Knucklas ( cy, Cnwclas, meaning "green hillock") is a village in

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, previously

Radnorshire , HQ = Presteigne , Government = Radnorshire County Council (1889–1974) Radnorshire District Council (1974–1996) , Origin = , Status = historic county, administrative county , Start ...

. It lies in the upper valley of the

River Teme The River Teme (pronounced ; cy, Afon Tefeidiad) rises in Mid Wales, south of Newtown, and flows southeast roughly forming the border between England and Wales for several miles through Knighton before entering England in the vicinity of B ...

, just off the

B4355 road B roads are numbered routes in Great Britain of lesser importance than A roads. See the article Great Britain road numbering scheme The Great Britain road numbering scheme is a numbering scheme used to classify and identify all roads in Gre ...

and is served by

Knucklas railway station , symbol_location = gb , symbol = rail , image = Knucklas station - geograph.org.uk - 3075846.jpg , borough = Knucklas, Powys , country = Wales , coordinates = , grid_name ...

on the

Heart of Wales Line The Heart of Wales line ( cy, Llinell Calon Cymru) is a railway line running from Craven Arms in Shropshire to Llanelli in southwest Wales. It serves a number of rural centres, including the nineteenth-century spa towns Llandrindod Wells, Llanga ...

. It is approximately from the market town of Knighton.

Notable landmarks

The Castle Mound

A protected ancient monument in the care of Knucklas Castle Community Land Project and listed by

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 ...

, it is the site of a castle believed to have been built by the Mortimers in about 1220–25. It consisted of a square stone

keep A keep (from the Middle English ''kype'') is a type of fortified tower built within castles during the Middle Ages by European nobility. Scholars have debated the scope of the word ''keep'', but usually consider it to refer to large towers in c ...

with four round towers, sited on top of a steep hill. There is some evidence that there may have been further outer walls. It was captured by a Welsh army in 1262, which destroyed the defences. Below the castle lies the battlefield of the Battle of Beguildy thought to have been fought between the Welsh and the

Mortimer Mortimer () is an English surname, and occasionally a given name. Norman origins The surname Mortimer has a Norman origin, deriving from the village of Mortemer, Seine-Maritime, Normandy. A Norman castle existed at Mortemer from an early point; ...

family of

Norman Norman or Normans may refer to: Ethnic and cultural identity * The Normans, a people partly descended from Norse Vikings who settled in the territory of Normandy in France in the 10th and 11th centuries ** People or things connected with the Norm ...

Marcher Lords A Marcher lord () was a noble appointed by the king of England to guard the border (known as the Welsh Marches) between England and Wales. A Marcher lord was the English equivalent of a margrave (in the Holy Roman Empire) or a marquis (in Fra ...

in 1146. The castle was attacked and destroyed by the forces of

Owain Glyndŵr Owain ap Gruffydd (), commonly known as Owain Glyndŵr or Glyn Dŵr (, anglicised as Owen Glendower), was a Welsh leader, soldier and military commander who led a 15 year long Welsh War of Independence with the aim of ending English rule in Wa ...

in 1402 during his rebellion. Whilst there is a romantic story associating the castle location with the marriage of

Guinevere Guinevere ( ; cy, Gwenhwyfar ; br, Gwenivar, kw, Gwynnever), also often written in Modern English as Guenevere or Guenever, was, according to Arthurian legend, an early-medieval queen of Great Britain and the wife of King Arthur. First ment ...

and

King Arthur King Arthur ( cy, Brenin Arthur, kw, Arthur Gernow, br, Roue Arzhur) is a legendary king of Britain, and a central figure in the medieval literary tradition known as the Matter of Britain. In the earliest traditions, Arthur appears as a ...

, this probably developed from an earlier story, which suggested that a marriage took place between

Gwenhwyfar Guinevere ( ; cy, Gwenhwyfar ; br, Gwenivar, kw, Gwynnever), also often written in Modern English as Guenevere or Guenever, was, according to Arthurian legend, an early-medieval queen of Great Britain and the wife of King Arthur. First men ...

, the daughter of Ogrfan Gawr (also called 'Gogrfan Gawr "the Giant" of Castell y Cnwclas' – Knucklas Castle), and Arthur the warrior – there being no reference to Arthur as a king in the early Welsh texts.

The Viaduct

The spectacular 13-arch span was completed by the

Central Wales Railway The Heart of Wales line ( cy, Llinell Calon Cymru) is a railway line running from Craven Arms in Shropshire to Llanelli in southwest Wales. It serves a number of rural centres, including the nineteenth-century spa towns Llandrindod Wells, Llang ...

in 1865 and recorded in an engraving from the

Illustrated London News ''The Illustrated London News'' appeared first on Saturday 14 May 1842, as the world's first illustrated weekly news magazine. Founded by Herbert Ingram, it appeared weekly until 1971, then less frequently thereafter, and ceased publication in ...

Heyope

Thre
Bronze Age torcs
were found here and declared treasure in 1991. They are now housed in the National Museum, Cardiff.http://www.museumwales.ac.uk/en/cardiff/ 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 David was built in 1882, on the site of a medieval church. The

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 ...

dates from the 15th century.Evans, A. T. D. (2008) ''Border Wanderings'', p. 116. The longest-burning tyre fire in British history occurred in Heyope, lasting 13 years from 1989 to 2001.

Notable people

Vavasor Powell Vavasor (or Vavasour) Powell (161727 October 1670) was a Welsh Nonconformist Puritan preacher, evangelist, church leader and writer, who was imprisoned for his role in a plot to depose King Charles II. Early life Powell was born in Knuck ...

(1617–1670), Nonconformist Puritan preacher, evangelist, church leader and writer, who was imprisoned for his role in a plot to depose King Charles II. * Malcolm Page (born 1947), former footballer with 350 club caps and 28 for

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 ...

References

External links

Useful Archaeological RecordsPhotos of Knucklas and surrounding area on geograph.org.ukPhoto of Arriva Trains Wales Class 153 Passing over Knucklas Viaduct

Video of Knucklas castleVideo of Knucklas viaduct
{{authority control Villages in Powys