Llanidloes, United Kingdom

The following centuries saw the growth of weaving and flannel production. This was essentially a cottage industry, and the local products were sent to market at Shrewsbury in England. Towards the end of the 18th century, Llanidloes was the largest producer in Montgomeryshire, but after about 1810, with the introduction of factories, which brought all the processes under one roof, Newtown gradually overtook Llanidloes as the main centre. Some of the three-storey houses with brick façades of this period would have housed weaving lofts on the upper storey. Lewis's Topographical Dictionary of 1833 noted that there were forty carding engines, eighteen fulling mills and thirty-five thousand spindles .. affording considerable employment in Llanidloes. However, the new technology was far from profitable, and the factory system led to increasing unrest, which culminated in the Chartist riots in 1839. Newtown, connected to the Montgomeryshire Canal in 1819, soon became the centre of the flannel industry in Wales with the opening of its Flannel Exchange in 1832. Llanidloes followed suit in 1838 when former Public Rooms in Great Oak Street were built by a local consortium as a Flannel Exchange; but this only lasted a few years, although Llanidloes flannel was regarded as better quality. Some owners, particularly Thomas Jones, who owned the Cambrian and Spring Mills, struggled to promote the Llanidloes flannel industry.

Lead mining became the more profitable industry from 1865, when rich deposits were discovered at the Van mines. By 1876, the mines were among the most productive in the world, employing over 500. Important too was the town's iron foundry, established in 1851. This second phase of prosperity is well reflected in the townscape, most notably in the proliferation of fine chapels, built during the 1870s. Commercial success is reflected by the many fine shopfronts that survive from the later part of the 19th century; but again decline set in: printing and tanning gained in importance, but the last of the mines closed in 1921. Little has changed since then, except the building of houses, including a Garden Suburb and a new school. The building of the by-pass in 1991, along the track of the former railway, has largely protected the town from the ravages of traffic. Llanidloes has attractive tree-lined main streets, originally planted in 1901, although many of the trees have been replaced.

Llanidloes was notorious as a focus of industrial unrest during the Chartist revolt in 1839, a campaign for democratic rights prompted by the collapse of the local textile industry. During the unrest, three local people were arrested and held in the Trewythen hotel on Great Oak Street until the protesters forced their release. The town was controlled by the protesters until a detachment of South Shropshire Yeomanry arrived on 14 May 1839 and restored Government authority.