Historic Landscape Characterisation

Work has yet to start on the characterisation of this Historic Landscape area.

The following description, taken from the Historic Landscapes Register, identifies the essential historic landscape themes.

The River Clywedog in Mid Wales drains the north eastern flanks of the Cambrian Mountains, into which its narrow, winding valley has been deeply incised. The Clywedog is a tributary of the much larger River Severn which it joins at Llanidloes. From the site of this distinctive and picturesque historic market town, the hills and ridges on either side of the Clywedog Valley rise gradually from 300m above OD to reach 500m above OD near Dylife, just beyond the watershed in the north west. The fortunes of the Clywedog Valley and the area of its catchment identified here are generally linked with the contrasting industries of lead mining and wool, which have had a considerable impact on the landscape.

The early importance of local lead ore is demonstrated by the large, late Bronze Age/Iron Age hillfort at Dinas, the size and location of which has been assumed to be a result of a wish to guard and exploit the rich natural resources. There are also smaller Iron Age settlements that ring the edges of this area. However, the later development of the area, its land use and settlement patterns, are inextricably linked with lead mining. The earliest evidence is possible Roman working at Dylife, which lies adjacent to the Roman fort at Penygrocbren, but the main period of mining began during the 17th century and continued until earlier this century. The village itself is a good example of a small mining settlement little altered in recent years. The influence of mining is still clearly evident, with remains of shafts, tramways, and two reservoirs which provided power for the dressing floors.

Dylife is the focus of several folk tales, the most famous of which dates to the early 18th century and concerns one of the most horrific murders in Welsh history, when the local blacksmith murdered his family and threw their bodies down a mineshaft. He was soon discovered and when found guilty was forced to make his own head and body cages and the gibbet iron. In the 1930s, the iron head cage with the skull still inside was found at Penygrocbren, the site of the gallows, and is now kept at the Museum of Welsh Life at St Fagans, Cardiff.

The other concentration of mining stretches in an eastwest band to the north of Llanidloes, incorporating the mines of East Van, Van, Bryntail and Penyclun. All of these were active mostly during the latter half of the 19th century, when the Van Mine was the largest in the world, and much of the mining landscape remains despite land reclamation projects. Between 1870 and 1878, Montgomeryshire produced between 7000 and 9000 tons of lead ore per year, almost all of which came from the Van-Dylife complex. In 1879, lead production in Wales fell rapidly, because of large ore finds elsewhere, and Van produced only 200 tons that year.

The origins of Llanidloes are set firmly in the medieval period, with the town being granted a charter by Edward I in 1280. At the centre of the town stands the timber-framed market hall dating to around 1600, which is the finest in Wales. The prosperity of the town is linked historically with the fortunes of the woollen and textiles industry and the important lead mining area to the north west. During the 1830s Llanidloes was one of the most active centres of the Chartist movement and during the height of the riots local weavers held the town for five days before they were overwhelmed.

The Clywedog reservoir forms a modern centrepiece to the landscape. As well as providing drinking water for consumers from Llanidloes to Bristol, its principal function is to smooth out natural fluctuations in rainfall which would otherwise cause erratic flows, thereby reducing the risk of flooding in the more low-lying areas of the upper Severn valley. The 72m high structure of the main dam was completed in 1966, utilizing 200,000 cubic metres of concrete to become the highest mass concrete dam in Britain. More recently, the dam and its reservoir have developed as a popular tourist attraction.