Three Cocks or () is a village near

Glasbury Glasbury ( cy, Y Clas-ar-Wy), also known as Glasbury-on-Wye, is a village and community in Powys, Wales. The village lies at an important crossing point on the River Wye, connecting the historic counties of Brecknockshire and Radnorshire, and is ...

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. The Welsh name refers to the mouth of the Afon Llynfi which enters the River Wye a mile from the village. The nearest town is

Hay-on-Wye Hay-on-Wye ( cy, Y Gelli Gandryll), simply known locally as "Hay" ( cy, Y Gelli), is a market town and community in Powys, Wales; it was historically in the county of Brecknockshire. With over twenty bookshops, it is often described as "the to ...

some 5 miles (8.5 km) to the North East.

Aberllynfi parish

Aberllynfi was once a separate ecclesiastical

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 o ...

, but its church fell into disuse in the 18th century. The curious English name of the village is comparatively recent and was taken from the former railway station ( Three Cocks Junction, now a garden centre) where the

Hereford, Hay and Brecon Railway The Hereford, Hay and Brecon Railway (HH&BR) was a railway company that built a line between Hereford in England and a junction with the Mid-Wales Railway at Three Cocks Junction. It opened its line in stages from 1862 to 1864. It never had enoug ...

met the

Mid-Wales Railway The Mid-Wales Railway was conceived as a trunk route through Wales connecting industrial areas in north west England with sea ports in south west Wales. The company was prevented from reaching its goal by competing proposals in Parliament, and i ...

. The station derived its name from the 15th century Three Cocks Inn (a coaching inn, still extant) which in turn took its name from the

armorial bearings A coat of arms is a heraldic visual design on an escutcheon (i.e., shield), surcoat, or tabard (the latter two being outer garments). The coat of arms on an escutcheon forms the central element of the full heraldic achievement, which in it ...

of former local landowners, the Williams family of Old Gwernyfed. These were supposed to have been based on the arms of the medieval Welsh prince Einon Sais, who lived in Aberllynfi, but this is probably a later invention. The station, together with all the services which ran through it, was closed in December 1962. Thomas Edwards, a former innkeeper of the Three Cocks, was also a bridge-builder, constructing the 7-arch Glasbury Bridge in 1777 (destroyed by floods in 1795) and rebuilding the 3-arch bridge over the Llynfi at Pont Ithel in 1783.

Gwernyfed

The original house and deer park of Old Gwernyfed (), to the south of the village, is of medieval origin, but the house was extensively rebuilt in the 17th century. In 1600 it was purchased by Sir David Williams, MP for the Borough of Brecon (1584–93, 1597–1604). In 1613, it was inherited by his son, Sir Henry Williams, MP for the Borough of Brecon (1601–04) and for

Breconshire , image_flag= , HQ= Brecon , Government= Brecknockshire County Council (1889-1974) , Origin= Brycheiniog , Status= , Start= 1535 , End= ...

(1620–28). His son, also Sir Henry Williams, was also MP for Breconshire (1628–29). On 6 August 1645, he was said to have entertained King Charles I at Gwernyfed, following Charles' defeat at the

Battle of Naseby The Battle of Naseby took place on 14 June 1645 during the First English Civil War, near the village of Naseby in Northamptonshire. The Parliamentarian New Model Army, commanded by Sir Thomas Fairfax and Oliver Cromwell, destroyed the main ...

. Curiously, Sir Edward Williams was not a relation (despite his surname), but married the family heiress in 1675. This seems to have ensured that he too became MP for Breconshire (1697–98, 1705–21). In 1776, Thomas Wood also married the family heiress. Their son, Thomas Wood, was MP for Breconshire for forty-one years (1806–47). He enjoyed the friendship of members of the royal family and

King George IV George IV (George Augustus Frederick; 12 August 1762 – 26 June 1830) was King of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland and King of Hanover from the death of his father, King George III, on 29 January 1820, until his own death ten ye ...

visited him at Old Gwernyfed. The house is now a grade I listed building. Gwernyfed Park, a much later Jacobean-style house within the deer park, was built for Captain Thomas Wood by

William Eden Nesfield William Eden Nesfield (2 April 1835 – 25 March 1888) was an English architect. Like his some-time partner, Richard Norman Shaw, he designed several houses in Britain in the revived 'Old English' and 'Queen Anne' styles during the 1860s and 1 ...

in the 1870s. During the Second World War, it was requisitioned and used by the

South Wales Borderers The South Wales Borderers was a line infantry regiment of the British Army in existence for 280 years. It came into existence in England in 1689, as Sir Edward Dering's Regiment of Foot, and afterwards had a variety of names and headquarters. I ...

. Since 1950, it has formed part of Gwernyfed High School. A

rugby union Rugby union, commonly known simply as rugby, is a close-contact team sport that originated at Rugby School in the first half of the 19th century. One of the two codes of rugby football, it is based on running with the ball in hand. In it ...

club, Gwernyfed RFC, was founded at the school in the 1960s, but now plays at and represents the nearby town of

Talgarth Talgarth is a market town, community and electoral ward in southern Powys, Mid Wales, about north of Crickhowell, north-east of Brecon and south-east of Builth Wells. Notable buildings in the town include the 14th-century parish church and ...

. Gwernyfed Park is now a grade II* listed building. Following local government reorganization in 1974, Aberllynfi has been placed in 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, ...

of Gwernyfed, together with the neighbouring village of Felindre and the southern part of the village of Glasbury. File:Three Cocks Junction railway station, 1960.jpg, File:Three Cocks Junction Station geograph-2175115.jpg, File:The Three Cocks Hotel - geograph.org.uk - 1471174.jpg, File:Old Gwernfed, Velindre - geograph.org.uk - 61914.jpg,

References

External links

Photos of Aberllynfi and surrounding area on geograph
{{authority control Villages in Powys