Place:Powys, Wales

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the text in this section is based on an article in Wikipedia

Powys is a principal area, local-government county and preserved county in Wales. It is named in remembrance of the Kingdom of Powys, which formed after the Romans withdrew from Britain in AD410.

Geography

the text in this section is based on an article in Wikipedia

Powys was formed in 1974 and covers the historic counties of Montgomeryshire and Radnorshire, most of Breconshire (sometimes Brecnockshire), and a small part of Denbighshire – an area of 5,179 km² (2,000 sq miles), making it the largest unitary authority in Wales by land area and about the same size as the country of Trinidad and Tobago.

It is bounded to the north by the principal areas of Gwynedd, Denbighshire and Wrexham; to the west by Ceredigion and Carmarthenshire; to the east by Shropshire and Herefordshire; and to the south by Rhondda Cynon Taf, Merthyr Tydfil, Caerphilly, Blaenau Gwent, Monmouthshire and Neath Port Talbot.

Most of Powys is mountainous, with north-south transport being difficult.

The majority of the Powys population lives in villages and small towns. The largest towns are Newtown, Ystradgynlais, Brecon, and Welshpool with populations of 12,783, 9,004, 7,901 and 6,269 respectively (2001). Powys has the lowest population density of all the principal areas of Wales.

Just under a third of the residents have Welsh linguistic skills: Welsh speakers are concentrated mainly in the rural areas both in and around Machynlleth, Llanfyllin and Llanrhaeadr ym Mochnant (where William Morgan first translated the whole Bible into Welsh in 1588) in Montgomeryshire (Welsh: Sir Drefaldwyn), and the industrial area of Ystradgynlais in the extreme southwest of Breconshire (Welsh: Sir Frycheiniog). Radnorshire (Welsh: Sir Faesyfed) was almost completely Anglicised by the end of the 18th century. The 2001 census records showed 21% of the population of Powys were able to speak Welsh at that time, the same as for Wales as a whole.

History For more information, see the EN Wikipedia article Powys.

Research Tips

• The National Library of Wales has just uploaded (Feb 2018) a website covering the tithe maps of Wales with accompanying apportionment documents using original and present-day maps. There are over 300,000 entries. Landowners and small villages are included. The presentation looks very good.