At first glance, this panoramic view of Newtown, Montgomeryshire, by local artist Edward Salter, presents a typical Victorian pastoral scene. A small town, nestled in the mid-Wales hills, surrounded by luscious green fields populated by grazing cattle. But look more closely and one begins to discern the tall factory chimneys of a small manufacturing town specialising in a soft woollen fabric known as flannel.

Delve deeper and what one discovers is a vision of Victorian progress and enterprise telling a story which is particularly apt in 2025 – the 200th anniversary year of the opening of the world's first public railway, the Stockton to Darlington.

For what animates this painting is the arrival, in full steam, of a magnificent steam locomotive of the Cambrian Railway Company, a Sharp Stewart No. 48 or 49, as it sweeps past the cathedral-like structure of the newly built Severn Valley Woollen Factory. It was the railway and that locomotive which would transform Newtown into the centre of one of the world's first mail-order empires and ultimately help to change our shopping habits.

In 1859, an enterprising young draper named Pryce Jones opened his first business in Newtown's Broad Street. In that same year, the Llanidloes to Newtown Railway began services between the two flannel-producing towns, just twelve miles apart. Pryce was probably one of the 2,000 passengers who made the inaugural journey on 31st August of that year and it may have been on that day that he fully realised how the railway could revolutionise shopping.

Soon, he was sending out fabric swatches to his customers, using the new universal postal system and dispatching parcels of his goods by train to his satisfied customers. Within a decade, Newtown had been connected to the rapidly expanding national rail network and fabric swatches had been replaced by printed catalogues. By that time, Pryce had coined a new marketing slogan – 'Shopping in the Comfort of your Home' – and had rebranded his business as 'The Royal Welsh Warehouse'.

The name was well chosen as he was now supplying Queen Victoria, along with most of the crowned heads of Europe, with his wares.

By 1878, the business had outgrown the shop in Broad Street. Pryce chose a new site next to Newtown's railway station, which can be seen in the centre foreground of the painting. But Pryce was not interested in building a larger shop: in fact, he built what today would be described as a distribution centre.

This multi-storeyed building – adorned with the Royal Coat of Arms and carved stone replicas of the medals won at International Trade Fairs – was equipped with the latest technology: hydraulic lifts, an internal telephone system and, a little later, electricity supplied from a water-driven dynamo fed from the River Severn.

As workmen were adding the finishing touches to the Royal Welsh Warehouse, Salter was sitting in the field above it, painting his picture and so was able to include this iconic building towering above the station.

In 1887, Pryce reached the pinnacle of success when this draper of humble origins was knighted by Queen Victoria. Not content with one 'Pryce' in his name, he added a second, becoming Sir Pryce Pryce-Jones. By that time, his worldwide customer base had reached a staggering 300,000, all because of that steam locomotive no. 48 or 49. Methods of ordering and modes of transportation may have changed, but this beautiful painting offers a glimpse of the origins of the way we shop today.

John Evans, Curator, Newtown Textile Museum

Pryce Jones features in Railway 200's online timeline which marks the 200th anniversary of the opening of the Stockton to Darlington Railway. He will also feature in the Railway 200 mobile exhibition, which will tour the country throughout 2025.

The publication of this content was made possible through Welsh Government funding