Exhibition panel 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).

The panel explains that Pryce Jones began his working life as a young apprentice draper in Mr Davies’s Cross Shop on Broad Street, a typical path for children in 19th‑century Newtown. It describes what a draper’s trade involved—selling cloth, trimmings, and sewing materials—and places his apprenticeship within the wider commercial life of the town, which was shaped by markets, woollen mills, and a busy textile economy. Through this context, the panel shows how Jones’s early exposure to fabrics, customers, and trade practices laid the groundwork for the business skills he later used to build his pioneering mail‑order enterprise.