Minton Treharne & Davies

The history of Minton, Treharne & Davies Ltd. can be traced back to the mid 19th century. The company was founded by a Cardiff pharmacist, J. D. Treharne, in the early 1860's, and operated in conjunction with his son, F. G. Treharne, providing medicine chests and medication to ships and sailors operating out of Cardiff docks. In 1909, in response t... o the growing demand for analysis of coal to be exported, F. G. Treharne and J.H.Duncan, an analytical chemist, established Treharne & Duncan to sample, analyse and certify the quality of coal traded around South Wales and internationally from ports in South Wales. At its peak in 1913 around 10 million tons of coal was exported from Cardiff. Treharne & Duncan, from their office and laboratory in the heart of Cardiff's busy docklands, were soon providing specialist analytical and testing services to 400 separate coal mining and trading clients. The post Second World War period saw the Company come under the ownership of Powell Duffryn plc, one of the ex South Wales coal mine owners who planned to establish a diverse industrial conglomerate. With little work coming from the newly nationalised coal industry, the Company was forced to diversify and began to develop new business for itself. Renamed Treharne & Davies Ltd., the Company moved into the shipping industry, providing "gas-free" certificates to ships undergoing repair and cargo inspection services to vessels loading oil cargoes at South Wales ports. Treharne & Davies Ltd. was bought from Powell Duffryn by Arthur Minton in the late 1960's. He had joined the company in the 1930s as a laboratory assistant and worked his way up to Managing Director,becoming well known as an investigator of first coal and then general marine fires. At the time of the takeover the Company's business was sampling and testing coal for the electricity industry, a small amount of non-destructive testing for the steel and ship-repairing industry, local oil cargo inspection, some general chemical analysis and marine fire investigation. The ...Read More