Bronllys

Bronllys
Bronllys Church Tower and graveyard
Detached Tower of St Mary's Church, Bronllys
Bronllys
 Bronllys shown within Powys
Area  12.2 km2 (4.7 sq mi) [1]
Population 853 (2011)[2]
    density  70/km2 (180/sq mi)
OS grid referenceSO144350
    Cardiff 58 km (36 mi)  South
    London 223 km (139 mi)  East
CommunityBronllys
Principal areaPowys
Ceremonial countyPowys
CountryWales
Sovereign stateUnited Kingdom
Police Dyfed-Powys
Fire Mid and West Wales
Ambulance Welsh
EU Parliament Wales
List of places
UK
Wales
Powys

Coordinates: 52°00′25″N 3°14′56″W / 52.007°N 3.249°W / 52.007; -3.249

Bronllys is a village in Powys, Wales between the nearby towns Brecon and Talgarth. It has recently benefited from a new bypass as part of the Talgarth Relief Road and Bronllys Bypass scheme.

Despite being a small village it has a swimming pool and small leisure centre, post office and hospital.

The castle

Bronllys Castle motte and tower

Bronllys castle is a motte and bailey fortress standing south of the village, towards Talgarth. The castle was founded in or soon after 1144 when the district was granted to Walter de Clifford by Roger Fitzmiles, 2nd Earl of Hereford. Walter seems to have been responsible for building the round tower on the motte for in 1165 it caught fire and a stone tumbling from the battlements killed Earl Roger's last surviving brother Mahel de Hereford. In September 1233 Walter III de Clifford had a force of over 200 men here defending the castle against his father-in-law Llywelyn ab Iorwerth. The castle passed from the Cliffords to the Giffards and eventually the de Bohun Earls of Hereford.

North view of the castle in 1740

In 1399 Henry IV took possession of all de Bohun property. The castle was additionally fortified against Owain Glyndŵr during the early years of his rebellion in the early 15th century. Bronllys Castle was never again occupied and by 1583 had fallen into disrepair. A short spell in the possession of the Duke of Buckingham did nothing to improve its state, and in 1521 was once again crown property, where it has remained ever since.[3] It is now in the care of Cadw, the arm of the Welsh Assembly charged with care of historic monuments and is open to the public between April and October.[4]

Bedo Brwynllys

The minor Welsh bard Bedo Brwynllys lived in Bronllys in the 15th century. His poetry is characteristic of a follower or imitator of Dafydd ap Gwilym and is mainly love poetry or religious poetry and some eulogistic poems such as his elegy for Sir Richard Herbert of Coldbrook, written in 1469.

Governance

An electoral ward in the samed name exists. Thi ward includes Erwood and at the 2011 Census had a total population of 1,282.[5]

See also

References

  1. neighbourhood.statistics.gov.uk Bronllys Community
  2. "Community population 2011". Retrieved 10 November 2015.
  3. Hull, Lise. "Bronllys Castle". The Castles of Wales. Retrieved 28 December 2012.
  4. "Bronllys Castle". Cadw. Welsh Government.
  5. "Ward population 2011". Retrieved 10 November 2015.

External links

This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the Sunday, January 24, 2016. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.