Machynlleth Clock Tower, built in 1873 to mark the coming of age of Viscount Castlereagh
THERE IS NOT much to say about MONTGOMERY, and that is its joy. It bears a proud name, that of the most powerful of the Marcher Lords, Roger de Montgomery. It is THE SMALLEST COUNTY TOWN IN ENGLAND OR WALES. It has the loveliest town square in Wales. It has played its part in history and is content.
There is no urgent reason to go to Montgomery. That is why it is ignored by railways and motorways. Instead it enjoys peace, fine architecture and glorious views. It is, quite simply, a nice place to be. Sitting up on the hill by the castle you can almost feel as if you are flying. The world is spread out before you, the rich, flat vale, roads striking out dead straight into the distance, the hills of England on the horizon and the mountains of Wales at your back.
Time and cares fade away in Montgomery. May it stay that way for ever.
SMALL AND FRIENDLY, the most Welsh of towns, MACHYNLLETH radiates out from its distinctive Baroque clock tower, built in 1873 to mark the coming of age of Viscount Castlereagh, heir to the 5th Marquess of Londonderry. The Marquess lived, from time to time, at elegant Plas Machynlleth, just on the edge of town, which now houses a museum. The attractive gardens are open to the public.
Machynlleth can claim to be the ancient capital of Wales, for THE LAST NATIVE WELSH PARLIAMENT was held here, in 1404, summoned by OWAIN GLYNDWR, the last great Welsh hero and the last, unofficial, Prince of Wales of Welsh blood.
Glyndwr was probably born around 1354, to a wealthy family descended from Welsh princes, with estates in Glyndyfrdwy in the Dee valley, from where he took his name.
Upset by a land dispute with an English lord that went against him, Glyndwr took advantage of the absence of Henry IV in Scotland to raise an army of Welshmen, who were dis affected by English rule, and then sack a number of English-held towns in North Wales, such as Welshpool, Ruthin, Flint and Denbigh.
All this simply provoked Henry into greater persecution of the Welsh, which in turn hardened support for Glyndwr, and the rebellion spread south. Glyndwr’s forces captured castle after castle: Harlech, Aberystwyth, Cardiff. Between 1400 and 1404, the English were almost driven out of Wales, clinging on to a thin coastal strip and a few isolated castles. No longer just a rebel leader, Glyndwr began to gain recognition from countries such as France and Spain. In July 1404, he summoned a parliament to Machynlleth, proclaimed himself Prince of Wales, and made a formal alliance with France.
After that, for no apparent reason, things started to go wrong for Glyndwr. His English allies were defeated in their own battles against Henry, the French proved unreliable, and Harlech and Aberystwyth castles were recaptured. Glyndwr became a fugitive and disappeared into the mountains, never to be seen again. He is thought to have died around 1417, but no one knows where he is buried, in spite of many efforts to find his grave.
Parliament House in Machynlleth occupies the site of Glyndwr’s parliament of 1404. Although one of the oldest halls in Wales, Parliament House was built in the 15th century, after Glyndwr’s time, probably using stone from the original parliament building.
In October 2005, a pastiche of the famous Hollywood sign, in the hills above Los Angeles, was put up on a hillside overlooking Machynlleth, to promote the town’s film festival. It was very cleverly done, with white lettering spelling out Machynlleth, perfectly recreating the instantly recognisable shape and proportions of the original. The sign was erected again in 2006 and may become a regular sight – Hollywood comes to Mid Wales.
MAGNIFICENT POWIS CASTLE, Y Castell Coch, glows red and towers dizzyingly into the sky above its bluff in the hills near Welshpool, THE MOST VISITED NATIONAL TRUST HOUSE IN WALES. The present building dates from the 13th century but is wrapped around the core of an earlier castle built by Welsh princes.
Inside, the STATE BEDROOM, which dates from 1660, has an ornate balustrade that separates the bed alcove from the rest of the room, a reminder of the days when royalty or the aristocracy would give audiences while in bed. Only persons above a certain rank were allowed beyond the balustrade. This is THE ONLY ROOM OF THIS KIND LEFT IN BRITAIN and it is thought to have been created for a visit by Charles II.
The formal gardens consist of four superb hanging terraces, each 600 ft (180 m) long and festooned with flowers, topiary and statues. They were laid out between 1688 and 1720 and are THE OLDEST UNALTERED GARDENS OF THEIR KIND IN BRITAIN.
In Tudor days Powis was acquired by the Herberts and later passed by marriage to the family of CLIVE OF INDIA, creator of the British Raj. Treasures from India are displayed in the Clive Museum, set out across the old billiard room in a detached wing of the castle.
Clive’s descendants, the Earls of Powis, suffered mixed fortunes. In 1848, the 2nd Earl, Clive’s grandson, was shot dead by one of his sons, mistaken for a woodcock while out on a shoot. The unfortunate son gained the nickname ‘Bag Dad’. The 3rd Earl turned down the post of Viceroy of India. The 4th Earl lost one son in the First World War, another son in the Second World War, and his wife in a car crash in 1929. He bequeathed Powis to the National Trust in 1952, but the family maintain private apartments in the castle.
NEWTOWN WAS NEW in 973, but much has happened since then in this textile town, once the centre of the Welsh flannel industry, known as ‘the Leeds of Wales’.
Two great men, distant cousins, one socialist, one capitalist, both of whom helped to shape the world in different ways, were born and buried in Newtown.
Down by the river, in the churchyard of the old abandoned St Mary’s, is the much visited grave, surrounded by magnificent art nouveau wrought-iron railings, of BRITAIN’S FIRST SOCIALIST, ROBERT OWEN (1771–1858). He was born over a saddler’s shop in Broad Street, now a bank, and at the age of ten took himself off to work in the textile trade. In his twenties he married the daughter of a Glasgow banker called David Dale, who owned the biggest mills in Britain at New Lanark, Scotland’s largest industrial site. Dale handed New Lanark over to Owen, who immediately introduced untested ‘socialist’ measures to ‘commence the most important experiment for the happiness of the human race’.
He built houses, shops, churches, nurseries, schools, health facilities – everything that his workers could possibly want throughout their lives. He also proposed the first co-operative movement and headed one of the first trade unions, the Grand National Consolidated Trades Union, which collapsed after the Tolpuddle Martyrs were convicted. He didn’t live to see all his hopes for mankind realised, but he did sow the seeds of socialism long before Karl Marx. The epitaph on his gravestone sums up his belief: ‘It is the one great and universal interest of the human race to be cordially united and to aid each other to the full extent of their capacities’.
Just across the river in the churchyard in Llanllwchaiarn, an obelisk marks the grave of SIR PRYCE PRYCE-JONES (1834–1920) – so good at what he did they named him twice. Born in Llanllwchaiarn, he worked from the age of 12 in a draper’s shop in Broad Street, near where Robert Owen was born.
At 21 he set up his own shop nearby, selling the local Welsh flannel. Being a natural entrepreneur, he was always keen to advertise his wares to a wider market, and two things arrived in Newtown together to provide him with the means to do just that: the railways and the post office. He hit upon the idea of sending out catalogues to potential customers, and then dispatching the required goods to them by post and rail. Thus he could reach people in remote locations who were too busy or too far away to visit the shop. As the rail network expanded, so did his catchment area, and he was also able to ship in a whole new variety of goods from around the country, to bolster his catalogue. Pryce Pryce-Jones had invented THE WORLD’S FIRST MAIL ORDER BUSINESS, an innovation that was to change the world of retailing for ever.
He did not rest on his laurels. When Florence Nightingale sent in an order, Pryce-Jones shamelessly plastered her name all over his publicity material, in the first-ever celebrity endorsement. He sent catalogues to Queen Victoria and all the royal houses of Europe, and when they responded he placed their warrants on his company letterheads. By 1875, he had customers in America, in Australia, all over the world. In 1879, he built the tall red-brick ROYAL WELSH WAREHOUSE opposite the station in Newtown, and had three liveried railway wagons made for transporting his goods by train to London.
A particularly sought-after item for which he became known was the EUKLISIA RUG, a combination of rug, shawl, blanket and pillow, much used by German soldiers in the Franco-Prussian War. We know it today as a sleeping bag.
Pryce-Jones was THE FIRST PERSON IN WALES TO HAVE A TELEPHONE INSTALLED between his warehouse and his home across the river, Dolerw House.
Dolerw House is now owned by Montgomery County Council and run as a resource centre, while the Royal Welsh Warehouse is now part of the Kays catalogue company.
BURIED IN THE churchyard at LLANDINAM, near Llandiloes, under the epitaph ‘Whatever thy hand findeth to do, do it with thy might’, is DAVID DAVIES (1818–90), son of a tenant farmer and WALES’S FIRST TYCOON. He began his career sawing wood, and then became a road and bridge builder. In 1846, he helped Thomas Penson to construct the first iron bridge in Montgomeryshire, over the River Severn in Llandinam. Next he pioneered the railways in Wales, laying some 145 miles (233 km) of track throughout North and Mid Wales. including the 6-mile (10 km) link from the main line at Caerwys to what was then THE BIGGEST LEAD-MINE IN BRITAIN, at VAN, just north of Llandiloes.
He then moved on to coal, sinking THE FIRST DEEP-PIT MINE IN THE RHONDDA VALLEY, and constructing the docks at Barry as an outlet for his coal. Liberal MP for the Cardigan Boroughs, he was a strict Nonconformist and believer in self-help, never shy of proclaiming himself as a self-made man, and once causing Disraeli to comment, ‘I am glad to hear the Honourable Member praising his creator.’
There is a statue of Davies holding the plans of Barry docks on the quayside in Barry and a replica bronze statue in Llandinam, close to the iron bridge, by Sir Alfred Gilbert, creator of the Eros statue in Piccadilly Circus.
DAVIES’S GRANDDAUGHTERS, GWENDOLINE and Margaret, used some of their inheritance to buy GREGYNOG, a mock black-and-white timber pile near Newtown, which they developed into a Welsh arts and crafts centre. Here they built up THE LARGEST COLLECTION OF FRENCH IMPRESSIONIST WORKS IN BRITAIN, founded the Gregynog press to produce limited edition books, and established the Gregynog Music Festival, which is still held annually and, over the years, has attracted musicians of the calibre of Gustav Holst, Edward Elgar, Ralph Vaughan Williams and Benjamin Britten.
In deference to their grandfather’s dislike of alcohol, the sisters ran the place on strictly teetotal lines, much to the dismay of Prime Minister Stanley Baldwin, who stayed there in 1932 and had to do without his Scotch. Gregynog is still an arts and conference centre, now run by the University of Wales.
Gwendoline and Margaret’s brother, Lord Davies of Llandinam, a member of Lloyd George’s ‘kitchen cabinet’, endowed THE WORLD’S FIRST DEPARTMENT OF INTERNATIONAL POLITICS at the University of Wales in Aberystwyth.
Gregynog was built in 1860 by Henry Hanbury Tracy, as something of an experiment, THE FIRST LARGE HOUSE IN BRITAIN MADE OF CONCRETE. It comes as quite a shock to realise that the black-and-white timbers are merely painted on. Gregynog could be called ‘the cradle of concrete’, for all around the estate there are cottages and outbuildings made entirely of this material.
Montgomeryshire is THE ONLY WELSH COUNTY TO SPAN WALES FROM EAST TO WEST – from Offas’s Dyke to the Dovey estuary on Cardigan Bay.
The extraordinary six-sided, brick cockpit in WELSHPOOL, built in the early 18th century, was in continual use for cockfighting until the practice was outlawed in 1849. This is THE ONLY UNALTERED COCKPIT PRESERVED ON ITS ORIGINAL SITE IN BRITAIN.
Welshpool’s livestock market is THE LARGEST ONE-DAY SHEEP MARKET IN EUROPE.
Welshpool was originally Poole. The ‘Welsh’ was added to distinguish it from Poole in Dorset.
Standing alone in hilly country a few miles west of Welshpool is the small brick DOLOBRAN MEETING HOUSE, THE FIRST QUAKER MEETING HOUSE IN WALES, built in 1701 by CHARLES LLOYD of Dolobran Hall. The Lloyds, successful farmers who also ran an ironworks in the nearby hills, had lived at Dolobran since the 14th century. Their ancestor, Evan Teg, adopted the name Lloyd from his grandfather’s seat of Llwydiarth. The first Lloyd to become a Quaker was Charles Lloyd (1637–98), in 1662. A descendant of his, Sampson Lloyd, set up a private bank in Birmingham to invest in and prosper from the Industrial Revolution, and this grew to become what we know as the modern LLOYDS BANK.
Wales can boast of two iconic fashion designers from the 1960s, Swansea girl MARY QUANT, designer of the miniskirt, and LAURA ASHLEY, whose name has entered the language. Born in Dowlais, Glamorgan, in 1925, Laura Ashley settled in the village of CARNO, north-east of Newtown, in 1963, and established her textile factory there. It remained the headquarters of her world-wide empire until closing in 2004. She was buried in the churchyard of St John the Baptist, after a fall at her daughter’s Cotswold home in 1985.
All roads meet at the picturesque 16th-century half-timbered market hall in LLANIDLOES, for it stands, on wooden pillars, at THE EXACT CENTRE OF WALES. It is also THE ONLY REMAINING MARKET HALL OF ITS KIND IN WALES. Nearby is a stone from where John Wesley preached. In Great Oak Street is THE OLDEST SURVIVING LAURA ASHLEY SHOP IN THE WORLD. The church of St Idloes in the town centre incorporates some of the pure Early English archways from nearby Cwmhir Abbey, dissolved in 1542 (see Radnorshire).
The LEIGHTON estate is indicated by a grove of impressive giant California redwoods, planted in the mid-19th century by Liverpool banker JOHN NAYLOR (1813–89), who was given the estate as a wedding present by his uncle. He built the great Gothic hall in the park and Holy Trinity Church with its landmark spire, but his proudest achievement was growing the VERY FIRST LEYLAND CYPRESS here, named after his bank in Liverpool. He rests peacefully in the family mausoleum inside the church, unaware of the nightmare he had unleashed upon suburban gardens.
Llanidloes
The TALERDDIG CUTTING, between Carno and Llanbrynmair stations on the Newtown to Machynlleth railway line, was THE DEEPEST CUTTING IN THE WORLD when it was completed in 1863.
The squat little church of ST MELANGELL sits right at the end of a narrow road to nowhere on the edge of the Berwyn mountains. It is a detour worth taking, though, for here, behind the main altar, is possibly THE OLDEST ROMANESQUE SHRINE IN BRITAIN, dating from the early 1100s. It is a beautiful place, made more lovely still by the story of St Melangell, who hid a hare in the folds of her cloak to save it from the hounds of Prince Brochwel. So bewitched was he by the beauty and courage of this young girl, who had fled from Ireland to avoid a forced marriage, that he gave her the land in the valley where her church now stands.
LAKE VYRNWY, created in 1881 to provide drinking water for Liverpool, covers an area of 3.18 sq. miles (8.23 sq. km) and is THE BIGGEST LAKE IN WALES. The distinctive Gothic water-tower jutting out into the water gives the scene a Transylvanian feel and, indeed, the lake and environs are a favourite location for filming. Lake Vyrnwy was the first of the massive reservoirs to be constructed in North and Mid Wales.
St Melangell