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Pawnbroking in Llanelli

Pawnbrokers, Silversmiths, Watch & Clock Makers

One day a young, rich man, named Nicholas was passing the house of a nobleman who had lost all his money and was living on the verge of starvation with his three daughters. The young man listened and heard a girl asking her father to go out into the streets to beg because she did not want to starve. Her father was a proud man and told his starving daughter to be patient and wait just one more night.

That night he prayed that God would save his children from disgrace and starvation.

Nicholas remembered that his father had left him three bars of solid gold and he hurried home to get them. Every night for three nights he found an open window and left one of the bars inside the house. On the third night the nobleman discovered Nicholas and thought he had come from Heaven to give him the gold. Nicholas told the nobleman to thank God for it was He who had sent him to the house.

Because of all the gifts that Nicholas gave secretly in God’s name he was called St Nicholas and every Christmas children everywhere believe that it is Santa Claus who leaves the presents in secret.

The emblem of St Nicholas – adopted by the Duke of Lombardy and now symbol of the Pawnbroker – was ‘the sign of the three gold balls’.

Uncle is the nickname that has been given to the local pawnbroker and his business of pawnbroking has not always had a good Press – which is probably because ‘Uncle’ has usually been portrayed as a shifty, dishonest character, the friend of thieves and rogues and almost certainly Jewish. What is not generally known is that Pawnbroking is one of the oldest businesses known to mankind and in times of recession and economic hardship many are drawn to the sign of the three balls that denote the pawnbroker’s shop. The pawnbroker was said to have been ‘known in Nineveh, understood in Babylon, existed in Pompeii and flourished when Greece was in its zenith.’ As a trade, pawnbroking has been in existence since 1690 when the Duke of Lombardy carried out a pawnbroking business in Italy in the Province of Lombardy.

1216-1272 Researchers have found early records of royal pawning and it is said Henry III who reigned from 1216-1272, pawned a valuable image of the Virgin to pay his officers.

1272-1377 Henry’s son, Edward I, who reigned from 1272-1307, is said to have pawned the customs dues. In turn, his grandson Edward III, who reigned from 1327-1377, did not have any customs dues to pawn, so he pledged his crown on three separate occasions.

1339-1422 Edward III became a regular customer and during 1339 he pledged his own and his queen’s crown at the same time. During 1340 it is said that Edward III pledged the whole Crown Jewels collection and sometime during the reign of his great grandson Henry V from 1413-1422 the crown was pledged to his uncle, the Bishop of Winchester.

1485 Before the Battle of Bosworth in 1485 Henry Tudor as Earl of Richmond borrowed money from the French King and pledged the Marquis of Dorset and Sir Thomas Boucher. Following the historic battle at Bosworth Field, when Richard III was killed and Henry was crowned Henry VII, the new King borrowed 6,000 marks from the citizens of London and redeemed the gentlemen.

1750-1850 Pawnbroking experienced its greatest growth In Britain but for many years the subject of pawnbroking was not spoken about openly as if it was a subject to be hidden or avoided. The pawnshop was a lifeline to many working class families especially in the days before the Welfare State.

There were moneylenders but the interest rates were extortionate and beyond the reach of most families. People did borrow from each other from week to week, but many suffered in silence, some resorted to thieving and mugging, because the only answer to the pawnshop was the Parish payment – which meant people had to suffer a degrading means test before any cash, however little, was offered.

Best clothes would be pawned on Monday and redeemed on Friday ready for the weekend and if it could be afforded an extra penny would have the suit placed on a hanger. If the extra penny could not be afforded the suit would be wrapped in brown paper and would need a lot of ironing the day it was redeemed.

Pawnbroking in Llanelli

1830 Pawnbroking was probably introduced into Llanelli around this time when Silversmiths Lazarous & Sons and Watch & Clock Maker Richard Isaac were known to be carrying on their respective businesses.

1866 A trade directory maked a reference to Israel Dutton of West End who was carrying on the trade of Pawnbroker and Cabinet Maker. Within four years Israel had moved to new premises and was not the only pawnbroker known to be in business in town.

1870s In Llanelli during the industrialisation of the 1870s, many were drawn to a shop in Water Street owned by pawnbroker Solomon Blaiberg, a Russian immigrant who had been born in Poland and Israel Dutton’s new shop in Salamanca Road (later Station Road).

1871 Israel was living in Salamanca Road with his wife Ann, his son Edward and daughter Emily. Israel Dutton had been born in Chester, his wife Ann and his two children had been born in Swansea where he also had another pawnbroking business in Wind Street. When Israel Dutton retired his son Edward continued the business in Salamanca Road until 1883 when the pawnbroking business was taken over by Robert Wehrle.

1872 Three pawnbrokers had businesses in Llanelli, Solomon Blaiberg in Water Street; Israel Dutton, Salamanca Road and Louis Newmark in Murray Street. It was also in 1872 that Robert, the first of the three Wehrle brothers, arrived in Aberdare where he was apprenticed to a pawnbroker. The young Robert from Neukirch, near Freiburg in Germany, worked long hours and received food and clothes but no money. He took out naturalisation papers on 13 April 1872 when he was living at 3 Whitcombe Place, Aberdare. Robert’s brother Gustav settled in Neath and sometime later the two brothers went into business together.

1897 Robert and Gustav had another brother – Bertholdt – and the three decided to set up business in Llanelli. A trade directory of 1897 shows that Robert Wehrle was the only pawnbroking business listed and the name of Salamanca Road had changed to Station Road. It was probably around this time that Bertholt moved to Port Talbot.

1910 By 1910 Robert’s son, another Robert had taken over the business and continued the trade of pawnbroker and outfitter at Station Road.

1920s The business was said to have reached its peak in the mid 1920s when more than 600 pledges were taken in one week which fell short of Gustav’s record of 1,000 pledges in one week. Pledged articles ranged from jewellery to clothes, clocks, watches and many other items. At one time the limit for redeeming the pledged item was one year and seven days but in later years it was reduced to six months and seven days. The broker was entitled to claim a certain amount of money according to the value of the pledged item. A pawnbroker required a licence to carry on the business and in later years it was known as a consumer credit licence.

During the time that the Dutton family ran the shop the three balls that hung outside the shop, denoting the pawnbroking business, were made of wood. Before 1910 when Robert Wehrle died and his son Robert Wehrle II took over the business, one of the wooden balls rotted and fell off. The remaining balls were then replaced by metal ones, which were brass but painted over to look like gold.

1930s During the depression of the 1930s, before the days of the Welfare State, many families suffered severe financial loss when men were unemployed. One of the saddest things was that families had no money by a Monday morning and some were forced to Pledge their goods as early as 7.30 am so that they could buy food for breakfast. In many cities some brokers came to a standstill because people had nothing left to pawn. Increasingly Parliament found itself under pressure for the State to provide welfare services for the poor and the Welfare State was founded in 1948. As people began to benefit from the changes and enjoy a level of prosperity, comfort and security, which would have seemed inconceivable before 1939, pawnbroking began to fall into decline.

1961 Robert Wehrle II died and his son, yet another Robert Wehrle, who had been at the shop since he left the former Llanelly Boys’ Grammar School, took over responsibility.

1969 One day in 1969, in the early hours of the morning, a reveller climbed the drainpipe outside the shop and removed the balls, dropping them one by one, to his accomplice standing below. The two men were eventually caught and prosecuted and it was thought that they had disposed of the metal balls to a scrap merchant, until one day they were returned much to the surprise of the family and the police.

Over the years as the need for pawnbroking services lessened Robert Wehrle III diversified and his business became an Army Surplus Store.

1999 After 116 years of trading Robert Wehrle III, grandson of Robert Wehrle who first started the business under the family name, decided to close and the store which had been a landmark for over a century became a solarium and fitness centre.

Pawnbrokers, Silversmiths, Watch & Clock Makers

1830

Silversmiths

Lazarus & Sons

Watch & Clock Makers

Thomas Davies

Richard Isaac

1835-36 Watch & Clock Makers

Thomas Davies

Richard James Isaac

William Isaac

1844 Watch & Clock Makers

Richard James Isaac, King Square

William Isaac, Park Street

Thomas Hopwood Jenkins, Water Street

1849 Watch & Clock Makers

Richard James Isaac, King Square

William Isaac, Park Street

1866 Pawnbroker & Cabinet Maker

Israel Dutton West End

Watch & Clock Makers

John Bentley, Market Street

Alfred Samuel Dale, 5 Market Street (& Berlin Wool Repository)

Sebastian Furtwengler, Water Street

William Isaac Park, Street

William Isaac (Smith), William Street

William Mayne Seaside

1867 Pawnbroker & Cabinet Maker

Israel Dutton, West End

Watch & Clock Makers

John Bentley, Market Street

Alfred Samuel Dale, 5 Market Street (& Berlin Wool Repository)

Sebastian Furtwengler, Water Street

William Isaac, Park Street

William Mayne, Marine Street

1871 Pawnbrokers – Details from the 1871 census

Water Street

Solomon Blaiberg, Russian (31) born Poland

Bernard Cahn, Servant, (19) Palatine of Poland

Salamanca Road

Israel Dutton, (61) born Chester

Ann Dutton, wife (55) born Swansea

Emily Dutton, daughter (20) born Swansea

Edwin Dutton, son (17) born Swansea

1872 Pawnbrokers

Solomon Blaiberg, Water Street

Israel Dutton, Salamanca Road & Wind Street, Swansea

Louis Newmark, Murray Street

Watchmakers

John Bentley, Market Street

Alfred Dale, Market Street

Sebastian Furtwengler, Vaughan Street

William Isaac, Park Street

Richard Jones, Water Street

1897 Jeweller

Kammerer & Co., 38 Stepney Street

Pawnbroker

R Wehrle & Outfitter, Station Road

Watchmakers & Jewellers

C Mason Collins & Jeweller, Goldsmith Hall, 37 Stepney Street

C H Lane & Jeweller, 43 Stepney Street

S Davies & Co. & Jeweller, 67 Station Road

William Morris & Jeweller, 23 Station Road

Sincere thanks to E J Markham & Sons Limited

www.ejmarkhamandsonltd.co.uk/history.html

for providing information about pawnbroking