Buckley's Brewery

Roll out the barrel and, if it is a cooper trussing ceremony, there will be an apprentice barrel-maker inside it, covered in beer, soot etc, who will emerge a fully fledged cooper.

Marshall Edwards and Vernon Bartlett are two of the last coopers or barrel-makers to be 'trussed' in the time-honoured manner at Buckley's Brewery in Llanelli. Having served their apprenticeship (5-7 years) they are initiated into the Society of Coopers by being rolled about in a barrel of their own making, a cocktail of e.g. beer, wood shavings and soot having been thrown in on top of them for good measure. They emerge dizzy, wet and sticky, fully fledged coopers at last.

The newly-fledged coopers receive their indentures (a document proving that they have undergone the apprenticeship) and become Journeyman Coopers. Later, with more experience, they might become Master Coopers. In the late 1960s, Buckley's brewery was undergoing structural re-development and this, along with various brewery processes, can be seen on screen. The film finishes in the bottling hall where W Kemmis Buckley, a member of the brewing family, takes a labelled bottle from the end of the line to show to brewery staff standing near (he was a stickler for labels being properly affixed). Buckley's merged with S A Brains & Co. Ltd. in 1997 and in 1998 all brewing was transferred to Cardiff.