Machynlleth
Victorian trade directories
  Robson's Directory, 1840  
 

One of the earliest directories to cover Machynlleth was Robson's Directory, issued in 1840. It described the town as "A neat well-built town, and preferable in appearance to most in North Wales".
But the writer was not impressed by the parish church, because as the bottom extract below shows, the only thing about it worth mentioning was that it was whitewashed on the outside !

  
  Local industries,1840 Like the directory of 1858, this
1840 edition mentions the most
important industries of the district -
the flannel trade, lead mining and
slate quarrying.
 

Local gentry,1840

 This part of the Machynlleth
entry lists the 'seats' in the district.
These were the local 'Big Houses'
and estates owned by important
members of the gentry in 1840.
Greenfields, the property of Sir John
Edwards MP, was later to be
renamed as Plas Machynlleth.
 

Captain Charles Thruston was a landowner and magistrate, and the house owned by the family was originally called Talgarth Hall but later became known as Plas Talgarth.

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