WELSHPOOL, or Poor, a market-town and municipal and parliamentary borough in Montgomeryshire, North Wales, is situated in the upper Severn valley not far from north of Montgomery, and 18 west of Shrewsbury. The church of St Mary's, a Gothic structure, restored by Street at a cost of £4000, is a building of some antiquity; Christ Church, in Powis Park, in the Norman style, was house, assize courts, and assembly rooms. The Powysland Museum, containing a colleption of local fossils and antiquities and a library, was in 1887 vested in the corporation as a free public library and museum. A mile south-west of the town is Powis Castle, the fine old baronial residence of the earl of Powis, and about the same distance to the east is Leighton Hall. The site of an old moated mound is now occupied by a bowling green. The flannel manufacture has now ceased, but there is a large manufactory of tweeds and woollen shawls. The population of the municipal borough (area 19,549 acres) in 1871 was 7370 and in 1881 it was 7107. The population of the parliamentary borough (area 6761 acres) in 1881 was 5211.

About 1109 a castle was begun at Welshpool by Cadwygan ap Bleddyn ap Cynvyn, and completed by Gwenwynwyn. In 1191 it was besieged by Hubert, archbishop of Canterbury, and after being undermined surrendered, but it was retaken by Gwenwynwyn in 1197. It was dismantled in 1233 by Llewelyn, prince of North Wales, and for several generations it remained in the hands of the lords of Powis. During the civil war Lord Powis declared for the royal cause, but he was taken prisoner, and the castle was subsequently demolished. The town was incorporated about 1279 by the lords of Powis. In 1406 its boundaries were enlarged to the present enormous dimensions, and in 1615 it received a charter from James I., which was confirmed and enlarged by Charles 11. From the 27th of Henry VIII. it has been included in the Montgomery district of boroughs, which returns one member to parliament, The Welsh name of the town is Trallwns or Trallwm.