Crickhowell (; , non-standard spelling Crughywel) is a town and community in southeastern Powys, Wales, near Abergavenny, and is in the historic county of Brecknockshire.
Location
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 , form part of the
Glanusk Park estate.
Etymology and language
The name Crickhowell is an anglicised spelling that corresponds to the
Welsh language 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.
[Hywel Wyn Owen and Richard Morgan, Dictionary of the Place-Names of Wales (Llandysul: Gomer Press, 2007), p. 102.] 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.
The town
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
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".
The churches in Crickhowell include St Edmund's Church which holds a service every Sunday, Crickhowell Evangelical Church,
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.
A market and fair have been recorded since 1281.
Governance
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).
Administrative history
Crickhowell was an
ancient parish in the Crickhowell (or Crucywel) hundred of Brecknockshire.
The
Manorialism 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.
Any residual claim Crickhowell may have had to be called a borough was extinguished under the Municipal Corporations Act 1883.
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.
Tourism
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
Caravan Club, 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.
Notable buildings
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.
Market Hall
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.
[Martin Shipton (7 August 2008) "Cafe war breaks out over market hall", Wales Online. Retrieved 15 August 2017.] The stone building, raised on twin doric columns, is Grade II*
Listed building.
Schools
Crickhowell has two schools: Crickhowell Community Primary School and a
secondary school, Crickhowell High School.
Notable people
-
Watkin Herbert (ca.1517 – ca.1564), a politician and MP for Breconshire in 1558.
-
Admiral John Gell (1740–1806), a commander in the Royal Navy for 30 years, died locally.
-
George Everest (1790–1866), eponym for Mount Everest. Surveyor and geographer, served as Surveyor General of India from 1830 to 1843. His father had an estate nearby called "Gwernvale Manor".
["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."]
-
Walter Cowan (1871–1956), a Royal Navy officer in both World Wars
-
Nicholas Edwards, Baron Crickhowell (1934–2018), politician and MP for Pembrokeshire from 1970 until 1987 and Secretary of State for Wales
-
Roddy Llewellyn (born 1947), baronet, garden designer, journalist, author, and TV presenter.
-
Roger Williams (born 1948), politician and MP for Brecon and Radnorshire from 2001 to 2015.
-
Martyn Farr (born 1951), exploratory cave diver and caver
-
Mark Wyatt (born 1957), played ten games for Wales national rugby union team
-
Tiggy Legge-Bourke (born 1965), former royal nanny. Her childhood home was Glanusk Park estate. She still lives near the town as proprietor of Tŷ'r Chanter bed and breakfast lodgings.
[ The Tiggy Experience at tyrchanter.com, official web site. Retrieved 1 February 2008.]
Golf course
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.
Surrounding villages
Cwrt y Gollen, a British Army training base, is near Crickhowell.
External links
