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Llanfyllin ( – ) is a market town and community in Powys, Wales. The community (which measures 41.8 square kilometres) population in 2021 was 1,586 and the town's name means church or parish (llan) of St Myllin ('m' frequently mutates to 'f' in Welsh). The community includes the settlements of Bodfach, Ty Crwyn, Abernaint and several farms. Historically, Llanfyllin was part of Montgomeryshire.
The town is known for its holy well, Fynnon Coed y Llan. The well is dedicated to Saint Myllin, who is reputed to have baptised people here in the sixth century. The parish church is also dedicated to Saint Myllin. There is a tradition that Saint Myllin is the Irish bishop, Saint Mo Ling (also named Moling Luachra) (614–697). However, this is uncertain. There is no record of Mo Ling travelling to Wales, and there is a tradition that Myllin is buried under the altar of Llanfyllin church whereas Mo Ling is believed to have been buried at his monastery in Ireland.
The medieval motte-and-bailey castle of Tomen yr Allt was probably destroyed by Llywelyn ap Gruffudd in 1257. The castle earthworks are still present.
Llanfyllin was granted a charter as a market town in 1293 under EdwardI. The charter was confirmed by Edward de Charlton, Lord of Powys under HenryV. Llanfyllin Town Hall, which dated from 1789, and served as the meeting place of the borough council, was demolished in 1960.
Llanfyllin Golf Club (now defunct) was founded in 1909 in Bodfach Park; the president was Sir John Lomax, the owner of Bodfach Hall and former High Sheriff of Montgomeryshire. It was a 9-hole course with a membership of 40 in 1914. It disappeared after World War I.
The Llanfyllin Workhouse Festival was held at the Union Workhouse until 2013.
Llanfyllin is an electoral ward of Powys County Council. It is represented by one county councillor who, since 2008, has been Welsh Conservative Party representative Peter Lewis.
The Llanfyllin Branch of the Cambrian Railways opened in 1863, to provide access to the limestone quarries along the valley, terminating at station. The main line from to closed in 1965, as did the branch line to Llanfyllin, under the Beeching cuts.
The main bus service is the number 76 to Welshpool operated by Tanat which runs Monday to Saturday.
The Lonely Tree was named Wales Tree of the Year 2014 by the Woodland Trust, and was entered in the 2015 European Tree of the Year competition. It fell in a storm in February 2014. An unsuccessful attempt was made to rescue it by packing its roots with nearly sixty tonnes of earth.
Buildings
Llanfyllin is noteworthy for the quality and quantity of its buildings in locally made brick.
Church of St Myllin
The parish church of St Myllin (Church in Wales) was founded in the seventh century, according to tradition by Mo Ling. The present building which dates to around 1706 is mainly of locally made red brick with battlements and a Welsh slate roof. It has a tower with six Church bell. It was adapted and extended by 1863 in the neo-Norman style, and restored in 1959.
Pendref Chapel
Pendref Chapel (Congregationalist) is said to be the oldest Welsh independent church in Powys. In 1640 its first minister was Vavasor Powell. The chapel was initially built in 1708; it was destroyed in the Jacobite rising of 1715, and was re-erected at government expense. The present building dates from 1829.
Rhosfawr hall house
A late-15th or early-16th century hall house at Rhosfawr () near Llanfyllin, it is a Listed building building. It has been used as a barn since the 17th century and has never been altered, and is perhaps the most complete and unaltered medium-sized hall house in Wales. It consists of four bays, Cruck at the gables, a central truss, box-frame trusses and two tiers of trenched with heavy curved wind braces. The central bays formed the hall.
The Hall
An historic house known as The Hall still exists on Vine Square within the town. Its origins as Plas Uchaf (Welsh for Upper Hall) are 16th century. It is a T-shaped two-storey timber-framed building with an attached open hall. It was remodelled in about 1599, adding a floor in the hall and stairs between the house and the hall. It was further remodelled in 1832 with the addition of an extra storey and three gables facing the square. King CharlesI stayed at The Hall in November 1643. The Hall is Grade II listed.
Bodfach Hall
Bodfach Hall is a GradeII listed building about 1 km north-west of Llanfyllin in the hamlet of Bodfach. It is likely that a house was built on the site after the destruction in 1257 of Tomen yr Allt, a motte-and-bailey castle which stood on one of the hills above it. The property is first recorded in 1160 in the will of Madog ap Maredudd, Prince of Powys. Sion Kyffin, a descendant of Madog, extended a house on the site in 1661, as recorded in an inscription above an old door on the west of the house. The house was considerably modified and extended over the years and was rebuilt . In 1945 the estate was broken up; most of the land was bought by its tenant farmers, and the hall and 33 acres were sold to one buyer to become an hotel. The grounds of the hall are listed at Grade II on the Cadw/ICOMOS Register of Parks and Gardens of Special Historic Interest in Wales.
Llanfyllin Union Workhouse
Llanfyllin is also increasingly well known for the old Union Workhouse, known as ) locally, and built in 1838. This old Victorian building had stood empty since the mid-1980s until a local voluntary group, the Llanfyllin Workhouse Project, started to renovate it for community use. The first phase of the restoration was completed in 2021.
Notable people
Governance
Llanfyllin Council forms the lowest tier of local government and has twelve councillors. For centuries, up until 1974, Llanfyllin was part of Montgomeryshire.
Education
The town has a primary school, and the bilingual Llanfyllin High School with approximately 1,000 pupils from the town and the surrounding area, about a quarter of whom travel from Shropshire, over the English border. The 2009 inspection of the high school reported GCSE examination results as well above the local and national average.
Transport
The town sits on the main route between Welshpool and Bala. The A490 road connects the town to Churchstoke, and terminates just after passing through the town.
The Lonely Tree of Llanfyllin
The Lonely Tree of Llanfyllin was a large Scots pine in an isolated position on Green Hall Hill above the town (at ). It was estimated to have been 200 years old. It featured in several local traditions: it was hugged for good fortune, marriages were proposed at the tree and cremation ashes were scattered beneath it.
Further reading
External links
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