Llandrindod Wells Building Control Plans

(R/UD/LW)

The first section of the Central Wales line from Knighton to Llandrindod was opened in 1865 and the whole line was completed in 1868, giving a through connection from Shrewsbury to Swansea.  Llandrindod was now within easy reach for the people living in the large industrial towns and cities of the North West of England, the Midlands and South Wales.  Visitors began to come in large numbers as for the first time the “holiday” was no longer the sole preserve of the wealthy.

Between 1865 and 1914 Llandrindod Wells became 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 alike.  Many private houses were built on the grand scale characteristic of the time.

In the nineteenth century local authorities began to adopt by-laws for the construction of new housing built to minimum standards for water supply, sewage disposal, ventilation and light.  Llandrindod Wells was no exception, and from 1894 prospective developers of land had to apply to Llandrindod Wells UDC for, what we know today, as planning permission. 

Powys Archives has in its collections an almost complete set of building control plans for Llandrindod Wells dating from 1894 to the 1960s.  These include architects’ drawings for each new-build, alteration or addition to buildings, which may be hotels, houses, shops, chapels, down to the smallest pigsty. The plans show that Llandrindod Wells, like many spa towns, developed its own distinctive architecture.