The station is just known as Llandrindod these days. The Wells is a misnomer with a single dripping tap in a park comprising the Wells. With a population of 5,500, it is not as grand as it was in Victorian times when the population would be swelled by visitors staying in a variety of hotels and boarding houses.
Often shortened nowadays to Landod, or even just Dod, it is not a place to spend a week if travelling by train along the Heart of Wales Line. One day, though interesting, is enough.
(If you want to explore this area by train I would recommend staying in Church Stretton, over the border in England. From there you can go in three directions allowing day visits to Shrewsbury, Ludlow, Hereford and Dod.)
I approached from the south, from Swansea, having broken my journey in Llandeilo to explore the antique centre there with a range of rooms representing 55 dealers at the other end of Station Road.
I stayed one night in the Metropole, last of the grand hotels to remain trading. It fronts on to Temple Street and was deliberately built equidistant to the main spas, with two fine four storey turrets to the rear. The nearby Glen Usk, formerly part of the Thistle group, is closed up. There is a major museum in the town, the National Cycle Museum, but it is surprisingly open only on Monday and Tuesday, and Saturdays only in summer. I was there Thursday and Friday, when at least the town museum is open for spending an interesting half hour, and I could sample the Victorian architecture and independent shops.
I enjoyed a walk through the Rock Park and Spa to find the chalybeate (iron rich) spring which dribbled out of a marble stone and tap. A nearby notice suggested that it was safe to drink, but should not be stored: best drink straight away. I took some in cupped hands and it tasted ok, rather like the more effervescent spring I found in Tunbridge Wells (unpublished visit) earlier this summer.
“This fountain and the free chalybeate spring was given for the use of the public by the Lord of the Manor W. Gibson Watt, Esq., 1879”
In the past there were a range of different mineral springs to drink from, but now the chalybeate is the only one left.
The other interesting feature of Llandrindod is the man-made lake which takes about 15 minutes to walk around. This is used for fishing and model boating. The lake houses a sculpture of a water serpent and leaping carp, the scales of which are made of thousands of copper plates initialled by local people. In May 2018, pedalo boats for hire were launched onto Llandrindod Lake, as part of a £158,000 regeneration project.
Llandrindod railway station is the busiest station on the single track Heart of Wales line. Five Transport for Wales trains run each way on Mondays to Saturdays, two each way on Sundays. The station was opened in 1865, as the terminus of a branch line from Knighton, but was linked through to Swansea by 1868.
It was on this line that I rode the 52 mile single track (with passing loops) route north east to Shrewsbury, on to Crewe and Manchester Piccadilly. Change of train (by tram) and on from Manchester Victoria via York to Chester-le-Street for the princely sum of £32.90, with railcard. I am still trying to find out whether my transfer between Piccadilly and Victoria in Manchester was free or whether I should have bought a tram ticket. I am still waiting for a response!
alexnelson@nationalrail.com, www.nationalrail.com