Knucklas (, meaning "green hillock") is a village in

Powys Powys ( , ) is a Principal areas of Wales, county and Preserved counties of Wales, preserved county in Wales. It borders Gwynedd, Denbighshire, and Wrexham County Borough, Wrexham to the north; the English Ceremonial counties of England, ceremo ...

, Wales, previously

Radnorshire Radnorshire () was Historic counties of Wales, one of the thirteen counties of Wales that existed from 1536 until their abolishment in 1974, later becoming a Districts of Wales, district of Powys from 1974 to 1996. It covered a sparsely populat ...

. It lies in the upper valley of the

River Teme The River Teme (pronounced ; ) rises in Mid Wales, south of Newtown, and flows southeast roughly forming the border between England and Wales for several miles through Knighton before entering England in the vicinity of Bucknell and continu ...

, just off the B4355 road and is served by

Knucklas railway station Knucklas railway station serves the village of Knucklas, Powys, Wales, south west of Shrewsbury railway station, Shrewsbury. This railway station is located on a steep hill above the village. It is a request stop, so intending passengers have ...

on the Heart of Wales Line. It is approximately from the market town of Knighton.

Notable landmarks

The Castle Mound

A protected ancient monument in the care of Knucklas Castle Community Land Project and listed by

Cadw (, a Welsh verbal noun meaning "keeping/preserving") is the historic environment service of the Welsh Government and part of the Tourism and Culture group. works to protect the historic buildings and structures, the landscapes and heritage ...

, it is the site of a castle believed to have been built by the Mortimers in about 1220–25. It consisted of a square stone

keep A keep is a type of fortified tower built within castles during the Middle Ages by European nobility. Scholars have debated the scope of the word ''keep'', but usually consider it to refer to large towers in castles that were fortified residen ...

with four round towers, sited on top of a steep hill. There is some evidence that there may have been further outer walls. It was captured by a Welsh army in 1262, which destroyed the defences. Below the castle lies the battlefield of the Battle of Beguildy thought to have been fought between the Welsh and the

Mortimer Mortimer is an English surname. Norman origins The surname Mortimer has a Norman origin, deriving from the village of Mortemer, Seine-Maritime, Normandy. A Norman castle existed at Mortemer from an early point; one 11th century figure associ ...

family of

Norman Norman or Normans may refer to: Ethnic and cultural identity * The Normans, a people partly descended from Norse Vikings who settled in the territory of Normandy in France in the 9th and 10th centuries ** People or things connected with the Norma ...

Marcher Lords A marcher lord () was a noble appointed by the king of England to guard the border (known as the Welsh Marches) between England and Wales. A marcher lord was the English equivalent of a margrave (in the Holy Roman Empire) or a marquis (in France ...

in 1146. The castle was attacked and destroyed by the forces of

Owain Glyndŵr Owain ap Gruffydd (28 May 135420 September 1415), commonly known as Owain Glyndŵr (Glyn Dŵr, , anglicised as Owen Glendower) was a Welsh people, Welsh leader, soldier and military commander in the Wales in the late Middle Ages, late Middle ...

in 1402 during his rebellion. Whilst there is a romantic story associating the castle location with the marriage of

Guinevere Guinevere ( ; ; , ), also often written in Modern English as Guenevere or Guenever, was, according to Arthurian legend, an early-medieval queen of Great Britain and the wife of King Arthur. First mentioned in literature in the early 12th cen ...

and

King Arthur According to legends, King Arthur (; ; ; ) was a king of Great Britain, Britain. He is a folk hero and a central figure in the medieval literary tradition known as the Matter of Britain. In Wales, Welsh sources, Arthur is portrayed as a le ...

, this probably developed from an earlier story, which suggested that a marriage took place between

Gwenhwyfar Guinevere ( ; ; , ), also often written in Modern English as Guenevere or Guenever, was, according to Arthurian legend, an early-medieval queen of Great Britain and the wife of King Arthur. First mentioned in literature in the early 12th cen ...

, the daughter of Ogrfan Gawr (also called 'Gogrfan Gawr "the Giant" of Castell y Cnwclas' – Knucklas Castle), and Arthur the warrior – there being no reference to Arthur as a king in the early Welsh texts.

The Viaduct

The spectacular 13-arch span was completed by the Central Wales Railway in 1865 and recorded in an engraving from the

Illustrated London News ''The Illustrated London News'', founded by Herbert Ingram and first published on Saturday 14 May 1842, was the world's first illustrated weekly news magazine. The magazine was published weekly for most of its existence, switched to a less freq ...

Heyope

Thre
Bronze Age torcs
were found here and declared treasure in 1991. They are now housed in the National Museum, Cardiff. The

parish church A parish church (or parochial church) in Christianity is the Church (building), church which acts as the religious centre of a parish. In many parts of the world, especially in rural areas, the parish church may play a significant role in com ...

of St David was built in 1882, on the site of a medieval church. The

font In metal typesetting, a font is a particular size, weight and style of a ''typeface'', defined as the set of fonts that share an overall design. For instance, the typeface Bauer Bodoni (shown in the figure) includes fonts " Roman" (or "regul ...

dates from the 15th century.Evans, A. T. D. (2008) ''Border Wanderings'', p. 116. The longest-burning tyre fire in British history occurred in Heyope, lasting 13 years from 1989 to 2001.

Notable people

Vavasor Powell Vavasor (or Vavasour) Powell (161727 October 1670) was a Welsh Puritan and Fifth Monarchist, imprisoned for his role in a plot to depose King Charles II. Early life Powell was born in Knucklas, Radnorshire, and may have been educated at ...

(1617–1670), Nonconformist Puritan preacher, evangelist, church leader and writer, who was imprisoned for his role in a plot to depose King Charles II. * Malcolm Page (born 1947), former footballer with 350 club caps and 28 for

Wales Wales ( ) is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is bordered by the Irish Sea to the north and west, England to the England–Wales border, east, the Bristol Channel to the south, and the Celtic ...

References

External links

Useful Archaeological RecordsPhotos of Knucklas and surrounding area on geograph.org.ukPhoto of Arriva Trains Wales Class 153 Passing over Knucklas Viaduct

Video of Knucklas castleVideo of Knucklas viaduct
{{authority control Villages in Powys