Guilsfield ( cy, Cegidfa, " Hemlock-field") is a village and local government

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 ...

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 ...

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. It lies beside Guilsfield Brook about three miles north of

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 ...

. It is located on the B4392 road and a disused branch of the

Montgomery Canal The Montgomery Canal ( cy, Camlas Trefaldwyn), known colloquially as "The Monty", is a partially restored canal in eastern Powys and northwest Shropshire. The canal runs from the Llangollen Canal at Frankton Junction to Newtown via Llanym ...

starts nearby. The community has an area of and had a population of 1,640 in 2001.Davies, John; Nigel Jenkins, Menna Baines & Peredur I. Lynch (2008) ''The Welsh Academy Encyclopaedia of Wales'', University of Wales Press, Cardiff. rising to 1,727 in 2011. The community includes the villages of Burgedin and Groes-lwyd. The village itself had a population of about 1,220.

Name

The Welsh name of the village was first recorded in the 12th century as '. The English name was first recorded in 1278 as "Guildesfelde". It may be named after a person (i.e., "Gyldi's field") or could mean "gold field".

History

There are several large houses in the area including Maesmawr Hall which dates from 1692 and Trawscoed Hall from 1777. In 1862, a hoard of metalwork from the

late Bronze Age The Bronze Age is a historic period, lasting approximately from 3300 BC to 1200 BC, characterized by the use of bronze, the presence of writing in some areas, and other early features of urban civilization. The Bronze Age is the second pri ...

was discovered near the village. It contained over 120 pieces such as swords, spearheads, and axes.Barker, Louise (2008)
Guilsfield Hoard
', Coflein.

Church

The

parish A parish is a territorial entity in many Christian denominations, constituting a division within a diocese. A parish is under the pastoral care and clerical jurisdiction of a priest, often termed a parish priest, who might be assisted by one or m ...

church is dedicated to Saint Aelhaiarn, but has sometimes been erroneously recorded as dedicated to

Saint Giles Saint Giles (, la, Aegidius, french: Gilles), also known as Giles the Hermit, was a hermit or monk active in the lower Rhône most likely in the 6th century. Revered as a saint, his cult became widely diffused but his hagiography is mostly lege ...

, All Saints, and

Saint Tysilio Saint Tysilio (also known as/confused with Saint Suliac; la, Tysilius, Suliacus; died 640 AD) was a Welsh bishop, prince and scholar, son of the reigning King of Powys, Brochwel Ysgithrog, maternal nephew of the great Abbot Dunod of Bangor ...

.Baring-Gould, Sabine & al
''The Lives of the British Saints: The Saints of Wales and Cornwall and Such Irish Saints as Have Dedications in Britain'', Vol. I, pp. 101 ff
Chas. Clark (London), 1908. Hosted at Archive.org. Accessed 18 Nov 2014. The tower of the present church dates to about 1300. Although the feast of Saint Aelhaiarn is recorded as 2 November, his local fair was traditionally held six days later on the 8th.

Sport

Guilsfield has a

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kicking a ball to score a goal. Unqualified, the word ''football'' normally means the form of football that is the most popular where the word is used. Sports commonly c ...

team, Guilsfield F.C., which plays in the

Cymru North The Cymru North is a regional football league in Wales, covering the northern half of the country. It has clubs with semi-professional status and together with the Cymru South, it forms the second tier of the Welsh football league system. The f ...

league.

References

Villages in Powys {{Powys-geo-stub

Name

History

Church

Sport

See also

References