Newtown Textile Museum
Watercolour painting of train and Newtown

A place with a past

Check out the bigger history of the painting and its link to the railways.

Watch this reel to see the details of the watercolour above. 

Education Guide

This short guide, which you can download here, provides an introduction to the history of our Victorian weaving factory which is now a museum. It is designed to help schools to meet the requirements of the Curriculum for Wales2022 and provide some guidance for planning a visit.   
Interested in the history of Newtown, the woollen industry and the Museum ?- this is the place...
This page has a variety of stories about the town in the heyday of the woollen industry. You can also find links to the census information from 1841 - 1901 for Penygloddfa. In addition there are some bilingual videos telling individual stories as well as providing an introduction to the town's history. 

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.  Some of these have developed from a series of Facebook posts you may have seen.
Long Bridge, Newtown

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.

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Steam-driven woollen mill, Newtown

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.

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Mechanical carding engine

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.

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Syars Gravestone

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

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John Owen, photographer. Broad Street Newtown

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

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Image of water wheel

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.

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Image of Pryce Jones Catalogue

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?READ MORE
Image of section of Edward Salter watercolour of Newtown

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. 

 

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Image of back-to-back cottages, Commercial Street

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'


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Image of map of Penygloddfa 1840s

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’.

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Image of interior of Newtown Textile Museum 1967

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. 

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Image of Weaving factory with accommodation below

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.

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Did your ancestors live in Penygloddfa in the 1800s?

Were they working in the Woollen Industry? 

We are interested in the people who lived in Penygloddfa where the Museum is located. Census information for the area has been extracted so you can search it through the relevant years. Do get in touch if your ancestors appear here.
It has not been possible to be certain who lived in our building as house numbers were not included in the early census records. The 1911 census just shows the residents of our building, not the whole area.  There are no plans at present to complete the rest of the 1911 data. 
This small area of Newtown, shown on the right, has been chosen because it includes the area surrounding the Textile Museum.  It reflects the huge changes in the town during the 1800s and particularly for this area, the period after 1827 when the Long Bridge was built, and the woollen industry was at its peak. There is a very noticeable change in the occupations of the residents over the 60 year  span. It is also clear that this was not a very Welsh-speaking area.  

Some family history research into the Clayton family has resulted in this information. Maybe you can find a link to your family. (if you find errors, do let us know). 
Map of Penygloddfa area of Newtown around the middle of 1800s
David Pugh, a local historian, made a video of the history of Newtown. Watch it here. 
 Watch a video

This short video of images and details about Newtown's Flannel Industry has Welsh and English sub-titles. 

The Museum tells the story of one family who lived in Commercial Street in 1841 -  Thomas and Mary Clayton.   Mary Clayton's story is available as a short video in Welsh or English. 

Come to the Museum and find out more about Mary, Thomas, and Samuel Evans, a Factory owner.