The town was ultimately short-lived: by 1332 the population had decreased to 20 citizens and it had further shrunk by 1383, when it is recorded as having only 10 burgesses. Its failure was probably due to a combination of factors, including recurrent outbreaks of plague across Britain in 1349, 1361–62 and 1369. The town's isolated position in the hilly, sparsely populated region of Mid Wales weakened its economic appeal, and Robert Rees Davies comments that the militarily advantageous location of the borough undermined its feasibility as a settlement: "the artificiality of [its] commercial setting was too obvious once the military opportunities... had been removed". The constant threat of war within the Welsh Marches would have also contributed its decline.