From the medieval period well into the 18th century Welshpool's prosperity was based on the wool and flannel trade - the town being at the centre of a large rural area ideal for sheep rearing and wool production. Before the industrial revolution some of Britain's earliest factories for cloth production.

From the car park you can see the Red Lion Flannel Factory, named after the public house that it stood behind (one of 96 that at one time existed in Welshpool!). It was built in about 1830 in local stone and rises to an impressive 5 floors. It was converted into flats in 1994, and had once been a cinema.

Welshpool never developed to the scale as nearby Newtown, but by the 18th century it boasted two large flannel mills and an extensive range of agricultural support services. During the 18th and early 19th centuries, Welshpool saw major building works and 'urban renewal'.

Many buildings in the town centre were rebuilt during the Georgian period and much of the architecture survives today. Growth had its darker side - by the middle of the 19th century the land to the north of Broad Street had become an area of squalid slums.

Ramshackle terraces built as successive waves of workers housing occupied the long thin 'burgage plots' that had once belonged to the medieval houses on Broad Street and High Street.

At this time a severe outbreak of cholera in this area killed many people, and thereafter much of it was progressively cleared or improved. Little remains today of this warren although occasional buildings can be seen.

In the few alleys that do survive the overall pattern of narrow strips - which are themselves a survival of medieval land boundaries - can still be seen on large scale maps of the town.

Thanks to: Chris Martin of the Clwyd Powys Archaeological Trust (CPAT), to John Davies, Geologist, Countryside Council for Wales, and to Chris Faulkner, from Montgomeryshire Wildlife Trust.

For more historic walks in Welshpool contact Clwyd Powys Archaeological Trust (CPAT). The trust is one of four Archaeological Trusts in Wales that provide a range of regional heritage services for Wales.

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