This Thursday, on 3 October, we will celebrate the one-hundred-and-sixtieth anniversary of the Pryce-Jones mail order store and the one-hundred-and-fortieth anniversary of the opening of the Pryce-Jones Royal Welsh Warehouse. A celebration organised by the heritage hub for mid Wales at the grade II listed Pryce-Jones Royal Welsh Warehouse in Newtown will mark the life of Sir Pryce Pryce-Jones, who was the pioneer of mail order home shopping.

Pryce-Jones had a draper's shop in Newtown and came up with the idea of dispatching goods to his customers by post using the railway. His drapery business was so popular, he dreamt up the mail order catalogue so that those who couldn't travel to his Newtown shop could buy his goods. I'm told that Queen Victoria and Florence Nightingale were amongst the patrons, and his Welsh flannel was sold to customers around the world.

He is also credited with the invention of the sleeping bag and was the MP for Montgomeryshire on two occasions. Tomorrow we will see two plaques unveiled by the entrepreneur's great-great-grandson, David Pryce-Jones, and the High Sheriff of Powys, David Lloyd Peate, to mark the pioneer's contribution to the heritage of Montgomeryshire and the world birthplace of mail order.