Cefn Mawr

Crane Street, Cefn. c1900

Cefn Mawr. c1950

Cefn Mawr. c1950

Cefn Mawr from Acrefair

Pont Newydd, Cefn.

The Graesser family. In 1867 Robert Ferdinand Graesser, an industrial chemist from Obermosel in Saxony, established a chemical works at Plas Kynaston, Cefn to extract paraffin oil and paraffin wax from the local shale. The company later expanded into the production of coal tar, and carbolic acid (phenol). The site soon became the world's leading producer of phenol. In 1919 the US chemical company Monsanto entered into a partnership with Graesser's chemical works to produce vanillin, salicylic acid, aspirin, and later rubber processing chemicals. The site was later operated by Flexsys, a subsidiary of Solutia, but production ceased in 2010.

(Contributed by Peter Chadwick)

A factory somewhere in Cefn, possibly Graesser's "Oil Works"?

(Contributed by Peter Chadwick)