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Knucklas ( cy, Cnwclas, meaning "green hillock") is a village in Powys, 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, just off the B4355 road and is served by Knucklas railway station on the Heart of Wales Line. 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 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 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, 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 in 1865 and recorded in an engraving from the Illustrated London News.


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 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.


Further reading

*Noble, F. (1955): "The Bronze Age gold torcs from Heyope". ''Transactions of th
Radnorshire Society
', 25, pp. 34–38.


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


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