Muy cerca de la frontera con Inglaterra, Welshpool es la primera ciudad galesa que aparece en el mapa del Tour de Francia. Conocida por su mercado de ganado y por sus clubes de fútbol y de rugby, en 2027 destacará gracias al ciclismo. La campeona olímpica Grace Brown ganó aquí una etapa del Women’s Tour 2022 por delante de Kasia Niewiadoma-Phinney, vencedora del Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift dos años después. Welshpool también acogió la salida del Tour de Gran Bretaña femenino 2024, dominado por Lotte Kopecky.
- Ciudad etapa por primera vez
- Localidad del condado de Powys (Gales)
- Habitantes: 6300
- welshpool.com
Welshpool and cycling
Situated close to the border with England, Welshpool is the first Welsh town to feature on the Tour de France route. Renowned for its cattle market and its football and rugby clubs, it is cycling that will put it in the spotlight in 2027. Olympic champion Grace Brown won a stage of the 2022 Women’s Tour in town, ahead of Kasia Niewiadoma-Phinney, who went on to win the Tour de France Femmes with Zwift two years later. Welshpool also hosted the start of the 2024 Women’s Tour of Britain, dominated by Lotte Kopecky.
Sights
Powis Castle
Built: 13th century.
Style: medieval.
History: unlike the castles of Conwy, Caernarfon, Harlech and Montgomery, which were built by the English to subjugate the Welsh, the castle of Welshpool was built by the Welsh princes of Powys as a dynastic seat. The first mention of a castle dates back to 1111. It appears to have been a wooden structure built by Owain Cyfeiliog or his son, Gwenwynwyn. Gwenwynwyn’s son, Gruffydd, was granted permission by Edward I in 1282–1283 to retain his castle following the English conquest. In 1286, Gruffydd’s son, Owain ap Gruffydd ap Gwenwynwyn, became the last hereditary Prince of Powys. In 1578, an illegitimate son of the last Baron Grey of Powis leased the estate to a distant relative, Sir Edward Herbert, who acquired the castle in 1587 and converted it into an Elizabethan country house. William Herbert, a supporter of Charles I, was granted the barony of Powis in 1629. Dispossessed during the English Civil War, he regained his estate upon the Restoration of Charles II in 1660. On the accession of James II in 1685, he became one of the new king’s principal ministers and followed James into exile in France, where he died in 1696. The castle remained in the Herbert family’s possession but was virtually in ruins by the end of the 18th century. It passed by marriage to the wealthy Clive family of the East Indies, who had the castle repaired and took the name Herbert. The last alterations to Powis Castle were undertaken in the early 20th century by George Frederick Bodley on behalf of George Charles Herbert, 4th Earl of Powis. On his death in 1952, he bequeathed the castle and gardens to the National Trust.
Current status: Powis Castle has been owned by the National Trust since 1952. However, the Earl of Powis and his family are still permitted to live in one wing of the castle under an agreement with the National Trust. The castle and its gardens attract around 200,000 visitors a year.
Distinguishing features: the gardens have survived the 18th-century fashion for English gardens and have retained their Italianate layout. The terraces were excavated between 1670 and 1705 under the direction of William Winde. Originally, the gardens comprised six terraces, which descended from the castle and culminated in a water garden. Winde had previously experimented with a similar terraced layout at Cliveden. The castle gardens are Grade I listed in the Register of Parks and Gardens of Special Historic Interest in Wales; their listing describes them as the finest surviving Baroque gardens in Britain.
Listing: Grade I listed.
St Mary’s Church, Welshpool
Construction: 13th to 19th centuries.
History: Legend attributes the church’s foundation to St Cynfelin between the 5th and 6th centuries. The present church has 13th-century foundations, with a four-storey medieval tower, whilst the rest of the building reflects phases of reconstruction and restoration spanning from the 14th to the 19th century.
Features: it houses, notably, an organ by Henry ‘Father’ Willis, a late 16th-century funerary monument to Sir Edward Herbert, as well as an ornate communion table and pieces of antique furniture
Listing: Grade I listed.
Town Hall
Construction: 1874.
History: the first municipal building erected on this site was a guildhall dating back to at least 1629. The markets were moved there in 1761, and theologian John Wesley was refused entry by the bailiff when he attempted to preach there in 1769. In the 1860s, the town council deemed the building too small and it was demolished. The foundation stone of the present building was laid by Edward Herbert, 3rd Earl of Powis, on 15 September 1873. Designed by a local architect, Benjamin Lay, in the Neoclassical style, it was built of cut stone and completed in 1874. The building ceased to be the seat of local government following the creation of the enlarged Montgomeryshire District Council in 1974. It then became the meeting place for Welshpool Town Council. An extensive renovation programme, including the restoration of the clock, was completed in late 2012.
Characteristics: it features a quasi-symmetrical main façade comprising eight bays facing Broad Street. The central bay, which projects slightly, takes the form of a four-storey tower with a set of clock faces on the fourth storey, the whole surmounted by a pyramid-shaped roof fitted with a weather vane. The tower is 27 metres high. Inside, the main original rooms were the grain hall and the market hall, situated behind it, on the ground floor; on the first floor, there was a courtroom on the left and a council chamber on the right.
Listing: Grade II
Neuadd Maldwyn
Built: 1931.
History: Montgomeryshire County Council originally held its meetings in Montgomery, the county town. In the 1920s, its leaders decided to establish dedicated premises and chose a derelict site north of Severn Road in Welshpool. The new building, designed by Frank Gatley Briggs and Sir Arnold Thornely in the Neo-Georgian style, was constructed in red brick with stone cladding and completed in 1931. Following the 1974 local government reorganisation, the building became the headquarters of Montgomeryshire District Council and was subsequently downgraded in 1996 to serve as a regional office for Powys County Council. In 2018, Powys County Council decided that maintaining the building had become too costly and resolved to sell it to be converted into a care home. The new facility opened its doors in 2025.
Listing: Grade II listed.
Dingle Garden
In the hills of central Wales, 3 km from the market town of Welshpool, a small country lane leads to Dingle Nursery and its magnificent garden. The steep, south-facing slope descends towards two ponds, which are home to a wide variety of rare and unusual trees, ornamental shrubs and herbaceous plants. A partner of the Royal Horticultural Society, the garden, established in 1968, is the life’s work of Barbara and Roy Joseph. The garden was designed, planted and maintained by Barbie, supported by her husband, a nurseryman. Dingle is now run by her grandson Duncan and his wife Clare, with the support of the Joseph family and the nursery team. Dingle is also famous for its nursery, which offers a fine selection of perennials, shrubs and trees – both potted and bare-root – as well as rarer plants found in the garden.
