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Coordinates: 52°14′37″N 3°23′08″W / 52.24354, -3.38547

Llandrindod Wells (Welsh: Llandrindod), known locally as \"Llandod\", is a town in Powys, Wales. It was developed as a spa town in the 19th century, with a boom in the late 20th century as a centre of local government. Before the 1860s the site of the town was common land in Cefnllys parish.

Development of the town

During the mid-18th century the 'healing qualities' of the local spring waters attracted visitors to the area resulting in an economic boom with the building of a 'splendid' hotel at Llandrindod Hall. A period of relative decline during the late 18th and early 19th centuries was reversed with the construction of the Heart of Wales Line making Llandrindod accessible from the Midlands and North West of England, and South Wales. Enclosure of the common in 1862 enabled expansion of the town with the construction of new streets, hotels, shops and houses.

During the 'season' between May and mid-September visitors would take the waters at the pump rooms at the Rock Park and Pump House Hotel, entertained by orchestras. Shops — including the Central Wales Emporium on the corner of Temple Street and Station Crescent — and hotels and boarding houses catered for the visitors. In the early 1870s the ornamental lake had been formed by draining marshland near the Pump House Hotel (current site of the Powys County Council offices), and in 1893 a 9-hole golf course was opened on the common beside the lake. (This was later replaced by the present 18-hole course on the hills above the lake.) Horse races (and, later, air displays) were held on the Rock Ddole meadow beside the river. In 1893 the Archdeacon with responsibility for the area had Llandrindod old church and Cefnllys church unroofed in order to persuade the congregations to attend the new church in the centre of the town. In 1895 both churches were restored.

The town's boom continued until the First World War during which time soldiers on training courses were billeted in hotels and boarding houses, and refugees and wounded soldiers were accommodated in the town. The depression of the late-1920s and 1930s led to many hotels and boarding houses being turned into private homes and flats. During the Second World War the town was again used for military hospitals and billets, followed by a slump in the post-war years. The Beeching Axe resulted in the closure in the mid-1960s of the Mid-Wales line and with it Llandrindod's connection from nearby Builth Wells direct to Cardiff in the south and to North and West Wales. The town does however retain connections to Swansea and Shrewsbury via its station on the Heart of Wales Line.

Read more at Wikipedia.org