The Middle Wye Valley

The Middle Wye Valley historic landscape occupies a well-defined topographical area, with the dramatic escarpment of the Black Mountains to the south and with the lower and more gently sloping sandstone hills of Brecknock to the west and of Radnorshire to the north, the overall topographical range falling between about 700m above Ordnance Datum on the crest of the Black Mountains to about 80m on the floor of the valley. The Old Red Sandstone which underlies most of the area shows considerable variation, and includes red marls, siltstones, flaggy mudstones, grits and some conglomerates, green Senni Beds, red and purple Brownstones, and thin beds of limestone. The sandstone strata have been selectively exploited in the past as sources of building stone for houses, barns, walls and other structures, and for stone roofing tiles. The beds of limestone have been quarried for the production of agricultural lime.

The landscape was shaped during the last glaciation when ice flows moving south-eastwards, along the upper Wye valley, merged with a glacier moving north-eastwards along the Llynfi valley, the ice eventually escaping into the Herefordshire plain to the east of Hay. Glaciation created the broad and flat-bottomed valleys of the Llynfi and the Wye and also left a legacy of landforms and drift deposits which have had a significant effect upon natural vegetation, human settlement and land-use. Notable amongst these features are the substantial recessional moraine which partly blocks the valley between Clyro and Hay, the partly drift-covered foothills of the Black Mountains south of Talgarth, and the gravelly till composed of red marls on parts of the floor of the Llynfi and Wye valleys. Some of these fluvioglacial deposits have been exploited in the past as sources of both gravel and clay.

The drainage pattern established following the glaciation is based upon the Wye and the Llynfi rivers which merge at Glasbury. The Llynfi, originating at and deriving its name from the late glacial lake at Llangorse, is joined by the eastward-flowing Dulas at Bronllys and by several streams occupying steep-sided valleys running off the northern escarpment of the Black Mountains, notably the Nant yr Eiddil which joins it near Trefecca, the Ennig which joins it near Talgarth, and the Felindre Brook which joins it near Three Cocks. The northern slopes of the Black Mountains are deeply incised by a number of other streams which form tributaries to the Wye, including the Nant Ysgallen, Digedi Brook, Cilonw Brook and Dulas Brook. The Wye follows a meandering course along the floor of the valley, with numerous oxbows, cutoffs and palaeochannels emphasising the constant deposition and reworking of alluvial deposits that has taken place since the last glaciation. The floodplain of the Wye is up to about 1 kilometre wide though there are three natural crossing points within the historic landscape area at Llyswen, Glasbury and Hay, where higher land approaches the river more closely upon either side. Between Clyro and Hay the Wye has cut a narrow channel only a matter of a few hundred metres wide through the 50m-high glacial moraine which otherwise blocks the valley at this point.

A wide variation in soil types is to be found within the historic landscape area, depending upon hydrology, the underlying geology and the presence of drift deposits or alluvium. Apart from some areas of impeded drainage with cambic stagnogley soils, high up on at the foot of the Black Mountain escarpment, the foothills of the Black Mountains and the lower hills to the north and west are largely covered with relatively well-drained brown earths, which in the past have permitted cultivation to be carried on at relatively high altitudes above sea level. There is greater local variation in soil types along the base of the Llynfi and Wye valleys, essentially depending upon whether they overlie clayey marls, gravel deposits, or river alluvium. Most of the lower-lying soils are well-drained and easily worked, though some are affected by seasonal waterlogging and flooding.

Little paleoenvironmental analysis has been undertaken on deposits within the historic landscape area itself, but work at Rhosgoch Common and a number of other upland and valley bottom sites in the region indicate that by a date of about 6000 BC the local vegetation would have been dominated by oak woodland, with widespread local occurrences of lime, elm, ash, birch, hazel and alder, the woodland extending to altitudes of up to perhaps 600m above Ordnance Datum. There are indications that this natural woodland cover was already beginning to be affected by human activity by the Mesolithic period, and there is evidence of local cultivation for cereal production in the early Neolithic period, from a date of about 4000 BC. Progressive woodland clearance took place throughout the prehistoric, Roman and medieval periods, and it seems likely that by the later medieval period the extent of woodland cover resembled that of the present day, with areas of semi-natural mixed deciduous woodland largely confined to the steeper and less accessible hillslopes and stream valleys.

The historic landscape area is thought to have fallen within the territory of the Silures, a pre-Roman tribe which occupied south-east Wales. Tribal organisation at this period is probably reflected locally in a number of hillforts throughout the area including those at Pen-rhiw-wen and Hillis on the western side of the area and Pendre and Castell Dinas to the south. The area was conquered by the Roman armies in the later 1st century, the period of the Roman conquest being represented by one or possibly two temporary forts on the north bank of the Wye to the south of Clyro. The area probably was subdued and had become integrated into the Roman empire by about AD 70, and remained under Roman control until the early 5th century.

By the earlier medieval period the area to the north of the Wye fell within the early Welsh kingdoms which became known as Elfael and Rhwng Gwy a Hafren (‘between Wye and Severn’), the area south of the river falling within the kingdom of Brycheiniog. Brycheiniog had emerged as one of the early British kingdoms in Wales by the 8th century, pre-Norman traditions suggesting an association between the kings of Brycheiniog and Talgarth at that period. These 11th-century foundation legends identify Teuderic (Tewdrig) as the king of the district in perhaps the early 5th century. Teuderic, who claimed descent from a Roman nobleman, lived in a place called Garth Matrun, the garth ‘mountain spur’ being identified as the prominent hill known as Mynydd Troed, to the south of Talgarth, Garth Matrun being itself identified as Talgarth ‘the brow of the garth’ below Mynydd Troed. According to tradition the kingdom of Brycheiniog was founded by the legendary figure of Brychan, grandson of Teuderic, apparently by expansion of his grandfather’s kingdom with its administrative focus at Talgarth in the fertile valley of the Llynfi. Llyswen ‘White Court’ was a further focus of secular power along this axis in the pre-conquest period, having historical associations with Rhodri Mawr in the 9th century.

There are indications of conflict between the kingdom of Brycheiniog and the emergent kingdom of Gwynedd in north-west Wales by the 9th century, the rulers of Brycheiniog in the latter part of the century seeking protection from the King Alfred. Dependence upon the English crown continued into the 10th century, the kings of Brycheiniog attending the English royal court in the 930s, though towards the end of the 10th century the kingdom recognised the overlordship of the kingdom of Deheubarth in south-west Wales. In the earlier 10th century the kingdoms of Gwynedd and Powys, including Rhwyng Gwy a Hafren were united under the leadership of Hywel Dda. Following the conquest of Deuheubarth during the reign of Gruffudd ap Llywelyn, in about the mid 11th century, the kingdom of Gwynedd exercised temporary control over the sub-kingdoms of Brycheiniog and Rhwng Gwy a Hafren.

The Wye valley, like the valleys of the Usk, Severn and Dee played an important role in the Norman conquest of eastern Wales. The kingdom of Brycheiniog, was conquered by the marcher lord Bernard de Neufmarché in the 1080s and 1090s. Neufmarché’s defeat of Rhys ap Tewdwr, ruler of South Wales and overlord of Brycheiniog, was an event of considerable significance which contemporary chroniclers defined as the point at which ‘kings ceased to reign in Wales’. The Middle Wye Valley was subsequently subdivided into lesser lordships granted to knight’s who had given service to the marcher lord, and who in turn granted land to English settlers. New territories created in the conquered territory included at one time or another the lordships of Brecon, Hay, Blaenllynfi, Talgarth, Glasbury, Dinas and Elfael. For a time Elfael, part of the former territory of Rhwyng Gwy a Hafren was held by lesser British chieftains under the protection of Lord Rhys of Deheubarth, but eventually it too became included within the domain of the marcher lords, who were subject to the king of England and yet who ruled a separate land which lay between England and Wales which was independent of the institutional and legal structure of the English kingdom.

Neufmarché granted Hay to William Revel, probably the builder of the first earthen castle at Hay, which was to remain one of the main elements of control within the newly-conquered territory. Much of the rest of the lowlands being parcelled into minor lordships or as gifts to knights who would continue to owe service to the lord, including Norman friends or kinsmen like Walter Clifford, who was granted a large estate at Bronllys, and by tenants from their English estates who became settlers.

By the 13th century, various of the lordships within the historic landscape area, as in a number of other marcher lordships, became divided into Welsh and English administrative units which recognised the cultural differences that had continued to distinguish the English settlers from the indigenous Welsh population. Numerous feudal manors after the English model were created the on the lower-lying and more easily cultivated ground, with native patterns of settlement and land-use emerging in the surrounding hill land. The englishries and welshries which emerged in the lordships of both Talgarth and Hay following the Norman conquest were instrumental in perpetuating the distinctions between English and Welsh customs of law, inheritance, land tenure, civil administration, dues and rents well into the 16th century.

The territories of the Middle Wye Valley were to play a relatively minor role in the Welsh wars of independence in the later 13th century or in the Welsh rebellion in the early years of the 15th century. At the Act of Union in 1536 the area was shared between the lordships of Brecon, Blaenllynfi and Hay, which were integrated into the new county of Brecknock, and the lordship of Elfael which was to form part of the new county of Radnor, the middle Wye becoming thus split between the Radnorshire hundred of Painscastle to the north and the Brecknockshire hundred of Talgarth to the south. The southern part of the parish of Glasbury, south of the Wye, remained in Radnorshire until the mid 19th century, following which it was amalgamated with Tregoyd and Felindre to create the new civil parish of Tregoyd and Felindre. As part of the local government reorganisation in 1974 Brecknockshire and Radnorshire were combined within the new county of Powys.

Many elements in the settlement history of the Middle Wye Valley are reflected in the modern landscape, including elements derived from the early pre-conquest kingdom of Brycheiniog, from the manorial system imposed following the Norman conquest, the decay of medieval feudal system and the rise of landed estates in the later medieval period, the changes resulting from improvements in communications in the 18th and 19th centuries, the effects of rural depopulation in the 19th and 20th centuries, and the growth of nucleated settlements in the 19th and 20th centuries.

Little is yet known of the nature or extent of human settlement within the Middle Wye before the early medieval period. No settlement sites have so far been identified belonging to the earlier prehistoric period, though the distribution of earlier burial monuments, including both Neolithic long cairns and Bronze Age round barrows, suggests that a wide range of topographical areas were being exploited and that family groupings or clans were beginning to emerge, each perhaps with their own well-defined territory. The Iron Age saw the emergence of a handful of hillforts which appear to represent the growth of nucleated settlements, again to be associated with clan or tribal groupings. There are suggestions that a number of farming estates emerged during the course of the Roman period, though little is known of these.

Complex patterns of settlement had evidently developed throughout the early medieval period and it seems possible that the patterns of settlement which emerged following the Norman conquest, towards the end of the 11th century, developed from rather than simply replacing the pattern that existed within the kingdom of Brycheiniog before the conquest. Some elements of the Welsh patterns of settlement would have been familiar to the Norman overlords, being based upon a pattern of both nucleated and dispersed settlements, the nucleated settlements often occupying the richer, lower-lying ground and the dispersed settlements occupying the more hilly areas. Nucleated settlements were represented by a system not dissimilar to that of the English manors, and included a llys ‘court’ of the local lord, the land belonging to the lord, a maerdref ‘bailiff’s farm’, and bond communities whose members held shares of arable land in return for labour services on the lord’s land. Dispersed patterns of settlement were based on landholdings occupied by free hereditary family groups, or gwely, whose members had rights to arable, pasture, woodland and rough grazing, and which often gave rise to a pattern of settlement represented by clusters of tyddynau (‘homesteads’) surrounding relatively small arable sharelands.

Certain elements of the pre-conquest pattern are discernible in the landscape of the Middle Wye. Important pre-conquest administrative centres appear to have existed at the royal residence at Talgarth and the llysoedd at Llyswen and Bronllys. Each of these centres is likely to have been associated with maerdrefi and bond settlements, based on extensive areas of arable in the fertile valleys of the Wye and Llynfi, the courts at Talgarth and Llyswen associated with early church sites. The early churches at Llanfilo, Llanelieu, Llanigon, Llowes, and Glasbury probably represent other nucleated bonded settlement, but in these instances generally sited with more ready access to both upland and lowland and suggesting an economy combining upland and lowland patterns of land-use

The complex pattern of rural settlement which emerged within the Middle Wye Valley following the Norman conquest appears to be firmly rooted in the system that had developed in the pre-conquest period and may represent a strong degree of continuity rather than mass in-migration of English settlers and the displacement of the native population. One element is represented by the large lowland manors and bonded settlements with extensive open fields at Llyswen, Bronllys and Talgarth, whose inhabitants owed labour services to the lord of the manor. The continuing importance of these pre-conquest centres is emphasised by the status of Talgarth as the principal administrative centre of the lordship of Talgarth, a sub-lordship within the lordship of Blaenllynfi, and the status of Bronllys as the administrative centre of the lordship of Cantref Selyf, which extended to the western reaches of the later county of Brecknockshire. A second element in the rural settlement pattern of the Middle Wye Valley in the post-conquest period was the creation of numerous smaller manors and subtenancies such as those at Llanthomas, Porthamel, some possibly being based upon earlier bonded settlements. These manors were held by virtue of military service, and were initially often granted to those who had assisted in the conquest of Brycheiniog. A number of the manors were held by knights who held considerable properties elsewhere, as in the case of Humphrey Videlon, granted the tenancy of Trewalkin, who also held several manors in Berkshire, Oxfordshire and Suffolk. A third distinct element, which may either have had its origins in the pre-conquest period or may have been partly the result of a displaced native population, were the Welsh settlements or welshries, especially prominent in the foothills of the Black Mountains. The tenants of the welshries possessed cattle and pigs and worked arable strips, and owed tribute and services such as ploughing and harvesting to the lordship. Considerable expansion took place, particularly as a result of woodland clearance within the welshries, and by the late 13th and early 14th centuries permanent farmsteads had been established high up on the foothills of the Black Mountains and the hills elsewhere within the Middle Wye Valley historic landscape area.

A new element was the emergence of the lordship boroughs at Hay and Talgarth, with markets designed to increase trade and revenue and to act as administrative centres for their respective lordships. Hay was laid out on a virgin site next to a new stone castle and Talgarth at the assumed site of the pre-conquest royal court. There is no evidence of a foundation charter in the case of the fortified castle borough at Hay, and it appears to have become established by prescription or custom by some time in the early 13th century. Murage grants were made in 1232 and 1237, associated with the erection of a new stone castle, following destruction caused by King John in 1216 and Llywelyn ap Iorwerth in 1231. By 1298 the borough had 183 burgages, with a preponderance of English names. Talgarth became a borough in the early 14th century, and had 73 burgages in 1309. The borough was never to be fortified, though a stone tower was built within the town during the 14th century to safeguard its administrative interests.

The collapse of the medieval system of bond settlements was already well advanced by the end of the 14th century. This partly resulted from the severe plague, y Farwolaeth Fawr, which beset especially the marcher lordships of the south-eastern borderland in about the mid 14th century and which led to the shrinkage or desertion of a number of hamlets and villages. A possible example of this process is suggested by fieldwork evidence near Penishapentre, on the northern side of Llanfilo, where hollow-ways and house-platforms seem to represent represent part of the village abandoned during the medieval period. Similar evidence is suggested in the village of Clyro and in some marginal upland townships in the foothills of the Black Mountains.

The 15th century saw the formation of a new society and the development of new settlement patterns, with the breakdown of the social distinction between bondsmen and freemen, the rise of the uchelwyr or native gentry families, and the gradual consolidation of the scattered landholdings which had arisen from both the English manors and the Welsh gwely. The emergence of distinct farms and estates, some based upon earlier manors and subtenancies, were often to be known by personal or family names. Some were of Norman origin and belonging to knights who assisted Bernard de Neufmarché in the conquest of Brycheiniog, such as Tregunter (after the family of Peter Gunter) and Trewalkin (after Wakelin Visdelon), and others such as Trebarried (after ap Harry Vaughan), Trefecca (after Rebecca Prosser), Trephilip (after Philip ap John Lawrence Bullen) and Pentre Sollars (after Sir Henry Solers) were of medieval or Elizabethan origin. Some of the farm names also have earlier, English forms such as Ythelston from the personal name Ithel, for Trevithel and Phelippeston for Trephilip, both of which are recorded in 1380.

Most of the population in the Middle Wye until the end of the 19th century were engaged in agriculture, though the growth of industry in the South Wales coalfield and migration to the towns was represented by a marked drop in the population of some rural areas such as the countryside around Talgarth, where up to one house in ten had become uninhabited in the first decade of the 19th century.

Hay, like many other castle boroughs along the border suggered a decline in the 16th century due to loss of its military significance and loss of its former privileged position as the administrative centre of a marcher lordships. By 1460 the castle was already described as ‘ruinous, destroyed by rebels and of no value’, and the town was described by Leland in the 1530s as being ‘wonderfully decaied’. The slowly growing trade in the region was being channelled through the towns, however, and Hay gradually emerged as an important service centre, with the development of processing industries including milling, woollens and tanning, and a market important for grain and provisions, horses, cattle and some sheep. During the later 18th and throughout the 19th century the town benefited from the improvements being made to communications, firstly from the introduction of the turnpike roads and subsequently from the Brecon-Hay Tramroad opened in 1818 and the Hereford, Hay and Brecon Railway which opened in the 1860s. The 1801 and 1891 censuses show that its population almost doubled during the course of 19th century. By 1900 Hay had become an important border town with new houses and hotels of ‘highly respectable appearance’ and all the trappings of provincial town life: a market hall of the 1830s, gas lighting in the 1840s, a new reservoir on Hay Common by the 1860s, almshouses of the 1830s and 1860s, new cemetery of the 1870s on Brecon Road former open fields, a clock tower of 1881, and a parish hall of 1890. Following a decline in the earlier 20th century the town has undergone a more recent regeneration as a cultural centre following the purchase of Hay Castle by Richard Booth as part of his vision of creating a rural centre of the purchase of books.

Talgarth’s position dominating the Llynfi valley and the pass through the Black Mountain to the south, as a road centre and subsequent railway centre is probably responsible for its survival as a small town. It too developed as an important market town during the later 18th and 19th centuries, the markets at which cattle and some pigs were sold and its well-known horse fair being attended by drovers and dealers. Like Hay, many new buildings were erected during the course of the 19th century, including shops and inns, a hotel, a market hall and assembly rooms, a drill hall, almshouses and nonconformist chapels.

A number of smaller settlements expanded and some new settlement emerged in response to improvements to the transport system during the 18th and 19th centuries. Early developments included the roadside settlements of Felindre and Ffordd-las which sprang up along the former main road between Talgarth and Hay. A new focus of settlement was also to emerge alongside the road at Llanigon, a little distance from the historic core of the village. The linear settlement between Treble Hill and Three Cocks developed due to the improvements to the turnpike road between Bronllys and Hay, the construction of the Brecon-Hay horse-drawn tramway in the early 19th century, the development of the railway in the later 19th century, and the construction of the new bridges across the Wye at Glasbury and across the Llynfi at Pipton. Three Cocks is aptly named after a roadside hostelry dating from the pre-turnpike era, but refurbished when the improvements to the roads were made in the 18th century. Llyswen doubled in size during the first half of the 19th century, partly in response to the construction of a new toll bridge across the Wye at Boughrood in the 1830s. The new nucleated settlement at Cwmbach, to the north of Glasbury grew up partly as a consequence of the moving of the public road to make way for Maesllwch Castle Park, the new setting attracting a Wesleyan Methodist church built in 1818 and the new parish church of All Saints built in the 1880s. The cluster of cottages at Boughrood Brest seems to have developed partly as the result of the development of the new road between Boughrood and Glasbury along the river terrace to the north of the river, and partly as a result of the enclosure of the former common open fields which the road cut across. A further development which added coherence to a number of the smaller nucleated settlements during the 19th century was the development of village schools, which arose at Felindre, Llanfilo, Glasbury, Bronllys and Llanigon. Most of the nucleated settlements in the area have experienced sustained expansion during the 20th century, Hay on the west, Talgarth especially on the north, Clyro on the west and with infill development at Bronllys and Three Cocks.

The Middle Wye Valley historic landscape area is of particular importance in presenting a microcosm of the settlement history in the southern borderland of Wales from the prehistoric period up to the recent past. Much of the earlier history is quite sketchy, however, and the management and conservation of archaeological deposits, buildings and structures relating to settlement history are especially important in the early medieval and medieval periods. Of particular significance are archaeological deposits associated with the following: the older nucleated settlements relating to the history of llysoed, maerdrefi, and bond settlements; dispersed farms and houses emerging from early medieval and medieval bond settlements, farms and manors; the development of medieval and early post-medieval towns, including evidence of their layout, the buildings they contained, their defences, and the crafts and industries which took place within them. The visual character of historic towns and villages is also important, including the visual associations.

There is evidence from both pollen work and carbonised plant remains for the beginnings of agricultural activity for cereal production in the region during the early Neolithic period, from a date of about 4000 BC. Animal bones from a number of local sites, including the Penyrwrlodd long cairn south of Talgarth, have also provided evidence of cattle, sheep, and pig husbandry from this early date, together with evidence for the hunting of wild deer. Woodland clearance continued throughout the Neolithic and Bronze Age periods for building materials, cultivation and for the creation of grassland, and there is some evidence for the selective clearance of local elm and lime woodland in the Neolithic to Middle Bronze Age periods, between 3500-1200 BC. Several studies in the Llynfi and Wye valleys suggest marked by increases in sediment accumulation in the valley bottoms throughout the prehistoric period, probably resulting from progressive forest clearance. As yet there is little evidence of agricultural activity in the area during the later Bronze Age, Iron Ages and Roman periods, but it seems likely that this intensified throughout this period. Increases in the sedimentation rate at Llangorse lake have been tentatively interpreted as indicating intensified arable agriculture and increased soil erosion in the Llynfi valley beginning in about the 1st and 2nd centuries, during the later Iron Age and earlier Roman period. Little is yet known about the extent of Romano-British settlement and land-use in the area, but the claimed descent of the lineage of Brychan, the legendary founder of the kingdom of Brycheiniog, from a Roman nobleman, hints at the possibility that a number of estates belonging to prominent Romano-British landowners having become established in the area by the end of the Roman period.

Progressive woodland clearance took place throughout the prehistoric, Roman and medieval periods, and it seems likely that by the medieval period the extent of woodland cover resembled that of the present day, with areas of semi-natural mixed deciduous woodland largely confined to the steeper and less accessible hillslopes and stream valleys. It is probable that from an early date systems of land-use developed to take advantage of the varied resources available within the historic landscape area. The area subdivides naturally into topographic regions, each with a distinct agricultural potential: wetter meadows along the floodplain of the Llynfi and Wye, best for winter grazing; the well-drained lower-lying ground above the floodplain, with extensive areas suitable for ploughing; sloping hill land, with woodland resources, meadows, and smaller level areas suitable for ploughing; and finally the exposed hill-land, best suited to summer grazing. Place-names often reflect the different kinds of land-use, ploughland (maes) probably being reflected in the names Maestorglwydd, Maesllwch, Penmaes and Pen-y-maes, woodland (coed) in the names Tregoyd and Cwrt-coed, meadow (gweirglodd) in the names Gwrlodde, Penyrwrlodd, and upland pasture or moorland in the names Rhos Fawr, Pen-rhos-dirion, and The Rhos.

Little is again known of the nature agricultural activity in the area during the early medieval period, though the legendary siting of Brychan’s court at Talgarth and the supposed siting of the court Rhodri Mawr at Llyswen (‘White Court’) in the 9th century suggest that the rich low-lying farmland along the Llynfi and the Wye valleys saw the emergence of a number of important estates in the pre-conquest period, probably serviced by a number of bond settlements. The name of Bronllys, possibly derived from a personal name Braint and llys (‘court’), suggests the location of another such estate.

A new administrative order was superimposed upon this system following the Norman conquest and the integration of the area into the newly-formed marcher lordships. Most if not all of the richer ploughlands on the lower-lying ground were confiscated and granted to lesser lords, knights and English settlers, to form feudal manors administered on the English system, extensive open fields being laid out in and around the former pre-conquest nucleated settlements at Llyswen, Bronllys, and Talgarth and around the new town of Hay and with smaller manors becoming established elsewhere, as at Aberllynfi, Pipton, Porthamel, Pont-y-wal, Trephilip, Tregoyd, Trevithel, Trebarried and Llanthomas. Settlements belonging to free men probably became established on the surrounding hill land from the conquest period, if not before, based upon Welsh inheritance rules and the joint rights to land by members of a single clan or gwely, and probably in some instances manifested by a group of tyddynau or farmsteads forming a township or tref clustered or with access to meadows, rough grazing and one or more sharelands divided into small open field strips. These welshries were largely confined to the smaller farms on the surrounding hill land throughout the medieval period. They remained subject to the marcher lordships and continued to form a vital element in the economic life of the lordship as a whole, the Welsh tenants of Cantref Selyf in the 14th century, for example, periodically undertaking harvest services to the English manor of Bronllys.

An idyllic picture of the region at the end of the 12th century is painted by Gerald of Wales who speaks of the production of great amounts of corn, ample pasture for cattle, woodland teeming with wild animals, and the Wye well stocked with salmon and grayling. Frequent documentary references to newly assarted lands in the parishes of Glasbury and Talgarth in the 12th century point to continuing population growth, and like other areas of Wales it is probable that by the end of the 13th century population densities had reached levels that, following plague and other disasters during the later 14th century, would only again be matched in the 16th century. Land shortage resulting from population growth and the effects of Welsh inheritance rules (which demanded equal shares between all male heirs) is evident from the fact that a majority of the tenants in the upland welshries of the lordship of Hay in the 1340s had less than 5 acres of arable land. A similar picture of overcrowding at this date is evident in the fertile lowland areas around Bronllys.

Llyswen was to have three common fields, one to the west of the village, one in the loop of the river to the north of the church, and one to the south-west of the village. Glasbury had extensive open fields on the sloping ground to the north of the village, with names such as Maes y llan issa and Maes y pentre in mid 17th-century documents. Bronllys remained an open field parish until the middle of the 19th century, the layout of fields on the Tithe map of 1839 suggesting a three-field system like Llyswen, with Minfield (Mintfield) to the north of the village, Coldbrook Field to the north-east, and with one or more open arable fields to the west and south-west, with names such as Maes Waldish, Maes dan Derwad, and Maes y bach. Talgarth again had a three-field system with Red Field to the north-east, Briar Field to the south-west and Lowest Common Field between the town and the Llynfi. Complex patterns of ownership had developed by the late 17th century within the extensive areas of open arable in the adjacent parishes and manors within the Llyfni valley, shared ownerships and the intermixture of strips suggesting that the agricultural economies of Talgarth, Porthamel and possibly Bronllys were highly dependent upon each other.

Much of the former extensive manorial open fields in the area have now been lost, following the enclosure movement particularly in the later 18th and earlier 19th centuries, though some areas have been lost to other activities. Various former areas of open field were cut through by new turnpike roads built in the later 18th century. Much of Glasbury’s former open fields was emparked for Maesllwch Castle Park in the 18th century. Former areas of open field to the north of Talgarth, to the south of west of Bronllys, to the west of Llyswen, and to the west of Hay have been built over in relatively recent times. More extensive areas were still visible as individual strips shown on Tithe maps of the mid 19th century, but have since been lost due to hedge removal and the amalgamation of smaller fields. Significant traces of the common fields still survive in some areas, however, being represented by distinctive strip fields enclosed by hedges or by areas of ridge and furrow, as in the case of the area to the north-east and south-west of Talgarth, in the area of Penmaes to the north-east of Bronllys, in the area of Boughrood Brest, and on the sloping ground to the south of Hay. A number of smaller areas of ridge and furrow probably represent open fields belonging to some of the smaller manors, as for example near Llanthomas and Trevithel.

Animal husbandry also played an important role in the manorial economy, an important element here being the low-lying and formerly unenclosed meadow land to either side of the confluence of the Llynfi and Wye, traditionally open to commoners between the end of November to Lady Day, the 25 March, some areas such as Upper Gro and Lower Gro near Glasbury still surviving as common land.

From an early date the emphasis within the foothills and mountains was upon animal husbandry, cattle rearing for meat and dairy products, and sheep in response to boom in the wool trade in the 14th century. Much of the hill land was the province of the welshries, the broken topography of these areas, combined with different patterns of landownership and economic activity resulting in a distinct pattern of small and irregular fields in the valleys and lower slopes with unenclosed pasture on the hills and moorland above, used for summer grazing. Unlike the extensive open fields of the lowland manors, the sharelands of the native townships were probably often no more than a few small parcels of parallel strips which, following enclosure in the post-medieval period, are now much more difficult to identify. Some of the former sharelands can occasionally be identified by field-name evidence, however, the occurrence of the word maes often standing for the English ‘open field’. The lands within the native welshries was held by tenants of the lordship, who also owned cattle and pigs, in return for ploughing and harvesting duties. In the lordship of Hay in 1340s, for example, 9 tenants held about 37 acres at Maestorglwydd at about 320m above Ordnance Datum, and at Wenallt 175 acres was held by 22 tenants at a height of 400m. The land at Wenallt was held by virtue of Calan Mai, a tribute of cows rendered at the beginning of May in alternate years. Hedged fields and paddocks were created from an early date to protect upland meadows and to control stock during the winter months and probably by at least the 15th century timber longhouses were being built for the upland farms which could accommodate animals at one end.

In some areas the enclosed land perhaps already extended to the margins of the mountain land by the middle of the 13th century. This is suggested by records suggesting that during the first few decades of the 13th century the monks of Brecon Priory were extending the land they held at Trewalkin by clearing woodland in the direction of Mynydd Troed, at heights of between about 300-400m above Ordnance Datum. In many respects the boundary between the enclosed and unenclosed land below the escarpment of the Black Mountains represents a relict landscape of the later medieval period, with fields and isolated holdings pushed out onto the common. Documentary evidence describing the lordship of Hay in the 1340s identifies Trefynes a name evidently derived from the Welsh Tref-ynys (island township), probably representing Lower Island, the ‘island’ of enclosed land on Waun Croes Hywel at 350m. In the 1330s the castle at Castell Dinas, at a height of over 400m, was evidently being used for little more than housing cattle, possibly within the defences of the former Iron Age hillfort, referred to as the beili-glâs (‘green bailey’).

Other early systems of land-use in the area are suggested by the remains of 14th-century stone buildings belonging to the Cistercian grange at Clyro Court Farm, but are as yet poorly understood. The later medieval period saw the gradual decay of the medieval systems of land tenure in both the English manors and the Welsh townships, the substitution of rents for feudal duties, the amalgamation of holdings, and the emergence of a number of estates based on the earlier feudal manors. Surpluses of both corn and cattle were being exported to other regions of Wales and England. The local cattle trade in the early 18th century is described by Daniel Defoe in his Tour Through the Whole Island of Great Britain, published in the 1720s: ‘from hence they send yearly, great herds of black cattle to England, and which are known to fill our fairs and markets, even that of Smithfield it self’. Extensive apple, pear and cherry orchards attached to the lowland farms around Talgarth, Bronllys, Llyswen, Glasbury and Hay had evidently already become a distinctive feature of the landscape by the 17th century, some clearly planted on former ridge and furrow enclosed from the medieval open fields and some perhaps on newly-constructed ridges. The remarkable late 17th-century plaster ceiling in the parlour Trefecca Fawr farmhouse is enriched with foliage and a profusion of cider apples which ‘worthily celebrates the fruitfulness of the land’. The apple and pear orchards at Trefecca Fawr, which extended to over 10 acres in the middle of the 19th century, were known for a variety of apple called Golden Pippin, which is recorded from at least the 1620s.

The improvements in farming methods introduced during the 18th century effectively saw the end of the medieval system of farming in the area. Farms in the Wye valley between Hay and Talgarth by introducing new machinery, new crop rotations to improve soil fertility, and new breeding stock, were at the forefront of this agricultural revolution in Wales. Board of Agriculture reports note that as many as five rotations were in use in the lowland hundred of Talgarth by the late 18th century, including wheat, oats, barley, peas and clover leys. Many of the innovations were spearheaded by Howel Harris, the charismatic Methodist leader who played a leading role in the founding of the Brecknockshire Agricultural Society in 1755. Harris’s primary objective had been to promote good farming practice within the cooperative and self-sufficient Christian community he had founded at Trefecca, which combined with ‘manufactures’ helped to create a profitable use of the land.

Commercial rabbit farming for both meat and fur is implied by the place-name The Warren which appears in the loop of the river, just to the west of Hay, and near Felindre, but pillow-mounds or artificial rabbit warrens are not recorded in either of these areas, and the date of this possible local agricultural industry is uncertain.

During the course of the later 18th and 19th centuries extensive tracts of common land in the form of the common open fields, common meadows along the Wye and Llyfni, and the upland commons or sheep walks were to be partitioned and fenced, walled or hedged. Though Brecknock still today has the highest percentage of rough grazing and common land of any county along the borderland of Wales, the amount of common land in the county as a whole was reduced by almost 50% during the course of the 19th century. Enclosure of the common land by means of fencing and hedging was promoted for the purpose of increasing agricultural efficiency, by consolidating landholdings, enabling drainage and other land improvement schemes to be undertaken, and as a means of controlling livestock and protecting crops. Enclosure was actively promoted by the major landowners and the Brecknock Agricultural Society, the society offering awards in the 1770s for the ‘reclamation and [making] profitable the greatest quantity of Rough Land overrun with Fern, Broom, Furze or Heath, uncultivated within Memory’. Most of the medieval open fields had evidently been enclosed by the end of the 18th century. Only two common fields are recorded as being enclosed in the area in the first half of the 19th century, 50 acres at Llyswen in 1858 and 105 acres at Bronllys in 1863.

Other agricultural improvements undertaken during the 18th and 19th-centuries included the digging of drainage ditches and the creation of water meadows in some of the lower-lying areas along the Wye and Llynfi. Sale particulars of the 1790s for Chancefield farm, south of Talgarth, for example, mentions that the ‘lands may at all times be overflowed with water’, suggesting that some form of irrigation scheme was in operation. The demand for lime for spreading on the land gave rise to a number of small quarries and limekilns in the hills above Talgarth, Llanigon and Hay. New cattle breeds were introduced to the area, especially from the adjacent county of Hereford, which replaced or were crossed with the breeds that were traditional to the area. Oxen remained the main working farm animal for ploughing and other tasks upon the land until about the middle of the 18th century. Horses until this period had been largely used for road transport, but were becoming the most common working animal from the beginning of the 19th century.

Studies from the sediments deposited in Llangorse lake suggest a renewed period of soil erosion possibly resulting from a significant increase in the amount of marginal land being brought into cultivation and reflecting an increase in cereal prices in the troubled years at the end of the 18th and the beginning of the early 19th century. Further studies are needed, but it is possible that increased runoff of water resulting from agricultural expansion resulted in increased flooding in the valley bottoms, possibly giving rise to the abandonment in the mid 17th century of the medieval church site next to the bank of the Wye at Glasbury, which had perhaps safely occupied the same site during the previous millennium. In the first decade of the 19th century Theophilus Jones was bemoaning the continuing inroads being made into the native woodlands, noting that Llanigon ‘like the rest of the county [is] becoming daily more denudated; few thinking of planting and still fewer of preserving’. By the middle of the 19th century the broad fertile valley of the Wye and its major tributary the Llynfi had become the main grain producing areas of both Radnorshire and Brecknockshire, the percentage of ploughland given in the Tithe rising to 30% in the parishes of Bronllys and Llyswen to over 40% in Clyro.

As noted above, Brecknockshire and Radnorshire suffered from rural depopulation in the early 19th century, resulting from the migration of substantial elements of the rural population to the South Wales coalfield. This was particularly marked in Talgarth, where the number of uninhabited houses in the 1801 census reached almost 10%, beginning a trend that continued throughout the 19th and earlier 20th centuries, and resulting in the further amalgamation and consolidation of farm holdings, and the abandonment of smaller farms, tenements and cottages especially in the more remote and marginal areas of the historic landscape area.

In addition to buildings and other structures, the complex history of agricultural land-use within the Middle Wye historic landscape area has given rise to a considerable variety of expression within the landscape: remnant areas of ridge and furrow representing medieval common fields; strip fields enclosed by planted single-species hedges representing the enclosure of former open fields in the 18th and 19th centuries; small and irregular fields on the foothills and hillslopes with mature multi-species hedges resulting from gradual and piecemeal woodland clearance from the medieval period onwards; large rectangular fields along the floodplain representing the late enclosure of former common meadows used for winter grazing; former water-meadows crossed by shallow gullies; large upland polygonal fields bounded by single-species hedges, banks or orthostatic walling representing late enclosure of upland commons; field lynchets indicating former plough erosion; areas of narrow-rig cultivation in some marginal areas; and unenclosed upland commons moorland. A wide range of conservation and management issues are involved, but the most vulnerable elements which of importance in illustrating the history of land-use in the area are the variety of field boundary types, including hedges, banks, walls and lynchets, the management of ancient broad-leaved woodland, and the conservation of waterlogged deposits and other sediments which preserve evidence of environmental change.

The Middle Wye Valley historic landscape area has an rich heritage of historic buildings, which help to chart the social and economic history of the area in fine detail from the later medieval period onwards.

The Neolithic chambered long cairns at Pipton, Penyrwrlodd (Talgarth), Penyrwrlodd (Llanigon), Little Lodge, and Ffostyll show a variety of constructional techniques including orthostatic burial chambers, mass walling and drystone revetments which represent the earliest archectural expression within the area. The general form of the monuments suggests a ‘house of the dead’ though to what extent they bear any comparison with the houses of the living at this period in the area is unknown. The chambers are normally entered from the sides of the long cairns and there is usually a false portal at the broader end of the mound, suggesting a ritualised doorway to the other world. Little if nothing is known of building styles and techniques that were used in the area during the later prehistoric to early medieval periods, and it is therefore important to manage and conserve sites where evidence of this kind is preserved.

The earliest surviving buildings in the area are a number of 13th- to 14th-century stone-built churches, monastic establishments and castles. Foremost amongst the churches are those at Llanelieu, Llanfilo, Llanigon and Talgarth, where much of the medieval fabric survives, including fragments from the early 12th century in some instances, though there are no certain architectural fragments belonging to the pre-conquest period. Many of the other churches in the area were substantially rebuilt in the 19th century, though a 13th-century detached belltower survives at Bronllys, one of only a small number of surviving examples in Wales, and parts of the 15th-century church towers survive at Clyro and Hay. Reused fragments taken from earlier churches are to be seen here and there, including the 13th century doorway built into the Jacobean manor house at Old Gwernyfed, which is thought to have come from Llanthony Abbey, Brecon Priory, or from the former medieval chapels at Aberllynfi or Felindre. Other fragments of medieval fabric include the arched doorways in a barn at Court Farm, Clyro and in the house at Llanelieu Court, both of which are thought to have monastic associations of perhaps the 14th to 15th century. The building at Clyro appears to be a surviving portion of the monastic grange of Cwmhir Abbey in Radnorshire and the building at Llanelieu is thought to be a survival of a monastic cell of Llanthony Priory.

Important remains of medieval stone castles survive at each of the three principal administrative centres of the marcher lordships, at Hay, Bronllys and Talgarth. At Hay Castle are the remains of the square stone keep built in about 1200 and the main gateway refurbished in the 1230s. The round tower at Bronllys Castle was probably built in the period between the 1220s and the 1260s, and like the similar tower at Tretower in Brecknockshire was probably based on contemporary French concepts of military architecture, a second storey having evidently been added to the tower in about the 14th century. Part of 14th- to 15th-century rubble stone hall range also survives at Bronllys, incorporated within a workshop and gallery at Bronllys Castle House. The Tower House in the centre of Talgarth is probably of 14th century date, and is one of the few examples of its kind in Wales. Most domestic buildings of the medieval period are likely to have been of timber, though there is evidence of stonework at the possibly 14th-century moated sites at Lower House Farm (Clyro), Cwrt-coed and Hillis, with a fragment of stone roofing tile at Cwrt-coed, suggesting that the buildings associated with the moats were either stone-built or were timber buildings set on stone footings.

A significant number of domestic buildings in the historic landscape area have their origins in the later medieval period, in the 15th and 16th centuries, many of which originated as timber-framed building of cruck-framed construction. The buildings were sometimes set on platforms cut into the slope, when sited on sloping ground, the buildings with timber-framed outer walls most probably being set on sill walls of sandstone rubble construction. In many instances the timber-framed outer walls of these early buildings have either been rendered or more commonly replaced in stone, though some of the buildings appear to have had stone outer walls when first built. Only in a number of rare instances is there any surviving evidence of the wattle and daub panels that would once have filled the timber-framing. By the early post-medieval period many of the buildings appear to have had stone tile roofs, though the pitch of some roofs suggest that they may originally have been thatched.

This late medieval horizon includes a number of buildings in the towns and villages of the area, including houses in the settlements at Hay, Talgarth, Glasbury, Clyro and Llowes. One of the best preserved of the smaller medieval houses in the region is the Old Vicarage at Glasbury, with a 15th-century timber roof and stone outer walls. The 15th/16th-century Tithe Barn at Glasbury was cruck-built, again with stone outer walls. Other early buildings of this kind include a former cruck-framed hall house in the village of Clyro, the Old Vicarage and the Radnor Arms in Llowes, the Old Radnor Arms in Talgarth, and the Three Tuns in Hay, all of which appear to originate in the 15th and 16th centuries. Some of the buildings were hall-houses, and are in most are the earliest surviving domestic structures within the nucleated settlements in the area.

An even richer array of early buildings survive in the countryside, having escaping the redevelopment which resulted from the growth of many of the nucleated settlements during the course of the 19th century. Most of the early buildings were farmhouses, some evidently having begun life as multipurpose buildings of longhouse type, with a central hall and accommodation for animals at one end and for the family at the other end, specialised farm buildings of the 15th and 16th centuries, such as separate barns or granaries, being comparatively rare in the area. Buildings of this type have survived in both the upland and lowland areas, though there is a noticeable concentration in the former welshries of the lordships of Talgarth and Hay, in the foothills of the Black Mountains, where there had evidently been an emphasis upon cattle rearing from medieval times. Characteristic buildings of this type include the farmhouses at Penygenhill, Tynllyne, Ty Mawr (Llanigon), Llwynmaddy, Penlan, Middle Maestorglwydd barn, Lower Wenallt, Wenallt-uchaf, Old House, Maescoch and Cwmcoynant. The Middle Maestorgwlydd barn is a remarkable survivial. It originated as a cruck-built hall house in the mid to later 15th-century and is one of the few surviving buildings of this kind within the area which escaped conversion to a storeyed house in the 17th or 18th centuries, eventually being converted to use as a barn. The later history of the similar cruck-built hall house of longhouse type at Llangwathan in Cusop Dingle is more characteristic of the group as a whole. A chimney was inserted into the former open hall in the late 16th or early 17th century, and the walls rebuilt in stone in the 18th or 19th century, a time of transition in the development of the longhouses in the region. Other lowland farmhouses of the late medieval period include Upper Skynlais, which began as a winged open hall-house, later encased in stone, with internal timberwork indicating high social status, and Pentre Sollars, a small cruck-built house.

Great Porthamel, described as ‘one of the more remarkable medieval houses of Wales’, belonged to one of the notable ruling families which emerged in the area following the demise of the feudal manors in the richer lowlands. Other major medieval houses probably once existed at Old Gwernyfed and Maesllwch, but were substantially or wholly rebuilt during the 17th and 18th centuries, though part of the medieval roof still survives at Gwernyfed. Great Porthamel is a stone-built hall built by Roger Vaughan in the later 15th century. It is one of the greater houses of the Anglo-Welsh elite in the central and southern borderland, and accommodated Henry VII on his way to the Battle of Bosworth in 1485. The status of the house was emphasised by the walled precinct which once surrounded it, though this was largely demolished in 19th century. The precinct was entered by a two-storey stone gatehouse which fortunately still survives, and which is characteristic of a number of the more imposing 15th-century houses in the Marches.

A wider range of building types emerged during the 17th century, including several more specialised forms. Stone came to be more commonly used as a building material, perhaps due to the development of the quarrying industry as well as to an increasing scarcity of timber. A series of lowland farmhouses were built in rubble sandstone during the century, including those at Upper Sheephouse, Llwynbarried, Trevithel, Trebarried, and Tredomen Court. A number of new sandstone rubble farmhouses were also built on the upland farms, some evidently replacing earlier timber houses, as at Moity, Cefn, the farmhouses at Lower, Middle, and Upper Maestorglwydd, and Upper Dan-y-fforest, some of which like Lower Genffordd were now built across rather than up and down the slope of _hos, which appears to have had a stone ground floor with timber framing above. Earlier traditions of roofing continued, as shown by raised or upper crucks set on stone walls at Middle Genffordd. A number of later medieval timber farmhouses were also converted at this period, with sandstone walls replacing the outermost timber framing. A number of the farmhouses were also rendered either at this time during the 18th or 19th centuries.

Many of the farmhouses would originally have been associated with separate bakehouses or kitchens of which only a small number of examples have survived, as in the case of the detached stone kitchen at Cilonw Farm and the possible detached bakehouse at Gwrlodde. Specialised types of farm building began to emerge more clearly during the course of the 17th century, including cowhouses and threshing barns, often with distinctive local vernacular details, such as vertical ventilation slits. Stone barns of this period were erected at many farms across the area, including those at Lower Maestorglwydd, Gwrlodde, and Tredustan, though a number of weatherboarded timber-framed barns were also built during the 17th century, some combining cruck and box-frame construction, including the barns at Penlan, Llangwathan (mostly replaced in stone), Great Porthamel, and Lower Maestorglwydd. Some of the timber barns, like those at Bryn-yr-hydd and Pentwyn, were set on high sandstone walls.

An array of larger gentry houses and mansions also appeared in the countryside at this time, alongside the farmhouses.These were generally associated with the richer lowland farms, some of which had their origin in medieval manors and evidently replaced earlier buildings on the same site. Probably belonging to the period about the beginning of the 17th century are Old Gwernyfed, Llowes Court, Y Dderw, whilst those belonging to later in the century include Trefecca Fawr, Tredustan Court and Tredustan Hall. Two of the houses, Y Dderw and Old Gwernyfed have distinctive gabled front elevations which are characteristic of the period. A third house belonging to this group was Tregoyd Hall, which was destroyed by fire in 1900. A number of these houses belonged to families of some distinction. Old Gwernyfed was built by Sir David Williams, the High Sheriff of Brecknockshire. Tregoyd Hall belonged to Lord Hereford. Llanelieu Court is associated with the Aubreys, and has doorway erected in the 1670s, embellished with quotations from Virgil’s Ecolgues and Ovid’s Heroides. Most of the gentry buildings continued to be built of local sandstone rubble, with the occasional use of imported ashlar, the contemporary roofing material probably generally being of local stone tiles, as in the case of those which survive at Y Dderw and Tredustan Court.

In comparison with the countryside, few large town or village houses appear to have been built during the 17th century, one of the few notable examples being the Hay Castle Mansion, built in the 1660s in coursed sandstone rubble with freestone window dressings. Some of the town houses continued to be built in timber in the earlier part of the century, the Cafe Royal in Hay being a timber-framed town house of the early 17th-century, with a jettied upper floor. More characteristic of the nucleated settlements, particularly of the villages, are the stone cottages surviving from this period, including Rose Cottage, Sacred Cottage and a number of others in Clyro for example.

A considerably wider range of building types were constructed during the course of the 18th and 19th centuries, reflecting the various changes that affected the area during this dynamic period, including improvements in agriculture, the growth of the local towns, improved communications, the rise of nonconformism, and public education and welfare. The social upheavals of the period are evident in Samuel Lewis’s comments of the area around Talgarth given in his Topographical Dictionary of Wales, published in 1833:

There were formerly in this parish many ancient seats, the residences of genteel families, which, having in course of time been abandoned by their proprietors, have fallen into neglect, and are now become comparatively insignificant. Among these is Porthaml . . . . Tregunter . . . . Tredustan.

Consequently existing buildings were rebuilt and many new buildings and new types of building were erected during the 18th and 19th centuries, reflecting this new social order, including townhouses, farmhouses, gentry houses, vicarages, country houses, inns and hotels, shops and other commercial and industrial premises, new churches, nonconformist chapels, public buildings including market halls, almshouses, workhouses, schools and hospitals, worker’s housing, toll-houses, stables and coachhouses, merchants and manager’s housing, and new farm buildings. Sandstone rubble remained the most common building material throughout most of the 18th century, though increasingly the stonework was rendered. Ashlar was more commonly used on some of the larger houses and public buildings from the early 19th-century onwards, especially for window and door openings and quoins, and slate appears to have gradually replaced the use of local stone tiles during the course of the 18th century. A number of brick buildings were erected during the 18th century, though the use of this material remained relatively uncommon until towards the end of the 19th century when yellow, red and blue bricks became more frequently used for window or door dressings. Glazed ceramic ridge tiles appear to have been in production locally near Whole House farm near Talgarth, in the period between about the mid 17th century and the early 18th century and were no doubt used in conjunction with either stone tile or slate roofs. Red ceramic ridge tiles, some crested, were in use in the area by about the mid 19th century. Notable brick buildings of the early years of the 20th century include Tregoyd Hall, rebuilt after a fire in 1900, and the farmhouse at The Rhos, which superseded the earlier stone and timber farmhouse.

A large number of stone farmhouses were rebuilt or substantially refurbished throughout the area during the 18th century, particularly in the case of the richer lowland farms such as Trephilip, Penyrwrlodd (Llanigon), New Forest Farm, Plas Celyn, Glan-hen-Wye, and Llwynfilly, some of the new farmhouses such as Lower Sheephouse being provided with genteel interiors. A similar process continued throughout the 19th century, with the stone-built and occasionally rendered farmhouses at Pipton, Maes-y-garn, and Great House Farm in Talgarth, some like Lower House in Llyswen with ashlar dressings and a genteel appearance, characteristic of the gentrification of the countryside at this period.

An increasingly wider range of specialised farm buildings such as cowhouses, haybarns, wainhouses, barns with central cartways and winnowing floors, granaries, and stables were constructed over the course of the 18th and 19th centuries to meet the needs of the improved farming techniques that were being introduced. Important buildings of this period include the stone barns at Y Dderw, Llwynmaddy, Lower Maestorglwydd, Pendre and Pipton, often with ventilation slits, and the 19th-century barns at Trephilip with characteristic red and blue brick dressings to the openings. The large 18th-century brick-built former barn at Great House Farm in Talgarth is relatively unusual in the area, as indeed are the 341 pigeon nesting boxes in the gable wall. Other pigeon lofts, on the smaller and more usual scale, are to be seen at a number of other probably 18th to 19th-century farms and farm buildings, including the gable wall of a barn at Pentwyn south of Talgarth, the gabled dovebox above the granary at Ty Mawr at Llanigon, the gabled dovebox in a barn at Y Dderw Barn with nest holes in the gable wall, and the small pigeon loft under eaves of the farmhouse at Pendre Farmhouse. The only separate dovecotes which appear to have survived within the area are the cylindrical stone pair in front of Old Gwernyfed, which are probably originally of late 15th- or early 16th-century date, though there are suggestions that others once existed at a number of farms until perhaps the late 18th or early 19th centuries, as possibly at Trefecca Fawr.

Various gentry houses were also built during the later 18th and earlier 19th centuries, especially in the towns and villages with improved communications or with easy access to the new turnpike roads. Notable houses of the period include Castle House in Bronllys, Woodlands, Parc Gwynne and Green House in Glasbury, Ashbrook House and Cae Mawr at Clyro, and Ashgrove House at Treble Hill. A number of the houses, such as Glasbury House, are substantial gentlemens’ residences, and some of the houses like Aberllynfi House at Treble Hill and Bryn-yr-hydd on the main road midway between Glasbury and Llowes are conspicuously sited within the landscape. A majority of the houses of this kind are rendered or pebbledashed sandstone rubble, with several in coursed rubble. Other characteristic large village houses of the period include a number of large 19th-century vicarages and parsonages, including the Old Vicarage at Clyro and Vicarage House, Llowes.

The 19th-century saw the rise of the country house in the historic landscape area, normally built in ashlar masonry. The most prominent buildings of this kind in the area are Maesllwch Castle built in the 1830s in a castellated Tudor style, Clyro Court built in the 1840s, and Gwernyfed Park House and Pont-y-wal Mansion built in the 1870s and 1880s in a neo-Jacobean style. Gwernyfed Park appears to have replaced an earlier hunting lodge, set within the medieval deer park, and both Pont-y-wal and Maesllwch replaced 18th-century or earlier houses probably set within existing pleasure grounds and landscape parks. Other contemporary buildings and structures associated with these large country houses were stables and coachhouses, as at Clyro Court, Gwernyfed Park and Pont-y-wal, and with lodges and lodge gates, as at Gwernyfed Park and Maesllwch Castle. A number of the larger estates in the area, such as Llanthomas, had a significant impact upon the surrounding countryside, parkland furniture, gates, cottage windows and doors of distinctive styles being manufactured in estate workshops or commissioned by the estate from outside craftsmen.

Improvements to the turnpike roads during the late 18th and early 19th century, followed by the introduction of the Hay-Brecon tramway in the early 19th century and the Hereford, Hay and Brecon Railway in the later 19th-century, led to an increased the number of visitors to the area, and in turn gave rise to a number of new or substantially refurbished hotels and roadside hostelries. Prominent amongst these were the Griffin Inn, Bridge End Inn and Star House in Llyswen, the Maesllwch Arms Hotel in Glasbury, the Baskerville Arms Hotel in Clyro, and the Swan Hotel, Crown Hotel and George Inn (subsequently the vicarage) in Hay, the former Sun Inn at Llanigon, and finally the Tower Hotel in Talgarth. A number of earlier inns continued in use or rose to prominence during the period, including the Three Cocks Hotel, an early pre-turnpike hostelry, which has the distinction of having given its name to an area along the important communications corridor which sprang up between Bronllys and Hay. A wide range of other buildings emerged from the transport revolution in the Middle Wye Valley, including stabling and coachhouses associated with inns and private houses during the later 18th and early 19th century, as at the Old Radnor Arms, Talgarth, and at Glan-hen-Wye farm. Belonging to the Hay-Brecon Tramway are the Tramway Office at Broomfield and probably the stables at Llwynau-bach, both at Treble Hill, and railway stations and other railway buildings, of which examples survive at Talgarth and Trefeinion.

Both Hay and Talgarth witnessed a considerable expansion during the course of the later 18th and 19th centuries as the towns developed as service centres for the surrounding area. Numerous new town houses and shops were built, and especially noticeable at this period was the arrival of terraced workers’ housing, often either in stone with brick dressings or wholly in brick. A number of the lowland villages also saw an expansion in the number of workers’ houses, particularly during the 19th century, including Albert Terrace and Barn Cottage in Llowes, which probably represent farmworkers’ cottages.

New and occasionally imposing public buildings were erected in the towns of Talgarth and Hay during the 19th century. Dating to the 1830s are the Harley Almshouses in Church Street and Brecon Road, Hay, the former being built, according to a plaque, ‘for the reception of 6 poor indigent women AD MDCCCXXXII’. Also of the 1830s are the Butter Market and Cheese Market and Poor Law Union at Hay and dating to the 1870s is Talgarth’s Town Hall. Hay’s clock tower of the 1880s, in a ‘High Victorian Gothic’ style, provides a further expression of civic pride at this period. Many of the existing medieval churches were rebuilt in a Victorian Gothic style during the course of the 19th century including Bronllys, Clyro, Hay, Llowes and Llyswen. New churches were built in in the former parish of Glasbury at All Saints to the north of the Wye and St Peters to the south, following the abandonment of the medieval church site due to flooding in the 17th century. A further impact of the religious revival during the course of the century was the rapid expansion in nonconformist places of worshi_lasbury, built in the 1860s with rock-faced coursed sandstone rubble masonry with ashlar dressings, and the contemporary Treble Hill Baptist Chapel, built in red brick with sandstone dressings in a simple classical-style . The 19th-century rural chapels were invariably much simpler in style, and were generally constructed in rendered sandstone rubble, as in the case of the New Zion Primitive Methodist Chapel at Moity, and the Penyrheol Baptist Chapel.

A final distinctive element in the architectural landscapes of the Middle Wye Valley came with the arrival to the large hospital complexes at Talgarth and Bronllys, each built with an separate architect-designed chapel. The former Mid Wales Hospital at Talgarth, opened in 1903, was built in a severe institutional style. It is built of local stone with Grinshill sandstone dressings, its interior lined with bricks made on site. Bronllys Hospital was purpose-built as a tuberculosis sanatorium between 1913-20, designed on the widely-spaced pavilion system, and is still in use as a hospitable.

Historic buildings form an important element of the historic landscape of the Middle Wye and apart from their intrinsic architectural value they also provide a vital record of the social and economic history of the area. A number of buildings are also important from the point of view of their historical or literary associations: Maesyronnen Chapel is associated with the early nonconformist movement in Wales; Trefecca College and Trefecca-isaf (Trefecca College Farm), are associated with the 18th-century Methodist leader Howel Harris and hymn-writer William Williams, Pantycelyn; Ashbrook House and the Vicarage at Clyro, were home to the diarist Frances Kilvert during his curacy in the 1860s and 1870s; Clyro Court, is associated with Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and the writing of his novel, The Hound of the Baskervilles; and Glasbury Gate Cottage was the scene of the only recorded incident in the area during the Rebecca Riots against the imposition of the turnpike tolls in the 1840s. Individual buildings and groups of buildings also form an important visual element in the landscape. Management of the visual setting of a number of buildings is a particular priority, especially in the case of historic churches and castles, the landscape of historic towns and villages, and in the landscape setting of isolated country houses, farms, and upland chapels.

The management and conservation of the architectural landscapes of the Middle Wye historic landscape area presents many challenges for the future, particularly in finding alternative uses for buildings which have now become redundant. All the country houses in the area have been converted either to hotels or to institutional use, as has one of the two 20th-century hospitals in the area. Many of the larger 18th- to 19th-century gentry houses and some of the farmhouses have already been successfully converted to outdoor pursuit centres, and a number of former nonconformist chapels have likewise been converted into houses. The greatest priority is undoubtedly with regard to redundant historic farm buildings and farmhouses, especially in the more remote parts of the area, some of which are now in poor condition. Where conversion or conservation are not a viable proposition there is an urgent need to make a record of the individual buildings before they are lost. A further important priority from the point of view of management and conservation relates to a wide range of archaeological deposits which preserve the now-missing elements of the architectural history of the area. Of particular importance here are deposits containing evidence of buildings belonging to the prehistoric, Roman and early medieval periods, the form of early town and village houses and farmhouses and peasants’ houses, monastic granges and castles, abandoned churches, and early industrial sites, of which relatively little is known. The archaeology of a number of standing buildings is also important, especially in relation to information about their original use, form and dating.

It has been supposed that a Roman road leading eastwards from the fort at Brecon Gaer to Kenchester Roman fort in Herefordshire ran through the Middle Wye, possibly along the line of the A438 between Bronllys and Hay, but no certain evidence of this road has yet been found. The earliest visible evidence of transport history in the Middle Wye historic landscape area is represented by the winding roads, green lanes, hollow-ways, and trackways which linking the major settlements and isolated farms, many of which almost certainly have their origin in the medieval periods when the intensive settlement of the area began. Particularly distinctive of these earlier periods are the substantial hollow-ways, sometimes up to 5-6m deep, on the roads and trackways linking the lowland villages and farms with the upland commons, emphasising the considerable erosion that took place in the long period before the introduction of metalled road surfaces and road drains.

Fords across both major rivers and minor streams were an important feature of the historic landscape area until the late 19th or earlier 20th century, earlier fords often coming back into use when a bridge that had been built to replace it had been swept away by floods, which was a fairly common occurrence up to the middle of the 19th century. Early fords across the Wye are known at Llyswen, Glasbury and Hay, the narrowest crossings of the floodplain of the Wye, and have influenced the siting of settlements and other sites at these places which have controlled or taken advantage of the crossings, including probably the Iron Age fort at Pen-rhiw-wen near Llyswen, the early medieval clas or ‘mother church’ at Glasbury and the Clyro Roman fort, on the bank of the Wye opposite Hay. Ferries were often provided at these crossings, a ferry across the Wye at Glasbury being mentioned as early at 1311, and at Hay as early as 1337. The fords evidently continued to be used until these crossings were replaced by bridges and could be hazardous: John Leland, the English antiquary spoke of the difficulties in crossing the ford across the Wye at Hay in about the 1530s; ‘for lak of good knowleg yn me of the Fourde did sore troble my Horse’. The earliest mention of a bridge across the Wye appears to be a reference in 1665 to a former bridge at Glasbury, further upstream from the present bridge, near the confluence of the Llynfi. The first bridge across the Wye at Hay dates to the mid 18th century and the first bridge between Llyswen and Boughrood to as late as the 1830s. Samuel Lewis’s Topographical Dictionary of Wales, published in 1833, mentions that ‘a boat and horse are in constant attendance’ at the Boughrood river crossing. Former fords across rivers and streams are recorded in places where bridges have since been built, as in the case of Old Ffordd-fawr across the Digedi Brook and Ffordd-las across the Nant Ysgallen. The ford across the Wye at Boughrood is recorded in the field-name Cae Rhyd to the west of the present bridge, the name of Boughrood itself being possibly (but by no means certainly) being derived from Bach-rhyd or ‘little ford’. Numerous fords and footbridges across smaller streams in the area are marked on Ordnance Survey maps published in the later 19th century, many of which have now been culverted or replaced by small concrete bridges.

Little appears to be known about early river transport up the Wye, though it is likely that some commodities were moved up and down the river, at least on a seasonal basis, until about the mid 18th century, when improvements were being made to road transport in the area. The name of Boatside Farm on the opposite bank of the Wye at Hay, and the field-names Maeslan Cafan (from cafn ‘boat’), Boatside Field, Boatside Ground Boughrood Bridge, recorded in the Llyswen Tithe Apportionment of 1838, probably all refer to the former ferries at these points.

Simple bridges across streams are likely to have been built from early times. Stone slab bridges crossing smaller streams were a feature of areas where suitable stone was readily available. A number of these have survived, including one near the entrance to Blaenau-isaf Farm, at the head of Felindre Brook.

There are indications that following the growth in the export trade of Welsh cattle to English markets in the earlier 18th century that the Middle Wye Valley became one of the important drovers’ roads, the route from West Wales splitting at Brecon into a southern route via the Wye valley to Monmouth and via the Llynfi and Wye to Hereford.

Major changes to the road system took place with the road improvements carried out in the later 18th and earlier 19th centuries. Until this time many of the roads in the historic landscape area would have been ‘little better than ditches, full of dust in summer and almost impassable in winter’. It was probably the state of the roads that led Defoe to repeats the jestful reference to the county as ‘Breakneckshire’ in his Tour Through the Whole Island of Great Britain, published in the 1720s. Richard Fenton on tour with Sir Richard Colt Hoare in May 1804 described the journey from Builth in the following words: ‘and at last got to Hay, through most horrid roads, but a beautiful country, thank God, without any accident, and with only my Feet a little damped’

A start on road improvements in the county was made by the Brecknock Agricultural Society in the 1750s, who amongst other initiatives made available a road plough to interested parties. The Agricultural Society’s interests in this sphere were superseded by a turnpike trust set up following an act of Parliament to allow for the improvement of some of the principal roads in Brecknockshire in the 1760s. A second act was passed in 1830, and a new road built south of Talgarth to Nant y Ffin. Some turnpikes were removed following the Rebecca Riots in the 1840s, the responsibility for all the former turnpikes being transferred to the county by the 1880s, by which time the road network resembled that of the present day. Some of the new roads cut through earlier field systems as in the case of the roads which cut through medieval strip fields just to the west of Llyswen and at Boughrood Brest, and the engineered road south of Talgarth which cuts through numerous possibly medieval field boundaries. A number of other roads were moved or removed for other purposes at this period, as in the case of the former road which connected Glasbury with the upland commons at Ffynnon Gynydd, which was diverted in the early 19th century to enable the creation of the Maesllwch Castle Park.

New more direct roads were built or existing roads straightened or widened and provided with ditches. Toll gates and toll houses were set up to pay for the improvements. New hedges were planted to prevent stock from straying and to protect growing crops from animals being moved along the roads. A significant number of milestones belonging to the turnpike era of road transport in the late 18th and early 19th centuries still survive within the historic landscape area, usually taking the form of sandstone slabs, often limewashed and with curved tops, which showed the distance by road to the major settlements in either direction. Surviving examples include the following: Bronllys Road in Talgarth, opposite Ty Arfon; opposite College Farm in Trefecca; near Marish farm on the Talgarth-Llyswen turnpike; near Little Eames and Y Dderw on the Aberllynfi-Llyswen turnpike; near the turning to Porthamel; in the centre of Clyro; to the north-east of Llowes; and to the east of Maesllwch. Few of the former toll houses along the turnpike roads in the area appear to have survived, a number such as Trefecca Gate on the turnpike road between Talgarth and Llangorse, and Dewsbury Gate near Penmaes on the turnpike between Bronllys and Hay having been demolished in the 20th century to allow for road improvements. The former Glasbury Gate Cottage, still surviving on the northern approach to the village, is shown on the Tithe Map of 1841. It was probably the scene of the only recorded local incident during the Rebecca Riots of 1843-44.

Many early bridges within the historic landscape area have been replaced in modern times, but a number of bridges survive from either the late medieval period or the age of improvements in communication in the later 18th and earlier 19th century, some built by turnpike trusts, some by the county authorities, and some by private estates. The three bridges spanning the Wye and linking the northern and southern sides of the historic landscape area have a particularly complex and chequered history. As noted above, the earliest reference to Glasbury Bridge is at some date before 1665, further west than the present bridge. A timber bridge which fell in 1738 was replaced by another timber bridge which continued in use for about 40 years, before being replaced by stone bridge with five arches in 1777. This fell as a result of flooding in 1795 and was replaced by a wooden bridge in 1800. The bridge suffered damage in 1850 and although it was made safe for foot passengers it again fell and replaced by a ferry boat. Plans were drawn up for the repair, to be of wood with stone piers. A legal dispute arose over the cost of the repairs, however, following the transfer of the southern part of Glasbury parish to Brecknockshire from Radnorshire in 1844, as a consequence of which the new bridge had stone piers on the southern side of the river and with wooden trestles on the northern side. The present concrete bridge was erected in the 20th-century. The first recorded bridge across the Wye at Hay was a timber bridge built in early or mid 18th century. This was replaced by the first stone bridge, a toll bridge with seven arches, built in the 1760s, the site of the former ford indicated by Wye Ford Road, about 200m to the north of the present bridge. This, like Glasbury Bridge, was in part destroyed by floods in 1795, and though repaired was destroyed again in 1854-55 and replaced by a ferry. A new toll bridge was completed in 1865, being subsequently replaced by the present prestressed concrete bridge in 1958. Boughrood Bridge, a stone with four segmental arches and with semicircular arches at the approach, was built in 1838-42. A toll-house of two storeys was added to the northern approach in the 1843, the occupants in the 1850s combining toll-collecting with running a cobbling business. The bridge was erected by a private estate to replace an earlier ford and ferry, having been built at the expense of the de Wintons of Maesllwch Castle to enable the carriage of coal, coke and lime into southern Radnorshire, tolls continuing to be levied until 1934

A number of bridges with early histories pre-dating the turnpike era, the earliest probably being Pont-y-twr (‘Tower Bridge’) across the Ennig in Talgarth. This is possibly of late medieval origin but repaired in 1801 and altered more recently. Other early bridges, few of which now survive in their original form, include Pontithel and Pipton Bridge across the Llynfi mentioned in 1686, ‘Diwlas Bridge’ across the Dulas Brook at Hay mentioned in the later 17th century, Pont Eiddil, south of Trefecca, mentioned in 1706, Llanthomas Bridge across the Digedi Brook, rebuilt in 1707. Many of these and other bridges and culverts were replaced in the turnpike period in the later 18th and early 19th century, some of which are still extant, often single centred stone arches with rubble stone parapets and flat slab copings. These include an ?18th-century bridge across the Ennig on the southern outskirts of Talgarth, the later 18th-century bridges at Pontithel and Pont Tregunter which have subsequently been widened, Llanigon Bridge and Old Ffordd-fawr Bridge both across Digedi, the first mentioned in 1803, and the second dated 1812. Other later 19th-century bridges include Pont Cwrtyrargoed north-east of Felindre, the road bridge adjacent to Tregoyd House, and the bridge over the Dulas Brook at Hay, rebuilt in 1884, some of which have brick arches. Modern concrete bridges which have in many instances replaced former bridges within the historic landscape area include Glasbury Bridge and Hay Bridge across the Wye, Glandwr Bridge, Pont Nichol, Coldbrook Bridge, Bronllys Castle Bridge and Pipton Bridge across the Llynfi and its tributaries, Felin-newydd, Pont Trephilip, Pontybat across the Dulas and its tributaries, and many other smaller croncrete bridges which have replaced earlier fords across streams

A number of coachhouses and stables were built in association with some of the gentry houses and coaching inns in the area following the improvements to the turnpike roads, especially during the course of the 19th century. Notable examples include the 19th-century coachhouse and stable range at Hay Castle, the stone-built stable block at Clyro Court dated to the 1830s, the stone-built stables and coachhouse of 1830-40 at Glan-hen-Wye, the former brick-built stable and coachhouse at Parc Gwynne, Glasbury of the 1860-70s, and the former stable block at Gwernyfed Park House, dated to the 1870s. New Hotels sprang up in the major settlements and alongside the new turnpike roads to meet the needs of the near coach travellers. The Swan Hotel of about 1812, which has formerly with stabling ranges to the rear, is of this period. Also dating to the period between the late 18th to mid 19th century is the Baskerville Arms Hotel at Clyro, with former coachhouse to the rear, the former Radnor Arms, Talgarth with stables to the rear, and the Maesllwch Arms Hotel, Glasbury, with stable and coachhouse to rear. The early 18th-century stables at Penyrwrlodd, south of Llanigon, is one of the few such buildings in the area belonging to the pre-turnpike era.

Further important developments in the transport system within the Middle Wye historic landscape area took place in the wake of the completion of the Brecon and Abergavenny Canal to Brecon in the late 18th century. Initially there were proposals to build a branch canal from the Brecon and Abergavenny Canal to join the river Wye at Hay, but the scheme fell through due to lack of capital. Eventually, the link was established by the Brecon-Hay horse-drawn tramway whose construction began in 1816, with iron rails set to a 3ft 6in gauge on stone sleepers. The tramroad was built by the Hay Railway Company, a consortium of landowners, coalowners, ironmasters and bankers, and was primarily intended for bringing coal, coke, lime, bricks and other commodities into the district from the South Wales coalfield, and thereby developing trade. The route from Brecon to Hay was completed in 1818, and in the same year the Kington Railway Company was formed to continue the line to Kington and Burlingjobb limeworks in Radnorshire, linking with the Leominster Canal at Kington. The tramroad continued in existence for over 40 years, competing with the improved turnpike roads for custom. In 1862 the tramway was superseded by the Hereford, Hay and Brecon Railway Company. Much of the former course of the tramway was followed by the railway, though traces of its former embankment and culverts survive in places, as in the case of the Trefecca Fawr embankment south of Tredustan and the terrace cut into the edge of the Wye floodplain at The Warren to the west of Hay. The railway, like the tramroad before it, mostly avoided existing buildings, but cut through earlier field systems throughout its course. The improvements to the line over the next few years included the digging the Glasbury Cutting at Treble Hill, the line being joined within a few years to the Mid Wales line to Llanidloes at Three Cocks junction. The Hereford, Hay and Brecon Company was amalgamated with the Midland Railway Company in 1874, subsequently becoming known as the Mid Wales Railway. Stations and depots existed at one time or another at Talgarth, Trefeinion, Boughrood, Three Cocks, Glasbury and Hay, the railway eventually closing to passenger traffic in 1962.

Various buildings and other structures are associated with the tramway and railway. Although the railway line is now dismantled, a series of bridge abutments of the 1860s still survive at Treble Hill and to the south-west of Talgarth, with a fine arched bridge of the same period with a brick vault surviving at Treble Hill. At Llwynau-bach, north-east of Treble Hill a former two-storey stone-built stable building, alongside the former embankment of the Brecon-Hay tramroad, appears to have been used for stabling the draught animals employed on the tramway, the buildings later becoming part of the home farm for Broomfield. The fine early 19th-century house at Broomfield was probably built by William Bridgewater, the operator of the Hay-Brecon Tramway. It lies next to a goods yard and tramway office formerly known at Glasbury Wharf, where there are the surviving remains of compartmented stores for coal, lime and other goods. Drivers and from Hay and Brecon exchanged horses and consignments at this depot. Other remains of the tramway and railway to be seen in the area include a number of the stone sleepers from the tramway, sometimes reused as gateposts, and occasional goods vans used as field sheds.

The 20th century saw the gradual dominance of mechanised road transport over other forms of transport in the historic landscape area, and the consequent archaeological impact of road-straightening schemes and car-parks, notably the Clyro bypass constructed in 1959 and the municipal car-park at Hay, built over part of the former open fields to the south of the town centre.

The Middle Wye historic landscape area includes a diverse range of structures relating to transport and communications history, raising a broad range of conservation and management issues, including the following: traces of earlier bridges, early tracks, hollow-ways and green lanes; structures relating to the turnpike period of transport history including toll-houses, milestones, bridges, coachhouses, stables; structures relating to tramways and railways, including cuttings and embankments, culverts, bridges, bridge abutments, tramway stables, stations and goods yards.

The only evidence of early industrial activity within the historic landscape area is the evidence for a Romano-British iron bloomery at Gwernyfed Gaer identified in as a result of archaelogical excavations in the 1950s.

Later industries were mostly involved with the processing of agricultural produce, and generally involved the use of water power. Two early water corn mills are recorded at Hay in the 1330s, one being mentioned in the 1340s as operating on a leat diverted from the Dulas Brook. Numerous other mills are recorded, many for the first time in the later 18th or early 19th century, including the following: one on the Cilonw at Llanigon; one at Llowes using the stream in Garth Dingle; three mills on the Clyro Brook, Pentwyn Mill, Paradise Mill and Clyro Mill itself, to the south of the village which ceased operating in about the 1920s; Little Mill, east of Maesllwch, operating on the stream running through Cilcenni Dingle, first mentioned at the beginning of the 17th century; at least four mills on the river Llynfi at Glandwr, Pont Nichol mill, Porthamel and Three Cocks; Trebarried Mill on the Dulas and at Felin-newydd on the Triffrwd, a tributary of the Dulas west of Bronllys. The history of some of the mills is reasonably well documented, though little is known of some of the others, such as former in Felin Cwm on the Nant yr Eiddil south of Talgarth. Only one corn mill within the historic landscape area was sited on the Wye itself, a mill by the bridge at Boughrood, though a water-driven sawmill was built on the north bank of the Wye at Glasbury. The function of some of the mills changed through time. Talgarth Mill, for example, is thought to have started as a weaving mill, but was later used as a corn mill and then as a mill for animal foodstuffs, and finally ceasing operation in the 1970s. In a similar way, Tregoyd Mill began life as a corn mill but was converted to a sawmill which operated between about 1920-60. The water supplies to many of the mills were poor or seasonal and many ceased operation in the later 18th to early 20th centuries due to competition with mills elsewhere once better road transport available. By 1900 only about six or seven water corn mills remained in operation in the area, at Clyro, Talgarth, Three Cocks/Aberllynfi, Hay, Llanigon, Trebarried, all of which ceased to be used for milling corn during the first few decades of the 20th century.

Water power was also harnessed at an early date to power fulling mills, which had hammers for beating cloth after weaving in order to clean and consolidating the fabric. A handful of these mills are recorded in the area in the 14th century including one in the parish of Glasbury, one in Bronllys, probably on the Dulas, one in Hay, probably on the Dulas Brook, and one in Talgarth, probably on the Ennig. Some of the fulling mills had probably already disappeared by the end of the medieval period, although a mill at Bronllys continued in operation until the 1760s. Several paper mills were built on the Dulas Brook, one near Llangwathan and one near Cusop, both of which were probably short-lived and had probably ceased production before the end of the 19th century. Water power was occasionally harnessed for use on farms. Old Gwernyfed Farm included a water-powered threshing barn installed in 1890s, fed by leat.

A number of 18th- to 19th-century stone mill buildings survive, as in the case of Talgarth Mill, some of which have been converted to other uses, as in the case of Llangwathan Mill. Tregoyd Mill is one of the few mills within the historic landscape area which retains former machinery. Traces of ancillary structures such as weirs, leats and millponds have survived in many cases, even where the buildings themselves have fallen into disrepair or have been demolished.

Various other former processing industries carried out within the area, some for only a number of years, which have left little or no visible archaeological trace. Flax growing and processing was carried out experimentally in the 1780s and 1790s in the parishes of Hay, Glasbury and Llanelieu. A saw pit belonging to a timber yard was in use near Genffordd in the mid 19th century. A local hop industry is suggested by the field-name Upper Hop Yard near Lower Porthamel, given in the mid 19th-century Tithe Apportionment, and there are records of a malting business at Bronllys at about this period. A former malting house also survives at the rear of the former Radnor Arms in Talgarth. Platforms in Park Wood and in adjacent fields, near Talgarth suggest that charcoal burning was formerly carried out here. Tanning was formerly undertaken at several businesses in Hay until the early 20th century, supporting a local saddler’s workshop. A substantial wool sorting business was carried out in a large warehouse Glasbury in early 20th-century. The former flannel factory survives at Hay had been founded in the late 18th century but had closed by about the end of the 19th century, and little is known of the former flannel factory at Trefecca, said to have produced ‘some of the finest flannels made in the principality’. The Trefecca mill was founded by the Methodist community in 1752 in an attempt to support an already ailing industry, but this itself declined after the death of Howel Harris, the community leader, in 1773.

Blacksmith’s shops were amongst the other rural craft industries which were once widespread and which can still be identified in one or two instances. From the point of view of accessibility the smithies were sited within the towns or villages or at important road junctions. Single businesses are recorded at Trefecca, Felindre, Pontybat, Clyro, Glasbury, Llanfilo, Llanigon and Bronllys, two at Hay, two at Talgarth, and three at Three Cocks/Aberllynfi at one time or another during the 19th and early 20th century, the buisiness at Felindre and one of the businesses at Hay being associated with wheelwright’s workshops. A smith’s products were often distributed quite local, an example being the ironmongery of J. Jones, the Pontybat smith, whose hinges are to still to be seen on the barn doors at Trephilip Farm, only about 1 kilometre away from his former smithy.

Lime production was another important industry carried out on some scale in support of the local agricultural economy in the area in the later 18th and earlier 19th centuries, normally next to the small quarries exploiting narrow beds of limestone, and often sited in remote rural locations. Former limekilns are recorded at the following sites: New Forest in Cusop Dingle; Park Wood west of Talgarth; in Cwm Rhyd-Ellywe, west of Llanelieu; Dairy Farm limekiln, south of Ffordd-las; near Blaenycwm Wood and at Cefn, south of Tregoyd; near Blaenau-uchaf at the head of Felindre Brook; near Bwlch at the head of the Digedi Dingle; at Chwarel-ddu to the east of Twmpa; near Tredomen; near Hillis Farm; near Draen; and near Court Llwyfen. Structural remains of the former kilns survive in several instances, notably at New Forest and Chwarel-ddu. Tufa deposits on Hen Allt Common appear to have been quarried both for building stone and for lime burning. A number of kilns are only known from place-name evidence, being indicated by Welsh field-names such as Cae’r odyn (‘Kiln Field’) and variations such as Cae rodin and Cae y roden, including a number in the vicinity of Troed-yr-harn, on the hills south of Talgarth. A further limekiln based on a local quarry is recorded at Chancefield, evidently in operation in the late 18th century. The general incidence of the field-names appears to correspond with known outcrops of limestone, and it seems unlikely that in these instances that it is corn-drying kilns or pottery or brick kilns that are referred to. Several kilns are indicated by English field-names, including Limekiln Field south of Felindre and Kiln Piece near Pant Barn to the south of Hay. Theophilus Jones noted at the beginning of the 19th century that because of the distance from the coal-pits the expense of producing lime locally was very great. The industry declined during the later 19th century due to competition from the larger producers elsewhere, especially following the construction of the Hay-Brecon Tramroad in the early 19th century.

Numerous other stone quarries are to be seen throughout the historic landscape area. These are mostly small and were probably largely in use from the later medieval period onwards for building stone and in some instances for field walls. A small number of quarries were worked on a more commercial scale, Llanigon stone quarries, within a short distance of the Hay and Brecon tramroad, being worked in the 1840s evidently for limestone, building stone and roofing tiles. Small gravel quarries which exploited fluvioglacial deposits are recorded to the south of Llowes, near Tregunter, near Gwernllwyd to the east of Talgarth, west of Three Cocks/Aberllynfi, west of Bronllys, and south of Talgarth Hospital. Clay deposits in the side of a steep-sided stream valley to the west of Whole House farm, on the boundary between the parishes of Talgarth and Llangorse, gave rise to a local pottery kiln producing tygs, jugs, jars and slipware plates and dishes in the period between about the mid 17th century and the early 18th century. Wasters suggest that glazed ridge tiles were also produced at this period. Surface finds and clay pits in the Boatside Farm, Tir-mynach and Wyecliff area to the east of Clyro suggest that similar kilns were also operating here at about this period. Though not representing a significant local industry, brick production was carried out intensively for particular building projects, as in the case of those mentioned by the Reverend Kilvert in the 1870s, probably in the area of Clyro Brook. Three million bricks said to have been made on site from local clay, for lining the otherwise stone-built hospital at Talgarth at the beginning of the 20th century.

Other short-lived industries which have left little trace but which depended upon imported raw materials include the former gasworks at Hay, provided for street lighting from the middle of the 19th century to the early 20th century. More remarkably, Maesllwch Castle was provided with its own gas lighting in the 1840s, using imported coal, the remains of the retort house and gasholders being still visible in the ground to the east of the house. A small chemical works for producing Naphthalene from the distillation of coal-tar was in operation from the mid to later 19th century until the 1920s on a site adjacent to the railway to the rear of Pontithel House, which for a time was the residence of the works manager.

Cider orchards were formerly widespread throughout the historic landscape area, many farms and public houses once possessing their own cider houses and presses. The New Inn at Talgarth claimS to be the last public house in Wales at which cider was made. Little visible trace of this craft industry survives apart scattered and depleted orchards which once produced varieties such as Golden Pippin, Redstreak, Kingston Black, Old Foxwhelp, Perthyre and Frederick in profusion. The former cider press outside Penmaes Farm, Llanfilo, is one of the few examples to be seen in the area. Another example from Llanigon, made of Forest of Dean millstone grit, is now in the Museum of Welsh Life at St Fagans. For a time in the late 19th and early 20th century a cider works was also in operation in the town of Hay.

Streams, rivers and wells continued to provide the main domestic water supply for towns, villages until perhaps well into the 18th and 19th centuries, when many private water cisterns were built for many of the larger farms and houses in the area. The growth of the larger nucleated centres required greater investment to ensure reliable sources. Hay Water Works was built on Hay Common above the town by a private company in 1863 to supply the town of Hay, the reservoir being taken over and extended by the town council in 1895. Problems of water supply at Talgarth were only to be resolved in the early years of the 20th century, with a newly-constructed reservoir jointly supplying the town and Talgarth Asylum.

The wide range of processing and craft industries carried out within the historic landscape area are represented archaeologically by a range of buildings and structures, including mill buildings, watercourses and ponds, quarries and kilns, artefacts and machinery, ruins and buried archaeological remains, each involving a wide range of conservation and management issues. Perhaps the most widespread and vulnerable remains of importance to the history of the area is the evidence of the use of water power from the medieval period to the recent past.

The historic landscape area contains a diverse range of defensive sites and structures belonging to the prehistoric, Roman, medieval and modern periods. An important group of hillforts probably represent tribal centres of the pre-Roman Iron Age, including those at Hillis and Pen-rhiw-wen on the low hills to the west of the Llynfi, The Gaer on the river terrace above the Wye at Aberllynfi, at Castell Dinas on a detached hill along the edge of the escarpment of the Black Mountains, at Pendre on the foothills of the Black Mountains behind Talgarth and on Bryn-yr-hydd Common near Llowes, on the low hills to the north of the Wye. The distribution of the forts, like later fortifications in the area, suggests an attempt to control both territory and access. Pen-rhiw-wen overlooks the fording point across the Wye at Llyswen. The Gaer overlooks the fording point at Aberllynfi. Castell Dinas overlooks the pass through the Black Mountains south of Talgarth. The hillforts vary considerably in size, ranging from an area of about 3.6ha enclosed by the defences of Hillis hillfort to about 0.45ha in the case of Aberllynfi Gaer. Several smaller enclosures, including one near Court Llwyfen and a possible example in Gwernyfed Park, may represent smaller defended Iron Age farmsteads.

The Roman fort at Clyro likewise overlooks a traditional fording point of the Wye at Hay, and lies in area of strategic importance on the route between Herefordshire and the Usk valley, to be controlled in the medieval period by the castles at Clyro and Hay. The fort appears to date to the early conquest period and seems to have been fairly short-lived, possibly belonging to the campaigns against the native tribe of the Silures between AD 50-60. A possible Roman marching camp has been identified by aerial photography further to the south-west.

Little if anything is known of defensive structures in the area during the early medieval period. The site of the supposed royal princely courts at Talgarth is unknown, and it is uncertain in what manner it might have been defended. It has been suggested that the hillfort at Pen-rhiw-wen might represent the llys at Llyswen, but this is unproven, as is the suggestion that the larger outer bailey at Bronllys marks the precinct of the pre-conquest llys or court which is assumed to have existed here.

The most remarkable series of defensive structures in the Middle Wye Valley belong to the Norman conquest period and to the subsequent holding of the territory by the marcher lords. The distribution of sites is generally on the low-lying ground following the Wye and Llynfi, and corresponds to the areas where the English-held manors were established. The exception is the stone castle at Castell Dinas, set within the defences of the Iron Age hillfort on the edge of the Black Mountains, which at over 450m is the highest medieval castle in England and Wales. The earliest castles were earth and timber motte and bailey castles, built to defend and administer the lordships and manors established after the conquest spearheaded by Bernard de Neufmarché in the 1080s. The newly-conquered territory in Brycheiniog was initially divided into lesser lordships as gifts to knights who had rendered service during the conquest, and who in turn granted various manors to tenants from their English estates who became settlers in return for rendering service.

Earth and timber castles of varying sizes belonging perhaps primarily to the late 11th and 12th centuries are known at Aberllynfi, Bronllys, Hay, Llanthomas, Garn-y-castell, Tredustan, Trefecca, possibly Clyro, Castle Kinsey at Court Evan Gwynne, the former motte at Glasbury, Castle Tump near Llowes, possibly the ringwork at Cefn Bank near Trefecca Fawr, and finally Boughrood Castle, which lies just outside the historic landscape area. Some of these early castle are associated with defended baileys, as in the case of Bronllys, Tredustan, Trefecca, Court Evan Gwynne, Aberllynfi, but in other instances the mottes appear to stand alone. Castle Tump near Llowes appears to be associated with a rectangular cropmark enclosure, which may however be of Roman date. The history of many of these early castles is poorly documented though the mottes at both Hay and Bronllys undoubtedly belong to the 1090s, though Hay is first mentioned in 1121 as castello de haia, Garn-y-castell is possibly referred to in 1150, Glasbury Castle in the 1180s and Aberllynfi in 1233.

Bronllys castle was possibly superimposed upon one of the pre-conquest seats of power, but many of the other early castles appear to have been set up on new sites. Hay castle was strategically sited at one of the main fording points of the Wye, land access into the Middle Wye being controlled by both Hay and Clyro castles. The mottes at Glasbury and Boughrood and Llowes each possibly controlled other fording points across the Wye, whilst Bronllys, Aberllynfi, Tredustan, and Trefecca were sited along the Llynfi. A few of the early castles were sited on much higher ground, such as Garn-y-castell, on a spur below Mynydd Troed, possibly also for strategic reasons.

These more numerous early castles of the conquest period were superseded during the 13th century by fewer but more strongly defended stone castles that could withstand a prolonged siege, the marcher lords showing considerable achievement in adopting the latest styles of military fortification which in some instances were based on ideas borrowed from northern France. The first masonry castle at Hay was a ringwork and rectangular stone tower built at the very end of the 12th century, which underwent a number of periods of rebuilding and repair throughout the 13th century. A fire in an earlier stone tower at Bronllys is mentioned by Giraldus Cambrensis in 1175, the surviving round stone tower and walled inner bailey probably dating to the mid 13th-century, the tower being heightened in the 14th century to allow for domestic accommodation. Boughrood Castle had stone tower in 1205, and although little is known of the form or early history of Clyro Castle it evidently possessed a stone structure set on a motte-like platform, the castle being mentioned in 1397. The stone walls and probably stone keep of Castell Dinas, also known as Bwlchyddinas, set within the earthwork defences of a prehistoric hillfort, probably belong to the late 12th or early 13th century. The square Tower House in the centre of Talgarth probably dates to the 14th century, and seems to have been intended to defend the crossing of river Ennig and the town, which had been granted borough status in the early 14th century. The tower house, probably three-storeys high and with a pyramidal roof, was described by Leland in the early 16th century as ‘a little prison’. It is one of only a handful of similar structures in Wales. The medieval town defences at Hay, dating from the earlier 13th century, were much more substantial. A strong wall with three gates were noted by Leland in the earlier 16th century of which little is now visible, much having already gone by the early 19th century. The line of the medieval defences is suggested around parts of the town by the road pattern and by property boundaries, however, and in one stretch adjacent to the former Water Gate on the east side of the town by a more recent wall which seems to have been built out of earlier masonry.

The later history of many of the castles is unclear, though several including Hay, Castell Dinas, Bronllys and Clyro were provisioned during the Glyndwr rebellion in 1403, the outer bailey of Bronllys being repaired as late as 1410. The castles ceased to have much military purpose after the early years of the 15th century, and by the mid 16th century most were probably already in a poor state, Leland recording that Bronllys was already beyond repair in 1521. A number were superseded by later gentry houses, such as the mansion built against the keep of Hay castle in about 1660, and the house built within the outer bailey of Bronllys Castle in the late 18th century.

A further important element in the history of defensive sites in the Middle Wye is the notable concentration of moated sites in the area which would have enclosed important timber or stone houses, whether for defence or show. The sites represent a significant element in the local settlement pattern and probably representing the rise of a class of sub-tenants of the feudal marcher lords in perhaps the 13th and 14th centuries. Probable moated sites which have been identified in the area include the following: Hillis, south of Llanfilo; Llanfilo village to the south of the church; in the village of Bronllys; Cwrt-coed west of Trefithel; and Lower House to the north-east of Clyro. Two of the moated sites, Bronllys and Llanfilo, are associated with church settlements.

The end of the tradition of fortified houses in the area is represented by the gatehouse at Porthamel, north of Talgarth, one of the greater medieval manor house of the area, and is a rare survival of medieval domestic gatehouse. The name of the house is derived from the Welsh Porth-aml (‘many doored’), the late 15th-century two-storey sandstone gatehouse being described by Leland in the earlier 16th-century as ‘a fair gate and strong waul embateled’, referring to the walled precinct around the house, with wall walk and parapet, which had been demolished by the early 19th century. The gatehouse, in high quality stonework, is a feature of a number of more imposing 16th-century borderland houses.

An unusual element in the defensive and military landscapes of the Middle Wye is represented by the earthworks of ditches dug around tents of the Brecon Militia during their summer camp on the south side of Rhos Fach Common in the 1870s. Even the Second World War has left its mark on the historic landscape, including the now-demolished observation post set up on the motte at Hay, bomb craters near Cockalofty, and the extensive repairs to Llanigon church necessitated by a bomb dropped by the Luftwaffe in 1941.

The Middle Wye historic landscape area contains a wide range of important defensive and military landscapes which raise a broad range of management and conservation issues. The defences of many of the prehistoric hillforts, medieval motte and baileys, ring-works and moated sites have been subjected in the past to ploughing, quarrying, ditch digging, road and railway construction, and housing development, which have resulted in the loss of archaeological information about the form of the sites and when and how they were occupied. Other sites, such as Castle Tump near Llowes, are potentially vulnerable to river erosion at some date in the future. A number of the sites, and perhaps especially the deeper ditches encircling hillforts, mottes and moated sites, are likely to contain waterlogged deposits which preserve important environmental information. A further issue which needs to be considered is the visual siting of monuments, since the prominent aspect which many of the monuments were intended to have within the landscape can often be considerably diminished by unsympathetic development in the immediate environs.

The Middle Wye historic landscape area preserved a rich heritage of religious landscapes represented by buildings and other structures from the prehistoric period, the early medieval to post-medieval periods.

Belonging to the Neolithic period are an important group of chambered long cairns including those at Pipton, Penyrwrlodd (Talgarth), Little Lodge, Penyrwrlodd (Llanigon), Clyro, and the pair of long cairns near Ffostyll. At least one additional tomb once existed at Croes-llechau, east of Porthamel, which survived until at least the early years of the 19th century. The tombs belong to a distinctive group of monuments in the Black Mountains area of Brecknockshire, whose closest parallels lie in the Cotswolds. A number of the sites in the area have been excavated and have been shown to consist of long trapezoidal cairns, up to 50m long in some instances, enclosing one or more burial chambers that were used for the burial of a number of different individuals. The form of the monuments possibly symbolize a ‘house of the dead’, with the individual chambers possibly representing different family groups. The tombs are widely spaced and cover a wide topographical range, from the edge of the floodplain of the Wye in the case of Clyro, up to the lower foothills of the Black Mountains in the case of Penyrwrlodd (Llanigon). The scale of the monuments suggest that they may in some way defined the territories of different groups.

The round barrow became the principal form of burial monument during the earlier Bronze Age, of which a number of examples are recorded in the on the lower-lying hills at Ffostyll, Park Wood, and Coed Meiadd near Tredomen, as well as on the lower edge of the Black Mountains at Pen-y-beacon, Wern Frank, Twyn-y-beddau, Y Grib, and Mynydd Bychan and on the edge of the escarpment of the Black Mountains at Twmpa. A number of the burial mounds are prominently sited within the landscape, on spurs, ridges or hilltops, and although many barrows have either not yet been identified or have been damaged beyond recognition, the fact that the sites often occur singly and at some distance from each other suggests that they might again have some territorial significance as well as having been used for burial. In addition to the surviving mounds a number of ring-ditches have been identified by aerial photography which probably also represent Bronze Age burial monuments. A single ring-ditch has been identified near Applebury on the north side of the Wye west of Glasbury, and a group of six have been identified near Spread Eagle, to the west of Pipton. The Spread Eagle group appear to form part of a barrow cemetery perhaps significantly sited on the edge of the floodplain near the confluence of the Llynfi and Wye. Cropmark evidence suggests that the ring-ditches might form part of a complex which includes a Neolithic cursus monument represented by two parallel ditches. The purpose of cursus monuments is uncertain, but they appear to be associated with ritual activity. A single stone remains prominently visible of the Pen-y-beacon or Blaenau stone circle below Hay Bluff, a Bronze Age monument of a type which again appears to have had ritual or ceremonial functions.

Little further is yet known of the religious activity in the area until the early medieval period. Christianity had already become adopted by the late 5th century, and by this time the earliest recorded rulers of Brycheiniog are closely associated with the church. The traditional burial place of Gwenfrewi (Gwendoline), daughter of Brychan Brycheiniog, king of Brycheiniog, is at Talgarth, his chief court, suggesting the existence of an royal burial ground and possibly a church associated with the court at this early date. The dedication of the churches at both Talgarth and Llyswen to Gwendoline indicate that she was the focus of an important local cult. The church at Llyswen had probably been established by the middle of the 6th century, in association with a pre-conquest llys or court, but there is no certain evidence of a pre-conquest church associated with the assumed llys at Bronllys.

Glasbury is a further important early religious centre in the area of the Middle Wye in the pre-conquest period, its name possibly either deriving from the Welsh Clas-ar-wy (‘clas on the Wye’, a version of the name first recorded in the 16th century), or representing a hybrid of the Welsh clas and the English burh (‘fort, enclosure’) and synonymous with the name Clastbyrig first recorded in 1056. The church appears to have lain at the heart of an extensive pre-conquest parish which spanned the entire width of the valley, and which perhaps ceded territory to other daughter churches as they became established in the pre-conquest period. The clas church at Glasbury is associated with the legend of Cynidr, an alledged son of Brychan, who is said to be buried at the church he founded there. The earlier church at Glasbury was strategically sited at the confluence of the Llynfi and Wye, aerial photography suggesting that the church may have lain within a large curvilinear enclosure. There have been suggestions that the original foundation may alternatively have been on Ffynnon Gynydd Common to the north of Glasbury, but this seems less likely. Other pre-conquest churches in the area appear to have been those at Llowes, Llanigon, Llanfilo, and Llanelieu, each sited within circular churchyards, each with Welsh dedications, to Meilig, Eigon, Beilo, and Ellyw respectively. Two possibly 7th to 9th-century inscribed pillar stones in the churchyard at Llanelieu a possibly 11th-century cross with wheel-cross of celtic type at Llowes appear to confirm the pre-conquest foundations of at least these two churches, Llowes also probably referred to in the 12th-century Book of Llandaff, with reference to a grant made in the 7th century.

A number of significant changes were made to the organisation of the church in the area following the Norman conquest in the 1090s. The clas church at Glasbury was refounded and bestowed upon St Peter’s in Gloucester. The churches in Talgarth and Llanigon were both bestowed upon the new Benedictine priory founded by Bernard de Neufmarché in the 1090s at Brecon, the glebe land at Talgarth being known at Tir-y-prior (‘Prior’s Land’) until modern times. A new parish church dedicated to St Mary was built at Hay, perhaps initially to serve the early castle built by William Revel following the conquest of Brycheiniog, its parish being carved out of the pre-conquest parish of Llanigon. The church had evidently been built before the medieval town was founded further to the north and was consequently to remain outside the town walls. The church at Bronllys likewise appears contemporary with the foundation of Bronllys castle by the Clifford’s in about 1090, and similarly dedicated to St Mary, its parish in this instance being carved out of the extensive parish belonging to Glasbury church. The church was given to the Cluniac priory at Clifford Herefordshire, who still held it at the dissolution. The origins of the parish church dedicated to St Michael and All Angels at Clyro is uncertain, but it too may have been a new foundation associated with the construction of Clyro Castle. A number of other churches and chapels in the area possibly originated as non-parochial proprietary churches associated with early manorial centres at Aberllynfi and possibly Pipton and Llanthomas, a former private chapel or llan at the latter possibly being referred to as Thomaschurch in 1340. These smaller chapels were probably never wealthy, but a number of the parish churches had evidently accumulated significant wealth during the later medieval period despite the apparently size of the settlements associated with them. The fine rood screens in the isolated churches at Llanelieu and Llanfilo can only have been purchased at considerable cost, and yet the parishes themselves seem unlikely to have ever had large populations.

Following the re-establishment of the castle and town at Hay away from the original focus of the settlement a new chapel dedicated to St John was built within the town walls possibly in the 1250s, serving as a guild chapel as well as for the convenience of the townspeople. A change in the course of the Wye and Llynfi flooded the former clas church at Glasbury in about 1660, leading to its abandonment and ultimately to the further fragmentation of its parish. The parish church was replaced by the new church of St Peters consecrated in 1665, built on higher ground on the river terrace 400m to the south, and possibly using some stone brought from the old church. The new church eventually fell into disrepair and was replaced by the present church dedicated to St Cynidr and St Peter in the 1830s. The chapel of St John’s in Hay, long known as Eglwys Ifan, had an equally chequered history. Abolished at the Reformation in the mid 16th century, it was used as a schoolroom in the 17th century but had become ruinous by the 1770s. It was turned into lock-up between 1811-70, later becoming a fire station, a shop and then a house. The building was substantially rebuilt in the 1930s and is now used as a chapel and meeting room.

Three further elements of the medieval Christian landscape in the area of the Middle Wye are holy wells, monastic lands, and a single wayside cross. Several holy wells or springs are known in the area, and though little is generally known about them some are associated with folklore or have supposed curative powers. They include Ffynnon Eigon at Llanigon, opposite side of Digedi Brook from the church, Ffynnon Beilo outside the churchyard at Llanfilo, now capped with stone but formerly the village water supply, Ffynnon Gynydd to the north of Glasbury, and Monk’s Well at Tir-mynach. The lands at Tir-mynach formed part of a grange or farm managed by lay brothers, belonging to the Cistercian abbey at Cwmhir. Stone buildings of 14th-century which probably formed part of the grange are evident at Clyro Court Farm. Other lands granted to the Benedictine Priory at Brecon included lands near Trefecca Fawr, granted in the later 12th century, and lands between Trewalkin and Mynydd Troed granted in the early 13th century. The medieval stone wayside cross south of Llanigon, known as the Scottish Pedlar, may have been sited on the medieval pilgrimmage route from Hay to Llanthony via Gospel Pass. It is first described in 1690 as ‘Pitch’d in a hedge by ye way side call’d hewl y groes’.

By the end of the medieval period the Middle Wye historic landscape area was divided between the ecclesiastical parishes of Hay, Llanigon, Clyro, Glasbury (on the north and south banks of the river, but subsequently split), Llowes, Boughrood, Llyswen, Llanelieu, Aberllynfi, Talgarth, Bronllys, and Llanfilo, together with small areas of Llandefalle and Llangorse parishes. The guild chapel of St John at Hay was abolished at the time of the Reformation and the former chapelries at Aberllynfi, Felindre, Cilonw, and the possible chapel at Pipton had all disappeared by the 18th century. The chapel at Cilonw, possibly dedicated to St Celin, was already in ruins by the 1570s. The chapel at Aberllynfi had no incumbent after 1660, its old font dated to 1635 being moved to the new church of St Peter’s, Glasbury. The chapel at Felindre is supposed to have fallen into decay by the 18th century its site possibly below the present community hall in a field formerly known as Chapel Field.

Much of the original medieval fabric survives at Llanigon, Llanelieu, Llanfilo, and Talgarth, whilst at Hay the church collapsed in about 1700, leaving only the 15th-century tower. The main body of the church was rebuilt at Clyro in the mid 19th century, leaving only the base of the medieval tower intact, and at Bronllys the main body of the church was similarly rebuilt in 1880s, leaving the 13th-century tower intact, a rare Welsh example of a detached medieval belltower. The remaining churches at Llowes and Llyswen, like the nave and chancel of Hay, were totally rebuilt between the 1830s and 1860s, though the foundations of the medieval churches no doubt still lie buried below the ground. A new church near Cwmbach to the north of Glasbury was opened in 1882, which formed the new parish of All Saints, Glasbury, Radnorshire.

The eastern borderland of Radnorshire and Brecknockshire played an important role in the history of Welsh nonconformism, of which significant traces are still to be seen within the landscape. A sermon before the House of Commons in 1646 spoke with evident concern that ‘The Gospel has run over the mountains between Breconshire and Monmouthshire as the fire in the thatch’. Early nonconformism in the area is especially associated with the Baptist leader Vavasor Powell who is believed to have started his itinerant preaching at The Beudy near the present Maesyronnen Chapel on the hills to the north of Glasbury in the 1640s. Maesyronnen Chapel, described as ‘the most important surviving building associated with the early nonconformist movement in Wales’ was converted from a 16th-century farmhouse and barn in about 1696, being an offshoot of the early Baptist communities which had already become established at Hay and Llanigon.

An Act of Parliament passed in 1649 permitted the setting up of licensed nonconformist groups, which for a time were to meet in private houses and barns throughout the district. Part of the new house built by the Parliamentary soldier William Watkins at Penyrwrlodd, Llanigon, in 1650, is said to have been aside for this purpose. Subsequently, in 1707, a stable-block was built to provide a dissenting chapel on its upper floor. A dissenting academy was established at the old farm of Llwynllwyd to the west of Llanigon in the early 1700s. This was attended by both Howel Harris and Williams Williams, Pantycelyn, who were to become prominent figures in the history of Welsh nonconformism.

Various denominations emerged during the course of the 18th and 19th centuries, including the Baptists, Calvinistic Methodists, Wesleyan Methodists, Primitive Methodists, Presbyterians, and Congregationalists, who in time were able to build their own places of worship within the area. Many of the surviving chapels date to the mid or later 19th century, in some instances replacing later 17th- or earlier 18th-century buildings. These buildings often form important architectural and historical elements within the towns and villages of the area, and include five chapels in Hay, three chapels in Talgarth, and one each in Bronllys, Glasbury, Cwmbach, Felindre, Llyswen and Treble Hill. A number of chapels were built in the countryside, to serve the dispersed rural communities, including those at Felin-newydd, Tredomen, Pwll-mawr near Tredustan, Pengenffordd, and the New Zion Primitive Methodist Chapel near Moity Farm. A number of the chapels have awe-inspring _Penyrheol and Rhosgwyn, both with the dramatic escarpment of the Black Mountains as a backdrop, and Brechfa, on the edge of the common next to Brechfa Pool.

A further important legacy of nonconformism in the Middle Wye are the complex of 18th- and 19th-century buildings at Trefecca resulting from the ministry of Howel Harris with the support of Selina Hastings, the Countess of Huntingdon. The Methodist community at Trefecca was established by Howel Harris, the founder of Welsh Calvinistic Methodism, who following a profound religious experience in the Talgarth churchyard, had spent the years after 1735 preaching and founding Methodist societies in Wales and England. Harris’s preaching in turn inspired the hymn-writer William Williams, Pantycelyn, to the nonconformist persuasion. In 1752 Harris assembled about 100 of his Welsh supporters whom he referred to as his teulu (‘family’) in a community at Trefecca Fach, his own home. A new building was built for the community, next to the farmhouse in 1772, in a ‘modern Gothick style’, being described by William Williams as ‘the castellated monastery’ and by John Wesley as ‘a little paradise’. The community, sometimes referred to as ‘a kind of Protestant monastery’ was actively involved in farming and manufacturing and aimed at self-sufficiency, Howel Harris also playing a leading role in the formation of the Brecknockshire Agricultural Society in 1754, the first such society in Wales. Further buildings were erected to serve the community, including a chapel, infirmary, bathhouse, dovecot and fishpond. A printing press was established in 1758 which continued until 1806, and a school for the manufacture of woollens with 8 looms was set up in 1756. At one stage the residents of the community are said to have been engaged in up to sixty different crafts and trades. The vitality of the community dwindled after Harris’s death in 1773. The building became a Calvinistic Methodist Theological College (Coleg Trefeca) in 1842, to which a terrace of students’ lodgings were added in 1876. The college closed in 1906 and the buildings have now become a training centre for the Presbyterian Church in Wales.

Rapid population expansion and the more frequent use of memorial stones in the later 19th-century gave rise to a shortage of burial spaces, particularly in the case of the larger nucleated settlements, giving rise to the large new cemetery at Hay, opened in 1870, which remains the only municipal cemetery in the historic landscape area. The cemetery, along Common Lane, to the west of the town, is set out within one of strip fields resulting from the enclosure of the former medieval open fields of the town.

The most recent religious landscapes within the Middle Wye are those created by the presence of the 20th-century hospital chapels at Talgarth and Bronllys. The chapel at Talgarth was built in a gothic style in 1900, Bronllys chapel being built in 1920 in an ‘Arts and Crafts style with Modern Movement influences’.

The Middle Wye historic landscape area contains a rich and diverse heritage of what can loosely be termed religious associations from the prehistoric past up to modern times and which are important in number of spheres – for their significance in terms of architectural history, for their visual significance within the landscape, for their association with important historical figures or movements, and for the archaeological evidence they preserve below and above ground. The monuments present an equally diverse range of conservation and management issues, but a number of priorities can be outlined. The management of below and above ground archaeological evidence is particularly important in the case of prehistoric cropmark sites, prehistoric burial mounds and abandoned medieval church and chapel sites. Building conservation is clearly most important as regards medieval and later churches and chapels. Churchyards and churchyard monuments are of equal importance in terms of landscape history. Memorial stones in the historic landscape area largely date from the later 18th century onwards and are important in terms of social, cultural and family history, and sadly because of the nature of the local sandstone many of these monuments are now under threat. The visual setting of the the religious monuments and buildings is of some importance, perhaps particularly in relation to medieval churches and upland nonconformist chapels.

The ornamental and picturesque qualities of the historic landscape area have been widely commented upon, as in the following description in Theophilus Jones’s History of Brecknockshire.

The system of agriculture pursued in the low lands is not excelled any where within the county or neighbourhoods; the prospects from both sides of the Wye, particularly from Pen y lan . . . and from Maesllwch are as beautiful as imagination can paint; whether the eye be directed up or down the river, picturesque objects present themselves, though of a very different nature. Below, looking from Pen y lan are the wooden bridge at Glasbury, the luxuriant pastures and fertile banks of the Wye, at a little distance to the north east is a gentle rising ascent, thickly interspersed with wood, among which are apple, pear and cherry trees, which, when in full bloom, improve the scene and complete the landscape of a highly cultivated country. The view upwards consisting of a long reach of the Wye, the village of Llyswen, and the abrupt ascent to Craig lai, with a distant view of the Brecon beacons, forms a picture differing totally in the general features from the former, yet possessing great beauties, improved by the contrast; descending, however, from either of these enchanting eminences towards the turnpike gate, we find the river Llynfi, emptying itself into the Wye.

Samuel Lewis in his Topographical Dictionary of Wales published in 1833 no doubt expresses the sentiments of other early 19th-century travellers when he speaks of the countryside around Talgarth: ‘it is characterized more by features of rugged boldness than of picturesque beauty, even in some parts bordering on the romantic’. The eye of the 18th and 19th century artist, however, was largely drawn to the scenery and antiquities of the valleys of the Wye and Usk rather than the surrounding hills, many of the views of Brecknockshire being published in books of views as well as in topographical and historical works. The earliest views to be published were those of Hay Castle and Bronllys Castle by the Buck brothers in the 1740s, views which were again sketched by the Sir Richard Colt Hoare, the antiquarian, during his tour with Richard Fenton in 1804. Bronllys Castle again appeared in Hugh Hughes’s Beauties of Cambria, published in 1823, one of the other buildings of interest in the area of which views were published being that the Calvinistic Methodist College at Trefecca, which appeared from 1786 onwards.

Parks and gardens are a particularly important element of the landscape of the historic landscape area, a number of which appear in the Register of Landscapes, Parks and Gardens of Special Historic Interest in Wales. A wide range of ornamental and recreational landscapes being represented in the area, including a late medieval or Renaissance deer park, the remains of Elizabethan and Jacobean formal gardens, 18th- and 19th-century landscape parks and pleasure grounds, and a some notable modern gardens.

The deer park at Gwernyfed appears to have originated in the late medieval period. This extensive tract of formerly unenclosed lowland, extended from the foothills of the Black Mountains near Felindre to the banks of the Llynfi at Aberllynfi, and appears to have survived with relatively little alteration until the later 18th century. The deer park formed part of a manor whose ownership by one of the major gentry families in the country can be traced back to at least the beginning of the 16th century and possibly earlier. The original manor house at Old Gwernyfed lay on the old highway between Talgarth and Hay, passing through Felindre and Llanigon. The house was extensively rebuilt in the early 17th century, and probably also belonging to this period are the remnants of a remarkable formal terraced garden laid out behind the house, integrated with orchards and possibly earlier fishponds. The primary residence of the owners transferred to Llangoed Hall near Llyswen in about the 1730s, though various ornamental elements were added to the deer park during the later 18th century and the early 19th century, including a series of radiating tree-lined avenues, a fountain and a maze. The new Jacobean-style country house of Gwernyfed Park was built in the northern side of the park in the 1870s and 1880s with walled kitchen gardens, its long drive, lodge and massive wrought-iron gates giving access to the new lines of communication between Talgarth and Hay passing through Three Cocks and Treble Hill to the north. Ornamental plantings of firs and beech were made throughout the park in the later 19th century and are still evident today, though following the break-up of the estate in the 1950s much of the parkland is now divided into arable fields.

The various ornamental landscape elements represented in sequence at Gwernyfed are repeated on a smaller scale elsewhere within the historic landscape. Hay Castle contains the remains of 17th-century terraced formal garden and 18th- to 19th-century pleasure grounds within the remains of the medieval castle and associated with the Jacobean manor house. Other traces of late medieval gardens are possibly to be seen within the 20th-century formal garden at Trefecca Fawr. Low earthworks associated with Trebarried suggest the remains further garden of the formal garden period. A number of mounds at Y Dderw and elsewhere may represent garden viewing mounds.

A deer park or early landscape park is shown surrounding Great Porthamel Saxton’s early 17th-century map of Radnorshire. A picturesque landscape park appears to have been created along the brook to the west of the former gentry house at Tregunter in the later 18th century, partly by damming the stream which forms a tributary of the Dulas – being amongst the works carried out with the London-made fortune of Thomas Harris, an elder brother of Howel Harris of Trefecca. The late 18th- to 19th-century parkland, now forming the grounds of the former Bronllys Hospital was first built as a setting for a mansion of the 1750s and incudes a number of substantial parkland trees up to 200 years old. This mansion was replaced by the existing Pont-y-wal Mansion, a country house built in the late 19th century, with walled garden to the north-east of the house. The parkland belonging to Maesllwch Castle occupies an area enclosed from the former common open fields of Glasbury, probably created in the first half of the 18th century. The parkland was already in existence by the 1770s, and probably also belonging to this period is the ha-ha to the north of the house. The present form of the park dates from the 1840s when a large landscape park, with formal gardens, walled kitchen gardens to the west, and wooded pleasure grounds to the north, was created as the setting to the castellated country house, prominently sited overlooking the Wye valley. This involved the realignment of the public road from Glasbury up to Ffynnon Gynydd Common on the hills above. The effect of a landscape park has been achieved by 19th-century plantings around a number of other large houses in the area, including Trephilip, Felin-newydd, Tregoyd House, Boatside Farm and Clyro Court.

The apple, pear and cherry orchards attached to houses and farms were once an important element of the landscape in the Middle Wye historic landscape area, though sadly many are decayed today. Some of the orchards possibly date back to the medieval period, whilst others seem likely to date from the late 17th century onwards. The Revered Francis Kilvert, the curate of Clyro between 1865-72, provides a contemporary description in his diary in the spring of 1870:

The whole country is now lightened up by the snowy pear blossom among their delicate light-green leaves. The pear trees stand like lights about the gardens and orchards and in the fields. The magnificent great old pear tree opposite the Vicarage is in bloom.

The effect of the fruiting trees the autumn of the same year was equally evocative:

Just below on the orchard bank grew and apple tree whose bright red boughs and shoots stood up in beautiful contrast against the light blue mountains and the grey town and blue valley. And the grey tower of Clyro Church peeped through the bright red branches.

Several fishponds are known within the area in addition to those noted at Old Gwernyfed. These include the fishponds near Tregunter, earthworks near Fishpond Wood at Cwmbach, which seem to represent former fishponds, and the fishponds at Trefecca Fawr. The ponds at Tregunter appear to have been created in the 1760s or 1770s, but others are possibly of medieval origin. The ponds to the north of Trefecca Fawr appear to be those mentioned in a charter of the 1170s in a charter granting land to Brecon Priory by Roger de Baskerville.

The Middle Wye historic landscape area contains a notable concentration important parks and gardens which are important as expressions of the wealth and influence of the landed estates that emerged from the medieval manors in the richer lowlands along the Llynfi and Wye. The physical remains include earthworks, viewing mounds, garden structures, fishponds, remnant orchards, boundaries, walled gardens, and tree plantings. Of particular importance are the potentially medieval fishponds, the remains of medieval and Renaissance formal gardens, remnant ancient orchards, 18th- and 19th-century walled gardens or kitchen gardens, and landscape parks, which clearly raise a wide range of conservation and management issues.