When my family moved to Talgarth in 1980, the mill barely existed. The waterwheel had been destroyed years before to avoid water extraction fees. It was little more than a builders’ yard, bearing the sign ‘Transport drivers please be aware of this property’. Back then, Talgarth was mainly known for the mental hospital. Sprawling at the top of the hill, everyone knew someone who worked up there. Both my son and daughter had holiday jobs at the hospital.
In 2000, after decades of taking a central role in the town, the hospital closed. Attitudes to psychiatric treatment had changed dramatically but when it went, the town lost a key part of its identity. Eight years later, the National Lottery and BBC’s Village SOS programme funded a restoration of the mill adding a shop for local crafts, bakery, café and event space.
To my mind, this restored a vibrancy to Talgarth. When local lad Alex opens his bakery, there’s usually a short queue and, in Trigg’s Café, friends keen to catch up over coffee. We have weekly mums and babies, knit and knatter and often local schools visiting. To me, the mill is up there with Gwernyfed RFC and our Male Voice Choir, central to town life.
Now, after twenty-five years of service, the waterwheel needs repairing so we have launched a crowdfunding campaign. If you’d like to donate, please do: https://www.crowdfunder.co.uk/p/keep-the-mill-wheels-turning-1#
Article supplied by Pete Rowson, volunteer director
Photo: Pete, Ann, Beth & Tom Rowson in their Talgarth garden, 1981
