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, village, tow ...

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 Talgarth is a market town, community and electoral ward in southern Powys, Mid Wales, about north of Crickhowell, north-east of Brecon and south-east of Builth Wells. Notable buildings in the town include the 14th-century parish church and a ...

. Bronllys is also the name of an electoral ward to

Powys County Council Powys County Council ( cy, Cyngor Sir Powys) is the local authority for Powys, one of the administrative areas of Wales. The County Hall is in Llandrindod Wells. History The county of Powys was created on 1 April 1974 under the Local Governme ...

. The community includes

Llyswen Llyswen is a small village in Powys, Wales on the west bank of the River Wye. It was formerly within the county of Brecknockshire and now forms part of the Community of Bronllys. The nearest town is Brecon approximately to the south-west. Hi ...

Description

The village is in the historic county of

Brecknockshire , image_flag= , HQ= Brecon , Government= Brecknockshire County Council (1889-1974) , Origin= Brycheiniog , Status= , Start= 1535 , End= ...

(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 (castle), bailey, surrounded by a protective Rampart (fortification ...

fortress standing south of the village, towards

. 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 s ...

, 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 In Celtic cultures, a bard is a professional story teller, verse-maker, music composer, oral historian and genealogist, employed by a patron (such as a monarch or chieftain) to commemorate one or more of the patron's ancestors and to praise t ...

Bedo Brwynllys Bedo Brwynllys (fl. c. 1460) was a Welsh language, Welsh-language poet or bard. Life He lived in the Bronllys area near Talgarth in Brycheiniog. Bedo was a love poet in the tradition of Dafydd ap Gwilym whose work is sometimes mis-assigned to Bed ...

lived in Bronllys in the 15th century. His poetry is characteristic of a follower or imitator of

Dafydd ap Gwilym Dafydd ap Gwilym ( 1315/1320 – 1350/1370) is regarded as one of the leading Welsh poets and amongst the great poets of Europe in the Middle Ages. Life R. Geraint Gruffydd suggests 1315- 1350 as the poet's dates; others place him a little ...

and is mainly love poetry or religious poetry and some eulogistic poems such as his elegy for

Sir Richard Herbert Sir Richard Herbert (died 1510) of Ewyas, Herefordshire, was a Welsh knight, gentleman, landowner, and courtier. He was an illegitimate son of William Herbert, 1st Earl of Pembroke (1423–1469), and Maud ap Howell Graunt, a daughter of Adam a ...

of Coldbrook, written in 1469.

Governance

electoral ward A ward is a local authority area, typically used for electoral purposes. In some countries, wards are usually named after neighbourhoods, thoroughfares, parishes, landmarks, geographical features and in some cases historical figures connected to t ...

in the same name exists. This ward includes

Erwood Erwood ( cy, Erwyd) is a village and community lying beside the River Wye, on the A470 road some 6 miles south-east of Builth Wells in Powys, Wales. The population of the community taken at the 2011 census was 429. It is in the historic county ...

and at the 2011 Census had a total population of 1,282. The ward elects a county councillor to

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