Yesterday I went to help represent Shropshire Family History Society at the below event. Very welcoming people even though we were the interlopers from over the border. Have to say that The Crescent, Newtown 1 building was absolutely great to hang out in during the heat of the day.
Local and Family History Day
- Montgomeryshire Genealogical Soc. 2
- Newtown Area Library 3
- Newtown Local History Group 4
- Newtown Textile Museum 5
- Powysland Club 6
- Powys Family History Society 7
- Shropshire Family History Society 8
- Aspects of Newtown Railway Station 9
Topics discussed with attendees apart from the history relating to the areas above also included Llawryglyn Local History Group 10 and had a very interesting conversation about the Railway Philatelic Group 11 with Terry Davies.
He has given me a brochure (see below) and I was excited to have a discussion about Kent whilst in Wales seeing that on the cover was a place I recognise very well. It seems Romney, Hythe and Dymchurch Light Railway 12 used to produce their own stamps.
Also, learnt from the Rev. Rebecca Lalbiaksangi 13 about Thomas Jones 14 who was a missionary that went out to India and other local missionaries also went to Madagascar which is where she spent time and met her husband.
Apparently locally around Newtown people don’t tend to know about Thomas Jones (or probably go which one) but people actually pilgrimage from India to visit the chapel he came from as he was so important in their history. There is actually Thomas Jones Day commemorated in the state of Meghalaya.
On a side note I was very well behaved and didn’t ask them if the film Madagascar was in anyway realistic …..
Hoping we got the news out more about the Shropshire Hub 15 as well and was great to spend more time in person with Simon Davies 16 and learn more about his relatives who lived around that area.
It was a lovely drive down and back and went through Middletown 17 which is somewhere we holidayed twice whilst I was a child. My family is still in touch with the people who owned the cottage we stayed in. It is a real shame to see some of the towns that were thriving at that time which we visited, including Welshpool are just shells of themselves now. Really missing community in many areas now.
Footnotes –
- https://www.ebcpcw.cymru/en/churches/the-crescent-newtown/ ↩︎
- https://www.montgensoc.org ↩︎
- https://en.powys.gov.uk/newtownlibrary ↩︎
- https://newtownlocalhistorygroup.wordpress.com/ ↩︎
- https://newtowntextilemuseum.co.uk/ ↩︎
- https://www.powyslandclub.co.uk/ ↩︎
- https://www.powysfhs.org.uk/ ↩︎
- https://www.sfhs.org.uk/ ↩︎
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Newtown_railway_station_(Wales) ↩︎
- https://www.lyghistory.org/ ↩︎
- https://railwayphilatelicgroup.co.uk/ ↩︎
- https://www.rhdr.org.uk/ ↩︎
- https://www.countytimes.co.uk/news/23812343.powys-see-history-made-female-indian-minister-ordained/ ↩︎
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Jones_(missionary) ↩︎
- https://app.weare.xyz/public/the-shropshire-family-history-hub/places/mpej31pzpy5n ↩︎
- https://bsky.app/profile/simondmd.bsky.social ↩︎
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Middletown,_Powys ↩︎