Уэльстің тарихи Радноршир округі

Historic county of Wales
the historic county

Until 1974, Radnorshire (Sir Faesyfed) was an administrative county in mid Wales, later classed as one of the thirteen historic counties of Wales. It covered a sparsely populated area, and was bounded to the north by Montgomeryshire and Shropshire, to the east by Herefordshire, to the south by Brecknockshire and to the west by Cardiganshire. The county was formed in 1536 from several Marcher lordships under the Laws in Wales Acts, as part of the formal annexation of Wales into the Kingdom of England by Henry VIII. The county was named after New Radnor, which was the original county town. From 1543 onwards the assizes were held alternately at New Radnor and Presteigne, later settling at Presteigne alone. Presteigne then served as the county's administrative centre until 1889 when Radnorshire County Council was established and chose to base itself in Llandrindod Wells instead. The administrative county was abolished in 1974, with the area becoming the lower tier Radnor district within the new county of Powys. The district was renamed Radnorshire in 1989. Radnorshire District Council was abolished in 1996 when Powys became a unitary authority. Powys County Council then had a Radnorshire "shire committee" until 2018. The largest town in Radnorshire was Llandrindod Wells, with other towns being Knighton, Presteigne, and Rhayader. The Radnor Forest is an area of high ground covering a large part of the east of former county.

In the east and south of were some comparatively level tracts, including the Vale of Radnor, but much of the county is forest, moorland and low mountains, with the Cambrian Mountains running through the west of the county beyond Rhayader. The Radnor Forest is a slightly isolated dome of hills in the middle of the county near the village of New Radnor, and included what was the highest ground in the former county. Here is found the former county top of Great Rhos, at a height of above sea level. The Elan Valley contains several huge man made reservoirs supplying water to Birmingham. The main rivers were the Wye, the Teme, the Elan and the Ithon. The Teme formed the boundary with Shropshire. The chief towns were Knighton, Llandrindod Wells, Presteigne and Rhayader. The backbone of local incomes was tourism, hill farming and the public sector such as care, education and road/public land maintenance. Sheep, dairy/cattle and poultry farming provided more revenue than crops which like much of Scotland, the Pennines and Wales received more than national average precipitation and can be subject to late frosts.

From 1542 there was a Radnorshire constituency for electing members of parliament to the English (and later United Kingdom) parliament. The constituency was abolished in 1918, merging with the neighbouring Breconshire constituency to become the Brecon and Radnorshire constituency. Brecon and Radnorshire is also the name of the Senedd constituency covering the area.

In the 19th century new structures of local administration were introduced. The Poor Law Amendment Act 1834 grouped parishes into poor law unions. While these were not themselves local authorities, their boundaries were to later be used to define local government districts. PLUs did not conform to county boundaries, but consisted of catchment areas for workhouses. Most of Radnorshire was included in the three unions of Knighton, Presteigne and Rhayader. Parishes on the edges of the county were included in unions based in other counties: Builth and Hay on Wye in Brecknockshire and Kington in Herefordshire.

There were no town councils in the county until 1850, when a local board was formed at Knighton. Similar bodies were later formed at Llandrindod Wells (originally named Trefonen) and Presteigne in 1891.

Prior to the creation of Radnorshire County Council in 1889, the county was administered by its court of quarter sessions, which initially alternated between New Radnor and Rhayader, then between New Radnor and Presteigne, before settling at Presteigne alone. A Shire Hall was built in Presteigne in 1542 and rebuilt in 1829, which served as the main administrative building for the county. When the county council was established, during preliminary meetings before the council formally came into being on 1 April 1889, it was decided by 12 votes to 11 that the county council would not meet at Presteigne but in Llandrindod Wells. In 1909 the county council built itself offices at the "County Buildings" in the High Street at Llandrindod Wells. The county council then moved its staff to larger offices at the former Gwalia Hotel in Ithon Road in 1950. The former hotel remained the county council headquarters until the county council was abolished in 1974. The Gwalia then served as the headquarters of Radnorshire District Council until it was abolished in 1996, since when the building has served as an area office for Powys County Council.

Until 1954 Radnorshire County Council used a version of the arms of the Mortimers, Earls of March: Barry of six or and azure on a chief of the last two pallets azure between as may gyrons of the first. The council received a grant of armorial bearings by the College of Arms in 1954. The arms were made up of charges from local families. A gold reguardant lion on red was for Elystan Glodrhydd, Prince of Wales c. 1000; black boars' heads on white for his son Cadwgan. Around these was placed a gold and blue compony bordure based on the Mortimer arms. The motto adopted by the county council was Ewch yn Uwch ("Go Higher"). In 1974 the arms were transferred to Radnor District Council. In 1996 the arms were transferred a second time to Powys County Council, for use by the Radnorshire Shire Committee.