Pigot's Directory tells us who the local carriers were at the very beginning of Queen Victoria's reign. This rather blurred list includes some very important local businesses.

Being able to send goods to customers and receive the materials they needed was vital for many local businesses and tradesmen.
You can see from the list that Brecon had good contact by cart with outside areas, especially to South Wales, London and the English midlands.
James Price North seems to be an important carrier as he offers a service to several places from his warehouse behind St Mary's church. Even when he didn't run a service himself he looked after goods until they were taken by other carriers.

Notice that Morgan and Bridgwater take goods to Hay and Kington not by cart but by "rail road". This means the horse-drawn tram road which went from Builth through Talgarth and Hay and on into Herefordshire. (See the pages on the tramroad).

Later in the Victorian period, as the railways were built, the carriers would have taken goods to the nearest railway station where they could be sent on by train.
The carrier with his cart could still earn a living but the service tended to be local, taking goods around the small villages which did not have a railway station.

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