Newtown expanded during the long reign of Queen Victoria (See population graphs).
New factories and workshops were built and houses for the workers who worked in them. New schools, railway stations and chapels were built also.

This was a busy time for construction firms and quarrymen and brickmakers who provided the builders materials. This entry from Slater's Directory shows some local builders and brickmakers from 1858.

With no supermarkets, butchers were even more important in Victorian times. The meat they sold would have been produced locally.

Although there were local potters in Mid-Wales, china goods would have been brought in by canal. Later in Queen Victoria's reign they would have come into the area by railway.

The coach builders listed here would have been busy building coaches and traps for local wealthier families and wagons for businesses.

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