Transport

Transport in Welshpool

Map of Welshpool showing road (brown), rail (grey), and canal (blue).
Colour added for emphasis
Powys County Archives

Staff, Welshpool Station
Powysland Museum and Montgomery Canal Centre

As with many other towns in 1891, Welshpool benefited from the coming of the railway, and many of its townspeople were employed in connection with it. The London and North Western and Great Western Joint Railways and the Cambrian Railways served the town.

Powys County Archives

Consequently the canal still employed workers from Welshpool. These included people who worked on the barges themselves, such as John Jones:

Barge near Mardy Bridge, Welshpool
Powysland Museum and Montgomery Canal Museum

It also included people like Francis R Hawkins, who was a labourer on the canal, loading and unloading barges:

There was also the lock keeper who lived with his large family at Canal Lock Houses:

Pryce Bebb died around 1897 as a result of an operation performed on a kitchen table to remove a kidney stone. However, his son Cornelius (known as 'Neil') went on to become a lock keeper himself, as did another son, also called Pryce.

You can find out more about the history of the Montgomery Canal on the Powys Digital History website.

There was another, rather interesting group of people who travelled to Welshpool by road and were in the town for the 1891 census.