Newtown Textile Museum is housed in an original handloom factory which dates back to the 1830s. It was during the early nineteenth century that Newtown became the centre for the production of flannel – originally an unpretentious woollen cloth which Pryce Jones transformed into a global commodity through the establishment of one of the world first mail-order empires. The building originally served a dual purpose. Workers were accommodated in six tiny back-to-back cottages on the two lower floors whilst two ‘factory’ floors housing 24 handlooms occupied the two upper floors. Today, the museum is a unique survivor of the type of building which was common in the town during its manufacturing heyday with recreated domestic interiors of the period in the original cottages, a loom floor with examples of the equipment used in flannel manufacture and recreated shop interiors and display space. The collection comprises items related to the flannel industry and the related material culture of the society which grew out of it.