Welshpool Borough Records

(M/B/W)

Dating from 1406 to the twentieth century, the Welshpool Borough collection reflects many aspects of the municipal history of Welshpool through six centuries.

The earlier records contain some of the most noteworthy items in the collection; interesting bye-laws dating from 1570; two burgess rolls, 1678-1835; burgage rents for 1701 and 1736; a plan of the town in 1629; an award with plan of Pool Common, 1761; and a perambulation of the borough boundary in 1818.

The growth of the borough during modern times and the resultant increase in its activities is recorded in an excellent series of Council minutes, starting in 1728 and continuing to the 1970s. 

Pride of place should, however, be given to the Charters of 1406 and 1615, the former being the oldest surviving document in the collection.

Welshpool was first granted the status and privileges of a “free borough” by the Charter of Gruffydd ap Gwenwynwyn, Prince of Powis in the thirteenth century.  These privileges were later confirmed and extended by Charters of John de Charleton, Lord of Powis in 1314 and 1324 and of his successor, Edward de Charleton in 1406. 

In 1615, the burgesses received a Royal Charter of Incorporation from James I, whereby they became a corporate body under the title of “the bailiffs and burgesses of the Borough of Poole”. Under this, the borough was governed until 1835, when the Municipal Corporations Act remodelled the governing body and instituted the modern borough council, consisting of a mayor, alderman and councillors. 

The next and most drastic change came almost one hundred and forty years later, when, on the reorganisation of local government in April 1974, Welshpool lost its borough status and became part of the newly created Montgomery District.