•  Abaty Cwm Hir, Radnorshire

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In 1870-72, John Marius Wilson's Imperial Gazetteer of England and Wales described Abaty Cwm Hir like this:

ABBEY-CWM-HIR, a parochial chapelry in Rhayader district, Radnor; 6 miles NNW of the Central Wales railway below Penybont, and 6½ ENE of Rhayader. Post Town, Penybont. Acres, 10,965. Pop. 537. Houses, 96. The name signifies the Abbey of the Long Vale. The surface lies along the Clywedog, a tributary of the Ithon; and is a charming, fertile bottom, environed and overhung by picturesque wooded hills. ...

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A Cistertian Abbey was founded here, in 1143, by Cadwathelan ap Madoc; and destroyed, in 1401, by Owen Glendower. The property belonged, in the 17th century, to Sir Wm. Fowler, concerning whom it was said,-

There is neither a park nor a deer
To be seen in all Radnorshire,
Nor a man with five hundred a year
Save Fowler of Abbey-Cwm-Hir.

The Abbey church was 255 feet long and 73 feet wide but only a few fragments of it remain. The mansion of F. Philips, Esq., partly built with the stones of the church in 1816, stands adjacent. A Roman road goes up the vale past the Abbey, toward the valley of the Marteg. The living of Abbey-Cwm-Hir is a vicarage in the diocese of St David's. Value, £61. Patron, G. H. Philips, Esq. The church was rebuilt in 1867, and is in the Continental first pointed style.

Abaty Cwm Hir through time

Abaty Cwm Hir is now part of Powys district. Click here for graphs and data of how Powys has changed over two centuries. For statistics about Abaty Cwm Hir itself, go to Units and Statistics.

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