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The Long Bridge Newtown

A wooden bridge across the Severn, close to the site of the Long Bridge was recorded as early as the fifteenth century.

Newtown Enters the Steam Age

This painting by Edward Salter of 1879 shows Newtown’s steam age well under way. Several factory chimneys are belching out thick black smoke from their boiler houses, and an express steam locomotive approaches the railway station.

Image of interior of Pryce Jones's first warehouse

Inside an Early Flannel Manufactory

A close look at how the flannel industry in Newtown changed in the early stage of its development as a manufacturing centre.

The Tragic Story of a Manufacturing Family

Amongst the time-worn gravestones in Newtown's long abandoned riverside church of St Mary’s lies one which provides the outline of a family’s tragic story. The memorial is inscribed with the name of Thomas Syars, one of the town’s many flannel manufacturers

A Room with a View: Three Photographs of Broad Street

The first floor windows of the Royal Welsh Warehouse offered a commanding view of the length of Broad Street, the Long Bridge and Crescent Street in Penygloddfa beyond

Newtown's Water Mills

The key to an understanding of why Newtown became an important centre for the manufacture of flannel lies in its ancient water mills.

Image of Humphrey Lewis, Newtown emigrant

Pryce Jones: The birth of Mail Order

Pryce Jones is regarded as one of the early pioneers of mail order, paving the way for our modern on-line world. Just like today’s internet companies, he relied upon advertising to stimulate sales and he was one of the first retailers to send out catalogues to his customers. But when exactly did this happen?

Edward Salter. Landscape Artist

For some forty years, a 1878 panorama painting of Newtown hung on a wall in

the museum. (This is just a small section of it). To the Victorian viewer it represented an optimistic view of the town.

Life in Commercial Street c 1840

A glimpse into the life of the individuals who may have lived in the back-to -back cottages which were part of 'our museum'

Image of white jug commemorating railway accident

Location! Location! Location!

At the end of the 18th Century, Newtown was still a very small town with a population no greater than a modern-day village. Yet, within the space of forty years, it had developed beyond its medieval boundaries and its population had grown to 7,000 people. In the process it had acquired the epithet of ‘The Leeds of Wales’.

Even the Museum has a history

In the 1960s a number of ‘weaving factories’ such as this one were being demolished in the town, but the heritage value of the building was recognised and the surrounding area of Penygloddfa was declared a conservation zone.

Woollen Manufacturing in Newtown

Up until the end of the eighteenth century, the production of woollen flannel had been a small-scale cottage industry carried out in the homes of the rural population. In the early 1800s that all changed.

Stories of Newtown

Each of the titles below will lead you to a story of one aspect of local history which we hope you will enjoy.

Our curator, John, continues to write interesting articles about the early days of Newtown's woollen industry.

Following the recent series on our Facebook page, John has compiled this account of the history of the Long Bridge in Newtown, completed in 1826.

Check out the latest: Newtown enters steam age

He has used the details of an auction in 1811 to show the development of the early industrial weaving industry in Newtown - Inside an Early Flannel Manufactory in this article

also the tragic story of a Newtown flannel manufacturer - Thomas Syars

and don't miss the fascinating story about John Owen's photographs of Newtown

and check out the latest article about Pryce Jones and his catalogues

getting ready for season 2025

Spring is in the air

Image of volunteer cleaning our model dog

The Textile Museum in Newtown

Our museum just over the bridge into Commercial Street, gives visitors a chance to see how the handloom weavers of the mid-19th century lived and worked.

Wonderwool and the Braid Society Exhibition

It is great to report that both these two events were very successful.

Victoria did a wonderful job at Wonderwool, our stand was well attended and she had the opportunity to talk to lots of people about the museum and our events. Some visitors had already been to the museum en route to Wonderwool and some were visiting on their way home at the end. Both the Braid Society and our stand promoted the Braid Society events which were held at the museum.

As a result of all their efforts, there were 10 people who came to the Try Braiding workshop at the Museum.

A great start to our season and thanks to all concerned

Summer Exhibition.

Closed now

Sport and Leisure in Newtown: 1875 - 1914

Our main exhibition for the summer explored the ways that weavers and others spent their leisure . Using objects from our collection, we took a look at some of these activities, including football in Newtown, which was an important centre for the organised game in Wales. The Royal Welsh Warehouse Sport and Recreation Society ran all sorts of sporting and cultural events which drew large crowds to the town

Why do so many sporting events start at 3.00pm on a Saturday afternoon?.

What prompted 20,000 people to visit Newtown on a July afternoon in 1912?

What is the connection between bicycles and carnival floats?

These are just three questions answered in our new exhibition showing from 21 May until 28 September 2024.

Check out the short promo video of our exhibition which the media company kindly produced for us.

We are so lucky

Emily, shown here working on a dress in our collection, was a great addition to the Museum for the summer of 2021, and she was able to spend a few weeks with us again in 2022. A student at Nottingham Trent University she is studying Costume Making and Design, and she came to gain some experience of working in a Museum. Wonderful for us, and hopefully useful for her too.

This wedding dress from 1881 that Emily is checking has a matching skirt and a cape, and as you can see, was made in Newtown.

Nadolig Llawen /Merry Christmas

Hoffem ni i gyd yn y Amgueddfa ddymuno Nadolig llawen i chi a Blwyddyn Newydd Dda. Rydym yn edrych ymlaen at eich gweld eto yn yr haf.

All of us at the Museum would like to wish you a Merry Christmas and a happy New Year. We look forward to seeing you again in the summer.

One of your new Christmas cards

Bwthyn ein gwehydd wedi'i addurno ar gyfer y Nadolig

Our weaver's cottage decorated for Christmas

Our 'weavers' celebrating Christmas with a stall selling gifts from the Museum's shop

We welcomed Rachel Thomas to the museum for the summer season in 2024 as our weaver-in-residence. This position was funded by the Ashley Family Foundation to whom we are very grateful. We will be offering the opportunity to another weaver in 2025.

Rachel enjoyed fielding questions from our visitors as well as undertaking her own weaving projects and she says she really enjoyed her time with us. Check her out on Instagram for more.

It is great when we can give our visitors a chance to see some weaving in action. You can also enjoy a video of the process or go to our YouTube page to watch it, and other related videos.

Exhibition 2023 - Amelia Ray: a Victorian entrepreneur at the cutting edge'

If you missed our 2023 exhibition, we have made some of the information boards available for you, which complement the You-Tube video available on the link below.

They feature Amelia Ray, who ran a successful draper's shop in High Street, Newtown for a decade during the 1870s where the shopping experience was changing rapidly with the coming of the railways and the postal service. We have a large collection of papers about her business which tell us about her customers and her suppliers. She was in direct competition with Pryce Jones whose shop was nearby until he moved his business to the new Royal Welsh Warehouse near the station in 1879.

To catch up on what you missed, head for the Past Exhibitions where you can see several of our past exhibitions listed. NB these links work better if you have a full screen on your computer, or a tablet device. You will be surprised by some of the interesting jobs that a draper's shop took on at the time. We have an excellent Exhibition Guide, a few copies of which are still available if you contact us, which tells more of the story.

If you would like a short preview of the exhibition, check out this YouTube link.

Exhibition guide front cover. Amelia Ray

Kay-lee Davies was our weaver in residence in 2023. She had recently graduated from the BA Textile Design course at Carmarthen School of Art, and has been developing new designs in wool which are intended to be for menswear. The "Canterbury' loom that we use for demonstrations wasn't working very well when she arrived, so she set about replacing the old strings on the loom with new stronger ones, and it is now operating more smoothly. She also enjoyed chatting to visitors and explaining the different processes involved in weaving fabric. Thanks Kay-lee!

Her Instagram page is here: https://www.instagram.com/kayleesofiastudio/

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