Bronllys is a village and

community A community is a social unit (a group of living things) with commonality such as place, norms, religion, values, customs, or identity. Communities may share a sense of place situated in a given geographical area (e.g. a country, villag ...

Powys Powys (; ) is a Local government in Wales#Principal areas, county and Preserved counties of Wales, preserved county in Wales. It is named after the Kingdom of Powys which was a Welsh succession of states, successor state, petty kingdom and princi ...

, Wales between the nearby towns

Brecon Brecon (; cy, Aberhonddu; ), archaically known as Brecknock, is a market town in Powys, mid Wales. In 1841, it had a population of 5,701. The population in 2001 was 7,901, increasing to 8,250 at the 2011 census. Historically it was the coun ...

and Talgarth. Bronllys is also the name of an electoral ward to Powys County Council. The community includes Llyswen.

Description

The village is in the historic county of Brecknockshire (Breconshire). It has recently benefited from a new bypass as part of the Talgarth Relief Road and Bronllys Bypass scheme. Despite being a small village it has a swimming pool and small leisure centre, post office and hospital.

Bronllys Castle

Bronllys Castle is a

motte and bailey A motte-and-bailey castle is a European fortification with a wooden or stone keep situated on a raised area of ground called a motte, accompanied by a walled courtyard, or bailey, surrounded by a protective ditch and palisade. Relatively easy t ...

fortress standing south of the village, towards Talgarth. The castle was founded in or soon after 1100, by

Richard Fitz Pons Richard Fitz Pons ( 1080 – 1129) was an Anglo-Norman nobleman, active as a marcher lord on the border with Wales. He is described as a follower of Bernard de Neufmarché, and probably first builder of Bronllys Castle. He started construction at ...

, the owner of the adjacent Herefordshire barony of Clifford, who was a supporter of

Bernard of Neufmarché Bernard (''Bernhard Bernhard is both a given name and a surname. Notable people with the name include: Given name *Bernhard of Saxe-Weimar (1604–1639), Duke of Saxe-Weimar *Bernhard, Prince of Saxe-Meiningen (1901–1984), head of the House ...

, Lord of Brecknock (in which the land around Bronllys fell). Richard's castle was of the motte-and-bailey design, but only wooden. In 1521, the year the castle became a crown property, the antiquarian John Leland went to inspect it, reporting that it had fallen into great disrepair; by 1583 the disrepair was substantially worse. It is now in the care of

Cadw (, a Welsh verbal noun meaning "keeping/preserving") is the historic environment service of the Welsh Government and part of the Tourism and Culture group. works to protect the historic buildings and structures, the landscapes and heritage ...

, the arm of the Welsh Assembly charged with care of historic monuments and is open to the public between April and October.

Bedo Brwynllys

The minor Welsh bard Bedo Brwynllys lived in Bronllys in the 15th century. His poetry is characteristic of a follower or imitator of Dafydd ap Gwilym and is mainly love poetry or religious poetry and some eulogistic poems such as his elegy for Sir Richard Herbert of Coldbrook, written in 1469.

Governance

An electoral ward in the same name exists. This ward includes Erwood and at the 2011 Census had a total population of 1,282. The ward elects a county councillor to Powys County Council.

References

*Remfry, P.M., ''The Castles of Breconshire'' ogaston, 1999

External links

www.geograph.co.uk : photos of Bronllys and surrounding area
{{authority control Villages in Powys Cadw Castles in Powys Communities in Powys Wards of Powys