montgomeryshire landmap historic landscape...

THE CLWYD POWYS ARCHAEOLOGICAL TRUST

Montgomeryshire LANDMAP Historic Landscape Aspect

Technical Report

CPAT Report No 804

CPAT Report No 804

Montgomeryshire LANDMAP Historic Landscape Aspect

Technical Report

W J Britnell and C H R Martin May 2006

Report for Powys County Council

The Clwyd Powys Archaeological Trust 7a Church Street, Welshpool, Powys, SY21 7DL

tel (01938) 553670, fax (01938) 552179 email [email protected]

web www.cpat.org.uk

mailto:[email protected]

http://www.cpat.org.uk/

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY The Historic Landscape Aspect of the Montgomeryshire LANDMAP identified 102 separate aspect areas, ranging in size from 0.27 to 129.99 square kilometres and representing 12 different landscape patterns, at Level 3 in the current LANDMAP Information System handbook. The patterns represented are Irregular fieldscape (40 areas), Regular fieldscape (12 areas), Other fieldscape (6 areas), Woodland (7 areas), Marginal land (11 areas), Water & wetland (1 area), Nucleated settlement (14 areas), Non-nucleated settlement (1 area), Extractive industry (1 area), Processing/manufacturing (3 area), Designed landscape (1 area) and Recreational (1 area). Historic Landscape aspect areas were identified using a number of digital and paper data sources, verified by rapid field visiting and drawn as a digital map against a 1:10,000 OS map background attached to a database of supporting information. These digital elements and this Technical Report contain the results of the Montgomeryshire LANDMAP study and were submitted to Powys County Council and the Countryside Council for Wales on completion of the project. Montgomeryshire’s historic landscape has evolved over the course of many millennia and shows considerable variety within one of Wales’ largest historical counties. Particularly dominant are the various forms of fieldscape even in the upland areas to the west of the county where even here very little land has been is left unenclosed. Irregular fieldscapes are dominant and generally appear to include more anciently enclosed land, cleared by a process of piecemeal encroachment from prehistoric times (Neolithic to Iron Age) onwards. Much of central and eastern Montgomeryshire lies under such fieldscapes. A variety of historical processes are included within the category of Regular fieldscapes that largely relate to the later Medieval and Post-Medieval periods. These include firstly areas of strip fields which appear to result from the enclosure and amalgamation of Medieval open field strips associated with a number of the larger medieval settlements; and secondly, patterns of regularly shaped, straight-sided fields which appear to represent 17th to 19th century enclosure of areas of common grazing in the lowlands and on the hill margins, and the later demarcation of fertile valley bottoms for arable and dairy farming. Although a proportion of the northern and western uplands of the county survive as moorland and unenclosed Marginal land, significant areas also lie under coniferous forestry plantations. A number of Designed landscapes have also been identified surrounding country houses and estates as well as the managed catchment area of the Lake Vyrnwy Reservoir. The county includes an number of important smaller settlements of Medieval, or potentially earlier, origin that are considered to be generally too small to be classed as aspect areas in their own right. These have generally been considered to form an element of one or other of the fieldscape patterns described above. Nucleated settlements of medieval origin predominate, with only one example of another type, the relatively modern linear development at Four Crosses, being apparent. Of these nucleated settlements only Newtown, Welshpool, Llanidloes and Machynlleth have achieved any size in the modern era, although even these are based on planned boroughs laid out 13th century.

CONTENTS 1 INTRODUCTION 1 2 HISTORIC LANDSCAPE BACKGROUND 2 3 METHODOLOGY 21 4 SUMMARY OF HISTORIC LANDSCAPE ASPECT AREAS 24 5 REFERENCES 30 Annex A SUMMARY OF ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND HISTORICAL PERIODS 32 Annex B BASE-LEVEL POLYGONAL DATA: DESCRIPTION AND SOURCES 33 Annex C SUMMARY LIST OF HISTORIC LANDSCAPE ASPECT AREAS 21

Montgomeryshire LANDMAP: Historic Landscape Aspect, Technical Report

1. INTRODUCTION The Montgomeryshire LANDMAP forms part of an ongoing pan-Wales project of landscape assessment. The area studied extends over the whole of this present Shire region of Powys, which is approximately the same as the historical Welsh county of Montgomeryshire. It occupies some 2175 square kilometres of mid-Wales. The Historic Landscape Aspect work, the subject of this report, was undertaken by The Clwyd-Powys Archaeological Trust (CPAT) on behalf Powys County Council and the Countryside Council for Wales (CCW).

CPAT Report 804, May 2006, version 1 – printed 12/06/06, page 1


2. HISTORIC LANDSCAPE BACKGROUND Historical and archaeological aspects of the landscape History and archaeology form important visual components of the present-day landscape of Montgomeryshire, illustrating many aspects of human activity since the end of the last glaciation. There are many diverse sources of evidence that tell us about how the landscape of Montgomeryshire came into being. In addition to the prominent field monuments that are visible in the landscape, information is also to be gleaned from historic buildings, parks and gardens, industrial sites, and transport history, as well as from historic documents and maps. Other important sources include environmental and vegetation history provided by the study of pollen and plant remains, the evidence of settlement and land use obtained by an analysis of settlement and field patterns, and buried archaeological sites revealed by aerial reconnaissance or geophysical survey. We are still very much at an early stage in beginning to identify the forces that helped to create Montgomeryshire’s distinctive landscape. Relatively little analytical fieldwork has yet been undertaken in many areas of Montgomeryshire, for example, and much undoubtedly also still remains to be learnt from an analysis of early cartographic and historical sources. Outline history The following provides a brief outline of some of the processes that have been influential in the creation of Montgomeryshire’s historic landscape. (See also summary of historical and archaeological periods in Annex A, and a selected bibliography and other sources in section 5 of this report. Parts of the following text are freely adapted from a number of reports and publications by CPAT, including Britnell 1999a-d; Britnell and Martin 1999 and 2000, Jones, Walters and Frost 2005.) Upper Palaeolithic and Mesolithic The first humans to visit Montgomeryshire following the last glaciation are likely to have been nomadic late Upper Palaeolithic hunters from the south and east of Britain setting up temporary camps in pursuit of migrating herds of horse and reindeer as well as smaller mammals, birds and fish. Little direct evidence of human activity has yet been found in the county during this cool climatic phase, but a barbed bone point forming part of a typical hunting spear of this period, found at Porth-y-waun in the lower Tanat Valley, just across the border with Shropshire, and dating to about 12000 BC, presents the earliest clear evidence of human activity in the region. More permanent settlers, depending upon hunting, fishing, and gathering wild fruits, are likely to have started coming to the region during the Mesolithic period, from about 8000 BC onwards, during the gradual amelioration of climatic conditions. Recent studies of ancient pollens preserved in waterlogged sites in several parts of the county are beginning to reveal the kind of environment exploited by these early settlers. From about this time the landscape would have been fairly densely covered with birch woodland, with some pine and elm in probably all but the more mountainous areas. The presence of hazel, willow and initially some juniper pollen suggest areas of scrub. This, together with areas of grassland, would have provided grazing for herds of wild ox and red deer which are likely to have been hunted for food. From a date of about 6800 BC there was a notable expansion of oak woodland, and from about 5500 BC a rise in the proportion of alder, accompanying a gradual decline in birch and hazel and the virtual disappearance of pine. This corresponded with a climatic phase that had changed to being slightly warmer than that of today, which was to last until about 3500 BC. Radiocarbon dating of plant and animal remains, as in later prehistoric periods, provides the essential chronological framework for understanding these climatic and environmental changes and the associated evidence of human activity.



Settlements of the Mesolithic period in the county still await discovery, but some activity, albeit on a limited scale, is clearly represented by the discovery of small flint points (microliths) belonging to hunting and fishing implements. Examples characteristic of the later Mesolithic period, after about 6000 BC, have been found at a small number of both upland and lowland sites in the south and east of the county, as for example near north of Llansilin, on the edge of the Vyrnwy valley, on the Breiddin Hills, in the Vale of Montgomery, in the upper Severn valley and in the Clywedog valley. Neolithic and earlier Bronze Age The period between about 4000–2500 BC was one of dramatic change that witnessed the gradual eclipse of the early hunter-gatherer economies in favour of arable farming and pastoralism throughout the greater part of western Europe. Agricultural techniques were gradually adopted and adapted to suit local conditions. Native forests began to be cleared to provide arable land for the cultivation of cereals and legumes, and for the creation of pasture for herds of domesticated sheep and cattle. New tools of Neolithic type were adopted, including polished axes, adzes and chisels of polished flint and stone, which were used for tree-felling and carpentry. Flint arrowheads were used for both hunting and warfare, and pottery was being made for the first time. The rate at which these new ideas were adopted in mid Wales is still open to question. The pollen record shows only slight indications of the impact of man on the natural environment in the earlier Neolithic period, and in common with other areas of highland Britain it is possible that population densities remained at a relatively low level. A settled farming economy was evidently adopted either very gradually or at a much later date than in other more favoured parts of southern Britain. The best general indication we have of the extent of human settlement at this time is given by the findspots of flint and stone implements. Characteristic types include polished flint and stone axes, flint scrapers and knives, and either leaf-shaped or, later on, obliquely-pointed flint arrowheads. Their distribution is fairly widespread throughout the county, and although they have mostly been found by chance, there is a clear suggestion that a broad range of different habitats were already being exploited by man, including both the major river valleys and at least some upland areas. Most of the raw material, for the flint and stone implements, were probably either imported from some distance or arrived by way of trade or exchange. Some of the flint tools appear to be made of material from the chalklands in Wessex or Yorkshire, and a number of the stone axes are of hard, fissile rocks found in the Lake District, north Wales and south-west Wales. The occasional discovery of some larger flint flakes, on Long Mountain for example, suggest some implements other than axes were made from imported raw materials, rather than arriving as completed objects. Similarly, some of the Neolithic pottery from the county appears to be made of clays which originated a reasonable distance away, in this instance suggesting contact with areas to the south-east, coinciding with the present-day Herefordshire borderland. The earliest certain evidence of Neolithic activity in Montgomeryshire is represented by an earthen longbarrow discovered from the air at Lower Luggy, Berriew. Trial excavations have shown that the oak timbers that revetted the mound of this burial monument were felled in the period between 3700–3300 BC. The first significant indications of the human impact upon the natural environment began in the middle and later Neolithic period, from a date of about 3000 BC. By this time there are indications that substantial openings were beginning to be made in the native forest cover, possibly for the creation of grazing. Forest clearance in some upland areas may well have caused waterlogging, resulting in the initiation of blanket peats. Although there is still little indication of arable cultivation or the extent of forest clearance, the increasing evidence of human impact on the natural environment during the middle and later Neolithic periods appears to be linked to the increasing number and



diversity of types of sites and finds of these periods in the county.

There is still little direct evidence of human settlement, but a pattern of small, thinly-scattered farmsteads belonging to individual family groups seems to be likely. Traces of two stake-walled timber buildings with central slab-lined hearths and cooking pits were found at an upland site at Trelystan, associated with decorated pottery known as grooved ware, dated to the period between about 2900–2500 BC. The buildings were small and insubstantial, and may represent temporary summer camps. Neolithic finds are known from a number of other upland sites such as the Breiddin and Ffridd Faldwyn which became hillforts in the later prehistoric period, and there is the possibility that some of these may have acted as fortified or hilltop settlements. It seems likely that settlement activity would have been focused on the lowlands, but evidence for this is very sparse. A pit containing a fragment of Peterborough pottery of middle Neolithic date is known from a valley-bottom site at Brynderwen, Llandysul. Similar fragments of Peterborough pottery are known from the Breiddin and also from a number of lowland monuments associated with burial and ritual activity. The small number of excavated sites of this kind exhibit a wide variety of form. A large pit grave dated to about 3000 BC is known from Four Crosses which contained traces of an inhumation burial accompanied by a simple round-bottomed bowl. Fragments of a highly decorated Peterborough bowl were found in the upper silting of an encircling ring-ditch which possibly acted as a quarry for building a low earthen mound or barrow above the burial pit. A small penannular ditch — a circular ditch with a narrow entrance causeway — is known from a second gravel site at Sarn-y-bryn-caled, just to the south of Welshpool, dated to about 3000–2800 BC the entrance of which was marked by two timber posts. Four cremation burials and fragments of Peterborough pottery, were found in the ditch. In this instance it seems likely that the soil removed from the ditch was used to construct a low outer bank rather than a central mound. A large, rock-cut grave found beneath a low stone cairn at Trelystan contained an inhumation burial, possibly within an oak coffin, which is dated to about 3000 BC. The burial at Four Crosses and both the burial and the houses at Trelystan were subsequently overlain by circular Bronze Age burial mounds of earth or stone. These monuments are fairly numerous and are widely distributed throughout the county, and although they are probably largely of Bronze Age date it is now clear that a reasonable proportion of these sites must have their origins in the middle and later Neolithic period. The penannular ditch at Sarn-y-bryn-caled forms part of an important complex of burial and ritual monuments of middle Neolithic to Bronze Age date which lie on a gravel terrace just above the floodplain of the Severn. These include a narrow ditched enclosure known as a cursus, about 400 metres long. Sites of this kind appear to have no utilitarian function but may have been used for ceremonial processions of some kind. The penannular ditch may not have been primarily intended as a burial monument and appears to belong to a class of site known as henge monuments (named after the Neolithic ditched enclosure surrounding Stonehenge) which again appear to have had a ritual function. Similar dating is likely in the case of a further complex of burial mounds and ritual sites at Dyffryn Lane, Berriew, just 4 kilometres to the south, where a further concentration of valley-bottom sites is known. The focus of this complex is a much larger ditched enclosure with a broad outer bank up to 80 metres across and a single entrance pointing to the west, again forming a henge monument with an outer bank. Parts of a stone circle appear to have been removed from beneath a large central mound within the central enclosure in the 19th century, and it seems possible that it continued in use as a burial mound into the early Bronze Age. The standing stone known as Maen Beuno, which now lies in the verge of the road just to the south-west, may have been an outlying stone associated with the circle.



These developments are paralleled elsewhere in Britain at this period. No doubt the Severn valley, as throughout the county’s history, provided a gateway for new peoples, new ideas and materials. Little is yet known about how and where people lived at this time, but the existence of these larger, communal monuments suggests that by a date of 2500 BC, on the eve of the early Bronze Age, human societies were already reasonably well organized. We may already be witnessing the origin of tribal groupings which were to become such a dominant feature of later prehistoric periods. Copper and then bronze technologies were introduced to Britain from about 2500 BC. Although bronze became widely used for the production of tools and weapons, flint and stone continued to be utilized during the earlier Bronze Age for the production of scrapers, knives and axes. A new form of flint arrowhead with barbs and a tang was first introduced at this time. Wristguards were also used by archers, of which a perforated stone example, dated to 1900 BC, was found beneath a cairn at Carneddau near Carno. A fine flint dagger, similar to early copper ones, is known from Trefeglwys. Metamorphic rocks near Hyssington, on the eastern borders of the county, were quarried for the production of shafthole implements known as battle-axes and axe-hammers during the period between 1650–1400 BC; these found their way to various sites in the county, as well as north Wales, the Midlands, and as far afield as Wessex. Stone technology was thus abandoned only gradually, and the technological innovations represented by metalworking are just one element in a dramatic period of human history which witnessed the continuing evolution of the former middle and later Neolithic societies, rapid population growth, agricultural expansion, and increasing pressures on the natural environment. Climatic change played a critical role in these developments. Though the climate appears to have begun to cool from about 3000 BC, it would still have been both warmer and drier than today, and enabled greater exploitation of the more marginal upland areas of the county. A decline in oak woodland was partly due to climatic change and partly to gradual and then accelerating deforestation for the use of forest resources and the creation of both arable and pasture. The first significant human impact on the natural environment becomes evident towards the end of the early Bronze Age, from a date of about 1400 BC. The onset of cooler and wetter conditions, from about 1300 BC, will have resulted in a drop in agricultural output, and contributed to the social upheavals and economic changes which affected much of Europe in the middle and later Bronze Age. Few settlement sites are known, though a single Middle Bronze Age timber roundhouse is known from excavations at Glanfeinion, near Llandinam, dated to the period about 1400–1170 BC, and possibly representing a small unenclosed farmstead. Associated with the building were large quantities of charred naked barley and probable fragments of cattle and sheep bones. Evidence for the general location and intensity of human activity in the county partly depends upon chance finds of tools and weapons and partly on monument types characteristic of the period which have been identified by fieldwork and aerial survey. Characteristic sites include burial mounds, standing stones, stone rows, ring-cairns and stone or timber circles. Few, if any, settlement sites of early or middle Bronze Age date have been positively identified, but it must be assumed that areas of settlement and farming activity bear some relationship to the distribution of chance finds and funerary and ceremonial monuments. These are widely distributed throughout the county but show notable concentrations in certain areas. Evidence from Four Crosses and Long Mountain suggests that at least some monuments and cemetery areas which had been established by middle and later Neolithic communities were to continue in use into the early and middle Bronze Age. This continuity of use, lasting for a period of probably more than a millennium, provides clear evidence of social stability. Likewise, early complexes of ritual as well as funerary monuments at Dyffryn Lane, Berriew, and



Sarn-y-bryn-caled near Welshpool also continued in use as ceremonial centres into the Bronze Age, possibly serving more dispersed communities. As we have seen in an earlier section, the probably Neolithic henge monument at Dyffryn Lane — a large ditched enclosure with a single entrance and an outer bank — appears to have been superseded by a stone circle and then by a barrow, both of which are likely to be of Bronze Age date. Further ritual monuments were added to the complex of Neolithic sites at Sarn-ybryn-caled which appear to have been started in the period 3000-2800 BC. A henge-like ditched enclosure with two opposed entrances at Coed-y-dinas, just to the north, is associated with Beaker pottery. A double timber circle about 20 metres across was also erected in the heart of the complex in about 2100 BC and is associated with two cremation burials one of which was accompanied by four barbed and tanged flint arrowheads and the other by a simple food vessel. The substantial posts forming the circles may have supported wooden lintels, to produce a monument similar in appearance to Stonehenge. An entrance in the outer circle appears to be aligned on the midsummer sunrise, and therefore perhaps emphasising the importance which must have been attached to the seasons of the year in early ceremonial activities. A similar complex of sites is known in the upper Tanat valley at Maes Mochnant near Llanrhaeadr-ym-Mochnant from aerial reconnaissance. Other similar ceremonial centres almost certainly await discovery in the county. Little excavation has been carried out on the stone circles, standing stones and stone rows in the county, but the circles and a proportion of the other sites are again likely to represent Bronze Age ceremonial monuments.

Earthen round barrows, stone cairns, ring cairns and ring-ditches appear to have been primarily funerary monuments. Whilst a proportion of these were constructed in the middle and late Neolithic, a majority of those known from the county are likely to be of early to middle Bronze Age date. Burials were occasionally accompanied by a pottery vessel which was often decorated, belonging to a variety of different types. Belonging to the early Bronze Age are beakers (e.g. Aberbechan Hall, Llanllwchaearn, and Darowen) a form introduced to Britain from continental Europe — as well as food vessels (e.g. Penegoes, Two Tumps, near Kerry, and Trelystan). Larger food vessel urns (e.g. Garthbeibio and Trelystan), and collared urns (e.g. Caebetin, near Kerry, Carneddau, near Carno, and Lan Fawr, near Churchstoke), were all developed from indigenous potting traditions of the middle and later Neolithic. By the middle Bronze Age, after about 1400 BC, plainer and less distinctive urn types had evolved (e.g. Four Crosses, Pennant Melangell), which by the later Bronze Age, after about 1000 BC, only appear on settlement sites (e.g. the Breiddin). In the later Bronze Age, as in the succeeding Iron Age, some other tradition for the disposal of the dead was adopted which has left no clear trace. In the absence of settlement evidence of the early Bronze Age it is uncertain to what extent the pottery types noted above were also in everyday use. Fragments of Beaker pottery which possibly come from domestic rather than burial contexts and dated to the period between 2400–2000 BC, are also known, however, from Collfryn near Llansantffraid Deuddwr and Four Crosses. Other types of object accompanying burials are fairly scarce. Two riveted bronze daggers as well as a beaker were found in a mound at Darowen. A cremation burial at Garthbeibio was found with a small stone battle-axe, a flint knife and a food vessel urn. An inhumation burial at Four Crosses was associated with a jet or shale button. As in the Neolithic period, Bronze Age burial monuments display a wide variety of form and burial practice. Indeed, the few excavated examples in the county show little similarity apart from an invariably circular form to the monument, and evidence that they were often constructed with some care and were frequently added to or enlarged over the course of time. Different materials were used in their construction and will no doubt have depended upon availability as well as upon local tradition. Some earthen barrows were clearly built of turf stripped from the surrounding area (e.g. Four Crosses, Trelystan), whilst others were built of soil quarried from an encircling ditch (Four Crosses). Stone cairns (e.g. Carneddau, Trelystan) were either built of freshly quarried stone or of



stone which appears to have been cleared from the surface of neighbouring fields. Larger quarried stones were used for burial cists (e.g. Ystrad-hynod, near Llanidloes, and Carneddau) and for revetting the burial mound (Trelystan). Tree trunks or large timbers were used for coffins, and wooden posts or stakes were used for internal fencing or revetting (e.g. Caebetin, near Kerry, Trelystan, Four Crosses). The only discernible pattern is that over the course of the early Bronze Age, between 2500–1400 BC, a tradition of interring individual inhumation or cremation burials below a mound, and occasionally accompanied by a smaller pottery vessel such as a beaker or food vessel, was superseded by one in which multiple successive cremation burials, possibly representing single family groups, were buried within or beside a single larger monument and occasionally contained within a larger pottery vessel such as a collared urn or food vessel urn.

It is uncertain whether the whole of society would have been buried in this manner, or whether these methods were reserved for certain social groups. Both infant and adult burials are represented, however, even though some special status may have been accorded to the burials of adult males.

At face value, the number and distribution of burial mounds in the county presume the existence of at least three or four hundred family groups or small communities occupying tracts of land extending from valley bottom to upland plateaux. Settlement evidence in both the uplands and lowlands is very sparse however, and it must be assumed either that people led a nomadic or semi-nomadic existence or that settlements were of a kind which have not yet been clearly identified. Upland settlement might be represented by scattered and often isolated circular huts, but few if any of these have been investigated. A characteristic settlement form in the lowland and upland edge during the subsequent Iron Age are banked and ditched farmsteads. Several hundred of these are known, and it is likely that some began life in the Bronze Age. Direct evidence of cereal production and other forms of arable agriculture in the county is slight, and there are suggestions that a number of both upland (e.g. Carneddau) and lowland (e.g. Four Crosses) funerary monuments were constructed on former pasture land, which may stress a dependence on pastoralism. Cattle, pig, sheep and horse are likely to have been reared, but the relative importance of each of these species to the economy cannot be established on the evidence currently available. The only direct evidence of field boundaries for controlling grazing or protecting crops, are lines of stakes found dating to about 2000 BC, beneath two upland barrows at Trelystan.

Later BronzeAge and Iron Age Excavations at the Breiddin have produced the first certain evidence of defended settlements within the county. Between 1000–800 BC the hilltop was fortified by a timber-revetted rampart; this was probably over 1 kilometre in length and enclosing an area of 28 hectares subsequently occupied by the Iron Age hillfort. Environmental evidence shows a rapid deforestation of the hilltop at this time, probably arising from the construction of the defences. Despite slender evidence of internal timber buildings, it is clear that the settlement was intensively occupied if only for a relatively short period, having produced significant quantities of later Bronze Age pottery and other evidence of domestic activity. Bronze-casting crucibles, a mould fragment and metalworking hearths indicate that the settlement was also an industrial centre. Bronzework from the site includes a socketed axe, sword fragments, a tom fragment, a socketed knife, a spearhead fragment, a socketed hammer, as well as a number of dress pins with expanded heads. Other defended settlements of this period in the region probably include Ffridd Faldwyn (Montgomery) and Llwyn Bryn-dinas (Llangedwyn). Other items of metalwork have been mostly found by chance and are widely distributed throughout the county. The style and metallic composition of the artefacts changed through time, in parallel with developments throughout Western Europe, which allows individual finds to be dated. A wide variety of tools, weapons and ornaments was in circulation during the Bronze Age of which both the range and the numbers that have been found show a substantial increase towards the middle and late Bronze Age. Examples of early Bronze Age metalwork include a number of simple flat axes (e.g.



Carno), riveted bronze daggers (e.g. Darowen, Four Crosses) and a bronze awl (e.g. Ystrad-hynod). Middle Bronze Age finds include various types of socketed spearhead and palstave axes (including hoards of these axes from near Cemmaes and Llanfyllin), as well as a number of dirks or rapiers (e.g. Churchstoke, Llanwddyn). Late Bronze Age types comprise a wider variety of forms, as we have seen from the Breiddin. As in the earlier Bronze Age, many of the later Bronze Age finds have been found singly and by chance, as for example a socketed knife from Llandinam, but two hoards - one containing two woodworking gouges and one containing nine ornamental torcs - were found near Penybontfawr, and a hoard of three socketed axes was found near Welshpool. A much larger hoard deposited near Crowther’s Coppice hillfort (Welshpool), the so-called Guilsfield hoard, contained about 120 objects, including axes, gouges, spearheads, ferrules, sword fragments and a sword chape, as well as casting waste and cakes of smelted copper. Evidence of bronze casting in the early Bronze Age is scarce, but is indicated by a stone mould for casting daggers and possibly axes from New Mills (Manafon). The Guilsfield hoard and the finds from the Breiddin indicate metalworking in the later Bronze Age. Although it is likely that sources of copper in the north and west of the county would have been exploited for the production of copper and bronze artefacts, there is as yet little positive evidence for this; analysis of the later Bronze Age material from the Breiddin, for example, suggests the reworking of imported scrap metal. Reasonably discrete distributions of certain late Bronze Age axe types in north-west Wales, north-east Wales and the Welsh Marches suggest that by the period about 900–800 BC we may already be witnessing the emergence of tribal territories corresponding with those that are historically attested in the succeeding Iron Age — tribes, probably already Celtic-speaking, and possibly with political centres based upon larger defended settlements of the kind evident at the Breiddin. The emergence of fortified settlements, and the broadening range of weapon types in the later Bronze Age may be seen as partly a response to economic recession and social conflict brought about by deteriorating climatic conditions and the abandonment of the more marginal tracts of upland during the middle and later Bronze Age. Ironworking technology was first introduced into Britain in about 700 BC, but as in the case of the introduction of bronze, probably several centuries elapse before the impact of this new technology can be clearly detected. The period lasts until the advent of Roman military and civil administration, which began to impose itself on mid-Wales from about AD 70. By the conquest period the region was occupied by the tribe of the Ordovices, whose territory seems to have extended over the greater part of central and north-west Wales. The first element of the name is British, and derives from Welsh gordd (hammer), the tribal name therefore perhaps having the meaning ‘the hammer-fighters’, with reference either to a weapon or to an emblem. Rather than representing a single political entity it may have been constituted of a federation of smaller tribal groupings which, as we have seen, possibly emerged during the later Bronze Age. There is uncertainty about the boundary between the Ordovices and the Cornovii, the tribe that occupied the west Midlands region, and it is possible that eastern parts of the county would have fallen within their territory. This period sees a massive expansion in the number of known settlements. These include a small number of large defended hillforts and a wide range and greater number of small and medium-sized hillforts and other more or less well-defended banked and ditched enclosures. A human population possibly numbering only hundreds in the earlier prehistoric period may well have grown to thousands in the later Neolithic and Bronze Age, and then possibly to tens of thousands in the Iron Age, a density comparable with those attained in the medieval period.

Over 250 defended or semi-defended enclosures of varying size are known within the county, the majority of which probably belong or originated during this period. It is clear that at least some of the larger and smaller sites were occupied simultaneously. This suggests a hierarchy of settlement types



which provides an expression of the social and economic structure of society. In broad terms, some of the larger settlements, varying in size from about six to fifty-six hectares, appear to represent tribal centres housing many inhabitants, though not necessarily throughout the year, whilst the smallest settlements, often less than one hectare in extent, denote farmsteads belonging to smaller, extended family groups. A wide range of sites fall between these two extremes, however, which emphasises that in reality the picture would have been much more dynamic and complex than this simplistic model presupposes.

Few if any sites would have been continuously occupied throughout the Iron Age. It is likely that some began life in the later Bronze Age, whilst others continued in occupation into the Roman period. The Breiddin hillfort (Criggion), for example, had been first occupied in the later Bronze Age at a date of about 1000 BC, but may have been abandoned before the Iron Age. The defences were only reconstructed in about 400 BC, and it is likely that it then declined as a major centre well before the Roman conquest. The smaller enclosure at Collfryn (Llansantffraid Deuddwr) was first constructed in about 400 BC and may have remained in continuous occupation until about AD 350, a period of three hundred years after the Roman conquest. Despite an underlying pattern of social stability, the abandonment of some settlements and the establishment of new ones will no doubt reflect the fluctuating fortunes of family and tribal groups, as well as occasional tribal hostilities. Pre-eminent amongst the larger settlements, are the hillforts such as Craig Rhiwarth (Llangynog), Llanymynech, Gaer Fawr (Guilsfield), the Breiddin, Beacon Ring (Long Mountain), Ffridd Faldwyn (Montgomery) and Cefn Carnedd (Llandinam) which must have formed major centres of power and authority. The defensive banks and ditches of many of these hillforts — often set out along the contours of a hill and originally strengthened by timber gates and palisades and stone revetments — are still clearly visible as earthworks. These larger sites are roughly spaced at distances of about 10 kilometres and are normally sited on land above 200 metres above sea level. Small and medium-sized enclosures and hillforts are more numerous, and in parts of the county approach a density of one site every one square kilometre. They are more often sited on valley sides and bottoms, and normally lie below 200 metres. Their defensive banks and ditches have frequently become levelled by centuries of ploughing and are now often only to be seen as crop-marks from the air. Their defences are again likely to have been strengthened by timber gates and palisades. Some sites, like several of the hillforts, have a number of concentric lines of defence, with outer enclosures or compounds, surrounding central habitation areas, which appear to have been used for protecting stock. Considerable manpower was expended in the construction of all but the most modest of such sites, and in certain cases an element of conspicuous display is evident in their design. Sites of all categories are largely confined to either the lowlands or the upland margins, a distribution which not only suggests that the population density would have been greater in the eastern valleys of the county, but also that is was based upon an agricultural system that successfully combined arable agriculture on the richer lowland soils with animal husbandry on higher ground. The pattern of exploitation in the uplands to the west is less clear, but there are a number of isolated stone huts which may represent the smaller settlements of shepherds or cattle ranchers. Isolated houses built of timber would be difficult to identify whether in the uplands or lowlands and it is therefore uncertain what proportion of the contemporary population may have lived outside the more substantial enclosure and hillfort settlements at this period, and to what extent the apparently more sparsely occupied upland areas towards the western side of the county were extensively exploited. Despite a lack of settlement evidence, it is significant that pollen records show a resurgence of deforestation in some areas of the western uplands at this period, leading to the creation of new grassland. However, the uplands continued to be less hospitable than they had been in the earlier Bronze Age and competition for good farmland to support the growing population is likely to have continued to be intense.



Evidence from a hill-slope enclosure at Collfryn (Llansantffraid Deuddwr) in the valley of the Vyrnwy indicates that cattle, sheep and pigs were reared, but the relative importance of these species is uncertain. The hunting of wild animals and game seems to have contributed relatively little to the economy. Plant remains recovered from Collfryn and the Breiddin hill fort show that crops of wheat and barley were grown. Fields were probably attached to most settlements; the ancient field system adjacent to the Breiddin hillfort, is one of the few instances where this has been positively identified. Most of the buildings found within settlements in the region at this period appear to have been of timber, although at some hillforts such as Craig Rhiwarth, buildings had stone footings. Two basic types of timber building are known from excavation, which are known as ‘roundhouses’ and ‘four-posters’. The roundhouses (e.g. the Breiddin and Collfryn), were between 5–10 metres in diameter. They normally had a single door, occasionally a central hearth, and would originally have been surmounted by a conical thatched roof. The buildings seem variously to have been used as houses and workshops. Four-posters, formed of stout upright posts set in a rectangle about two to four metres across, are thought to represent raised storage buildings, possibly for grain. These have been identified at a number of sites (e.g. Ffridd Faldwyn, the Breiddin, Collfryn). A proportionately greater number of these storage buildings is present at the Breiddin than at Collfryn, which suggests that a particular function of some of the hillforts may have been for the storage and redistribution of surplus grain, possibly levied from the surrounding countryside. Continuing demands for large quantities of timber for the construction of buildings, as well as for the defences and for fuel, would have placed increasing pressures upon the natural environment and is probably a further explanation of the extensive inroads that were evidently made into the surviving natural forests at this time. As in the case of the later part of the preceding Bronze Age, there is no evidence of burials or burial monuments at this time, or direct evidence of ceremonial sites, religious customs or beliefs. Historical sources, however, acquaint us with the Druids, a priestly class which had emerged and evidently exerted some influence on native societies at the time of the Roman conquest. Small quantities of finer and occasionally decorated pottery were imported from the Herefordshire region during the middle and later Iron Age but pottery seems to have been otherwise generally little used in the region at this period. A very much coarser ceramic is known from a number of sites which, analysis has shown, probably originated in the Cheshire Plain. It appears that these vessels held cakes of salt produced at inland production sites such as Nantwich and Middlewich, which are known to have been centres of the salt trade in the medieval period. Other items of trade included plain and decorated glass beads and shale bangles. Coinage was not in use by any of the tribes in Wales and it is probable that most goods were traded by means of barter and exchange. Both iron and copper metalworking were carried out, at a number of different types of site in the region during the Iron Age. Ironworking is likely to have been based on the exploitation of localised sources of ore, perhaps including bog ore, or on imported material or scrap. Ironwork found at the Breiddin includes a dagger, iron brooches and a pair of blacksmith's tongs. Linch-pins for securing chariot wheels found at the Breiddin and Collfryn provide the first evidence of wheeled transport in the county, although it is likely that horse-drawn vehicles were in use from the later Bronze Age onwards. As in the Bronze Age, local sources of copper ore are likely to have been mined and smelted, and the presence of small furnaces, deposits of slag, and bronze-casting crucibles at a number of excavated hillforts, smaller enclosures and undefended sites (e.g. the Breiddin, Llanymynech, Collfryn, Four Crosses, Llwyn Bryn-dinas), is evidence of a flourishing bronze-casting industry probably producing such items as clothes fasteners, jewellery and horsegear. Organic materials such as wood, basketry and leather must have been used extensively throughout the prehistoric period, but evidence of this is only rarely found in circumstances where the materials have been preserved by waterlogging. Wooden bowls of several kinds were found during excavations of a pond within the Breiddin hillfort; other wooden finds include a large mallet head, a pestle, fragments of mortised timber, and willow hoops for securing bundles of kindling or thatching materials. A small wooden sword, probably a child's toy, sheds light on other aspects of everyday Celtic life which can



only rarely be glimpsed. Stone spindle-whorls and clay loomweights from the Breiddin provide evidence of weaving, a craft industry that was probably introduced during the Bronze Age. Simple saddle-shaped quern-stones for grinding corn are known from a number of sites. In all likelihood, the advancing Roman military forces in about the 70s AD encountered a mature and densely settled landscape, partitioned into scattered farmsteads, owned by Celtic farmers who bore allegiance to clans which in turn were united into one or more larger tribal groupings. The underlying social and economic structures which developed during this period may well have survived the impact of Roman military authority following the conquest, once the higher echelons of native political power had been eventually subjugated. Traditions of landuse, ownership and inheritance, which had evolved by this time, may have become sufficiently stable to persist, largely unaltered, into the early post-Roman period. Roman Period Despite the resistance of certain native British tribes, much of the south and east of Britain was rapidly conquered following the landing of the Roman forces under the command of the emperor Claudius in AD 43. Within four years the invading armies had established a heavily policed frontier to the new and valuable province of Britannia along the line of the Fosse Way and the Ermine Street — stretching from Exeter in the south-west to the Humber in the north. It appears that imperial policy only anticipated conquest of this lowland area. Although valuable mineral wealth lay in the regions beyond, the newly conquered territory encompassed most of the more valuable farmland in the island. Continued aggression by the predominantly pastoral tribes beyond this early frontier appears to have demanded a revision of this policy, and the decision was made to try to subjugate the entire island. Conquest of the west and north of Britain proved to be a more costly and arduous task, and it was not until 40 years after the invasion that the native tribes occupying Wales were finally subdued, following the occupation of Anglesey in about AD 84. Early resistance to the Roman army appears to have been orchestrated by Caractacus, a native prince who had fled into Wales from the south-east. The Roman army probably first campaigned in what is now Montgomeryshire in pursuit of Caratacus under the governorship of Ostorius Scapula in about AD 51. Tacitus, the Roman historian, tells us of a final battle held in Ordovician territory at a point where Caratacus had mustered a native army on a steeplysloping hill approached across a treacherous river. The precise location of this battle is unknown, although various sites in the upper Severn valley between Caersws and Llanymynech have been suggested. Caratacus escaped capture on this occasion, however, and although the native forces were eventually overcome by an army of up to 20,000 men, drawn from several Roman legions and various auxiliary units, the army failed to retain control of the territory. Further campaigns were undertaken during the fifties and sixties, until Ordovician territory was finally subdued by about the year AD 78, during the governorship of Julius Agricola.

Physical evidence of the historical account of the conquest and subsequent policing of the Ordovices in the county is represented by large auxiliary forts on the banks of the Severn at Forden and at Caersws. Two forts are known at Caersws, an earlier one at Llwyn-y-brain, to the east of the village, and a later one within the village itself. The forts at Caersws and Forden probably housed cavalry units, and initially lay in advance of a legionary fortress near Wroxeter, before the legionary base policing mid and north Wales was moved to Chester in the eighties. Forden Gaer and Caersws are probably to be equated with the names Levobrinta and Mediomanum which appear in the Ravenna Cosmography, a 7th-century manuscript based on earlier sources. Stamped tiles found at Caersws suggest that at one stage the fort was garrisoned by a unit raised in the Roman province of Iberia.

Major lines of communication were established linking the forts at Forden and Caersws with the fortress and subsequent major town at Wroxeter, forming part of a network of roads ultimately



leading by way of Watling Street to Londinium, the chief town of the new province.

Smaller fortlets which assisted in policing the district by the Roman military are known at Pen y Crocbren (Dylife), near the headwaters of the Severn, Gibbet Hill (Penarth, Llanfair Caereinion), Glanmiheli (Kerry), and at Cae Gaer (Llangurig) near the headwaters of the Wye. Recent research has also brought to light a military supply depot at Llansantffraid- ym-Mechain, near the confluence of the Cain and Vyrnwy, and temporary forts representing a campaign base at Aber Tanat (Carreghofa), near the confluence of the Vyrnwy and Tanat. Following the subjugation of centres of tribal authority, the native population in the county will have been dispersed into small rural communities with few if any major centres. Small civilian settlements known as vici sprang up next to the garrisons at Forden and Caersws, but these are likely to have housed merchants and tradesmen drawn from other parts of the empire, forming small enclaves of citizens leading a more romanized way of life. Excavations within the civilian settlement attached to the fort at Caersws have brought to light stone and timber buildings, including a bathhouse, belonging to a flourishing industrial and commercial centre, supplying goods and services to the garrison. Bakehouses and a tavern or gaming-house were set up; smithies were built for forging iron weapons; workshops produced bronze jewellery; pottery kilns were established for the production of floor tiles and pottery, probably for supply to the military. A wide range of merchandise was imported from throughout the Roman empire — fine tableware, glass jugs and drinking vessels, bronze cooking utensils, circular rotary querns for grinding corn, wine, cooking oil and pigments. Keys and padlocks have also been found; such was the accumulation of wealth that doors evidently needed to be locked and bolted to prevent theft. Excavations at Caersws suggest that this was only a short-lived boom, entirely dependent upon the patronage of the military. There appears to be a rapid decline of activity in the civilian settlement by about AD 120, after little more than a single generation. Troop movements to secure the northern frontier of the province appear to have led to a drastic reduction in the size of the garrison and hence to the decline of a commercial centre sustained by only a vulnerable economic infrastructure. The forts at Forden Gaer and Caersws appear to have been maintained until perhaps the 3rd or 4th century, but possibly on little more than a caretaker basis. Wales, like the northern part of the province, but unlike southern Britain, appears to have remained a military zone, policed and administered by the army throughout much of the Roman period. This, combined with the existence of a relatively scattered native population, appears to have severely lessened the social and economic consequences of Roman imperialism in this western fringe of the empire. Roman military or civilian administration and taxation will have replaced the pre-conquest tribal organisation and fealties, but the basic farming economy is likely to have remained little changed. As in the Iron Age, the main focus of rural settlement is likely to have been centred on scattered farmsteads. Excavations at a small number of ditched enclosures, as at Collfryn (Llansantffraid Deuddwr), Arddleen, and New Pieces Camp on the Breiddin Hills, have shown that at least a proportion of the native sites first established in the Iron Age continued in occupation after the conquest. Some ditched enclosures of a more rectilinear form, of which there are concentrations in the vicinity of the Roman forts at Forden Gaer and Caersws, suggest that new farmsteads were also established. Other, possibly unenclosed settlements are known near Llandrinio and Newtown. There is insufficient evidence to gauge the distribution and density of settlement within the county at this time, but the pattern of small enclosures shown on the Iron Age map is the best guide we have at the moment, on the assumption that a proportion of these sites will either have been established or continued in occupation into the Roman period. Evidence of renewed forest clearance in the period up to AD 250 in upland areas towards the west of the county seem likely to have resulted from increase in demands for timber production, as well as



for the production of grassland for the herding of animals to support an ever expanding population. Much of the native woodland had disappeared, and by AD 300 is likely that most of the richer agricultural land in the valleys was already partitioned into fields and much of the uplands had become open heathland similar to the present day, with only isolated stands of birch, hazel, oak and alder. Some consumer products made their way to native sites, but the general lifestyle of most of the native population is likely to have undergone little material change. An exceptional find from the Smithfield. Welshpool, however, hints at the survival or emergence of a more wealthy and influential elite group within contemporary civilian society. The find, probably dating to the 2nd century, include an assortment of luxury goods which would see beyond the purse of a simple native farmer bronze, glass and pottery vessels, an iron fire-dog and a pair of lamp standards. Evidence of industrial activity is sparse, although there have been suggestions of Roman copper mining at Llanymynech Hill and near Newtown, and of lead mining at Pen Dylife (Staylittle). Possibly Roman smelting sites have been suggested near Trefeglwys and Llanfyllin. A small number of isolated Roman coins have been found, and there are about five coin hoards from the county, including one of 2nd-century date from Trefeglwys and one of early 4th-century date from Guilsfield. Bartering and exchange are likely to have been retained for most day-to-day transactions by the native population, to judge from the scarcity of coinage on some native sites.

Human burials of Roman date are known from the vicinity of Caersws, suggesting that cemeteries were established near forts and their associated civilian settlements. Apart from Roman burials in the limestone caves at Llanymynech and a possible temple site near Forden, little else is known of the burial or religious practices of the native population in the county during Roman times. It is probable that Celtic deities continued to be worshipped, although a Venus figurine from Caersws and a pebble crudely engraved with a figure of Mars or Mercury from Newtown indicate that Roman gods were also eastern religions introduced during the later Roman period, but as yet no evidence of this has been found within the county at this period. Early Medieval and Medieval Periods The end of Roman administration saw the collapse of a monetary economy and the emergence of a number of much smaller political entities which eventually gave rise to the early Welsh medieval kingdom of Powys in which Montgomeryshire fell, probably based on a series of estates and smaller individual holdings that had arisen during the later Roman period. A pattern of small nucleated church settlements had probably emerged at over 50 centres throughout much of the lowland areas of Montgomeryshire by the Medieval period, at places such as Llangynog, Berriew, Llanerfyl and Manafon. A number of churches may trace their origin back to as far as the 6th or 7th centuries. Some, notably Pennant Melangell and possibly Llanrhaeadr-ym-Mochnant, had shrines which became places of pilgrimage. Meifod church became a burial place for the princes of Powys. The churches at Llansilin, Llangurig, Llandinam, Meifod, Kerry, Llanrhaeadr-ym-Mochnant, and possibly Llandrinio, all appear to have been important regional religious centres known as clasau (singular clas). Many of the early churches were built within circular enclosed graveyards which in some cases may only later have become a church site. By the end of the Medieval period the present-day diocesan structure had developed: most of the churches in the county fall within the diocese of St Asaph, though some of the churches in the west of the county lie within the Bangor diocese and a cluster on the eastern border of the county fall within the Hereford diocese. From the 12th century onwards a number of other important religious institutions were created in the county including the Cistercian monastery at Strata Marcella, north of Welshpool, and the Cistercian nunnery at Llanllugan in addition to the farms or granges gifted to



these and other monasteries elsewhere. Hospices of the Knights Templars were established at Llanwddyn and Carno, and a number of other smaller monastic houses such as the community of Augustinian canons founded at Snead on the upper reaches of the Camlad towards the end of the 12th century. It is probable that, as at the present day, settlement in Montgomeryshire during the Early Medieval and Medieval was dominated by a pattern of dispersed farms and cottages. It seems likely, however, that even before the Norman conquest in the later 11th and 12th centuries small nucleated settlements had emerged around some or all of the early churches mentioned above, as well as in association with the llysoedd (singular llys), the centres of secular power and authority of the native princes and lesser lords. The pre-Conquest kingdom of Powys came under increasing pressure from the expanding Anglo-Saxon kingdom of Mercia on its eastern borders, a sizeable zone of land along the borderland being disputed territory being successively conquered, retaken, and conquered again by one or other faction during the period of 400–500 years between the late 7th and late 11th centuries. Systems of shorter earthwork dykes appear to have been built in the eastern parts of the county in about the later 6th and 7th centuries by the native princes to define their territories, prior to the construction of the more massive dyke built by the Offa, Anglo-Saxon king of Mercia, to define the extent of his territory in the later 8th century. During the course of perhaps the 9th and 10th centuries Mercian settlements had been established to the west of the dyke, taking Mercian territory to the eastern bank of the Severn in the area between Montgomery and Forden and controlling the fording points across this stretch of the river, though these were subsequently lost. Political alliances between the Welsh and English kingdoms remained unsettled throughout this time, with periods of help and cooperation alternating with raiding and skirmishes. Disputes also took place in the borderland area between the Mercian kingdom and the Viking raiders in the late 9th and early 10th centuries. Following the Norman Conquest of England in 1066 the territorial disputes between the kingdoms of Powys and Mercia were become submerged beneath the territorial ambitions of the invading Norman earls, a series of marcher lordships being created along the borderland which were to be ruled as semi-autonomous realms until the Act of Union in 1536 when the boundaries between Montgomeryshire and Shropshire and thus between England and Wales were formalised, which in the area between Chirbury and Montgomery was conveniently drawn along Offa’s Dyke. The disturbed period between the later 11th and early 12th centuries saw the imposition of a manorial system by both native Welsh and incoming Anglo-Norman landowning families, in parts of the more low-lying eastern areas of the county. The administrative centres of this feudal economic system under which land holdings, agricultural production were regulated, and local justice and taxation and inheritance laws were administered along the English model are sometimes denoted by earthen mottes or motte and bailey castles built by prominent landowners, such as those at Hen Domen, Welshpool and Manafon. Welsh patterns of land use, land tenure and inheritance were to survive in the ‘welshries’ alongside these ‘englishries’ for several centuries to come, particular in the more remote and marginal land of the county, though under both systems would have been held in return for fixed dues in kind, money, and services. The plagues which swept across Europe during the later 14th century placed great strain on these patterns of tenure and appear to have fostered the development of freehold farms and the replacement of customary dues and services by the payment of rents, perhaps particularly at a time when coinage was becoming a more prevalent means of exchange. In 1223, during the reign of Henry III, in the face of renewed hostilities between Llywelyn ap Iorwerth of the expansionist kingdom of Gwynedd and neighbouring English lords, work began on the construction of a new royal stone castle at Montgomery, followed by the construction of a new town, which received its first charter in 1227, to which town defences were later added. As part of the bid to re-establish and independent Welsh kingdom, Llywelyn ap Gruffudd built the stone castle at



Dolforwyn between 1273–77, on a hilltop ridge overlooking the Severn valley, also authorizing the creation of a borough and market which it was hoped would rival the English town of Montgomery. The castle was quickly taken by the English in 1277, however, during the course of the Edwardian conquest of Wales, the market at Dolforwyn being superseded in 1279 on a more suitable site lowland site nearby at Newtown. Powys Castle was refortified in stone by Gruffydd ap Gwenwynwyn the late prince of Powys in about 1280. Following the final English victory at the battle of Maes Madog north of Castle Caereinion in 1295 little new castle building was undertaken in the county. The creation or development of new market towns became a recurrent feature of the 13th and early 14th centuries in Wales, providing a means of administration and raising revenue by both Welsh and English lords for the districts under their control. This period in Montgomeryshire witnessed the creation of markets at Welshpool, Machynlleth, Llanfyllin, Llanidloes and Kerry. The economy of these towns as well as the smaller nucleated settlements was primarily agricultural though some developed specialised functions associated with mining, quarrying, wool processing or corn milling from an early date. Timber was the most common building material throughout Montgomeryshire during the Early Medieval and Medieval periods for both low and high status houses, though stone or a combination of timber and stone became the preferred building material in western parts of the county from early times in areas where suitable timber was less accessible, and became more common throughout the county during the later medieval period. Early castles and churches were also commonly of timber construction, though from the 12th and 13th century stone became more commonly used for these structures as well as for monastic sites. Many Montgomeryshire churches of medieval origin retain significant elements dating 12th to later 15th centuries, though there are a significant number that were rebuilt in whole or in part in the later 18th and 19th centuries. In terms of church design, the most frequent plan in Montgomeryshire churches is a simple barn-like structure with an undivided chancel and nave, though early cruciform structures probably originally existed at the clas churches at Llansilin and Meifod and later at Montgomery and Machynlleth and a saint’s grave chapel or cell y bedd was built adjoining the church at Pennant Melangell. A number of the larger churches such as Llanfair Caereinion and Newtown developed a double nave plan and the churches at Meifod, Kerry, Guilsfield and probably Llandrinio developed ailsed naves to accommodate the congregations at these larger centres of population. Relatively massive medieval bell towers were added to a number of churches including Kerry, Guilsfield, Llandinam, and Llanidloes. A significant number of domestic buildings of medieval origin survive in the county though these are generally late in date, and date from the later 15th century. These were mostly of timber construction, and are now often later encased in stone or brick. They were generally of cruck-framed construction and hall-house plan with a cental hall open to the roof with a central hearth. Similar buildings were adopted by a wide range of social groups, including both peasant or yeoman farmers as at T~-draw (Llanarmon Mynydd-mawr), as well as uchelwyr or noblemen, as at T~-mawr (Castle Caereinion). A distinctive type of hall-house that was probably once quite common in Montgomeryshire at this time was the longhouse, often built across a slight slope, with accommodation for livestock in a lower bay with a corn or hay store in the loft above. These were often multi-purpose buildings which obviated the need for separate outbuildings to house animals and fodder. Evidence of earlier medieval houses generally now only survive as buried archaeological deposits and structures superimposed by later buildings, in open plots in nucleated settlements, or as earthwork remains representing house platforms or wall footings in rural settings. Thatch was the traditional roofing material for most buildings throughout much of the Early Medieval and Medieval periods though stone tiles were used for some churches and high-status houses probably from the later Medieval period onwards.



Woodland clearance for the creation of further arable and pasture land and for fuel and building materials undoubtedly continued throughout the Early Medieval and Medieval periods as individual freeholders and both secular and ecclesiastical estates continued to expand and develop their holdings though it is likely that extensive areas of ancient broadleaved woodland still have survived at the end of the Medieval period. A variety of lowland field patterns is likely to have emerged during these periods, including irregular patterns of fields with hedged or woodland boundaries representing a continuing process of piecemeal clearance and enclosure associated with freehold farms and settlements, as well as more ordered open fields subdivided into strips and furlongs which seem to have been associated with a number of towns and smaller manorial centres. Unenclosed upland common pastures and moorland continued to be important to the economy, particularly during the summer months, and also helped to keep grazing animals away from lowland crops of corn and hay before they could be harvested. Exploitation of these common lands often necessitated the building of summer houses or hafodydd (singular hafod), traces of which can survive as earthwork sites, to which family groups would move from their permanent homes (hendrefi/hendrefydd, singular hendref) on lower-lying ground. Over the course of time some of these seasonal homes became permanently occupied as upland dairy farms. The pattern of unpaved roads and tracks will have continued to develop between adjacent farms and cottages and the larger centres of population together with development of important river crossings, involving the construction of occasional timber bridges and fords, and the exploitation of water transport on the navigable rivers such as the Severn and Vyrnwy. Water power was also becoming increasingly exploited during the Medieval period to drive watermills for the grinding of corn and for fulling mills in the burgeoning woollen industry. Extractive industries, notably for the metal mining, quarrying for building stone, and tree-felling for building timber had emerged by the end of the medieval period, though were probably undertaken on a relatively small scale. Post-Medieval, Industrial and Modern Periods The growth of freehold farms and estates between about the sixteenth and eighteenth centuries had a significant impact upon Montgomeryshire’s lowland rural landscape, involving the enclosure of Medieval open fields, the breaking up of earlier monastic estates, the growth of country house estates, parks and gardens, and various agricultural improvements including the introduction of land drainage and the continued piecemeal enclosure areas of pasture around the upland margins. Large-scale enclosure of both upland and lowland commons took place during the late 18th and 19th centuries, giving rise to extensive areas of improved and semi-improved pasture that form a distinctive landscape type. Fieldscapes resulting from landscape reorganisation or late enclosure are often distinguished by areas of both large and small straight-sided fields bounded by single species hedges or post-and-wire fences. The period between the late 16th and early 19th centuries witnessed the disappearance of considerable tracts of former common land, resulting in a breakdown the seasonal movement from lowland farms to temporary upland houses which had been customary in some of the more remote parts of the county since at least the Middle Ages. Enclosure of areas of upland grazing either by the agreement of the major landowners or by act of parliament was typically accompanied by the construction of drystone walls defining large, straight-sided enclosures. Less formal encroachment of common land was undertaken on a more piecemeal basis individual cottagers establish a t~ unnos , by invoking a supposed right to build a house on common land overnight. In some instances this resulted in the creation of distinctive landscapes of cottages and tenements and small fields with stone walls



and banks, of the kind that can be seen as at Cefn-côch, Llanrhaeadr-ym-Mochnant, for example, representing late 18th and early 19th-century encroachment of the commons. Significant areas of broadleaved woodland continued to be felled in the county, increasingly for building materials for export out of the county including the demands of the naval shipyards during the Napoleonic Wars at the end of the 18th century and the beginning of the 19th. A pattern of dispersed farms and smallholdings or tyddynnau (or tyddynnod, singular tyddyn) had emerged during the later Medieval and early Post-Medieval periods throughout most of the more rural low-lying areas of the county, farmhouses and their associated farm buildings either of a linear, longhouse form or grouped around a farmyard. A wide variety of specialised outbuilding types were gradually introduced, including cowhouses and stables, dairies, threshing barns and implement sheds. Earlier buildings of the 16th and 17th centuries tended to be in timber or a combination of timber or stone, box-frame construction replacing the use of crucks during this period for building single-storey cottages, smaller houses and farmhouses such as Berriew Vicarage, Bacheldre House, as well as for the larger, two storey gentry halls such as those which have survived in whole or in part Broniarth Hall (Guilsfield), Trewern Hall, Penarth (Newtown) and Trederwen House (Arddleen), though others such as those at Aberbechan (Llanllwchaiarn), Garthmyl, Lymore (Montgomery) and Pontysgawrhyd (Meifod) have now disappeared. Stone and brick were in use for high status buildings from the later 16th century such as the refurbishment in stone of Powis Castle as a mansion, and the now-demolished brick-built mansion adjacent to Montgmomery Castle, and although from the mid 17th century onwards stone became more commonly used for both high and low status buildings, timber box-frame construction continued to be employed up to the early 18th century, as at Maesmawr (Caersws). Chimneys were introduced into both timber and stone houses during the course of the 17th century, giving rise to a distinctive vernacular tradition — a lobby-entry ground plan with an entrance adjacent to a central chimney stack. The increasing use of stone resulted in a proliferation of small stone quarries often opened up for individual building projects. Thatch buildings were later re-roofed in slate which had become the most commonly used roofing material by the 19th century, first using slate from local quarries such as those at Llangynog and later with slate imported from the larger quarries of north-west Wales. From the later 18th century onwards brick gradually became more commonly used as a building material, initially locally-produced but from the second half of the 19th century bricks were increasingly imported from the large commercial brickworks in north-east Wales and the Midlands. The early 18th century saw the introduction of new, non-vernacular building styles, exemplified by the Georgian houses at the Manor House at Llanfyllin, Calcott Hall at Llandrinio, and Bryngwyn at Bwlch-y-cibau. Together with the small country houses at Vaynor, Glansevern, Llangedwyn, Plas Machynlleth, Mellington and Leighton, for example. These often formed the focus of landed estates which continued to develop during the course of the 18th and 19th centuries, and were frequently associated with the creation of landscape parks and ornamental pleasure gardens, and drives, entrances and lodges. The period of agricultural improvements during the 18th and 19th centuries saw considerable investment in land improvement, agricultural and farm buildings and estate cottages, particularly in the case of the larger estates, alongside the improvements that were being made by controlled breeding and the introduction of new crops. New model farms were built by a number of the larger estates, as for example at Leighton, Gwern-y-go (Sarn), Coed-y-dinas (Welshpool), The Moors (Buttington), Pen-y-bryn (Llangedwyn), whose buildings were now often in brick. The 20th century witnessed the introduction of steel-framed agricultural buildings, firstly for storing hay, straw and implements and later also for lambing and the overwintering of cattle.



Existing nucleated settlements continued to expand throughout the 16th to 19th centuries. The small towns of Machynlleth, Llanidloes, Newtown and Welshpool in particular developing as regionally-important market towns with commercial, industrial and commercial functions, with inns, hotels, shops, and banks and various public buildings including schools, town halls, market halls, police stations, gaols and almshouses. Terraces of workers’ cottages and houses became a feature of both towns and villages. Social problems resulting from an increase in rural and urban poverty in the later 18th and early 19th centuries resulted in the creation of the workhouses at Llanfyllin, Caersws and Forden. During the course of the 19th century and early 20th centuries new churches and nonconformist chapels were built in the new centres of population or in the growing suburbs of existing towns, chapels and mission churches also becoming a feature of some more dispersed rural communities. Population growth plus the widespread adoption of memorial stones by the early to mid 19th century resulted in overcrowding of many existing graveyards, which gave rise to the creation of new and in some cases large civic cemeteries attached to a number of settlements. A succession of major improvements were made to transport and communications networks in the later 18th and 19th centuries. The establishment of turnpike trusts in the later 18th and early 19th centuries led to the creation of a county-wide system of toll roads, with associated toll houses and milestones, which form the basis of the modern trunk road network. Numerous bridges stone bridges were also built during this period, such as those at Pentrehelin near Llandysilio, Llandrinio, Llanymynech and Newtown 1826, replacing fords, ferries or earlier timber bridges. The Montgomeryshire Canal between Llanymynech and Newtown with a branch to Guilsfield was constructed in the 1790s with an aqueduct across the Vyrnwy at Carreghofa, with various wharfs along its course notably at Pool Quay, Welshpool and Newtown. The principal traffic along the canal was the carriage ‘upstream’ of limestone from quarries at Llanymynech which fed banks of limekilns at a number of points along its course, such as those at Maerdy, Varchoel, Buttington and Berriew. Traffic ‘downstream’ included the transport of timber which had previously been conveyed down riverside quays at Pool Quay at the head of the Severn navigation and from Clawdd Coch on the Vyrnwy. Established settlements expanded or new settlements emerged at important points along these improved lines of communication such as Cemmaes Road, Penybontfawr, Four Crosses and Trefail. Other settlements expanded in response to the development of extractive or processing or manufacturing industries, as at Llanidloes and Llangynog due to the mining and quarrying industries and Newtown and Welshpool in response to the woollen industry. Water power became increasingly harnessed in support of the woollen industry as well as for corn mills, saw mills and grist mills, and involved the construction of weirs, leats and millponds. Both water and horse power became important in development of the metal mining industries in the north and west of Montgomeryshire. Early working was being undertaken in the first half of the 17th century at Craig-y-Mwyn west of Llanrhaeadr-ym-Mochnant and Dylife north-west of Llanidloes. Rich veins were discovered at Llangynog before the end of the 17th century and were being worked on some scale by the middle of the 18th century. Most of the main mineral veins in the county at mines such as Rhoswyddol, Pen Dylife, Dyfngwm, Nant yr Eira, Nantiago, Van, Penyclun and Gwestyn to the north-west of Llanidloes had been worked at some point by the end of the 18th century and exploration in the 19th century, which was to lead to some of the richest ore discoveries, concentrated on locating deep extensions of the main lodes by cutting deeper shafts, levels and connecting cross-cuts. Steam power was first used in the mining industry in Montgomeryshire in the 1850s at Dyfngwm (Llanbynmair) and later at Penyclun (Llanidloes), though water power remained supreme in mid Wales until the decline of the mining industry. The most productive period in the



mid Wales study area covered the three decades between 1845 and 1875, during which time the Van and Dylife mines were the pre-eminent suppliers of lead in the county — Van even being distinguished as the most productive lead mine in Western Europe during the 1870s. However, a rapid drop in the price of lead during this decade due to competition from abroad resulted in the closure of many mines. The market never really recovered after this decade; some mines survived on the secondary production of zinc and the reworking of old waste tips up to the first world war, while others, such as Van and Nantiago, struggled through to final collapse in the 1920s. Slate and stone quarrying became an important local industry at Llangynog following the decline of the metal mining industry but itself declined due to competition with quarries elsewhere by the mid 20th century, though the roadstone quarry which had developed at Criggion in the first half of the 20th century underwent considerable expansion in the second half of the century. Mining as well as a number of other manufacturing and processing industries was to benefit from the introduction of the railways in the last two or three decades of the 19th century, with the construction of the C ambrian Railway line from Llanymynech to Welshpool and Newtown, which split near Caersws north-westwards to Machynleth and southwards to Llanidloes and Rhayader. Standard gauge branch or connecting lines were built to Llanfyllin via Llansantffraid, to Kerry, and Shrewsbury via Buttington. A private standard gauge branch line was built to the Van mines in the 1870s, and mineral lines were built which linked the quarries at Llanymynech and Criggion. Light railways were built to Llanfair Caereinion and to Llangynog in the early 20th century. Most of the railway network had ceased to exist by the middle of the 20th century and only the line from Shrewsbury to Machynleth via Welshpool, Newtown and Caersws still remains open today, though the course of many of the other lines still survive amidst the rural agricultural landscape, where the original embankments, cuttings and track bed can still be traced. Major landscape changes were made to the upper reaches of the Clywedog and Vyrnwy rivers with the creation of the Lake Vyrnwy and Llyn Clywedog west of Llanidloes. Lake Vyrnwy was constructed in the last decade of the 19th century as a water supply for Liverpool and Llyn Clywedog was built in the 1960s as part of a flood alleviation scheme for the Severn. Both involved the abandonment and demolition of fields and farms and the small village of Llanwddyn in the case of Lake Vyrnwy, which became submerged below the reservoir. Both schemes also involved the establishment of coniferous plantations around the margins of the reservoirs and both either at the time of their construction or subsequently have involved the provision of facilities for visitors. Various other changes had a significant impact upon the landscape of towns, villages and the countryside during the course of the 20th century. The larger towns and a number of villages more than doubled or trebled in size as they expanded beyond their historic core. Large-scale expansion in housing in the period between the 1940s and 1970s was generally the result of local authority schemes, as for example in the towns of Newtown and Welshpool and the village of Trewern, though since the 1980s developments have been mostly by private developers and resulting in the creation of what are virtually new dormer villages, such as Four Crosses. Large school and college campuses were attached to a number of the larger settlements, such Newtown, Welshpool, Llanfair Caereinion and Llanfyllin and also in rural settings such as Trewern. Industrial and retail parks have again become attached to a number of the larger settlements, particularly Newtown and Welshpool. Allotments and both public and private sports fields and other sporting facilities were developed, generally around the fringes of a number of the larger settlements. Other sports and leisure facilities which have had an impact upon the rural landscape include the creation of golf courses and golf driving ranges, such as those at Machynlleth, Llanidloes, Newtown, Welshpool and Llanymynech, and caravan parks, particularly those for static caravans. Lowland fieldscapes perhaps underwent less change during the 20th century than some other landscape types, though increased mechanisation and farm diversification have had some impact



including the loss of hedges, the increased use of post and wire fences at the expense of traditional hedges, and the post-war local authority smallholding initiative which in some areas, such as Weston Madoc south of Montgomery, gave rise to a distinctive field pattern and associated complexes of houses and outbuildings. A number of the larger estates, such as Leighton, Powis Castle and the Dinam as well as a number of smaller landowners were making a significant investment in the planting of new woodlands in the second half of the 19th century. Considerable areas of marginal land particularly in the west of the county were transformed by the immediately post-war afforestation schemes in the late 1940s and early 1950s under the auspices of the Forestry Commission which resulted in the creation of the large coniferous and hardwood plantations of Dyfnant Forest and Hafren Forest, for example, as well as a scattering of much smaller plantations elsewhere throughout the county. Further considerable impact was made upon many moorland and marginal upland areas throughout the county during the 1970s and early 1980s came as a result of grant-aided land improvement schemes which led widespread stone clearance, upland pasture improvement and the construction for the first time of roads which improved access to the uplands. The period since the mid 1980s saw the introduction of various conservation initiatives which have had significant impact upon the landscape including the creation of conservation and wildlife areas grant-aided agri-environment schemes which have fostered traditional farming methods and conservation of the natural and historic environment including traditional farm buildings and boundary types. In the last decade of the 20th century and the first decade of the 21st century the uplands in various parts of the county have seen the impact of renewable energy schemes, including the Carno Windfarm north-west of Caersws and the Penrhyddlan & Llidiartywaun Windfarm near Llandinam, the latter being currently the largest operational windfarm of its kind in Europe.



3. METHODOLOGY Overview The study involved the following processes, which are described in more detail in the following sections.

• Preparation • Generation of base-level polygonal data • Definition of provisional historic landscape aspect areas • Field evaluation • Finalising boundaries of historic landscape aspect areas • Database entry • Quality Assurance monitoring • Local User Information Group meetings

Preparation The geographical limits of the project were set using a MapInfo table of community boundary data supplied by the National Assembly for Wales. Digital mapped sources that were used were the Ordnance Survey (OS) 1:10,000 and 1:50,000 raster maps and OS Landline and contour vector data for the whole of the study area. Digitally geo-referenced vertical aerial photography (AP) of Montgomeryshire supplied by GetMapping, used under licence from CCW, was also used as a mapping source and in addition to this occasional reference was made to the four editions of early OS mapping available as geo-referenced digital data from Landmark, here used by arrangement with the National Assembly for Wales. A set of OS 1:25,000 folded maps was also consulted for additional topographical information. The GetMapping AP data also proved particularly useful for identifying (relatively) current land use, vegetation types and land cover as well as helping to identify the nature of many boundary features. The primary source of historical and archaeological information was the Historic Environment Record (HER), maintained by CPAT. Much of the information in this record is point data, but it also included some polygonal data derived from a number of paper-based sources. These documentary and manuscript sources that were consulted included lists of listed buildings, the register of historic parks and gardens in Montgomeryshire, and the historic landscapes registers together with the historic landscape characterization reports for The Vale of Montgomery and The Tanat Valley (see references below). A decision needed to be made at an early stage about the scale and significance of landscapes to be included in the study, the principal criteria for inclusion being that an historical or archaeological element should have a sufficient visual presence in the landscape. It was considered that this ruled out linear features such as roads and railways crossing open countryside, all individual buildings and archaeological monuments, many of the smaller settlements, a number of the smaller registered gardens, historically and culturally significant places with little landscape definition and small or isolated unenclosed commons of less than about a square kilometres. Data collection and recording At the beginning of the project it was decided that wherever possible data collection and recording should be undertaken digitally. From the outset all mapping was complied digitally (using head-up digitising), as was all database compilation. The limited programme of field visiting was designed to check decisions already taken in the desk-based assessment rather to record new data. Adjustments were made to the digital data set on a portable computer in the field and therefore did not generate a



paper-based record. No photography was undertaken during the field visiting. Consequently, there are no paper record forms, hand drawn maps or photographs submitted with this report. Mapping was undertaken in MapInfo Professional Version 7.8. A database was created in version 4.0.5 of the XML based LANDMAP Collector software supplied by CCW. Associated texts were prepared in Word 2000, and submitted as both hard copy and Adobe Acrobat (version 5.0) PDF files. Base-level polygonal data A series of 198 polygons were drawn from the sources listed above according to a discrete list of historic and modern land use types, to which a limited amount of data was attached. These are listed in Annex B. The polygons, which and did not cover the entire area of the study, were drawn from a variety of map sources and were to be used as the basis for defining provisional historic landscape aspect areas. Some of these base-level polygons, particularly those representing more specialist landscape types such as parks and gardens or settlement, could have been used to define Aspect Areas at Level 4, although many of them might be considered to fall between Level 3 and Level 4 data in LANDMAP terms. The use of base-level polygons identifying landscape types, although not prescribed by the LANDMAP Information System, has been trialed in Wales by CPAT to create similar base-level data from which to define Historic Landscape Character Areas in Historic Landscape Characterisation projects promoted by Cadw and CCW, and as a means of presenting historic landscape information within Tir Gofal. In many respects it is a similar process to that currently used to define landscape types in Historic Landscape Characterisation projects promoted by English Heritage. The accuracy of the base-level polygonal data has not subsequently been checked against a single map-base or verified against definitive sources, however, and has not been supplied with the other digital data produced by the project. Definition of provisional historic landscape aspect areas About 100 provisional historic landscape areas were mapped in an essentially intuitive and iterative desk-based exercise, analysing the base-level polygonal data which had been created as part of the project in terms of the point data contained within the Regional Historic Environment Record. Field Evaluation The size of the study area precluded any systematic field visiting to check the provisional aspect areas, but two full days were spent in the field checking key areas of data. Additional time in the field would have been desirable but was not considered essential in order to complete the tasks in hand at the level of detail required, given our background knowledge from working in the area for many years and the fact that we were not required to carry out evaluation, provide management recommendations or to assess tolerance to change. The principal issues that it proved helpful to check in the field were firstly the degree to which there was a sufficiently meaningful visual expression of historical and archaeological processes at particular points in the landscape which would enable boundaries to be defined more closely, and secondly whether some of the smaller provisional aspect areas had a sufficient landscape dimension. In several instances points in the landscape were sought and which would enable otherwise diffuse aspect areas to be split on rational topographic grounds.



The fieldwork generally tended to confirm the desktop analysis, though a number of relatively minor changes were made including the redefinition of several aspect area boundaries, the amalgamation of adjacent areas and the subdivision of others. Finalising boundaries of historic landscape aspect areas A number of relatively minor changes were made to the provisional aspect area boundaries as a result of fieldwork, as noted above. Slight boundary changes were also made as a result of checking the distribution of archaeological sites in the Historic Environment Record, to avoid unnecessarily placing neighbouring sites that are functionally or chronologically related to each other into different aspect areas. Polygonal boundaries for historic landscape aspect areas for a number of earlier LANDMAP studies in contiguous unitary authority areas were made available by CCW, enabling edge matching to be attempted. However the Wrexham LANDMAP exercise was undertaken before the latest revision of the LANDMAP handbook which contained a revision of the Historic Landscape classification system, making an exact correlation unlikely. Strict edge matching was not therefore attempted here as this would be better done once Wrexham has been reassessed against the 2003 standard. As noted above (see section above on base-level polygonal data) various sources of OS mapping (namely LandLine vector data, 1:10,000 raster data, and 1:25,000 paper maps) and other digital data (GetMapping aerial photography) were used for the definition of aspect areas. Consequently the aspect areas defined in this study do not correspond precisely to any single source of mapping. Care was taken to try to ensure, however, that the drawn boundaries would be visibly accurate to at least the required scale of 1:10,000. Database entries Database entries were created for each of the historic landscape aspect areas in version 4.0.5 of the LANDMAP Collector software provided by CCW. Quality Assurance Monitoring The GIS data, associated database and draft of this report have been submitted to the Quality Assurance panel appointed by CCW. Local Information User Group (LIUG) meetings A short presentation outlining the approach to the project and illustrating its progress was given at the first LIUG meeting. Verbal updates were given at subsequent meetings.



4. SUMMARY OF HISTORIC LANDSCAPE ASPECT AREAS Hierarchy of Level 3 classes represented in the area of study A summary list of historic landscape aspect areas is given in Annex C. The classes that are represented are as follows, the Level 3 classes being described in greater detail in the following sections. LEVEL 1: STRUCTURE LEVEL 2: LAND USE LEVEL 3: PATTERN Rural environment Agricultural Irregular fieldscape Regular fieldscape Other fieldscape Non-agricultural Woodland Marginal land Water & wetland Built environment Settlement Nucleated settlement Non-nucleated settlement Industrial Extractive Processing/manufacturing Other built environment Designed Recreational Summary description of Level 3 classes represented in area of study Irregular fieldscape A total of 40 irregular fieldscape areas are included, which varied in size from 1.1 to 123.5 square kilometres. As has been noted in previous studies carried out by CPAT, the classification of these areas is perhaps the least satisfactory element of the current LANDMAP classification system. It is felt that the term Irregular fieldscape was somewhat of a misnomer and that perhaps Mixed fieldscape might be more appropriate — with the term Mixed/evolved fieldscape, found in Level 4, being altered to Evolved fieldscape.

Areas identified are; Afon Laen / Nant Twmyn MNTGMHL76, Allt Fawr MNTGMHL55, Banc y Groes MNTGMHL86, Braichyfedw MNTGMHL17, Breidden Hills MNTGMHL96, Brooks MNTGMHL71, Bryngwyn MNTGMHL67, Burgedin MNTGMHL83, Buttington / Middletown MNTGMHL31, Cefn-y-coed MNTGMHL61, Coedway MNTGMHL77, Cwmbelan MNTGMHL77, Dolanog MNTGMHL41, Ffrydd Faldwyn MNTGMHL54, Foel Fawr MNTGMHL74, Forden / Trelystan MNTGMHL51,



Garth MNTGMHL58, Gelli Hill MNTGMHL97, Hyssington MNTGMHL77, Is-y-coed MNTGMHL28, Llanfihangel MNTGMHL40, Lower Clywedog / Upper Severn MNTGMHL95, Lower Tanat MNTGMHL92, Maesmawr MNTGMHL24, Middle Banwy / Upper Rhiw MNTGMHL43, Mochdre MNTGMHL78, Moelfre MNTGMHL84, Mynydd Garth-pwt MNTGMHL15, Nant Dulas MNTGMHL84, Nant y Dugoed / Cwm Tafalog MNTGMHL67, Penbedw MNTGMHL82, Pentrenant MNTGMHL74, Rhos Common MNTGMHL11, Trelydan MNTGMHL12, Trewylan MNTGMHL30, Upper Banwy MNTGMHL35, Upper Mule MNTGMHL63, Upper Tanat MNTGMHL64, Upper Trannon MNTGMHL63, Upper Wye MNTGMHL22.

Regular fieldscape A total of 12 regular fieldscape areas are included, which varied in size from 1.2 to 39.8 square kilometres in extent. Most of these fieldscapes fall into two distinct types. Eight of these are valley floor areas divided up into regular sized straight-sided fields, while the remainder are areas of 18th/19th upland enclosure.

Areas identified are; Alport MNTGMHL37, Arddleen MNTGMHL50, Caersws basin MNTGMHL90, Cwmdulla MNTGMHL42, Dovey valley MNTGMHL28, Dyffryn Meifod MNTGMHL71, Long Mountain MNTGMHL70, Lower Severn valley MNTGMHL44, Middle Severn valley MNTGMHL62, Salt Bridge MNTGMHL98, Upper Severn valley MNTGMHL98, Wernddu MNTGMHL85.

Other fieldscape A total of 6 other fieldscape areas are included, which varied in size from 2.1 to 45.6 square kilometres in extent. Most of these fieldscapes are the result of piecemeal enclosure of marginal land in the 18th/19th. They exhibit a distinctive but less than regular pattern and all border similar areas identified in Radnorshire.

Areas identified are; Brynposteg MNTGMHL57, Kerry Hills MNTGMHL12, Pant-gwyn Hill MNTGMHL89, Rhiwlas Hill MNTGMHL83, Waun Lluestowain MNTGMHL66, White Grit MNTGMHL34.

Woodland Seven areas of Woodland have been identified within the study area. These range in size from 4.8 to 28.5 square kilometres in size. Six of the seven are commercial coniferous plantations, occupying marginal upland areas. The seventh, while predominantly coniferous, is the more mixed Leighton Estate woodland occupying the southern side of the Upper Severn Valley.

Areas identified are; Carnedd y Cylch MNTGMHL79, Dyfi Forest MNTGMHL64, Dyfnant Forest MNTGMHL92, Esgair Hill MNTGMHL32, Esgair Ychion MNTGMHL36, Hafren Forest MNTGMHL69, Leighton woodland MNTGMHL78.

Marginal land Eleven marginal land areas are included. These range from are 1.2 and 130 square kilometres in extent and are predominantly areas of unenclosed upland

Areas identified are; Corndon Hill MNTGMHL62, Ffridd Rhyd Ddu MNTGMHL85, Glasgwm MNTGMHL43, Glasllyn MNTGMHL50, Moel y Llyn MNTGMHL81, Mynydd Glandulas MNTGMHL47, Mynydd y Cemmaes MNTGMHL11, Roundton



Hill MNTGMHL70, Southern Berwyn MNTGMHL57, Trannon Moor MNTGMHL70, Y Drum MNTGMHL30.

Water & wetland Only one area of open water — Llyn Clywedog — was included in this class. It occupies 2.5 square kilometres.

The area identified is; Llyn Clywedog MNTGMHL25.

Nucleated settlement Fourteen areas of nucleated settlement have been identified, varying in size from 0.3 to 3.3 square kilometres. All have a medieval or earlier origin, although all have seen expansion and development to one degree or another in modern times.

Areas identified are; Caersws MNTGMHL82, Carno MNTGMHL27, Churchstoke MNTGMHL98, Guilsfield MNTGMHL61, Kerry MNTGMHL26, Llanfair Caereinion MNTGMHL94, Llanfyllin MNTGMHL17, Llanidloes MNTGMHL45, Llanrhaeadr-ym-Mochnant MNTGMHL14, Llansantffraid-ym-Mechain MNTGMHL86, Machynlleth MNTGMHL97, Montgomery MNTGMHL29, Newtown MNTGMHL42, Welshpool MNTGMHL93.

Non-nucleated settlement Only one area of Non-nucleated settlement has been identified within the study area. This is the settlement at Four Crosses that covers an area of 0.6 square kilometres. It has its origins in the late 18th century, growing around the canal and turnpike road, but expanding in the later 19th century with the coming of the railway and again rapidly in modern times as a linear dormitory settlement.

The area identified is; Four Crosses MNTGMHL23. Extractive One area of extractive industry has been identified — the active quarry at Criggion – which covers an area of 0.5 square kilometres. A number of other active and inactive quarries exist within the study area non were considered large enough to be distinctive enough features, in their present form, to be identified at Level 3.

The area identified is; Criggion Quarry MNTGMHL99.

Processing/manufacturing Three areas have been classified as Processing/manufacturing, which range in size from 0.5 to 0.7 square kilometres. They are areas of light industrial use attached to Welshpool and Newtown.

The areas identified are; Newtown Industrial area north MNTGMHL30, Newtown Industrial area south MNTGMHL80, Welshpool Industrial area MNTGMHL59.

Designed



Five areas of designed landscape were identified in the study, ranging in size from 1.6 to 17.2 square kilometres. Four of these are areas of post medieval parkland surrounding country houses, while the fifth, and largest, is the area surrounding the Lake Vyrnwy Reservoir.

The areas identified are; Gregynog MNTGMHL64, Lake Vyrnwy MNTGMHL90, Leighton Hall MNTGMHL11, Lymore Park MNTGMHL35, Powis Park MNTGMHL38.

Recreational Only one recreational area was identified within the study area. This is Llanymynech Hill, which occupies some 1.2 square kilometres. Most of the hilltop is now covered by an established golf course, but it also been an area of extensive mining and quarrying and is one of Britain’s largest Iron Age hillforts.

The area identified is; Llanymynech Hill MNTGMHL48.



Historic Landscape Aspect Areas defined at Level 3 for Montgomeryshire LANDMAP



Extent and relative proportions of the Level 3 classes represented in the area of study The extent and relative proportions of the Level 3 classes represented in the area of study are given in the following table. LEVEL 3: PATTERN TOTAL AREA PERCENTAGE SQ KM OF TOTAL AREA Irregular fieldscape 1271.35 58.47 Regular fieldscape 160.07 7.36 Other fieldscape 100.86 4.64 Woodland 123.68 5.69 Marginal land 586.70 26.98 Water & wetland 2.45 0.11 Nucleated settlement 13.96 0.64 Non-nucleated settlement 0.61 0.02 Extractive 0.55 0.02 Processing / manufacturing 2.33 0.11 Designed 38.47 1.77 Recreational 0.69 0.03



5. REFERENCES

Anthony, C R, 1995. ‘Penson’s progress: the work of a nineteenth-century County Surveyor’, Montgomeryshire Collections 83, 115–75.

Arnold, C J, 1990. The Archaeology of Montgomeryshire, Powysland Club. Arnold, C J and Davies, J L, 2000. Roman and Early Medieval Wales, Stroud. Baughan, P E, 1995. North and Mid Wales: A Regional History of the Railways of Great Britain

Volume II, Nairn. Burnham, H, 1995. A Guide to Ancient and Historic Wales: Clwyd and Powys, London HMSO. Britnell, W J, 1999a. ‘Early Prehistory’, in D Jenkins (ed) 1999, 17–20.

Britnell, W J, 1999b. ‘Bronze Age’, in D Jenkins (ed) 1999, 21–5.

Britnell, W J, 1999c. ‘Iron Age’, in D Jenkins (ed) 1999, 26–9.

Britnell, W J, 1999d. ‘Roman Period’, in D Jenkins (ed) 1999, 30–3.

Britnell, W J, & Martin, C H R, 1999. Dyffryn Tanat Historic Landscape: Historic Landscape Characterization, CPAT Report 319.

Britnell, W J, & Martin, C H R, 2000. Bro Trefaldwyn Historic Landscape: Historic Landscape Characterization, CPAT Report 356.

Cadw. Listed Buildings Lists. Cadw 1998. Register of Landscapes of Outstanding Historic Interest in Wales. Cadw 1999. Powys: Register of Landscapes, Parks and Gardens of Special Historic Interest in

Wales. Cadw 2001. Register of Landscapes of Special Historic Interest in Wales. CCW 2001. The LANDMAP Information System, Countryside Council for Wales, 2001. CCW 2003. The LANDMAP Information System (draft handbook), Countryside Council for Wales,

2003. CPAT. Montgomeryshire Historic Environment Record, maintained by Clwyd-Powys Archaeological

Trust. Gibson, A M, 2002. ‘Prehistoric funerary and ritual sites in the upper Severn Valley’,

Montgomeryshire Collections 90, 1–40. Haslam, R, 1979. The Buildings of Wales: Powys, Penguin Books/University of Wales Press.

Hughes, S, 1981. The Archaeology of the Montgomeryshire Canal, Aberystwyth.



Jarrett, M G, 1969. The Roman Frontier in Wales, University of Wales Press.

Jones, N J, Walters, M and Frost, P, 2005. Mountains and Orefields: metal mines in mid and north-east Wales, CBA Research Report 142.

Jenkins D. (ed) 1999. The Historical Atlas of Montgomeryshire , The Powysland Club.

Silvester, R J, 1992. Montgomeryshire Historic Settlements, CPAT Report 40.

Silvester, R J, 1999. Welsh Historic Churches Project. The Historic Churches of Montgomeryshire: a synthesis, CPAT Report 304.

Silvester, R J, 2005. ‘Deserted rural settlements in central and north-east Wales’, in K Roberts (ed.),

Lost Farmsteads. Deserted Rural Settlements in Wales, CBA Research Report 148, 209–13. Smith, P, 1988. Houses of the Welsh Countryside, HMSO. Spurgeon, C J, 1965-66. ‘The castles of Montgomeryshire’, Montgomeryshire Collections 59, 1–59. Sylvester, D, 1969. The Rural Landscape of the Welsh Borderland. Williams, D H, 1990. Atlas of Cistercian Lands in Wales, University of Wales Press.



ANNEX A SUMMARY OF HISTORICAL AND ARCHAEOLOGICAL PERIODS The following provides a summary of the dating of the historical and archaeological periods used in the narrative accompanying this study: Palaeolithic 50,000 – 10,000 BC Mesolithic 10,000 – 4,000 BC Neolithic 4,000 – 2,300 BC Bronze Age 2,300 – 700 BC Iron Age 700 BC – AD 43 Roman AD 43 – AD 450 Early Medieval AD 450 – 1066 Medieval AD 1066 – 1547 Post-Medieval AD 1547 – 1700 Industrial AD 1700 – 1900 Modern AD 1900 onwards



ANNEX B BASE-LEVEL POLYGONAL DATA: DESCRIPTION AND SOURCES TYPE DESCRIPTION AND SOURCE conifer plantation Conifer plantations, generally >1ha, mapped from symbols given

on OS 1:10,000 raster data. enclosed upland Larger enclosed areas of marginal land, often with straight-sided

boundaries, lying on and around the edge of open upland areas, generally assumed to have been enclosed in modern times (since about the latter half of the 18th century), sometimes somewhat arbitrarily distinguished from more anciently enclosed land on lower ground. Mapped from OS 1:10,000 raster maps and GetMapping AP data.

encroachment Small isolated area of enclosed land, sometimes accompanied by buildings, within an area of unenclosed moorland or common, generally >1ha. Mapped from OS 1:10,000 raster data.

former parkland As shown on Landmark historic mapping 1:2,500 or 1:10,000 raster data, generally >3ha.

golf course Golf course and associated buildings etc, as marked on OS 1:10,000 raster data or represented on GetMapping AP data, generally >3ha.

irregular fields Areas of irregular fields generally >1ha, probably representing a process of piecemeal clearance and enclosure. Mapped from OS 1:10,000 raster data.

mixed woodland Less regularly-shaped areas of broadleaved and conifer areas, generally >1ha, having the appearance of replanted semi-natural woodland. Mapped from symbols given on OS 1:10,000 raster data.

parkland Present-day parkland areas, generally taken from the Historic Gardens Register, generally >1ha.

regular fields Contiguous areas of more regularly-shaped fields, having the appearance of enclosed former open pasture or possibly reorganised formerly irregular field patterns, generally laid out in relation to the contours. Mapped from OS 1:10,000 raster data, generally only in blocks >3ha.

reorganised strip fields Contiguous patterns of fields, generally >3ha, which appear to represent amalgamation and reorganisation of former strip fields which might themselves have originated from the enclosure of medieval open field furlongs. Mapped from OS 1:10,000 raster data and Landmark historic mapping 1:2,500 or 1:10,000 raster data.

reservoir Larger reservoirs and dams, including ancillary works such as treatment works, water works, filter beds and access roads, mapped from OS 1:10,000 raster maps, generally >1ha.

settlement Nucleated and dispersed settlements of all periods and types, generally of more than about 10 houses, and including contiguous associated utilities and communications infrastructure, sporting facilities, cemeteries, schools, hospitals etc, generally >1ha. Mapped from OS 1:10,000 data and GetMapping AP data.

sinuous broadleaved woodland Irregular narrow tracts of broadleaved woodland generally >1ha, mapped from symbols given on OS 1:10,000 raster data, and



having the appearance of semi-natural or replanted broadleaved woodland.

sinuous mixed woodland Irregular narrow tracts of broadleaved and conifer woodland generally >1ha, mapped from symbols given on OS 1:10,000 raster data, and having the appearance of semi-natural or replanted broadleaved woodland.

straight-sided fields Contiguous areas of straight-sided fields, generally >3ha, having the appearance of late enclosure of former open common grazing or late landscape reorganisation, or late partitioning of drained and reclaimed land. Mapped from OS 1:10,000 raster data.

strip fields Contiguous areas of narrow elongated fields, generally 1ha, having the appearance of enclosed medieval open field furlongs or in some instances possibly post-medieval landscape reorganisation. Mapped from OS 1:10,000 raster data.

unenclosed upland Unenclosed upland areas and rough grazing, mapped from OS 1:10,000 raster maps and GetMapping AP data.



ANNEX C SUMMARY LIST OF HISTORIC LANDSCAPE ASPECT AREAS AREA AREA LEVEL 3 CLASS AREA NUMBER NAME LANDSCAPE PATTERN SQ KM MNTGMHL115 Rhos Common Irregular fieldscape 7.27 MNTGMHL116 Leighton Hall Designed 1.64 MNTGMHL117 Mynydd y Cemmaes Marginal land 25.71 MNTGMHL124 Kerry Hills Other fieldscape 45.65 MNTGMHL129 Trelydan Irregular fieldscape 9.53 MNTGMHL140 Llanrhaeadr-ym-Mochnant Nucleated settlement 0.33 MNTGMHL152 Mynydd Garth-pwt Irregular fieldscape 8.75 MNTGMHL177 Braichyfedw Irregular fieldscape 6.93 MNTGMHL178 Llanfyllin Nucleated settlement 0.49 MNTGMHL225 Upper Wye Irregular fieldscape 20.07 MNTGMHL231 Four Crosses Non-nucleated settlement 0.61 MNTGMHL248 Maesmawr Irregular fieldscape 57.06 MNTGMHL250 Llyn Clywedog Water & wetland 2.45 MNTGMHL267 Kerry Nucleated settlement 0.27 MNTGMHL278 Carno Nucleated settlement 0.28 MNTGMHL288 Dovey valley Regular fieldscape 11.31 MNTGMHL289 Is-y-coed Irregular fieldscape 101.27 MNTGMHL294 Montgomery Nucleated settlement 0.50 MNTGMHL301 Y Drum Marginal land 22.36 MNTGMHL303 Newtown Industrial area north Processing / manufacturing 0.59 MNTGMHL309 Trewylan Irregular fieldscape 11.24 MNTGMHL310 Buttington / Middletown Irregular fieldscape 12.89 MNTGMHL320 Esgair Hill Woodland 7.80 MNTGMHL341 White Grit Other fieldscape 2.10 MNTGMHL352 Upper Banwy Irregular fieldscape 48.09 MNTGMHL359 Lymore Park Designed 2.60 MNTGMHL361 Esgair Ychion Woodland 20.38 MNTGMHL372 Alport Regular fieldscape 1.23 MNTGMHL386 Powis Park Designed 14.26 MNTGMHL403 Llanfihangel Irregular fieldscape 83.64 MNTGMHL419 Dolanog Irregular fieldscape 39.07 MNTGMHL423 Cwmdulla Regular fieldscape 5.15 MNTGMHL427 Newtown Nucleated settlement 3.31 MNTGMHL433 Middle Banwy / Upper Rhiw Irregular fieldscape 123.48 MNTGMHL437 Glasgwm Marginal land 29.32 MNTGMHL441 Lower Severn valley Regular fieldscape 39.83 MNTGMHL453 Llanidloes Nucleated settlement 1.10 MNTGMHL478 Mynydd Glandulas Marginal land 28.09 MNTGMHL482 Llanymynech Hill Recreational 0.69 MNTGMHL501 Arddleen Regular fieldscape 20.17 MNTGMHL503 Glasllyn Marginal land 91.04 MNTGMHL514 Forden / Trelystan Irregular fieldscape 22.83 MNTGMHL541 Ffrydd Faldwyn Irregular fieldscape 9.64 MNTGMHL559 Allt Fawr Irregular fieldscape 39.42



MNTGMHL570 Southern Berwyn Marginal land 129.99 MNTGMHL573 Brynposteg Other fieldscape 9.39 MNTGMHL587 Garth Irregular fieldscape 33.20 MNTGMHL592 Welshpool Industrial area Processing / manufacturing 0.72 MNTGMHL614 Guilsfield Nucleated settlement 0.45 MNTGMHL617 Cefn-y-coed Irregular fieldscape 22.74 MNTGMHL620 Middle Severn valley Regular fieldscape 5.71 MNTGMHL624 Corndon Hill Marginal land 3.01 MNTGMHL630 Upper Mule Irregular fieldscape 38.80 MNTGMHL637 Upper Trannon Irregular fieldscape 28.68 MNTGMHL646 Dyfi Forest Woodland 19.82 MNTGMHL648 Upper Tanat Irregular fieldscape 46.21 MNTGMHL649 Gregynog Designed 2.79 MNTGMHL661 Waun Lluestowain Other fieldscape 26.94 MNTGMHL672 Bryngwyn Irregular fieldscape 49.66 MNTGMHL673 Nant y Dugoed / Cwm Tafalog Irregular fieldscape 3.77 MNTGMHL691 Hafren Forest Woodland 28.49 MNTGMHL704 Trannon Moor Marginal land 29.25 MNTGMHL705 Roundton Hill Marginal land 1.23 MNTGMHL707 Long Mountain Regular fieldscape 6.65 MNTGMHL715 Dyffryn Meifod Regular fieldscape 22.98 MNTGMHL719 Brooks Irregular fieldscape 64.35 MNTGMHL741 Pentrenant Irregular fieldscape 11.76 MNTGMHL747 Foel Fawr Irregular fieldscape 6.85 MNTGMHL768 Afon Laen / Nant Twmyn Irregular fieldscape 45.87 MNTGMHL770 Hyssington Irregular fieldscape 9.94 MNTGMHL771 Cwmbelan Irregular fieldscape 11.31 MNTGMHL779 Coedway Irregular fieldscape 6.28 MNTGMHL785 Leighton woodland Woodland 4.86 MNTGMHL789 Mochdre Irregular fieldscape 61.40 MNTGMHL790 Carnedd y Cylch Woodland 21.15 MNTGMHL805 Newtown Industrial area south Processing / manufacturing 0.47 MNTGMHL819 Moel y Llyn Marginal land 15.14 MNTGMHL820 Penbedw Irregular fieldscape 21.11 MNTGMHL827 Caersws Nucleated settlement 0.85 MNTGMHL832 Rhiwlas Hill Other fieldscape 7.67 MNTGMHL835 Burgedin Irregular fieldscape 13.93 MNTGMHL840 Moelfre Irregular fieldscape 57.28 MNTGMHL843 Nant Dulas Irregular fieldscape 1.10 MNTGMHL856 Wernddu Regular fieldscape 13.33 MNTGMHL859 Ffridd Rhyd Ddu Marginal land 87.88 MNTGMHL861 Banc y Groes Irregular fieldscape 6.68 MNTGMHL865 Llansantffraid-ym-Mechain Nucleated settlement 0.31 MNTGMHL895 Pant-gwyn Hill Other fieldscape 8.50 MNTGMHL900 Lake Vyrnwy Designed 17.18 MNTGMHL902 Caersws basin Regular fieldscape 22.85 MNTGMHL923 Lower Tanat Irregular fieldscape 45.96 MNTGMHL926 Dyfnant Forest Woodland 21.18 MNTGMHL936 Welshpool Nucleated settlement 1.80 MNTGMHL940 Llanfair Caereinion Nucleated settlement 0.33 MNTGMHL952 Lower Clywedog / Upper Severn Irregular fieldscape 59.74 MNTGMHL966 Breidden Hills Irregular fieldscape 7.79 MNTGMHL970 Gelli Hill Irregular fieldscape 15.76



MNTGMHL979 Machynlleth Nucleated settlement 1.07 MNTGMHL980 Salt Bridge Regular fieldscape 7.53 MNTGMHL981 Churchstoke Nucleated settlement 0.42 MNTGMHL989 Upper Severn valley Regular fieldscape 3.33 MNTGMHL992 Criggion Quarry Extractive 0.55



Historic Landscape Aspect Areas defined at Level 3 for Montgomeryshire LANDMAP


montgomeryshire landmap historic landscape...

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