Administrative Centre and Market Town
New Radnor when it was the county town had its own Court. The honour later passed to Presteigne. The old Town Hall is still in the village today. The town used to have its own regular markets, including a livestock market held once a week throughout the year. But this is no longer the case.
The parliamentary seat of Radnor was sometimes involved in turbulent local politics, as in 1693 when two rival families the Lewis's (Whigs) and the Harley's (Tories) met on the High Street in New Radnor and drew swords, such was the bad blood between them. One man involved, later Sir Robert Harley, 1st Earl of Oxford and Mortimer, becoming MP, three times Speaker of the House of Commons and also Chancellor of the Exchequer in 1710 and later Lord High Treasurer, and very nearly Prime Minister. But he was to be dismissed by the Queen, imprisoned in The Tower in 1715. He died in 1724 and is buried in Brampton Bryan.
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