Exhibition panels from the ‘Pryce Jones Legacy Exhibition’ originally held at Newtown Library in May 2026, on the life and legacy of Sir Pryce Pryce-Jones (1834-1920).

These storyboard panels describes the life and work of Pryce Jones a humble drapers apprentice at twelve years old during Newtown & Llanllwchaiarn Welsh woolen textile industrial revival of the 19th Century. 

By the age of twenty five he had opened his own drapers shop in Broad Street Newtown. Draper’s were an integral part of the textile industry, they specialized in selling cloth, linings, trimmings, threads and buttons to dress makers, tailors and for made to measure clothing and homes furnishers. 

Pryce Jones first recorded he had developed the idea of shopping by post on the 3rd October 1859 by initially posting fabric samples post free to expand his drapers business to customers across the United Kingdom.

After winning many woolen textile exhibitions both nationally and internationally he expanded his mailing list to over 250,000 customers across the British Empire from Aden in Yemen to America and Australia. 

After being knighted in 1887 and changing his name by deed poll Sir Pryce Pryce-Jones became a pioneering figure in the Mail Order business. Establishing a legacy, that influenced modern retail practices across the World.