Written by John Addis from Crickhowell:

"Crickhowell's industry has been mostly agriculture. Sheep farming in the surrounding hills has played a part for hundreds of years. Some of the farms have also produced milk and beef, with a small amount of crops. This can be said for almost all of the outlying farms in the districts of the Crickhowell area.

Throughout the years, the local shops have also played a part in employment. Other valuable employers have been the local mansions in the area - when most families sent their children to enter into "service". This meant that the employee lived in the house of employment and received a small wage with their keep. Butlers, maids, gardeners, coachmen, carpenters, masons, cooks and many more professions. This was a valuable source of employment until the demise of the large house.

After the Second World War, a lot of unemployment in the area heralded the arrival of the Elvicta Cabinet and Tool factory. Its parent factory was in Cannock near Birmingham. The factory was set up under the Distribution of Industry Act and was built in 1950.

In the 1950s, the factory employed 100 workers. As the labour in Crickhowell was unskilled, skilled workers from Birmingham were brought in. Houses at Ffynnonau Council Estate were allocated to nine skilled families from Birmingham.

Elvicta produced builder's levels and various tools for the building industry, radio cabinets, industrial cabinets and some household furniture. The factory closed in the late 1970s. Today the building is used for a distribution factory for frozen food.

The canteen, which is separate from the main factory, used to hold dance evenings. During the 1950s the famous jazz player Acker Bilk appeared there. The worker's children also enjoyed Christmas parties for many years. Today, the canteen is a veterinary surgery.

During the early 1980s in the grounds of the Elvicta factory, small factory units started to be built, resulting in an industrial area employing a small number of people.

Another employer who started in Crickhowell just after the Second World War was a company called Wendy Boston, who made soft toys. The company started its business in a room behind the Britannia Inn.

The business rapidly expanded and moved to the Drill Halt in Castle Road and then to Abergavenny. Many local people from Crickhowell followed for employment. Today the business has finished but can still be remembered with great affection by local people.

Forest Crafts who were at Glanusk Sawmills employed many local men and women, making period furniture and other wooden products but ceased trading in the late 1970s.

Quarrying has been part of the local industry for many hundreds of years but has now disappeared. The last quarry being at Llanfair Lane, also known as Vaynor Quarries Ltd, the parent company was at Merthyr. The quarry at Crickhowell closed in the late 1960s.

The building industry has produced many skilled craftsmen in the area and has been a good source of employment. Another source of employment after the Second World War was a factory at Marl Pontypool. The factory made nylon and was known as 'The British Nylon Spinners'.

Workers travelled by bus every day.In its heyday, the factory employed 7,500 people from all over South Wales. Later, the factory was sold off to ICI and is n ow owned by a company called Dupont, making other goods as well as nylon. The factory only employs 130 people.

A good employer used to be the ammunition factory Glascoed, Pontypool. Again, buses were run on a regular basis to take employees to and from work from Crickhowell. The factory is still there but only employs a small amount of people.

Ebbw Vale steel-making plant at one time employed 12,000 - 15,000 people and was one of the largest and modern steel-making plants in Europe. They employed a vast amount of people from Crickhowell but after the steel-making plant closed (1999), only a handful of workers have survived from Crickhowell."

Written by John Addis