Welshpool looked very different a decade ago, when the Smithfield Livestock Market dominated the centre of town; before the likes of Tesco, B&M and Aldi moved in.

This week marks 10 years since the market closed on Mill Lane, after being there for well over a century. It also marks a decade of the new livestock market opening outside town in Buttington Cross.

Richard Evans, auctioneer and a director of the market, remembers the move. "There was excitement at that time about moving to the new facility. We didn't know what it was going to be like. We closed one Monday and opened the following Monday. But after we figured out how everything worked, it was all second nature," he said.

Mr Evans said there's been considerable advantages that have come with having more space and being out of town.

"It's a different set up at the new facility, it's a lot safer and better," he said. The Livestock Market has a dedicated showroom, parking area and other facilities such as rooms upstairs available for use; things the old market certainly didn't. Being out of town, it's also able to escape a lot of the Welshpool traffic.

"The centre of Welshpool is very different now, " Mr Evans said.

Glyn Davies, the now retired MP for Montgomeryshire, has lots of memories of the old market, going back to his childhood. "I was going there 60 years ago with my grandfather," he said.

"The move was controversial at the time, and everyone was worrying if it would be a success when it finally moved."

Mr Davies believes Tesco was a driving force behind the market being sold off by the then Montgomeryshire District Council. "I think it's [Tesco] been a massive boost to Welshpool. It's in walking distance and has strengthened the town."

The former Conservative MP said that it used to be the tradition that farmers' wives would go shopping in Welshpool when their husbands went to the market - a tradition he said people were worried about losing. However, he said that there has been a "change in lifestyles", and people are able to get out and about more easily on their own.

Mr Davies said the new market was a " huge success" and that it has enabled the development of Buttington Cross, such as with Tuffins and the plans for McDonald's.

He said that there aren't many areas in Welshpool to develop, and that going out of town and to the industrial estate was the way forward.

A charter granted in the 13th century first gave Welshpool the right to hold a weekly market on a Monday and in 1863 the Smithfield Livestock Market was established.

In 2008, work on its redevelopment began a on a 16 acre site on the outskirts of the town and in November 2009 the new multi-million pound Livestock Marketing Centre, now being home to Welshpool Livestock Sales, was completed and opened.

The livestock market said this "transformed the future of trading": with the building extending to 3.25 acres and being capable of holding in excess of 1,200 cattle and 15,000 sheep.