Powys Postcodes — Wales (WLS)

Powys

Powys is a county and preserved county in Wales. The region takes its name from the medieval Welsh successor state, petty kingdom, and principality of Powys, which emerged after the fall of Roman rule over Britain.

Geography

Montgomeryshire and Radnorshire, the majority of Brecknockshire, and a small portion of Denbighshire are all included in modern-day Powys. It is the largest administrative area in Wales, covering about 2,000 square miles (5,200 square kilometers) (Dyfed was until 1996 before several former counties created by the Local Government Act 1972 were abolished). To the north, it borders Gwynedd and Denbighshire; to the west, Ceredigion and Carmarthenshire; to the east, Shropshire and Herefordshire; and to the south, Rhondda Cynon Taf, Merthyr Tydfil County Borough, Caerphilly County Borough, Blaenau Gwent, Monmouthshire, and Neath Port Talbot.

Newtown, Ystradgynlais, Brecon, Welshpool, Llandrindod Wells, and Knighton are some of the largest cities. Of Wales' major regions, Powys has the fewest residents. The majority of Powys is mountainous, making travel by road or rail a slow process.

Third of the locals can speak Welsh: Machynlleth, Llanfyllin, and Llanrhaeadr-ym-Mochnant (where William Morgan first translated the whole Bible into Welsh in 1588) are all located in Montgomeryshire, and Ystradgynlais, in the southwest of Brecknockshire, is an industrial area with a sizable Welsh-speaking population. By the close of the 18th century, the majority of Radnorshire's population had adopted English. According to the 2001 census, 21% of Powys's population could speak Welsh at the time, which is on par with the percentage of Welsh speakers across the entire country.

History

The county was named after the ancient Welsh kingdom of Powys, which encompassed the area in the sixth century AD and ended when it was occupied by Llywelyn ap Gruffudd of Gwynedd in the 1260s. The kingdom included the northern two-thirds of the area as well as most of Shropshire and adjacent areas now in England.

Even though the Romans left their mark on the area with roads and forts, the uplands show signs of having been inhabited for much longer. From 4000 B.C.E. to 1000 B.C.E., the county is home to 1,130 burial mounds, the majority of which date back to the Bronze Age. About a third (339) are protected landmarks. There are also many standing stones, most of which also date back to the Bronze Age (276 total, 92 of which are on the list of scheduled sites). There are 90 hillforts and another 54 enclosures and settlement sites from the Iron Age in the county, all of which are on the National Register of Historic Places.

Connectivity to major cities like Swansea, Wrexham, Shrewsbury, Birmingham, Wolverhampton, Manchester, Cardiff, Aberystwyth, London, and Telford is provided by the Cambrian Line and Heart of Wales line, respectively. Mid-Wales Railway, Oswestry and Newtown Railway, Tanat Valley Light Railway, Llanfyllin Branch, Leominster and Kington Railway, Swansea Vale Railway, and Hereford, Hay and Brecon Railway were once major railways serving the county but have since closed. 

Heraldry

There's a lot of gold in the county's coat of arms to represent the abundance of the region. Black refers to the color of mining equipment and the color of the Black Mountains. A roundel barry wavy of argent and azure depicts the fountain, a medieval heraldic charge. It is a symbol for water, and it can mean either the catchment area or the actual bodies of water (rivers and lakes). As a result, the arms make allusions to the terrain (hills and mountains), water (rivers and lakes), and industry (water use). Coat of arms colors are carried over into the crest. As a nod to the county's military past and legacy, a tower has been erected in place of a mural crown. A red kite soars from the tower, a bird that is all but extinct in the rest of Britain but thriving in Powys. The bird's golden feathers represent the county's historic importance to the sheep farming industry, while the "semé of black lozenges" symbolizes the county's coal mining past.

Government

In accordance with the Local Government Act of 1972, Powys was established on April 1, 1974. At first, it included the areas that had previously been part of Montgomery, Radnor, and Brecknock counties. Powys was reorganized as a single administrative region on April 1, 1996, when the districts were done away with. In the northeast, the border was shifted slightly to incorporate the entire town of Llanrhaeadr-ym-Mochnant rather than just half, and the communities of Llansilin and Llangedwyn from the Glyndr district in Clwyd.

Lord Montgomeryshire's first Lord Lieutenant became the first Lord Lieutenant of Powys. As lieutenants, they appointed the Lord Lieutenant of Brecknockshire and the Lord Lieutenant of Radnorshire. Shân Legge-Bourke of Crickhowell is the current Lord Lieutenant.