Malcolm's introduction to Newtown...

Macolm on Newtown:
"A new town three times over. First in the 13th Century as a market town, then again in the early 19th century when it became 'the Leeds of Wales' as a centre for the weaving industry, and finally in the 1960s when the Mid Wales Development Corporation, concerned with rural depopulation, undertook to encourage new industry and housing into this delightful, low-lying Severn Valley site. The result is a rich architectural mixture of Georgian, Victorian, Art Nouveau, typical Mid Wales timber framed and modern styles.

Unsually for Wales there is no castle - just a castle mound. But it does have a smart modern gallery, a neat semi Georgian town hall and - a delightful surprise for me - the fascinating Penygloddfa conservation area of weavers' housing. There are three specialised museums; the textile museum, the W.H.Smith museum, and another celebrating the town's most famous son and a personal hero of mine, the philanthropist Robert Owen. Home to the Royal Welsh warehouse, where the first mail order business in Britain was carried out (Queen Victoria was a customer), it is a town where modern innovative buildings are still being built."