James Howell of Cardiff (and Llanychaer!)

After more than 140 years of being a flagship store in the centre of Cardiff, James Howells has closed its doors for the last time.

It stopped being an independent family store back in the 1950s when it was purchased by the Julian Hodge Group and then subsequently sold to the House of Fraser group in 2006.  Many will remember however the style and elegance for which the store was famous.

How many are aware however that James Howell who founded the store back in the late 1860s was actually born on a farm in Llanychaer in 1835?

Clyn Farm was his place of birth and his  parents were Thomas and Lydia Howell (nee Rees).  It was here that he spent his early years, at that time the only son of a family of girls. His father Thomas, realised however that there was no future on the farm for his son and so young James went to work for a draper in Fishguard where he served his apprenticeship.  By 1851, the whole family had moved into Fishguard and Thomas had become an innkeeper in Park Street.  James was working in Bollock Street  (now known as Hamilton Street) as a shopman for a draper.

Over the following ten years, James Howell moved from drapers store to drapers store in Pembrokeshire, gaining valuable experience on the way.  His wife to be, was at this time working in London as a dressmaker – perhaps this was the reason why he made his move to the big city but it certainly widened his experiences and knowledge of the drapery business.   In 1862 he married Fanny Davies Logan of Little Haven – the marriage taking place in Medway in Kent and their first son, Thomas, was born in Marylebone.                                                                                                                                                                                                                Around 1865, however, James Howell returned to Wales and established a warehouse on The Hayes in Cardiff. At this time, Cardiff was at the height of expansion and James saw the opportunities this offered for an entrepreneur like himself and soon relocated to the fashionable St Mary’s Street.  Unusual for the time, but James Howell insisted that all purchases had to be made in cash – no “tic” allowed.  It is said that the first sale he made was worth £50 – which is quite extraordinary when valued at today’s prices.

Howells was seen as the “place to be seen” by the rich and well to do of Cardiff and the business went from strength to strength, with new departments opening along St Mary’s Street. If you ever visited yourself, you may recall seeing the facade of a Welsh chapel in the centre of the shop – this was the Bethany Particular Baptist Chapel which was swallowed up during the expansion of the store.

James lived until 1909 and is buried in Cathays Cemetery with his wife Fanny who predeceased him ten years earlier.  At his death, his estate was valued at £311,000 and was divided equally among his eleven children.

But what of his Pembrokeshire family?

James was one of at least eight children. His father died in November 1852 and was buried in the graveyard at Llanllawer Church. It appears that his mother then relocated to Pembrey where on the census in 1861, she was described as a house manager. Her younger children went to Pembrey with her and the family were living next door to Martha James who was one of her married daughters.

In her later years she lived with one of her daughters and family who had moved with her to Pembrey. When she died in 1879, her body was brought back to Pembrokeshire and buried at Llanllawer Church where she had been married 56 years before.

James’ life in Cardiff seems well removed from that of his mother and siblings – it is not known if he remembered his Pembrokeshire roots.

see also James Howell 1835-1909