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Crickhowell

Coordinates: 51°51′35″N 3°08′14″W / 51.8597°N 3.1372°W / 51.8597; -3.1372
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Crickhowell
Crickhowell Market Hall and the Lucas Memorial Fountain
Crickhowell is located in Powys
Crickhowell
Crickhowell
Location within Powys
Population2,063 (2011)[1]
OS grid referenceSO217186
Principal area
Preserved county
CountryWales
Sovereign stateUnited Kingdom
Post townCRICKHOWELL
Postcode districtNP8
Dialling code01873
PoliceDyfed-Powys
FireMid and West Wales
AmbulanceWelsh
UK Parliament
Senedd Cymru – Welsh Parliament
List of places
UK
Wales
Powys
51°51′35″N 3°08′14″W / 51.8597°N 3.1372°W / 51.8597; -3.1372

Crickhowell (/krɪkˈhaʊəl/; Welsh: Crucywel pronounced [krɨkːəu̯ɛl], non-standard spelling Crughywel) is a town and community in southeastern Powys, Wales, near Abergavenny, and is in the historic county of Brecknockshire.

Location

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General view of the town, c. 1860
Porthmawr Gate c. 1800

The town lies on the River Usk, on the southern edge of the Black Mountains and in the eastern part of the Brecon Beacons National Park. Significant parts of the surrounding countryside, over 20,000 acres (81 km2), form part of the Glanusk Park estate.[2]

Etymology and language

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The name Crickhowell is an anglicised spelling that corresponds to the Welsh Crucywel. The name is derived from Crug Hywel, meaning 'Hywel's mound'. This is usually identified with the Iron Age hill fort on nearby Table Mountain, although this has the local name of Mynydd y Begwn. It may be that Crug Hywel refers to the castle mound in the town itself.[3] The language of Crickhowell (and Llangynidr) was originally Welsh. In his 1893 book Wales and her language, John E. Southall, reports that over 60% of the population of Crickhowell spoke Welsh, although the town was only a few miles from more anglicised Abergavenny.[4]

The town

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Engraving of Crickhowell Castle by James Basire (1805)
Crickhowell Castle. Engraving of Crickhowell Castle (1805) by James Basire
Detail of Crickhowell Bridge

There is a primary school and a secondary school; both act as a central point for a large catchment area. There is some light industry on the outskirts of Crickhowell at the Elvicta Industrial Estate. The town centre[5] includes a variety of traditional businesses, many of which are family owned. Other facilities in Crickhowell include a library, two play areas, public toilets and the CRiC building, which houses a tourist information centre, an internet cafe, an art gallery and a local history archive. There are pubs, cafes, restaurants and two hotels: "The Bear" and "The Dragon".[6]

The churches in Crickhowell include St Edmund's Church which holds a service every Sunday, Crickhowell Evangelical Church,[7] a Baptist church and a Catholic church.[8]

In 2015, Crickhowell appeared in a TV documentary, claiming it as the first British settlement to purposely use similar tax avoidance tactics used by multinational businesses to avoid paying taxes themselves, in protest at the way large corporations use legal loopholes to avoid paying UK corporation tax.[9]

A market and fair have been recorded since 1281.[10]

Governance

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Clarence Hall: Main building (centre) is events venue, with Clarence House (town council offices) to right and Crickhowell Resource and Information Centre to left

There are two tiers of local government covering Crickhowell, at community (town) and county level: Crickhowell Town Council and Powys County Council. Planning matters fall to the Brecon Beacons National Park Authority. The town council meets at the Crickhowell Resource and Information Centre on Beaufort Street and has its offices in the adjoining Clarence House (part of the Clarence Hall complex).[11]

Administrative history

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Crickhowell was an ancient parish in the Crickhowell (or Crucywel) hundred of Brecknockshire.[12] The manor which covered the town was called the 'borough of Crickhowell', but it was never given a charter and it appears that no borough council ever operated.[13] Any residual claim Crickhowell may have had to be called a borough was extinguished under the Municipal Corporations Act 1883.[14]

When elected parish and district councils were introduced in 1894, Crickhowell was given a parish council and included in the Crickhowell Rural District. The rural district was abolished in 1974, after which Crickhowell was included in the Borough of Brecknock in the new county of Powys; the borough in turn was abolished in 1996 and its functions passed to Powys County Council. The parish of Crickhowell was redesignated as a community in 1974; its community council took the name Crickhowell Town Council.[15][16]

Tourism

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Today, Crickhowell is a popular tourist destination. In 2005 a tourist information centre was built in the centre of town and during summer the town is notably busier. Many people visit Crickhowell to see the Black Mountains and the Brecon Beacons, and perhaps to enjoy some mountain-biking, camping, hillwalking, rock climbing, fly-fishing, hang-gliding or caravanning, or simply to tour the area by car, staying in bed-and-breakfast accommodation. The Green Man Festival takes place annually in mid-August at nearby Glanusk Park.[17]

Notable buildings

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Notable features in Crickhowell include the seventeenth-century stone bridge over the River Usk with its odd arches (twelve on one side, thirteen on the other) and its seat built into the walls, the 14th-century parish church of St Edmund, and the ruins of Crickhowell Castle on the green "tump" set back from the A40 Brecon to Abergavenny road.[18]

Market Hall

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Crickhowell Market Hall (originally the Town Hall) on The Square dates from 1834, nowadays with market stalls on the ground floor and a cafe in the first floor old courtroom. In 2007 Powys County Council handed over responsibility of the hall to a charity, the Market Hall Trust.[19] The stone building, raised on twin doric columns, is Grade II* listed.[20]

Schools

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Crickhowell has two schools: Crickhowell Community Primary School and a secondary school, Crickhowell High School.[21]

Notable people

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See also: Category:People from Crickhowell
Roger Williams MP, 2011

Golf course

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The former Crickhowell & Penmyarth Golf Club was founded in 1897 and played on a course at Glanusk Park. The club and course disappeared in the late 1960s.[25]

Surrounding villages

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Cwrt y Gollen, a British Army training base, is near Crickhowell.

References

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  1. ^ "Town population 2011". Archived from the original on 4 March 2016. Retrieved 10 November 2015.
  2. ^ "Glanusk Park". Victorian Crickhowell. Retrieved 10 June 2022.
  3. ^ Hywel Wyn Owen and Richard Morgan, Dictionary of the Place-Names of Wales (Llandysul: Gomer Press, 2007), p. 102.
  4. ^ Southall, John E. (1893). Wales and her language. D. Nutt.
  5. ^ "Crickhowell High Street (C) George Tod". www.geograph.org.uk.
  6. ^ "Welcome". The Dragon. Retrieved 10 June 2022.
  7. ^ "Crickhowell Evangelical Church".
  8. ^ "St Joseph Catholic Church". Catholic Directory. Retrieved 10 June 2022.
  9. ^ "The town that took itself offshore to expose tax avoiders". Independent.co.uk. 10 November 2015.
  10. ^ "Wales - British History Online". www.british-history.ac.uk.
  11. ^ "Crickhowell Town Council". Retrieved 16 November 2024.
  12. ^ "Crucywel Ancient Parish / Civil Parish". A Vision of Britain through Time. GB Historical GIS / University of Portsmouth. Retrieved 16 November 2024.
  13. ^ First Report of the Commissioners appointed to inquire into the Municipal Corporations in England and Wales: Part 1. 1835. p. 226. Retrieved 16 November 2024.
  14. ^ Municipal Corporations Act 1883 (46 & 46 Vict. Ch. 18) (PDF). 1883. Retrieved 2 September 2023.
  15. ^ "The English Non-metropolitan Districts (Definition) Order 1972", legislation.gov.uk, The National Archives, SI 1972/2039, retrieved 8 August 2024
  16. ^ "The English Non-metropolitan Districts (Names) Order 1973", legislation.gov.uk, The National Archives, SI 1973/551, retrieved 8 August 2024
  17. ^ Sherwin, Adam (1 December 2013). "'It's nice to go bonkers in a field': The Green Man music festival's". The Independent. Archived from the original on 3 May 2019. Retrieved 21 March 2020.
  18. ^ Cadw. "Crickhowell Castle (7192)". National Historic Assets of Wales. Retrieved 10 June 2022.
  19. ^ Martin Shipton (7 August 2008) "Cafe war breaks out over market hall", Wales Online. Retrieved 15 August 2017.
  20. ^ Cadw. "Town Hall (7211)". National Historic Assets of Wales. Retrieved 15 August 2017.
  21. ^ "Welcome". Crickhowell High School. Retrieved 19 October 2010.
  22. ^ The Literary Panorama. Cox, Son and Baylis. 1807. p. 1385. Retrieved 27 January 2016.
  23. ^ "George Everest was born on 4 July 1790 but the location is open to doubt. This uncertainty as to his birthplace arises because his father William Tristram Everest had an estate near Crickhowell in South Wales and some reference works suggest he was born there. [...] George's baptismal certificate certainly indicates that he was baptized in Greenwich but although the certificate also bears his date of birth it does not indicate the locality."
    Smith, James R. (2015). "Sir George Everest". In Martin, Geoffrey (ed.). Geographers: Biobibliographical Studies, Volume 15. Bloomsbury Publishing. ISBN 9781474226653.
  24. ^ The Tiggy Experience Archived 8 February 2008 at the Wayback Machine at tyrchanter.com, official web site. Retrieved 1 February 2008.
  25. ^ "Crickhowell & Penmyarth Golf Club, Glanusk Park, Powys". Golf's Missing Links.
  26. ^ "Church of the Archangel Michael, Cwmdu (C) Jonathan Billinger". www.geograph.org.uk.
  27. ^ "The Blue Bell Inn (C) Jennifer Luther Thomas". www.geograph.org.uk.
  28. ^ Ian Rushin. "Llanbedr Church and Table Mountain". www.geograph.org.uk.
  29. ^ Ian Rushin. "Llanbedr below Sugar Loaf". www.geograph.org.uk.
  30. ^ "Monmouthshire & Brecon Canal,... (C) George Tod". www.geograph.org.uk.
  31. ^ "Llangattock (C) Jonathan Billinger". www.geograph.org.uk.
  32. ^ "Descending the Sugar Loaf towards... (C) John Thorn". www.geograph.org.uk.
  33. ^ "Llangynidr Bridge in spring (C) Alan Bowring". www.geograph.org.uk.
  34. ^ "Mynydd Llangynidr (C) Peter Wasp". www.geograph.org.uk.
  35. ^ "Tretower Court (C) andy dolman". www.geograph.org.uk.
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