Llanwddyn () 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, ...

Montgomeryshire , HQ= Montgomery , Government= Montgomeryshire County Council (1889–1974)Montgomeryshire District Council (1974–1996) , Origin= , Status= , Start= , End= ...

Powys Powys (; ) is a county and preserved county in Wales. It is named after the Kingdom of Powys which was a Welsh successor state, petty kingdom and principality that emerged during the Middle Ages following the end of Roman rule in Britain. Geog ...

Wales Wales ( cy, Cymru ) is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is bordered by England to the east, the Irish Sea to the north and west, the Celtic Sea to the south west and the Bristol Channel to the south. It had a population in ...

. The community is centred on the

Lake Vyrnwy , image = Lakevyrnwysummer.jpg , caption = View overlooking Lake Vyrnwy showing the full extent of the lake , image_bathymetry = , pushpin_map=Wales Powys , caption_bathymetry = , location = Wales , c ...

reservoir. The original Llanwddyn village, about northwest, was submerged when the reservoir was created in the 1880s.

Geography

Llanwddyn borders the county of Gwynedd to the northeast, with the Powys communities of

Llangynog Llangynog (; ) is a village and community at the confluence of the Afon Eirth and the Afon Tanat at the foot of the Berwyn range in north Powys (previously Montgomeryshire), Wales. It lies at the foot of the Milltir Cerrig mountain pass on t ...

and Pen-y-Bont-Fawr to the northwest,

Llanfihangel-yng-Ngwynfa Llanfihangel-yng-Ngwynfa () was a parish within the former historic county of Montgomeryshire. It now forms a major part of the community of Llanfihangel in Powys, which covers an area of . Its Community Council extends to take in Dolanog and Ll ...

to the south east and

Banwy Banwy is a community in northwest Montgomeryshire, Powys, Wales, named after the River Banwy and also called ''Banw'' in Welsh. The community with the villages of Llangadfan and Foel, also called Garthbeibio. It is a sparsely populated area centr ...

to the southwest. The community is sparsely populated, but includes the village of Abertridwr as well as the new village of Llanwddyn. According to the 2011 census the community had 99 occupied households and a population of 257, with only 84 of the residents born in Wales. This is a 17% decrease since the 310 people noted in 2001. In 2011, only 38% of the population could speak Welsh, a decline from 60% in 2001.

Lake Vyrnwy

The main feature of the community is the reservoir, which drowned the original village when it was created in the 1880s. Building the dam, Llanwddyn NLW3361924

Climate

History

By the mid-19th century the village of Llanwddyn consisted of thirty seven houses, a church and two chapels, three pubs and several shops. The population of the parish had dropped from 668 in 1831 to 443 in 1871. In 1873 the local vicar, Reverend Thomas H. Evans, published a mass of information about Llanwddyn in Volume VI of the ''Montgomeryshire Collections''. He described the abundance of water with, for example, one third of the valley being regularly under water during the winter. In 1877 the expanding English city of

Liverpool Liverpool is a city and metropolitan borough in Merseyside, England. With a population of in 2019, it is the 10th largest English district by population and its metropolitan area is the fifth largest in the United Kingdom, with a populat ...

identified the Vyrnwy Valley as a suitable site for a reservoir to supply fresh water to its citizens. A parliamentary bill was drawn up to authorise the construction of a dam and reservoir. The population of Llanwddyn were not consulted, though they presented a signed petition against the proposals. The

Liverpool Corporation Waterworks Liverpool Corporation Waterworks and its successors have provided a public water supply and sewerage and sewage treatment services to the city of Liverpool, England. In 1625 water was obtained from a single well and delivered by cart, but as the t ...

Act was passed in 1880 and construction of a dam across the valley began in 1881. It took seven years to complete. The old village was demolished, the valley flooded, and the water reached the lip of the dam on 22 November 1889. A new village was constructed below the dam to house the original residents. It included a church, dedicated to St Wddyn, which was consecrated on 27 November 1888, the day before the valve of the dam was finally closed. A hydroelectric power plant was built for the village in 1902. The reservoir brought jobs and relative prosperity to the community, with the population remaining relatively stable for the next 70 years. In 1974, ownership of the estate passed from the Liverpool Corporation to the Severn Trent Water Authority .

Governance

Llanwddyn has a

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 up to seven locally elected councillors. Llanwddyn also gives its name to the Llanwddyn electoral ward which elects a councillor 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 Govern ...

. At the May 2017 council election Bryn Davies won Llanwddyn as

Plaid Cymru Plaid Cymru ( ; ; officially Plaid Cymru – the Party of Wales, often referred to simply as Plaid) is a centre-left to left-wing, Welsh nationalist political party in Wales, committed to Welsh independence from the United Kingdom. Plaid wa ...

's first seat on Powys Council.

References

External links

Llanwddyn Community Council
{{authority control Former villages in Wales