• 1932: She was sent to London to Elmwood School.
• She was sent back to Wales as an evacuee when she was 13 years old.
• Early 1940s: At 16, Laura left school and served in the Women’s Royal Naval Service.
• 1950s: Laura Ashley starts a business by making patchwork on the kitchen table.
• 1954: The business is established under the original name of Ashley Mountney Ltd.
• 1960s: She moves to Machynlleth and opened a shop there.
• 1960s: She buys Carno Railway Station to be used as a factory.
• 1970: The Machynlleth shop closes, a shop in Shrewsbury opens.
• 1977: The business wins a Queen’s Award for export.
• 1978: The family had 70 shops across the world.
• 1982: The ‘Laura Ashley: Book of Home Decorating’ is published.
• 1986: The Laura Ashley Foundation is established by Bernard and the family.
‘When she talked of her roots those were Welsh roots that she referred to and she talked of her childhood home more often than not, her grandmother’s house, a coalminer’s cottage in Merthyr Tydfil was what she had in mind.’ – Anne Sebba, ‘Laura Ashley: A Life by Design’ (Weidenfeld & Nicolson 1990), p. 3