Looking back, and down, on Welshpool

MyWelshpool readers have the opportunity to take a trip back in time to see how the town used to look from the air during and after the second world war.

We have teamed up with the Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments of Wales (RCHAMW) to promote their unique historic aerial photographs of Welshpool, which are being shared with the public.

Since 1908 the Commission, which is the national organisation for survey and record of the historic environment of Wales, has been researching and recording the archaeological, built, and maritime heritage of Wales, creating a huge national archive, including over 2 million images, that documents the changing face of the Welsh historic landscape. 

“Our free online catalogue, Coflein (https://coflein.gov.uk/en), is fully searchable by map location, place name, and site type,” a spokesperson told us.

“You can also make enquiries (https://rcahmw.gov.uk/services/enquiry-services/) remotely or visit the archive (after lockdown is lifted), in our library and search room situated in the National Library in Aberystwyth.”

In total, 22 photos of Welshpool are available from flights taken by the Aerofilms company in 1939, 1947and 1949. These are viewable (and you can ‘zoom-in’ to see the details when you register for free), on the Britain From Above website.

All the images are linked to the Royal Commission’s site record for the town where you can view other images here: https://coflein.gov.uk/en/site/33190/details/welshpool-y-trallwng  

TOP PICTURE: Welshpool Town Hall from a series taken by the Aerofilms company in May 1947, and is part of the Royal Commission’s Aerofilms Collection which has aerial photographs dating from 1920-1953 from across Wales.

BOTTOM PICTURE: Showing Boys & Boden Ltd. in 1949. You can also see the post-war prefab housing with vegetable gardens to the left.