Llandrindod Wells… a boom town!

The first section of the Central Wales line from Knighton to Llandrindod Wells was opened in 1865 and the whole line completed in 1868, giving a through connection from Shrewsbury to Swansea. Llandrindod was now within easy reach of the urban centres of the North West, the midlands and South Wales and visitors began to come in large numbers.

In 1862 an Act of Parliament was obtained to enclose the common lands of the manor of Swydd Neithon, Which included Llandrindod common. The Act came into effect in 1867 and the common was divided among local landowners, leaving land for footpaths and roads and recreational areas. The Rock House Estate was the first land to be offered for sale as building plots. At the sale in 1867 a new spring was discovered and a pump room and bath house were soon erected nearby: the surrounding land was laid out as gardens and named the Rock Park.

The area around the Rock Park developed rapidly as the centre of the new town with a church, shops, hotels and private houses.

Progress was slower on the land east of the railway. The Holy Trinity Church was built in 1871 and some private houses and an hotel along the side of the main road, named Temple Street, after the stone circle near by. In 1872/3 the marshy land near the Pump House was drained to form an ornamental lake. Llandrindod was now taking shape as a town to meet the needs of Victorian visitors.

Between 1865 and 1914 the appearance of Llandrindod Wells was that of a boom town. Hotels and boarding houses sprang up along the new streets and shops were opened to meet the needs of visitors and residents. Many of the private houses were built on the grand scale characteristic of the era.