The premier spa in Wales

Llandrindod Hall, a deserted farmhouse belonging to the Middleton Hope family, was converted into the splendid hotel described above in 1749 by William Grosvenor of Shrewsbury. The wells at Llandrindod had been resorted to as early 1696, when the Vaughans of Herefordshire stayed for three weeks to take the waters.

The chalybeate spring, known as the Rock Water, had been used ” from time immemorial”; the saline and sulphur springs were rediscovered in 1732 by Mrs Jenkins the tenant of Lower Bach-y-graig farm. She began to sell the waters to travellers and the fame of their healing qualities spread. The farm became known as the Pump House, ater the famous Pump House Hotel.

The wells were situated on a bleak common, the sight of which dismayed many visitors. Accommodation was provided at farmhouses around the common and at the Llanerch Inn, but facilities were primitive until the opening of Mr Grosvenor’s hotel, which soon became fashionable, with its excellent accommodation and entertainments. In 1756 Dr. Linden published a scientific treatise on the waters, which brought them to the attention of a wider public.

For thirty years the hotel flourished as a resort for the healthy and infirm alike, but like most inland watering places, declined with the advent of sea bathing as the fashionable cure. The hotel burned down before the end of the century and now a farm stands in its place. Although visitors continued to frequent the wells during the 19th century, development on a large scale was inhibited by the remoteness of the area and the lack of good building land.

The enclosure of the common in 1862 and the construction of the railway in 1865 ushered in an area of rapid change.

“Here were accommodation for the invalid of whatever rank and distinction, field amusements for the healthy…. balls, billiards and regular assemblies varied the pastimes of the gay and the fashionable.”