Town in Powys, Wales
Welshpool
Welshpool's name was once just 'Pool'. Today it has a red castle with a Clive of India museum, a Monday sheep market and a little railway with engines from Austria and Sierra Leone.
Key information
- County
- Powys
- Nation
- Wales
- Known for
- Powis Castle, the Welshpool and Llanfair Light Railway, the Montgomeryshire Canal, the Monday livestock market
- Famous people
- Gruffydd ap Gwenwynwyn, Robert Clive, Henrietta Clive, Admiral George Rodney
About Welshpool
The town that used to be called Pool
For centuries the town was simply Pool. By the 1830s it had become Welshpool, which stopped it being muddled with Poole in Dorset. The new name also reminded everyone which side of Offa's Dyke the place was on. The Welsh name, Y Trallwng, is older and more down to earth. It points to marshy, boggy ground, which is what the Severn floodplain here once was. The town sits right on the border. Shrewsbury is a short drive east, and the Welsh hills begin almost at the edge of the high street.
Why the castle is red
Powis Castle rises above the town on a rocky ridge. It is built of reddish stone, and its Welsh name, Castell Coch, means Red Castle. It began around 1200 as a stronghold of the princes of Powys, and Gruffydd ap Gwenwynwyn is the name most linked with it. Unlike most Welsh castles, it was never abandoned or ruined. It was lived in, remodelled and made grander across the centuries. The terraced gardens, laid out in the baroque style in the late 1600s, are among the most famous in Wales. They are known for their huge clipped yews, which stand like green rock formations. The castle also holds a museum of treasures collected in India by Robert Clive, 'Clive of India'. They reached Wales because Clive's son married Henrietta Herbert, heiress of the Powis estate.
A railway with engines from Austria and Sierra Leone
The Welshpool and Llanfair Light Railway opened in 1903 and runs eight miles to Llanfair Caereinion. Its tiny 2 ft 6 in gauge track climbs through farmland along the Banwy valley. Passenger trains stopped in 1931, and volunteers brought the line back to life in the 1960s. The fleet looks like a world tour. There are engines that began work in Austria, Sierra Leone and the sugar plantations of Antigua. Two of the originals, The Earl and Countess, were built in 1902 and are still used. The Montgomeryshire Canal also passes through Welshpool. The old canal wharf now houses the Powysland Museum, so the town's trade history is displayed beside the water that carried it.
Monday means sheep
Welshpool has long been a market town for the surrounding hill farms. The Monday livestock market is the heart of that tradition. Farmers from across mid Wales bring lambs and sheep, and the town fills with pickups, trailers and strong opinions about prices. That farming background explains local food. Welsh lamb is the obvious one, and the shops and cafés sell plenty of local meat, cheese and baking. Football in town centres on Welshpool Town, who play at a ground on the edge of the community. Many people also follow the bigger clubs across the border.
Vikings, sailors and a pillar on the hill
Long before the castle, the Welshpool area saw a famous fight. In 893 a Viking army was besieged at Buttington, close to the town, by a combined force of English and Welsh. It is one of the best-known episodes of the Viking wars in the borderlands. The skyline to the east is marked by Breidden Hill, which is topped by Rodney's Pillar. It was put up in the early 1780s to celebrate Admiral Rodney's naval victory at the Battle of the Saintes. Local Montgomeryshire landowners, who supplied oak for naval shipbuilding, raised it in his honour. An Iron Age hillfort lies on the same summit, so the hill has been a lookout point for a very long time.