Wyeside Arts Centre has a long and colourful history, and at its heart is the commitment of the local community to make great arts available in Builth and the surrounding area. 

Our thanks to Arabella McIntyre-Brown, who compiled this History from existing documents and historical resources at Wyeside Arts Centre.

By the 1870s, Builth had become Builth Wells, an increasingly prosperous Spa town attracting visitors from a distance, thanks to the railway. Diarist Francis Kilvert, curate at St Michael’s, Clyro, described the 'glamour and enchantment' emanating from the 'shining slate roofs of Builth and the bridge.' But despite impressing the Rev Kilvert, Builth – the main market town in the area – still had no covered market hall (farm produce was sold from stalls amongst the High Street livestock market), no assembly rooms nor even a concert hall.

Aware of their growing town’s deficiencies, two townsmen formed groups to rectify the situation. Mr Bligh of Cilmeri Park began work on what is now the Strand Hall whilst wine merchant John Davies gathered together a rival consortium to develop a building which would combine market hall, assembly rooms and concert hall. Davies and his colleagues established the Builth Public Hall & Market Committee and in 1876 formed a limited company with a capital of £3,000 in £5 and £10 shares.

Original Shareholders and Officers:

• John Davies (Chairman)

• Thomas Thomas (Secretary & Treasurer)

• Thomas Joseph, Oaklands

• Augustus Ley Bazeley, Solicitor

• Evan Owen, Clerk to the Justices

The company bought a terrace of picturesque but tumbledown cottages known as Bridge Row to the east of the recently renovated bridge across the Wye, and commissioned designs through a public competition for a covered market hall and assembly rooms. The winning design was by Haddon Bros. of Hereford was in the Italianate style, and was completed in 1877.

The Assembly Rooms upstairs (now the Castle Cinema) could seat 500 people in the main space and the gallery, and was used for concerts, dances and public meetings. At street level was a row of shops, originally occupied by a wine merchant (probably John Davies), a shoemaker and an outfitter. Since then there has been a newsagent, barber’s shop, sweet shop, labour exchange, watchmaker, greengrocer and the first Builth Branch Library. The market hall at river level was reached by a flight of stone steps flanked by small lock-up stalls, and the hall itself had larger stalls in attractive archways (still to be seen). On the south façade of the building were terracotta medallions of Shakespeare, Beethoven and Haydn or Mozart (The last figure heads identity is uncertain), with the Builth coat of arms over the market entrance, and the Welsh harp (the company’s seal) over the doorway.

The building was opened with a grand ceremony performed by Sir Joseph Bailey MP on 30 November 1877. The event was attended by a large and fashionable crowd including 'a good sprinkling of the aristocracy of the neighbourhood.' The celebrations included two concerts to raise funds for the fine clock that was to adorn the Hall's central spire. The matinee concert at 3 o’clock comprised 16 musical items with encores; in the evening show at 7 o’clock were 22 items plus encores. The review in the Brecon & Radnor newspaper heaped lavish praise on the harpist, the Glee party and the soloists, but was less enthusiastic about the pianoforte players. ‘We have only one word to say, they were played with great skill but at the same time they were too long and became absolutely wearisome.’

The market hall thrived for more than a century – except for the occasional flood, the worst of which reached the top market step. Upstairs, the Assembly Rooms became the place to be seen for Builth society. Concerts sacred and secular, educational lectures and political meetings, with tea dances and social soirées, packed the programme until the first decade of the 20th century. Evening dress balls saw patrons and guests arriving in their carriages, with the ladies keeping a fresh supply of white gloves at their rooms in the Lion Hotel over the road, to exchange for those soiled during dancing.

At the end of the Edwardian years, moving pictures became all the rage, and travelling cinemas were hugely popular with rural audiences until they were put out of business by the 1909 Cinematographic Act; so in 1911 the Assembly Rooms were converted into the Kino Cinema showing pictures by Welsh film-makers, later ousted by American blockbusters by directors such as DW Griffith. Musical accompaniment at the Kino was by Mrs Mackay on piano and Mr Taylor on violin, right through the silent era, until they were made redundant by the invention of the Talkies.

In 1924 the Market Hall complex was bought by Mr Worthington of The White Horse Inn, and in 1927 he invested in the technology to show the new sensation: talking pictures. The Singing Fool, starring Al Jolson (the follow-up to The Jazz Singer), was shown at the Kino in 1928. Mr Worthington died on 13 May 1937 and left the Market Hall and Kino cinema to his daughter, Mrs Elizabeth Pugh. Realising that the Kino was in much need of refurbishment, Mrs Pugh leased the cinema to E. Taylor's 'Castle Cinema' chain, and the Kino became the Castle.

The 1930s and 1940s were a time of great prosperity for the cinema. One local couple went twice a week, always sitting in seats H1 and H2: when the cinema was next refurbished they were presented with their seats which they used in their sitting room. Another local woman went to the cinema every Monday and Thursday until well into her nineties, sitting in the same reserved seat and making good use of her free 'long service' pass.

In the late 1960s, when the cinema was suffering the same slow economic decline as the town and the rest of rural Mid Wales, Mrs Pugh (widowed and with no children) wanted to make sure the buildings continued to benefit the local community. She discussed the future of the building with her trustees, solicitor Donald Pryse Jones and solicitors clerk Edward 'Eddie' Turner, and the idea for Wyeside Arts Centre was born. Preliminary discussions took place with the Welsh Arts Council and Theatre Projects Ltd.

In 1971 Mrs Pugh died suddenly; her trustees set up a charitable trust – Wyeside Arts Centre Ltd – which in October 1976 acquired the buildings by a deed of gift from Donald Jones and Eddie Turner, and work began on the scheme to give Builth Wells a Centre for the Arts. The occupiers of the shops at street level were given notice so that the conversion work could begin. The new Wyeside Arts Centre was opened by Lady Anglesey, Chair of the Welsh Arts Council and daughter of Builth's distinguished novelist Hilda Vaughan.

The birth of Wyeside Arts Centre was not without its controversy. The tenants of the first floor shops had been displaced and Builth was at the time without a Sports Centre or indoor swimming pool. Did Builth need an Arts Centre? What emerged was essentially the vision of its founding Chairman, Donald Jones, who believed that only by enriching the cultural life of a community and by providing entertainment facilities well beyond what one could normally expect in a small town with a tiny population, could the future prosperity of the area be secured. It was a remarkable achievement by a remarkable man. The first administrator of Wyeside, Chris Baldwin (who had been the theatre and lighting designer for the remodelled building) produced an imaginative and ambitious programme of events for the early years.

On 30 June 1980, the newly formed Friends of Wyeside held their first meeting. Their aims, as volunteers, were to promote the activities of the Arts Centre, and to provide help and financial support. Since the first meeting, the Friends have enlisted supporters from as far afield as London and Birmingham, and have raised many thousands of pounds to buy equipment and other items for the Centre. They also acted as ushers for live performances and film shows, and staff the bar. In 1983, when Wyeside faced a threat of closure, the Friends wrote personally to every councillor in Brecon & Radnorshire, to every organisation and business – anyone who could add their influence to prevent closure. This avalanche of support helped persuade the local authorities and the Arts Council to continue financial support to Wyeside, and the crisis was over.