Monday 13 December 2010

Newtown


Apart from the few photos I took on our walk to Newtown along the Montgomery Canal in July I took only two shots in the town itself. One was the impressive Pryce Jones building overshadowing the Queen's Head pub. Pryce Pryce-Jones was born just outside Newtown in 1834, and started the world's first mail order company. The building in the photo was built in 1879 to accommodate his expanding business, selling Welsh flannel across the world. People would choose what they wanted from a leaflet, then Price-Jones would post the product. In 1880 he had 100,000 customers, including - as he stated on his publicity - Florence Nightingale and Queen Victoria.


The other photo was of an old W.H.Smith and Son shop. Well, half shop, half museum. The shop was first opened in 1927 and was kept in its original condition when all other WHSmith branches were modernised in the 1970s.

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