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Talgarth is a market town, community and electoral ward in southern Powys, Mid Wales, about 12 miles (19 km) north of Crickhowell, 19 miles (31 km) north-east of Brecon and 15 miles (24 km) south-east of Builth Wells. Notable buildings in the town include the 14th-century parish church and a defensive tower house. According to traditional accounts, Talgarth was the capital of the early medieval Welsh Kingdom of Brycheiniog. It is in the historic county of Brecknockshire. In 2011, it had a population of 1,724.[2]

Talgarth
The River Ennig in Talgarth
Talgarth Location within Powys
Population	1,724 (2011)[1]
OS grid reference	SO1533
Community	Talgarth
Principal area	Powys
Ceremonial county	Powys
Country	Wales
Sovereign state	United Kingdom
Post town	BRECON
Postcode district	LD3
Dialling code	01874
Police	Dyfed-Powys
Fire	Mid and West Wales
Ambulance	Welsh
UK Parliament	Brecon and Radnorshire
Senedd Cymru – Welsh Parliament	Brecon and Radnorshire
List of places UK Wales Powys 51.996°N 3.232°W / 51.996; -3.232

Name

The meaning of the town's name is in the Welsh words tâl (forehead or brow of a hill) and garth (mountain ridge or promontory), thus "end of the ridge". It appears as Talgart in 1121, as Talgard after 1130, and in its present form in the years between 1203 and 1208.[3]

The church of Talgarth is recorded in 1488 as dedicated to Sce Wenne Virginis, explained as Gwen (granddaughter of Brychan).[4]

Culture and community

In August, the Talgarth Festival of the Black Mountains is held, a popular countryside event which takes place each year. Talgarth Walking Festival takes place every May, making use of the town's position at the foot of the Black Mountains.[5]

The town also has an annual Christmas lights display, organised by Talgarth Town Council and a team of volunteers. Talgarth held important links with healthcare for many years as the home of the large psychiatric hospital, the Mid Wales Hospital and the Mid and West Wales College of Nursing and Midwifery. Changes in health legislation in the 1980s saw the need for such hospitals to be closed. The Mid Wales Hospital permanently closed in the 1990s. Since the early 2000s, regeneration efforts have been in place to support Talgarth's future.[6] It has since benefited from a new relief road,[7] to remove trunk road traffic from its centre, allowing new businesses to open and buildings to be renovated and restored.[8] Its historic mill in the centre of town featured on the BBC's Village SOS television series.[9]

History

Roman period

A fort near Cwmdu (Pen-y-Gaer) is also of significance to Talgarth as it was the site where was a 1st-century AD British chieftain of the Catuvellauni tribe, Caratacus, fought with the Romans.[10]

The Dark Ages

Talgarth was the royal residence of Brychan King of Brycheiniog in the 5th century AD. With three wives, 24 daughters and 24 sons the family was an important force in Wales and responsible for the spread of Christianity throughout Brecknock.[11]

The Normans

The town (and Brycheiniog in general) was seized by the Norman Bernard of Neufmarché, who issued an undated charter concerning the district.[notes 1]

The town became part of Bernard's Lordship of Brecknock (a Marcher Lordship - an almost sovereign state). Castell Dinas was the initial site where a Norman castle was established by the Normans to control the passes on both sides. However, in the reign of King John, the then Lord fell out with the king, and the east of the Lordship was detached in punishment, forming a new Marcher Lordship of Blaenllynfi, ruled by someone else. Although the caput of the latter Lordship was officially Blaenllynfi Castle, Talgarth was its principal town, and the Lordship was sometimes called The Sub-Lordship of Talgarth as a result.[12]

The Lordship of Blaenllynfi eventually found its way back to the descendants of the last Welsh princes of Brycheiniog (in the person of Rhys ap Hywel.[13][14][15]

Rhys played a significant part in the implementation (though not the planning) of the final coup against Edward II, and consequently Edward's son, Edward III, was not naturally well disposed towards him; the latter dispossessed Rhys' heir, and merged the Lordship of Blaenllynfi back into the Lordship of Brecknock (which, with the Lordship of Buellt, eventually became Brecknockshire, centuries later).[16]

The Welsh Jacobites

During the Jacobite revival, support in Talgarth was strong. The town was a Jacobite hotspot, backing Bonnie Prince Charlie in his attempt to retake the Crown for the line of Stuart. In 1727 a meeting of local Jacobite sympathisers in Talgarth ended with members having to appear before a local magistrate to explain their actions.[17]

During the Jacobite rising of 1745 Bonnie Prince Charlie had expected the Welsh Jacobites to offer support, but after Jacobite, David Morgan from Penygraig, Quakers Yard was hanged, drawn and quartered for treason, the Welsh feared persecution. The failure of the Welsh Jacobites to join the House of Stuart Prince in Derby was one of the main failures of the Jacobite uprising.[18]

The Methodist revival

In 1735, Talgarth saw the birth of the Welsh Methodist revival when Howel Harris, probably the most influential person to come from Talgarth, was converted in Talgarth church while listening to a sermon by the Rev. Pryce Davies. The revival would sweep across Wales leading to the development of one of the most influential Welsh denominations, that of the Calvinistic Methodists. It was at Talgarth that William Williams Pantycelyn converted, leading him to become one of Wales' most important hymn writers. Nearby is Trevecca, the location of the famous college that Harris established. Hywel Harris is buried in Talgarth at St Gwendoline's Church and his tombstone is still visible today. Talgarth is also thought to be the birthplace of the religious poet Jane Cave.[19]

Buildings and other sites of note

• Talgarth Town Hall (1878) with a memorial clock tower, overlooking the Square.[20]
• Tower House, also overlooking the Square, now the location of the Tourist Information Centre. The present building is probably 18th century, but it may incorporate a 14th-century or later defensive tower. The tower was used as a prison or a lock-up.[21]
• The Tower Hotel was built in 1873 for the gentleman farmers to attend the livestock market.[22]
• St Gwendoline's Church, a grade II* listed building.[23]
• Nearby Bronllys Castle[24]

Talgarth Mill

Talgrath Mill is an 18th-century water mill in the centre of the town. In 2010 the mill, which had been unused since 1946, was fully restored using lottery funding to create the only working watermill in the Brecon Beacons National Park. The mill is run by volunteers as a community initiative and includes a bakery and a cafe, and sells locally made food and crafts.[25]

Railway station

Talgarth was served by a station on the Mid-Wales Railway. This has since closed.[26]

Chambered tomb – Penyrwrlodd

A Neolithic long cairn and chambered tomb at Penyrwrlodd, 2.5 km (1.6 mi) south of Talgarth was discovered in June 1972 by a farmer when clearing a stone mound from a field for use as hard-standing in the farmyard. The cairn measures 5 m by 22.5 m and a maximum 3 m high, and has been carbon dated to 3,900 BC, making it an early example of its type.[27] The discovery led to archaeological excavation of the site by Dr Savory of the National Museum of Wales. During the excavation a number of human remains were found along with a bone flute, a human rib and some worked flints and stone. The flute was made from a sheep metapodial bone, has three holes and may either have been a simple flute or whistle.[28]

The Old Post Office Museum

The former Post Office was restored in 2019.[29]

Outdoor activities

Gliding

The Black Mountains Gliding Club is based on the hillside to the southeast of the town. It operates year-round using mountain lift, ridge lift and wave lift mechanisms.[30]

Pony trekking

Talgarth's position next to the Black Mountains has meant that it was once a hive of pony trekking activity, with the sights of horses tied up outside numerous local pubs well into the 1990s. There remain a number of riding operators in the area who hire out horses for both experienced and novice riders.[31]

Walking

The Black Mountains above the town are used for upland hiking and hill-walking. The mountain ridges are around 2,000 feet high with the highest point called Waun Fach at 811 metres (2,661 ft). A walking festival based on the town and its hinterland was established in 2013. The event attracts visitors at the start of May each year.[5]

Landscape and natural history

Geology

The bedrock geology beneath Talgarth and the immediate neighbourhood consists of mudstones and siltstones together with occasional sandstones, which comprise a part of the lower Old Red Sandstone succession. The rocks directly beneath the town itself are assigned to the late Silurian / early Devonian age Raglan Mudstone Formation whilst higher ground to the south and east of the town is formed by the overlying St Maughan's Formation. At the boundary between these two formations is a thick unit of erosion resistant limestone which forms features in the courses of the River Ennig and other streams. Known traditionally as the Psammosteus Limestone, it was later referred to as the Bishop's Frome Limestone and more recently as the Chapel Point Limestone.[32] This and similar limestone beds in the area are examples of calcretes, effectively carbonate-rich fossil soils, formed over thousands of years at times of non-deposition of sand and mud. Fish fragments are abundant in some strata exposed in local streamsides.[33]

Within the Raglan Mudstone, and exposed in certain watercourses, is a distinctive rock layer known as the Townsend Tuff Bed, a tuff being a deposit of volcanic ash which has fallen from the sky, likely following a Plinian volcanic eruption in this instance.[34]

Pwll-y-Wrach

The woodland, which stretches along both banks of the River Ennig at Pwll-y-Wrach, to within 1 km (0.6 mi) of the town centre, is designated in part as a Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI) in respect of various uncommon plants including the small-leaved lime tree and the lesser butterfly-orchid, both regarded as indicators of ancient woodland. The Wildlife Trust of South and West Wales manage 17.5 hectares (43 acres) of the SSSI as a nature reserve. Rare species present include toothwort and bird's nest orchid. Initially smaller in extent, the reserve was established by the former Brecknock Wildlife Trust in 1984.[35] In spring, wildflowers include bluebells followed by ramsons. The wood is home to the most important colony of dormice in the region and is also home to the lesser horseshoe bat.[36]

There are a series of waterfalls within the wood, of which the largest is Pwll-y-Wrach formed by a cap of the Chapel Point Limestone overlying 10 m (33 ft) of siltstones. The name means 'witch's pool'.[37]

Governance

Talgarth has a Town Council representing the views of the community and has twelve community councillors.[38]

The Talgarth ward elects a county councillor to Powys County Council. Since May 2004 it had been represented by Liberal Democrat councillor, William Powell (who also sits on the Town Council). He was re-elected unopposed in 2008 and 2012.[39] Powell was also elected as an Assembly Member of the National Assembly for Wales in May 2011.[40]

2017 Powys County Council election[41]

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Liberal Democrats	William Denston Powell *	520	82.9%
	Labour	Ryan Dixon	95	15.2%
Turnout			627

In media

Filming

A number of films and dramas have been filmed in and around Talgarth, notably On the Black Hill. Others include Morgan's Boy, Nuts and Bolts (filmed at the old hospital), and Hearts of Gold (where the town was assumed to be Pontypridd).[42]

Books

Talgarth features as a location in Alfred Walter Stewart's 1931 novel The Boathouse Riddle, written under the pen name J. J. Connington.[43]

Town twinning

Pizzoferrato, Italy[44]

Notes

References

Bibliography

• Morgan, Richard (1999). A study of Breconshire Place Names. ISBN 0-86381-567-7.
• Remfry, Paul (2007). Castell Bwlch y Dinas and the families of Neufmarché, Hereford, Braose, Fitz Herbert, Mortimer and Talbot. ISBN 978-1-899376-79-7.
• Salter, Mike (2001). The Castles of Mid Wales. ISBN 1-871731-48-8.
• Williams, Roger (1996). Talgarth-Jewel of the Black Mountains. ISBN 1-874538-60-3.

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Talgarth.

• Talgarth Town Council website
• Talgarth and District Historical Society
• Photos of Talgarth and surrounding area on geograph
• Black Mountains Gliding club

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