Talybont Mission Church and Village Hall was built in 1911, to serve a growing farming and canal-side community in the Parish of Llandetty in the Brecon Beacons. It enjoyed some success between the two World Wars as a result of the influx of workers building Talybont Dam and Reservoir just up the Caerfanell valley, but as farming and local trade declined in the 20th century, so did church-going: services became less frequent and congregations dwindled.  The Hall was still used for meetings and social events, but it had poor facilities, and with little Church or Community money available there was little prospect of improvement.  The future did not look promising for Talybont‘s little Church and Hall by the late 1960’s, but at this point Wilson‘s Grammar School for Boys from Camberwell, South London, entered the frame.  How and why did metropolitan Wilson‘s come to acquire the Old Church and Hall in rural Talybont?

    National Park status for the Brecon Beacons in 1957 and the construction of the M4 Motorway and the Severn Bridge were making people in southern England increasingly aware of this relatively unspoilt mountainous area now less than four hours from London. Wilson‘s Grammar School had been holding very successful Summer Camps for many years in remote parts of Highland Britain, and had settled for a while in North Wales, but in 1967 it became necessary to find a new venue at very short notice.  The two Staff leaders drove down to Wales one Saturday, and stopped for lunch, by chance, at the Usk Hotel in Talybont. They liked the look of the area, made enquiries straight away, and were offered a field backing onto the River Caerfanell alongside the old Church Hall.  The Camp was so successful that they decided to make Talybont their base in succeeding years.

   In 1969 the field flooded and they had to abandon their tents. They were invited to use the old Hall next door to dry out. The following year they hired the Hall as well as the field, only to learn that the building was to be sold.  A brand new Community Centre with extensive playing fields had been completed in the village and it was reluctantly decided that the old Mission Church and Hall was no longer needed. The two Staff Camp Leaders persuaded their hard-pressed Governors to make some money available, and they arrived in Brecon for the Auction with what seemed to be a totally inadequate bid, to find they were the only bidders! 
    Inside the very plain timber-framed and iron-clad building, dark-stained panelling rose to a cavernous dusty roof fronting the road, with a small rose window above a raised altar platform at the east end, and a small hall with an open stage behind it, separated by a folding partition.
    Heating was by means of primitive iron stoves, and high dust-filled globes provided inadequate light.  The furniture was heavy, old and worn. The ‘kitchen‘ consisted of an old domestic gas cooker, a heavily scored wooden table, and a stone sink with the only water tap in the building (which was cold; hot water was produced laboriously in an old copper boiler). Outside there was an overgrown ‘garden‘ adjoining the road, a small bell-tower on the roof, and a draughty shed that housed the only toilets.  There were no wash basins or showers, and no beds.
    Planning permission for conversion of the property to a residential outdoor education centre was granted subject to the provision of off-road parking, proper catering facilities, and washrooms, which were largely completed in time for the first School groups to come down during 1971.  Within two years the initial conversion from Church Hall to Outdoor Centre was substantially complete, although improvements and modifications were ongoing.  The costs of all this had to be met almost entirely by hiring out the facility when the School did not use it, with much of the labour and equipment provided by Staff, Parents, and Old Wilsonians.

     The Centre quickly became popular with both Wilson's groups and outside hirers. Nearly all boys who have passed through the School in the next 35 years benefited from visits to the Centre at least once, and many returned several times over, as have Parents, Staff and Old Boys.
    The benefits were not to be entirely one way. The School always tried to ensure that all groups using the Centre did so responsibly, but it also encouraged the use of local facilites and organisations, and actively supported local initiatives. Outside the present-day Community Hall in the village is an information board which acknowledges the many local and national contributions made to Talybont‘s Millenium Project, and proudly announces its completion and opening by the Lord Lieutenant of Powys in September 2000.  Wilson‘s School is one of the contributors named: the boys raised money for new equipment in the children‘s playground, they cleaned and painted street furniture in the Village, and helped to improve footpaths, to plant and protect trees, and to construct footbridges in the valleys nearby. I represented Wilson's at the Opening Ceremony (we were the only outside organisation to take up the invitation to attend!). On the strength of the goodwill generated I have published booklets about the area which are still sold in the Village Stores.
    At its peak in the 198Os and '90s the Centre was used up to 10 times a year by the School, and many times more by outside hirers, but increasing administrative pressure on schools and outdoor organisations caused a sharp decline in later years. Maintenance and Health & Safety issues within the building became pressing, staffing of the Centre and the Trips became a serious issue, and there were insufficient funds for the improvement work deemed necessary. Sadly, in 2008 the Governors decided that the Old Hall was to be sold off once more: