Erwood ( cy, Erwyd) is a village and

community A community is a social unit (a group of living things) with commonality such as place, norms, religion, values, customs, or identity. Communities may share a sense of place situated in a given geographical area (e.g. a country, village, t ...

lying beside the

River Wye The River Wye (; cy, Afon Gwy ) is the fourth-longest river in the UK, stretching some from its source on Plynlimon in mid Wales to the Severn estuary. For much of its length the river forms part of the border between England and Wales ...

, on the

A470 road The A470 (also named the Cardiff to Glan Conwy Trunk Road) is a trunk road in Wales. It is the country's longest road at and links the capital Cardiff on the south coast to Llandudno on the north coast. While previously one had to navigat ...

some 6 miles south-east of

Builth Wells Builth Wells (; cy, Llanfair-ym-Muallt) is a market town and community in the county of Powys and historic county of Brecknockshire (Breconshire), mid Wales, lying at the confluence of rivers Wye and Irfon, in the Welsh (or upper) part of ...

Powys Powys (; ) is a county and preserved county in Wales. It is named after the Kingdom of Powys which was a Welsh successor state, petty kingdom and principality that emerged during the Middle Ages following the end of Roman rule in Britain. Geog ...

, Wales. The population of the community taken at the 2011 census was 429. It is in the historic county of

Brecknockshire , image_flag= , HQ= Brecon , Government= Brecknockshire County Council (1889-1974) , Origin= Brycheiniog , Status= , Start= 1535 , End= ...

( Breconshire) and the older

cantref A cantref ( ; ; plural cantrefi or cantrefs; also rendered as ''cantred'') was a medieval Welsh land division, particularly important in the administration of Welsh law. Description Land in medieval Wales was divided into ''cantrefi'', which wer ...

of Cantref Selyf. The community includes the settlements of Crickadarn, Gwenddwr and Llaneglwys. Nant Clettwr, flowing from west to east before turning north through the village to join the

, divides Erwood between the two parishes of Gwenddwr, to the northwest, and Crickadarn, to the southeast. The church of Saint Dubricius in Gwenddwr was extensively rebuilt in the

Victorian period In the history of the United Kingdom and the British Empire, the Victorian era was the period of Queen Victoria's reign, from 20 June 1837 until her death on 22 January 1901. The era followed the Georgian period and preceded the Edward ...

after a fire. In former times drovers would ford the Wye at Erwood on their journey towards the

English Midlands The Midlands (also referred to as Central England) are a part of England that broadly correspond to the Kingdom of Mercia of the Early Middle Ages, bordered by Wales, Northern England and Southern England. The Midlands were important in the ...

and eventually

London London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...

, where they would sell their livestock. Erwood is overlooked from across the Wye by the ancient hill-fort of Twyn y Garth. On its 325-metre-high summit is a German field

howitzer A howitzer () is a long- ranged weapon, falling between a cannon (also known as an artillery gun in the United States), which fires shells at flat trajectories, and a mortar, which fires at high angles of ascent and descent. Howitzers, like ot ...

, a trophy from

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was List of wars and anthropogenic disasters by death toll, one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, ...

. The fact that it is pointing towards Erwood from the neighbouring county of

Radnorshire , HQ = Presteigne , Government = Radnorshire County Council (1889–1974) Radnorshire District Council (1974–1996) , Origin = , Status = historic county, administrative county , Start ...

is part of a local running joke. At the southern end of the

, on the Nant Scithwen, is Trericket Mill where

Roderick Murchison Sir Roderick Impey Murchison, 1st Baronet, (19 February 1792 – 22 October 1871) was a Scottish geologist who served as director-general of the British Geological Survey from 1855 until his death in 1871. He is noted for investigating and ...

recorded in the 1830s that he had identified "the first true

Silurian The Silurian ( ) is a geologic period and system spanning 24.6 million years from the end of the Ordovician Period, at million years ago ( Mya), to the beginning of the Devonian Period, Mya. The Silurian is the shortest period of the Paleoz ...

Village name

The name Erwood is of uncertain origin and is recorded in numerous forms over the centuries. It may derive from the rare ''cerwyd'' meaning 'stag' with subsequent anglicization to '-wood'. It is known in Welsh as ''Erwyd'' which may be a cymricization of Erwood.

Village life

The Erwood

Community A community is a social unit (a group of living things) with commonality such as place, norms, religion, values, customs, or identity. Communities may share a sense of place situated in a given geographical area (e.g. a country, village, t ...

consists of the village, the two ancient parishes of Gwenddwr and Crickadarn, and the former

Forestry Commission The Forestry Commission is a non-ministerial government department responsible for the management of publicly owned forests and the regulation of both public and private forestry in England. The Forestry Commission was previously also resp ...

hamlet of Llaneglwys. The village is the centre of a flourishing branch of the Young Farmers' Club. The village shop and post office no longer exists, and of the two pubs one, The Erwood Inn, is now a family home. The Public Toilets in the village, open 24/7, are now cleaned and maintained by the local community. Until 1962 Erwood railway station, about away, served the village. Now a renowned Centre for the Art
Erwood Station Gallery & Tea Rooms
The nearby Crickadarn was used as a location in the film '' An American Werewolf in London'', for the portrayal of the fictional village of "East Proctor".

References

{{authority control Villages in Powys Films shot in Wales