Cylchgronau Cymru

JAMES HAMER, 1844 According to the Enumerator's Returns of the Census for 1861, James Hamer, born in Llanidloes, was a seventeen year old printer and compositor, living at 332 Great Oak Street. In the returns of the Census for 1871, he was living at Old Vicarage, Penygraig. He was the son of Meredith and Ann Hamer and was born in Great Oak Street, Llanidloes on January 19, 184478. His brother Edward was well known as a local historian who wrote parochial accounts of Llanidloes and Llangurig in the Montgomeryshire Collections, 'The Earthworks of Ancient Arwystli' for Archaeologia Cambrensis and Brief Account of the Chartist Outbreak in Llanidloes in the year 1839, which was published by John Pryse in 1869. When his parents died in the 1890's, Edward Hamer left Llanidloes and went to live in Birmingham with his sister Ann, and it is possible that James accompanied him because nothing else was known about either of them until E. R. Morris wrote his most interesting and informative article on Edward Hamer in the Montgomeryshire Collections 1967-68. Although none of his publications is known to have survived, an account of James Hamer's period as a printer is included, because he played a part in the continuity of printing in the town. He was apprenticed to John Pryse and when the latter died in 1883, James Hamer obtained some of his equipment and set himself up in business79. He worked with John Henry Mills at Pryse's Office and one of his apprentices was John Ellis, who founded the Caxton Press and continued the printing tradition in Llanidloes. James Hamer moved to Birmingham but the date and place of his death is as yet unknown. His widow died in 1931 and was buried at Lodge Hill Cemetery, Birmingham. G. H. HARRISON, 1896 G. H. Harrison was the manager and printer at Park and Sons Branch Office in London House, Llanidloes80. John and Morley Park, natives of Birmingham had established, a printing, bookselling and stationery business at Newtown and had probably started a small branch at Llanidloes. No biographical information is available on G. H. Harrison and he may also have been a Midlander who accompanied the Parks to Newtown. Only two small books, bearing his imprint have survived. LEWIS ROWLANDS 1864-1930 Another minor printer at Llanidloes was Lewis Rowlands, a stationer and printer at Rich- mond House, Great Oak Street81. He worked with John Henry Mills in Short Bridge Street before he started his own business and is said to have been a very poor and untidy printer. His wife was a native of Oswestry and the family moved there about 1906 and Lewis Rowlands found work as a compositor with Messrs. T. Owen and Son at the Library Printing Works82. 78Morris, E. R. Edward Hamer, Llanidloes: 1840-1911, in Montgomeryshire Collections, vol. 60, 1967-1968. pp.48-49. 79Pierce, T. M. op.cit. p.249. ^Information supplied by the late Mr. Anthony Higgs, Argoed, Llanidloes in 1973. "Pierce, T. M. op.cit. p.249. 82Rowlands, L. The late Mr. L. Rowlands, Oswestry, in Border Counties Advertizer and Montgomeryshire Mercury, April 330, 1930.