Machynlleth Town Council has begun plans to celebrate the town clocktower’s 150th birthday with a ‘Victorian-themed day’ across the town.

Discussed at the latest full council meeting on 26 February, the date for the celebrations will be Saturday 13 July this year.

This is despite the controversy over the actual year it was built, in which some people believe the tower was built in 1874 due to a delay to the works, whilst the plaque on the tower is dated 15 July 1873.

However the clocktower was draped in scaffolding during its supposed 150th birthday last year in 2023 due to maintenance works that were completed in the autumn.

At the meeting Mayor Jeremy Paige said: “A Machynlleth historian is pretty sure it was built in 1874. It’d be good to have a celebration about the clock itself and have it as a town-wide thing.

“It’s been suggested to me that it might be nice to have a Victorian day, themed around the time the clock was built.

“We can encourage shop displays, people to dress up, the youth club to make hats. We can convert the town into a Victorian town for the day.”

The date was voted on and agreed that plans are to move forward.

Gareth Jones had previously written to the Cambrian News, and is adamant that the clock was as the plaque suggests, in 1873.

Mr Jones, a descendant of the two brothers who built the town clock, said: “Much has been said about the 150th anniversary of Machynlleth’s town clock being next year because there was a delay in laying the foundation stone owing to a bereavement in the Londonderry family...

“Firstly, the plaque on the town clock clearly states it was erected in 1873 to mark the coming of age of Viscount Castlereagh on 15 July that year. “And secondly, there is absolutely no doubt at all that the people of Machynlleth celebrated the town clock’s centenary in July 1973, not 1974. They even elected a Town Clock Centenary Queen, and my late mother produced a booklet of poems, to celebrate that milestone.”