Montgomeryshire

MONTGOMERYSHIRE (Welsh Sir Drefaldwyn), a county of Wales, bounded N. by Denbigh, N.E. and E. by Shropshire, S. by Radnor and Cardigan, W. and N.W. by Merioneth. Its length from S.E. to N.W. is about 3o m., and from N.E. to S.W. about 35 m. The county occupies, in general, the valleys of the upper Severn and its many tributaries, collected from the plateau under the Berwyn mts. on the north-west by the river Severn, which flows to the north-north-east ; while the valley of the Dovey opens on to Cardigan bay in the west. The dissected plateau of the north west has heights varying from 1,5oo ft. towards the Berwyns (which rise to 2,70o f t.) to soo ft. in the east. In the south-west the county meets Cardigan on the Plynlymon moors (over 2,000 ft.) while Rhyd Hywel and the Kerry hills (1, loo ft.) form the boundary on the south. On the Shropshire border most of the conspicuous Breidden hills (1,324 f t.) are included, and also Corn don hill (1,684 ft.), which forms a part of the group of hill ridges of ancient rock including the Stiper stones and Long Mynd in Shropshire.

Along the eastern border the structure lines run north-east– south-west, and have resulted in three lowland ways from Eng land, those of Llanymynech in the north, Middletown south of the Breidden hills, and of Minsterley between Long Mountain and Stiper stones. The fourth historic way is that of Bishop's castle, formed by a transverse valley (north-west–south-east) cutting across the "grain" of the country. In the Breiddens and in Corn don are large laccoliths of dolerite, quarried for road metal. On the edge of the forest of Clun the Old Red Sandstone crosses the Montgomeryshire border. For the rest the rocks are almost exclu sively Ordovician and Silurian, with numerous metalliferous veins (lead, silver and zinc) which have been worked from time to time. The Silurian rocks are mainly Wenlock beds with a fringe of Llan dovery rocks, and they lie in the form of a complex syncline down the centre of the county from Lake Vyrnwy to Llanidloes and Newtown.

The moorland plateau of north Montgomeryshire, from the Berwyn range to the Severn valley, is seamed by the deep tributary valleys of Tanat, Vyrnwy, Banwy and Rhiw. The line of the old Cambrian railway (now G.W.R.) from Welshpool, leaving the Severn at Caersws and thence following the Carno river through a low watershed to the upper Dovey valley, separates these moor lands from those of Plynlymon and Rhyd Hywel. The upper Wye valley is included in this corner of the county. The only important Welsh right bank tributary of the Severn, the Camlad, rises in England and joins the main river below Montgomery. Beyond Welshpool the valley opens out and at the Vyrnwy confluence the Severn leaves the county, its broad flood plain merging into the lowlands of north Shropshire.

Glacial deposits cover a large proportion of the county. For the most part the shales and grits of the hilly regions are grass grown, but frequently boggy in the flatter moorland areas. The low en trances from England, the Severn and Rea valleys, are floored with alluvium and, though fertile, are liable to floods.

History.

From the distribution of prehistoric tumuli and sites in the county we learn that the centres of habitation were the open moorlands of north-west, west and south. Finds of stray bronzes indicate that some use may have been made, as a trade and migration route, of the open hill line from the south Shrop shire hills to the gap between the mountain ramparts of Plynlymon and Mawddwy and so to Cardigan bay. From the Early Iron Age Montgomeryshire occupied a more important place in prehistoric Wales, for here the hill-camps (which may, however, be of Ro mano-British construction) are specially thick It is probably to the occupiers of these camps that we owe the introduction of Brythonic speech, some forest clearing and perhaps village settle ment and the making of hillside tracks. The wedge of invasion thus indicated formed the basis for the geographical distinction of the future Powysland and the shire of Montgomery.