Timeline - Saturday 3rd August 2013 - Montgomeryshire

After a leisurely breakfast we visited Montgomeryshire today.  The first stop, still in Radnorshire, was Rhayader.  It is a lovely little place, with a wonderful clock tower in the centre of the main street.  It is a shame that the main road goes through the town, I am sure it would be more charming without all the traffic.  We had a little look round and visited a couple of antique shops.  There is not much to the town but it was a nice stopping point.

After Rhayader we went northwards to Llanidloes.  This was the purpose of the journey.  I had come across some years previously a mention of a photograph of the opening of the Salvation Army hall there in 1921 which had been deposited in the Powys county archives; I was keen to try and locate the hall if at all possible.  Accordingly the first port of call was Llanidloes Library, and in one of the books of the history of the town there was the picture of the opening of the hall.  Apparently the Salvation Army first went to Llanidloes in the 1880s, and met initially in a room above the Plynlimon Mineral Water Works in Victoria Square.  In 1921 however they moved to their own premises in the Nant.  Sadly both locations are no more. 

After leaving the Library we visited the Llanidloes Museum and the curator, though very pleasant, had no knowledge of the Salvation Army presence in the town.  We looked round the Museum but it did not take long.   I also got a glimpse of a vintage open-top double decker in the ownership of Celtic Travel, which had been hired by a wedding party; what a fantastic way to move from wedding venue to wedding reception.

We got some lamb & mint pies from the market, and I got some bread pudding, and we left Llanidloes moving on to Newtown.  We stopped at a car park in the village of Llandinam and had our eats.  On the way to Newtown we diverted via Caersws, a small railway town, where there was also once a Salvation Army corps; no trace of it remains today and it may be that the work did not prosper.

Taking the back road via Llanwnog we journeyed on to Newtown in the hope of finding the Salvation Army hall there.  We found the Salvation Army charity shop and had a nice chat with Sam, the corps officer in Newtown.  She told us how the corps was faring, and where the "corps plant" started some 25 years ago in Agriculture House near the station.  The corps now meets in a community centre in an estate off the Llanidloes Road. 

 



After a long day we went back to Brecknockshire via Llandrindod Wells and relaxed for the rest of the evening.