In 1870-72, John Marius Wilson's Imperial Gazetteer of England and Wales described New Radnor like this:
RADNOR (New), a town and a parish in Presteigne district, Radnorshire. The town stands on the river Somergill, under Radnor forest, 6½ miles W N W of Kington r. station, and 7 W S W of Presteigne; is known to the Welsh as Maes-Hyved, signifying the "imbibingmeadow, " and alluding to the occasional absorption of the Somergill river in the neighbouring soil; was once aplace of great importance, with a border castle; was theplace where Archbishop Baldwin and Giraldus Cambren-sis commenced their crusade-mission in 1188; continued to be of so much importance in the time of Henry VIII., as then to give its name to the newly constituted countyaround it; was, for some time, a seat of assizes and a market-town; fell so far into decay as to have its chiefbusiness, of every kind, transferred to Presteigne; is aborough by prescription, governed under charter of Elizabeth, by a bailiff, two aldermen, and other officers; uniteswith Presteigne, Rhayader, Knighton, Knuckles, and Cefnllys, in sending a member to parliament; gives the title of Earl to the family of Bouverie; is a seat of sessions and a polling-place; consists now chiefly of one irregularly-built street, with many dilapidated cottages; and has a head post-office, ‡ an inn, a town hall, a smallborough jail, a memorial cross, a church, a dissentingchapel, an endowed school with £15 a year, charities £12, and fairs on 14 Aug. ...
and 28 Oct. The castle was built by the Mortimers, occupied early by the Welsh, and demolished by King John; was re-built by the English, taken in 1231 by the Welsh, burnt in 1263 by Llewelyn ap Grufydd, and finally destroyed in 1401 by Owen Glendower; and is now represented only by amound. The memorial cross was erected in 1864, to thememory of Sir G.Lewis; has somewhat the form ofan Eleanor cross, but is more solid; and consists of threestages, rising from a stepped base, and crowned by aspire. The church stands on the side of a hill, was re-built by Dean Merewether, and has a tower. The borough includes the parishes of New Radnor and Llan-fihangel-nant-Mellan, and parts of the parishes of Old Radnor, Llandegley, and Cascob. Pop. in 1851, 2, 345; in 1861, 2, 262. Houses, 466. The parish includes part of the township of Upper Harpton, and comprises 3, 342acres. Real property, exclusive of the part of Upper Harpton, £1, 769. Pop., exc. of that part, 463. Houses, 97. Pop. of the whole, 490. Houses, 100. The property is not much divided. Downton House is the seat of Sir E. Cockburn. A picturesque waterfall of 70 feet, called Water-break-its-neck, is about a mile from the town. The living is a rectory in the diocese of Hereford. Value, £304.* Patron, the Lord Chancellor.
New Radnor through time
New Radnor is now part of Powys district. Click here for graphs and data of how Powys has changed over two centuries. For statistics about New Radnor itself, go to Units and Statistics.
GB Historical GIS / University of Portsmouth, History of New Radnor, in Powys and Radnorshire | Map and description, A Vision of Britain through Time.
URL: https://www.visionofbritain.org.uk/place/8392
Date accessed: 27th April 2024
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