mill is Grade II listed.
Dates for the building vary by source, so here they are. Several listings, including Wales.com and the British Wool directory, say weaving here goes back to the seventeenth century. The mill’s own site says weaving was first recorded in the 1841 census. Wikipedia says a corn mill was built on the site in July 1819 and converted into a woollen mill later in the nineteenth century. We cannot reconcile these, and we are not choosing between them.
A family bought it in 1912
Henry Griffiths bought the mill in 1912. Wikipedia gives the price as £760 and the month as May, and Wales.com says he bought it at auction. His son Howard took over in the 1950s. Henry’s grandson Eifion Griffiths, who had trained as an architect, came back to work with his father in 1979. The mill marked a hundred years as a family business in 2012.
In 2022 the mill became an Employee Ownership Trust. The mill says the structure is meant to protect skills and jobs and to safeguard its heritage.
Two layers, one cloth
What Tregwynt weaves is double cloth. Two layers of cloth are woven together at the same time, the Wales.com listing explains, using a technique that dates from the eighteenth century, to make a durable fabric with bold patterns. The mill says its double cloth designs are unique to it and are woven only in Pembrokeshire.
The looms have changed. The mill says modern rapier looms have replaced its original flying shuttle looms. Wikipedia notes that looms are warped by hand, knots are tied by hand and blankets are hand finished, and that carding and spinning are now outsourced.
The wool
Where the wool comes from is told slightly differently by different sources. Wales.com says it comes from nearby farms in West Wales. The British Wool directory says the mill sources from local Welsh farmers, and that in 2025 it launched a product line made with 100 per cent Welsh wool. A local walking company’s guide says the wool comes from free-roaming sheep in the Cambrian Mountains, through the Cambrian Wool Initiative, and names the Welsh Mule breed. That last detail comes from a third party, not the mill, so take it as indicative.
The older economy was different. According to Wales.com, the mill once worked on barter, and one recorded trade saw a farmer swap a motorcycle for a suit.
What it makes
Blankets, throws and cushions come first, followed by upholstery, clothing, accessories and bags. The mill lists colours from aqua and blue through navy, plum, spice and yellow, plus natural and grey.
Some of its work has been very large. In 2008, Wikipedia says, the mill wove the world’s largest picnic blanket, for Waitrose, which earned a Guinness World Record. More recently the mill has worked with the designer JW Anderson, and it launched a collection called St David’s Cross Rhostir in 2024. A visit from the Princess of Wales in 2024 is also recorded on the mill’s site.
Scale and recognition
The mill is small, but it has not been invisible. Wikipedia’s entry cites a figure from 1997, when the mill was weaving about two miles, or 3.2 kilometres, of cloth a month. That figure is nearly thirty years old and we do not know today’s output. The same entry records the mill showing at the Heal’s London Design Festival in 2012 and at the Milan Furniture Fair in 2013, and a BBC Two Wales broadcast about it in 2012. The Wales.com listing adds that its products go to customers in Japan and Europe, among other places, and furnish luxury hotels.
Visiting
According to the mill and the local walking guide, there is a shop, a café serving afternoon tea with Welsh cakes and bara brith, and a working mill where you can see the looms. The walking guide also mentions a restored water wheel on show in the valley. Opening times and what you can see change through the year, and we have not confirmed current ones, so ring ahead. The Pembrokeshire Coast Path runs close by, which makes a decent walk before or after.
What to look for
Ask which part of the work is done in the building and which is done elsewhere. Ask where the wool came from this season. Ask to see a double cloth up close, and have the maker show you the two layers.
And find the waterwheel, if it is on show.
We follow places like this first and build shelves second. Roam first. Shop later.