In its present form, Gwar-ffrwd woollen mill was founded in 1884 by Thomas Jones and continued to be owned by the Jones family during its working life. The mill was water-powered, supplemented by a diesel engine from 1942. In 1948 the mill machinery is said to have included two looms, carding machine, hand mule, an old weft winder, a hand winder and a homemade fulling machine.
Output of the mill was mainly flannel and tweed, although by 1947 it was limited to knitting yarn. Following a flood in 1948 production declined rapidly and had ceased altogether by 1952.
In 1965 the mill was bought by Margaret Bide, who restored the mill between 1987 and 1992 and adopted the name Glanffrwd Mill, after the name of the 18th century fulling mill on the site. Restoration involved renewing the roof, insertion of new windows, removal of the original cobbled floor and replacing it with slate slabs (mostly re-used and the majority from Stradmore Farm, Cenarth), and reconstructing the first floor with new stairs, floorboards and joists. Some of the machinery belongs to the Jones period of woollen manufacture, whereas other items, such as the spinning jack on the first floor, were brought from elsewhere.
The mill is a 2-storey 3-window range of rubble stone with larger quoins, brick dressings, and a renewed slate roof. The waterwheel is detached from the right-hand gable end, where there is a single first-floor window similar to the front, replacing a former first-floor doorway.
The wheel is within a rebuilt stone-lined wheelpit and is a cast iron overshot wheel cast by Ellis Brothers of Aberystwyth, restored by the Outlane Engineering Company of Huddersfield. In the left-hand gable end is an external stone stairway added in the late 20th century with re-used materials, leading to a first-floor doorway, which is also a modern insertion using salvaged bricks for the cambered head.
The mill has machinery on both floors. In the ground floor is the carding machinery, in the form of a picker cast by Rhodes & Son of Hope Foundry, Leeds, a scriber and a condenser, which were made c1860 and bought for the mill in 1884. All of this machinery has been restored. In the upper storey is a loom for weaving rugs, of unknown provenance, and a spinning jack brought from a woollen mill in Aberarth.
The mill has been listed for its special architectural and historic interest as a surviving 19th century building associated with an important rural industry in Wales, which retains some well-restored but original machinery and waterwheel.
See also the adjacent mill house and other related buildings in Pentrefelin.
Source: Cadw listng description, 2020.