By Carol Elliott
By the middle of the nineteenth century shipbuilding had become an important industry along the Neyland waterfront. The most influential shipbuilder of the period was James Gaddarn (1822–1890), whose yard at Limpin Hill grew to become one of the largest private shipyards on the Milford Haven waterway. At the height of the shipyard’s activity, it is reported that around 200 men were employed, including shipwrights, apprentices, and sawyers working in the construction of vessels. A major employer in Neyland.
James Gaddarn had been born in the parish of Llanstadwell, the son of William and Martha Gaddarn. Unlike many later shipbuilding families, his father had no maritime background and worked as a shoemaker and labourer. James himself entered the shipbuilding trade through employment at the Royal Dockyard at Pembroke Dock, where he trained as a shipwright and gained the skills that would later allow him to establish his own yard.
By the early 1850s Gaddarn had founded his own shipyard at Limpin Hill in Neyland, near the present Promenade. The yard expanded rapidly, with sheds, workshops and launching stocks constructed along the shoreline. At its peak the yard employed around two hundred men, including shipwrights, apprentices and labourers. Over the following decades a succession of schooners, clipper ships and steam vessels were launched from the yard, making Neyland a recognised centre of shipbuilding on the Milford Haven waterway.
Among the vessels built there were the schooners Elizabeth and Martha and Mary, the brigantine Sylph, and later the larger clipper ships Cardiganshire, Neyland, and Caernarvonshire. One of the best known vessels from the yard was the 457-ton barquentine G. I. Jones, launched in 1867. These ships traded widely around Britain and beyond, carrying cargo between ports across the Irish Sea and further afield.
During the 1870s the shipbuilding industry began to change rapidly as steamships and larger industrial yards replaced the smaller traditional shipyards that had once dominated the Haven. As Gaddarn’s own shipbuilding activities declined, the future of the Limpin Hill yard became uncertain.
At this point another local shipbuilder emerged who would carry the industry forward. Joshua Mills (1843–1920) had grown up in the district and had followed his father into the maritime trades. His father, William Mills, worked as a ship’s carpenter, either at the Pembroke Dock Royal Dockyard or at Gaddarn’s yard in Neyland. Joshua therefore grew up surrounded by the shipbuilding industry and learned the same craft.
In 1873, Mills became foreman of the Pembroke Dock Co-operative Shipbuilding Company, where James Gaddarn himself served as technical manager. The two men therefore worked closely together in the local shipbuilding trade.
Joshua Mills had been born in Walton West and moved to Neyland with his family as a child, shortly after the railway arrived in the town in 1856. He learned the trade of ship’s carpenter from his father and later became involved in shipbuilding at the Limpin Hill yard. In 1875 he married Mary Gaddarn, the niece of James Gaddarn, linking the two families that had dominated shipbuilding in Neyland. This marriage created a direct link between the two shipbuilding families and effectively tied the future of the Neyland shipyard to the next generation.
When the Pembroke Dock Co-operative Shipbuilding Company collapsed in 1879, Mills was able to take over operations at the Limpin Hill shipyard, continuing the work that Gaddarn had begun. Under Mills the yard remained active for several more years and produced a number of vessels, many of which were named after members of his family.
Among the ships built by Mills were the schooners Percy, Howard, Alice May, Edith Maud, Bertie Mills, and Mary Mills, the last of these being the largest vessel constructed under his direction. These ships continued the tradition of coastal and international trading vessels built along the Neyland shoreline.
In this way the shipbuilding tradition passed directly from the Gaddarn family to the Mills family, not only through shared work in the shipyards but also through marriage. The link between the two families ensured that shipbuilding continued in Neyland even after the decline of Gaddarn’s original enterprise.
Joshua Mills remained active in the trade into the late nineteenth century and continued shipbuilding and repair work along the Neyland waterfront. However, by this time the nature of shipbuilding was changing rapidly. Larger iron and steel ships required industrial dockyards and heavy engineering facilities that small private yards could not provide.
As ship construction increasingly concentrated at the Royal Dockyard at Pembroke Dock, the traditional shipyards of Neyland gradually disappeared. When Joshua Mills died in 1920, the last of Neyland’s private shipbuilders had passed away, bringing to an end a tradition that had lasted for generations.
Oak Villa – A Link to Neyland’s Shipbuilding Past
Oak Villa was the home of Joshua Mills (1843–1920), as we have seen, he was the last major private shipbuilder in Neyland. Oak Villa stood close to the waterfront near the Limpin Hill shipyard, the site where shipbuilding had been carried on earlier by James Gaddarn. Because of its association with these two shipbuilding families, Oak Villa became closely linked with the final phase of Neyland’s local shipbuilding industry.
A Shipbuilder’s Residence
By the late nineteenth century Mills had become the principal shipbuilder in the town. Oak Villa was built as his family residence during this period, reflecting his standing within the local community and his role as the last major shipbuilder on the Neyland waterfront.
The End of the Shipyards
Shipbuilding at Neyland gradually declined as the industry shifted toward larger industrial dockyards. Across Milford Haven, the Royal Dockyard at Pembroke Dock was capable of building larger iron and steel ships, while the smaller private yards along the Neyland shoreline struggled to compete.
Although Mills continued building and repairing vessels for some years, the scale of activity gradually reduced. When Joshua Mills died at Oak Villa on 4 March 1920, aged seventy-six, the era of locally owned shipyards in Neyland effectively came to an end. His funeral at Neyland cemetery was attended by many of the town’s leading figures, reflecting the respect he held within the community.
Legacy
Today Oak Villa stands as a reminder of the period when shipbuilding was an important industry in Neyland. From nearby launching places along the shoreline, vessels built by the Gaddarn and Mills families sailed to ports around Britain and beyond. The house therefore represents the final chapter in the long history of shipbuilding on this part of the Milford Haven waterway. And today, the legacy of these shipbuilding families survives in the history of the town, in local place-names such as Gaddarn’s Reach, and in the records of the ships that once sailed from these shores of Milford Haven.