Brynberian is a small village in north

Pembrokeshire Pembrokeshire ( ; ) is a Principal areas of Wales, county in the South West Wales, south-west of Wales. It is bordered by Carmarthenshire to the east, Ceredigion to the northeast, and otherwise by the sea. Haverfordwest is the largest town and ...

, Wales, in the foothills of the

Preseli Mountains The Preseli Mountains (, ; or ), also known as the Preseli Hills, or just the Preselis, are a range of hills in western Wales, mostly within the Pembrokeshire Coast National Park and entirely within the county of Pembrokeshire. The range ...

in the

Pembrokeshire Coast National Park Pembrokeshire Coast National Park () is a National Parks of England and Wales, national park along the Pembrokeshire coast in west Wales. It was established as a National Park in 1952. It is one of the three National parks of Wales, the others ...

. It is in the

community A community is a social unit (a group of people) with a shared socially-significant characteristic, such as place, set of norms, culture, religion, values, customs, or identity. Communities may share a sense of place situated in a given g ...

Eglwyswrw Eglwyswrw () is a village, Community (Wales), community and parish in the former Cantref of Cemais (Dyfed cantref), Cemais, Pembrokeshire, Wales. The village lies between Newport, Pembrokeshire, Newport and Cardigan, Ceredigion, Cardigan at the ...

and the

parish A parish is a territorial entity in many Christianity, Christian denominations, constituting a division within a diocese. A parish is under the pastoral care and clerical jurisdiction of a priest#Christianity, priest, often termed a parish pries ...

Nevern Nevern () is both a parish and a Community (Wales), community in Pembrokeshire, Wales. The community includes the settlements of Felindre Farchog, Monington, Pembrokeshire, Monington, Moylgrove and Bayvil. The small village lies in the River Neve ...

, and is on the

B4329 road The B4329 is a scenic route and a former Turnpike trust, turnpike in Pembrokeshire, West Wales. It links Eglwyswrw in the north of the county to Haverfordwest, the county town in the south, in an approximately southwesterly direction, crossin ...

between

Crosswell Crosswell () is a hamlet on the B4329 road in the community of Eglwyswrw, Pembrokeshire, Wales, in the parish of Meline. It is southwest of Cardigan, northeast of Haverfordwest and east of Fishguard. Description The hamlet is on a junctio ...

and Tafarn y Bwlch. Afon Brynberian flows through the village under an ancient bridge and joins the

River Nevern The River Nevern () is a river in Pembrokeshire, Wales. Its source is north of the village of Crymych and its length is about to its estuary at Newport, Pembrokeshire. Course The source of the river is a spring on the southwest slope of Frenni ...

to the north.

History

In medieval times Brynberian was in the ancient

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

of Cemais, under Norman control from about 1100 until 1326. The hundred of Cemais was created in 1536. Freeholders of Cemais held pasture rights on the Preseli Mountains from the 13th century. Brynberian was one of the last places to be enclosed and probably began to be settled around the time of the establishment of the Independent Chapel in 1690. The bridge (as 'Pont llin birian') is mentioned by

George Owen of Henllys George Owen of Henllys (1552 – 26 August 1613) was a Welsh antiquarian, author, and naturalist. Early life George Owen was the eldest son born to Elizabeth Herbert and William Owen in Henllys of the parish of Nevern, near Newport, Pembroke ...

as existing c.1600. During the 19th century there was a woollen factory and mill and most of the present buildings in the village are 19th century. An 1888 map shows a number of buildings. The mill is a Grade II-

listed building In the United Kingdom, a listed building is a structure of particular architectural or historic interest deserving of special protection. Such buildings are placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, Hi ...

, as is one of its outbuildings. The village is in the south of the parish of

. It previously had a shop, Post Office and school, but these are now closed. The school, Llwynihirion, became Brynberian Community Centre.

Chapel

Brynberian

Independent Independent or Independents may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Artist groups * Independents (artist group), a group of modernist painters based in Pennsylvania, United States * Independentes (English: Independents), a Portuguese artist ...

Chapel is a Grade II listed building and may have been built, as others were, to serve the settlement which was some distance from the parish church. The chapel was founded in 1690, one of the earliest in the locality, and the movement spread from Brynberian to other local settlements. Thomas Beynon was an early minister; he died in 1729. The chapel was rebuilt in 1808. The present building dates from 1842 and the interior from 1882. Chapel records are held by Dyfed Family History Society.

Prehistoric sites

Nearby

Pentre Ifan is an ancient dolmen in the community and parish of Nevern, Pembrokeshire, Wales. It is from Cardigan, Ceredigion, and east of Newport, Pembrokeshire. It contains and gives its name to the largest and best preserved neolithic dolmen in ...

is one of the largest cromlechs in Wales, and in close proximity is Bedd yr Afanc, a burial chamber that over time has degraded. About a mile to the south west of Brynberian is

Waun Mawn Waun Mawn ( Welsh for "peat moor") is a megalithic site in the Preseli Mountains of Pembrokeshire, Wales. Following excavations in 2018, it became the site of a supposed dismantled Neolithic stone circle. The diameter of the postulated circle was ...

, a site proposed to be the precursor to one of the stone circles of

Stonehenge Stonehenge is a prehistoric Megalith, megalithic structure on Salisbury Plain in Wiltshire, England, west of Amesbury. It consists of an outer ring of vertical sarsen standing stones, each around high, wide, and weighing around 25 tons, to ...

References

External links

Brynberian online
{{authority control Villages in Pembrokeshire