Forden ( cy, Ffordun) is a village near

Welshpool Welshpool ( cy, Y Trallwng) is a market town and community in Powys, Wales, historically in the county of Montgomeryshire. The town is from the Wales–England border and low-lying on the River Severn; its Welsh language name ''Y Trallwng'' m ...

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 Wales ( cy, Cymru ) is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is bordered by England to the Wales–England border, east, the Irish Sea to the north and west, the Celtic Sea to the south west and the ...

, formerly in the historic county of

Montgomeryshire Montgomeryshire, also known as ''Maldwyn'' ( cy, Sir Drefaldwyn meaning "the Shire of Baldwin's town"), is one of thirteen historic counties of Wales, historic counties and a former administrative county of Wales. It is named after its county tow ...

. It forms part of the

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 ...

(and community council) of Forden, Leighton and Trelystan with the neighbouring settlements of

Trelystan Trelystan is a remote parish and Townships in Montgomeryshire, township on the border of the historic county of Montgomeryshire with Shropshire. Trelystan now forms part of the community of Forden, Leighton and Trelystan in Powys. Trelystan was a c ...

, Leighton and Kingswood. Looking down on the parish is the Long Mountain, which stretches north eastwards from Forden through the border between Montgomeryshire and

Shropshire Shropshire (; alternatively Salop; abbreviated in print only as Shrops; demonym Salopian ) is a landlocked historic county in the West Midlands region of England. It is bordered by Wales to the west and the English counties of Cheshire to th ...

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

History

Traces of a

Roman road Roman roads ( la, viae Romanae ; singular: ; meaning "Roman way") were physical infrastructure vital to the maintenance and development of the Roman state, and were built from about 300 BC through the expansion and consolidation of the Roman Re ...

and of a Roman camp called locally "the Gaer" are near the

River Severn , name_etymology = , image = SevernFromCastleCB.JPG , image_size = 288 , image_caption = The river seen from Shrewsbury Castle , map = RiverSevernMap.jpg , map_size = 288 , map_c ...

, in a township of the parish called Thornbury.'Forden', in Samuel Lewis, ''A Topographical Dictionary of Wales'' (1833) In 1868, the ''National Gazetteer'' said of the parish The

parish church A parish church (or parochial church) in Christianity is the church which acts as the religious centre of a parish. In many parts of the world, especially in rural areas, the parish church may play a significant role in community activities, ...

of St Michael and All Angels, about half a mile to the west of the road from Welshpool to Montgomery, was enlarged in 1830. For some three hundred years the church was the burial-place of the family of Devereux, whose estate at

Nantcribba Nantcribba is a township in the parish of Forden in the historic county of Montgomeryshire and now in Powys It is also the site of Nantcribba Castle which was built by the Corbett, Barons of Caus, of Caus Castle in Shropshire. To the south of th ...

was within the parish. The marble

font In metal typesetting, a font is a particular size, weight and style of a typeface. Each font is a matched set of type, with a piece (a "sort") for each glyph. A typeface consists of a range of such fonts that shared an overall design. In mod ...

, oval in shape, was presented in 1794 by Richard Edmunds. Between 1861 and 1965 the village was served by

Forden railway station Forden railway station was a station in Forden, Powys, Wales. The station was opened on 10 June 1861 by the Oswestry and Newtown Railway on the section of line between Welshpool and Newtown. The station originally had a single platform on the ...

on the

Cambrian Coast Line The Cambrian Line ( cy, Llinell y Cambrian), also known as the Cambrian Main Line ( cy, Prif Linell y Cambrian) and Cambrian Coast Line ( cy, Llinell Arfordir y Cambrian), is a railway line that runs from Shrewsbury, England, westwards to Aber ...

Governance

rural district Rural districts were a type of local government area – now superseded – established at the end of the 19th century in England, Wales, and Ireland for the administration of predominantly rural areas at a level lower than that of the Ad ...

of Forden was created by the

Local Government Act 1894 The Local Government Act 1894 (56 & 57 Vict. c. 73) was an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom that reformed local government in England and Wales outside the County of London. The Act followed the reforms carried out at county level un ...

and survived until 1974. All significant

local government Local government is a generic term for the lowest tiers of public administration within a particular sovereign state. This particular usage of the word government refers specifically to a level of administration that is both geographically-loca ...

services are now provided by the

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 ...

unitary authority A unitary authority is a local authority responsible for all local government functions within its area or performing additional functions that elsewhere are usually performed by a higher level of sub-national government or the national governmen ...

. There is also a Forden with Leighton and Trelystan

community council A community council is a public representative body in Great Britain. In England they may be statutory parish councils by another name, under the Local Government and Public Involvement in Health Act 2007, or they may be non-statutory bodies. In ...

, which has a mostly consultative role. Until 2022 Forden was the name of the

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 ...

, coterminous with the Forden with Leighton and Trelystan community. The ward was represented on Powys County Council by one county councillor, who was an

Independent Independent or Independents may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Artist groups * Independents (artist group), a group of modernist painters based in the New Hope, Pennsylvania, area of the United States during the early 1930s * Independ ...

since 1995, with the exception of 2004-2008 when a

Liberal Democrat Several political party, political parties from around the world have been called the Liberal Democratic Party or Liberal Democrats. These parties usually follow a liberal democracy, liberal democratic ideology. Active parties Former parties ...

candidate was adopted. Generally a single candidate stood, with no election necessary. Following a boundary review, in 2022 the Forden and Montgomery wards merged to become 'Forden and Montgomery'.

Green Party A green party is a formally organized political party based on the principles of green politics, such as social justice, environmentalism and nonviolence. Greens believe that these issues are inherently related to one another as a foundation ...

candidate, Jeremy Thorp, won the seat at the 2022 Powys Council election.The councillor is not to be confused with Liberal Party leader

Jeremy Thorpe John Jeremy Thorpe (29 April 1929 – 4 December 2014) was a British politician who served as the Member of Parliament for North Devon from 1959 to 1979, and as leader of the Liberal Party from 1967 to 1976. In May 1979 he was tried at th ...

. For the purposes of the

Senedd The Senedd (; ), officially known as the Welsh Parliament in English and () in Welsh, is the devolved, unicameral legislature of Wales. A democratically elected body, it makes laws for Wales, agrees certain taxes and scrutinises the Welsh Gove ...

, Forden is part of the Montgomeryshire constituency and the Mid and West Wales electoral region. The parish forms part of the

parliamentary constituency and in the

House of Commons The House of Commons is the name for the elected lower house of the bicameral parliaments of the United Kingdom and Canada. In both of these countries, the Commons holds much more legislative power than the nominally upper house of parliament. ...

of the

UK Parliament The Parliament of the United Kingdom is the supreme legislative body of the United Kingdom, the Crown Dependencies and the British Overseas Territories. It meets at the Palace of Westminster, London. It alone possesses legislative supremac ...

Forden station (remains) geograph-3523193-by-Ben-Brooksbank

Sport

The village is represented by Forden United who play at the community centre.

References

{{authority control Historic Montgomeryshire Parishes Villages in Powys Former wards of Powys