Thomas Shop Museum 2024
A village treasure deeply embedded in the history and culture of Radnorshire, is a unique blend of the old and the new. The museum will excite nostalgia for those who remember a time when shopping was a cultural experience, and an opportunity to learn and connect with the past for the younger generation.
Contacts
Address: A44 Penybont Powys LD1 5UA
- Telephone: 01597 851 951
- Email: .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)
- Website: View website
Open Days & Times
Thu-Sun & BHol Mon 1000-1700. Visit website for more details.
Travel
- By Rail: Penybont / 1 mile
Facilities
- Refreshments
- Souvenir Shop
- Part disabled access
Visiting the Thomas Shop is to indulge in nostalgia for anyone who lived through the 1970s or before. The transformation in shopping that began in the mid to late 50s was largely complete before the start of the 80s. The few exceptions, mainly hardware shops, hung on to a past that looked after customers in a way that has now become alien. Shopping changed very little, if at all, in the period between 1805 and 1958, the years when the Thomas Shop flourished. The museum aims to re-capture that period.
The shop itself is/was, as you will find it, a grocery store on one side and a drapery on the other. In days gone by the Thomas family as grocers were known for their blends of tea – the Meeting House had been a tea and grain warehouse, while on the drapery side they were reknowned for silks and tailoring – they had eight tailors working in the house! People were known to have travelled from as far away as Newtown for the tailoring – hence the kitchen was originally built on to the house as a 'tea-room'.
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