Nantgarw Chinaworks Museum

The Nantgarw Chinaworks Museum sits beside the Glamorganshire Canal in the Taff valley, eight miles north of Cardiff. The site once housed a porcelain factory founded in 1813 by William Billingsley and Samuel Walker. Their soft-paste porcelain became famous for its brilliant whiteness and delicate overglaze flowers. The works relied on clay brought by barge from Cornwall and used a water-powered mill to grind bone for the paste. High firing losses nearly ruined the business before William Weston Young invested heavily to keep it alive. The museum preserves the story of a formula that produced some of Britain’s finest porcelain between 1817 and 1820. After Billingsley and Walker left for Coalport, Young salvaged thousands of unfired pieces and invited Thomas Pardoe to decorate them. Pardoe’s floral designs and the London decorators who followed made Nantgarw pieces highly prized. The factory later turned to earthenware, stoneware and clay pipes until it closed in 1920. Visitors find the restored pottery with its original kiln and waterwheel still in place. Display cases hold surviving porcelain marked ‘NANTGARW’ and examples of later earthenware. A working studio reproduces the lost recipe, turning out limited runs of soft-paste porcelain. The canal-side setting and riverside path offer quiet views across the valley.