Builth and district
Earning a living
  Victorian Inns in the area  
 

extract from Pigot's Directory in 1835In the days before the great Victorian railway network was built people had to travel around by coach or on horseback. As journeys took a lot longer this meant that travellers needed somewhere to stay over night.

All across Britain there were a great number of inns which gave people food and accommodation. Pigot's Directory of South Wales lists the inns in the Builth area in the early years of Queen Victoria's reign. The inns which put up travellers by stage coach (like the Crown below) needed to employ a lot of local people to run the inn.

 

Crown HotelServants were needed to clean the rooms and look after the guests. There would be boot boys to clean the travellers' boots and shoes, and grooms to look after the horses. A cook and her assistants would be busy in the kitchen cooking for the guests. From this you can see that the inns of the area would be an important source of employment for local people in Victorian times.

Even before the railways came to Builth people were visiting the area to take the waters at Park Wells just outside the town. The inns on this list would be kept busy, particularly in summer time.
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