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Tours > Wales > Newtown
Newtown (Drenewydd: Dray Newith)
This important market town and County town was the home of the world's first mail order store, Pryce Jones Warehouse, supplying the farmers in the surrounding hills who could not always come into town to buy much-needed supplies during the middle and later 19th century. It was also the home of Robert Owen, socialist, reformer, visionary, and founder of the cooperative movement, who is buried here. The Robert Owen Memorial Museum gives the whole story of this fascinating man, who founded small colonies at New Lanark in Scotland and New Harmony, Indiana in the US.
The town also posses another museum dedicated to telling the story of the world-famous stationers and book company, W.H. Smith and Sons, that began in London in 1792. The Textile Museum commemorates the woolen and flannel industry which made the town prosperous for two hundred years, not ending until the 1930's. Since then, a host of new industries have sprung up, for the mid-Wales town was especially selected by the government's rural and regional development schemes. The town is thus a mixture of architectural styles, from the Tudor period right through to the ultra-modern.
The little stone and half-timbered building called Cwrt yn Dre (Koort un Dray) once served as Welsh patriot Owain Glyndwr's Parliament House, brought here from Dolgellau in 1885. Every June, in the beautiful setting of Gregynog Hall (Gregg Unog) a music festival keeps alive a tradition of music that was started sixty years ago in the historic mansion. The Gregynog Estate includes the black and white timbered house with its vast library and collection of paintings, and the world-famous Gregynog Press that publishes highly sought-after limited editions, using traditional printing methods. Since 1960, the mansion and grounds have been an educational residential center for the University of Wales, donated by one of the Davies sisters.
Newtown can be reached from Shrewsbury on th A458; and from Wrexham on the A483 via Oswestry and Welshpool.
Next Stop: Llandinam
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