Monument to Sir Richard Green Price, Rhos-y-Meirch
Monument to Sir Richard Green Price, Rhos-y-Meirch, near Knighton
A stone obelisk stands in the field to the east of the Offa’s Dyke Path here. It commemorates local MP Sir Richard Green Price, who brought railways to this region of Wales.
He was born Richard Green in Herefordshire in October 1803. He became a solicitor in Knighton in 1824 and set about enclosing and developing 70,000 acres of “waste land” in Radnorshire.
Through his maternal ancestry he inherited Norton Manor, near here. This part of the Offa’s Dyke Path runs through what was his estate. The manor previously belonged to Richard Price, MP for Radnor Boroughs from 1798 to 1846.
Richard Green added “Price” to his name to reflect this side of his ancestry. He was Liberal MP for Radnor Boroughs from 1862 to 1869, when he moved temporarily to southern France and Spain to ease his asthma. He became a baronet in 1874 and sheriff of Radnorshire in 1876. He returned to Parliament in 1880 as MP for Radnorshire, losing his seat in 1885. He died at his London home two years later.
He had 12 children, through two marriages. In 1885 his son Frank died after falling from a horse at Brecon racecourse. Six years earlier another son, Dauncey, had been injured when thrown from a horse while out hunting with the West Herefordshire hounds.
The granite obelisk was unveiled in 1908. The inscription on it records that Sir Richard’s “untiring energy” brought railways to Knighton, Llandrindod, Presteigne and New Radnor. The press reported in 1874 that the railways from Knighton to Penybont (now part of the Heart of Wales line) and to Presteigne were “originated entirely” by him. He had also instigated a daily omnibus service to Ludlow which connected rural Radnorshire to the wider postal network. Previously the county had a weekly postal service.