Powys

Information about Powys

This article is about the county of Wales. For the ancient kingdom, see Kingdom of Powys.
For people called Powys, see Powys (surname)
Powys principal area
Geography
Area
- Total
- % Water		Ranked 1st
5,196 km²
? %
Admin HQLlandrindod Wells
GB-POW
ONS code00NN
Demographics
Population:
- (2006 est.)
- Density
 		Ranked 9th
131,100
Ranked 22nd
25 / km²
Ethnicity99.3% White
Welsh language
- Any skills		Ranked 7th
30.1%
Politics

Powys Council
[1]
ControlIndependent
MPs
AMs
MEPs
  • Wales
Powys is a local government principal area and a preserved county in Wales.

Geography

See the list of places in Powys for all towns and villages in Powys.
Powys covers the former administrative counties of Montgomeryshire and Radnorshire, most of Brecknockshire, and a small part of Denbighshire — an area of 5,196 km², making it the largest principal area in Wales by land area.

It is bounded to the north by Gwynedd, Denbighshire and Wrexham; to the west by Ceredigion and Carmarthenshire; to the east by England (counties of Shropshire and Herefordshire); and to the south by Rhondda Cynon Taff, Merthyr Tydfil, Caerphilly (county borough), Blaenau Gwent, Monmouthshire and Neath Port Talbot.

Most of Powys is mountainous, with north-south transportation by car being difficult.

Just under a third of the residents have Welsh linguistical skills and first language speakers are concentrated mainly in the rural areas both in and around Machynlleth, Llanfyllin and Llanrhaeadr-ym-Mochnant (where William Morgan first translated the whole Bible into Welsh in 1588) in Montgomeryshire (Sir Drefaldwyn), and the industrial area of Ystradgynlais in the extreme south-west of Brecknock (Sir Frycheiniog). Radnorshire (Sir Faesyfed) was almost completely Anglicised by the end of the 18th century.

For a map of the current distribution of Welsh speakers in the county, see the website of bwrdd-yr-iaith/The Welsh Language Board

Enlarge picture
Distribution of Welsh speakers

History

This area is named after the older Welsh/British Kingdom of Powys, which occupied the northern two thirds of the area as well as lands now in England, and came to an end when it was occupied by Llywelyn ap Gruffydd of Gwynedd during the 1260s.

Heraldry

The gold in the county coat of arms (see right) symbolises the wealth of the area. Black for both mining and the Black Mountains. The fountain is a medieval heraldic charge, always shown as a roundel barry wavy Argent and Azure. It represents water and, therefore, both refers to the water catchment area and the rivers and lakes. The arms, therefore, contain references to the hills and mountains, rivers and lakes, water supply and industry.

The crest continues the colouring of the arms. A tower has been used in preference to a mural crown, which alludes to the county's military history and remains. From the tower rises a red kite, a bird almost extinct elsewhere in Britain, but thriving here. The bird is semy of black lozenges for the former coal mining industry, while the golden fleece it carries is a reference to the importance of sheep rearing in Powys [1]).

The county motto is, Powys - the paradise of Wales (Welsh: Powys Pardwys Cymru) .

Government

Powys from 1974-1996.
Powys was originally created on 1 April 1974 under the Local Government Act 1972, and originally had Montgomery and Radnor and Brecknock as districts under it, which were based directly on the former administrative counties.

On 1 April 1996, the districts were abolished, and Powys was reconstituted as a unitary authority, with a minor border adjustment in the north-east (specifically the addition of the communities of Llanrhaeadr-ym-Mochnant, Llansilin and Llangedwyn from Glyndwr district in Clwyd, all historically part of Denbighshire).

The first Lord Lieutenant of Powys was previously the Lord Lieutenant of Montgomeryshire. The Lord Lieutenant of Brecknockshire and Lord Lieutenant of Radnorshire were appointed as Lieutenants.

The present Lord Lieutenant is The Hon. Mrs Elizabeth Shân Legge-Bourke LVO of Crickhowell.

Places of interest

Cave systems

Reservoirs and Lakes

Museums and exhibitions

Castles

Walks

Others

External links

References

1. ^ [2] International Civic Heraldry site
2. ^ [3] Langorse Lake at dawn


 •  • [ e]
Principal areas of Wales
 •  • [ e]
Preserved counties of Wales
 •  • [ e]
Local government counties and districts of Wales 1974 – 1996


Coordinates:
The Kingdom of Powys was a Welsh successor state that emerged during the Dark Ages following the Roman withdrawal from Britain. Based on the Romano-British tribal lands of the Cornovii, its boundaries originally extended from the Cambrian Mountains in the west to include the
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Powys is a Welsh surname and may refer to:
  • John Cowper Powys, writer, lecturer and philosopher
  • Llewelyn Powys, writer
  • Philippa Powys, writer
  • T. F. Powys, writer

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Area is the measure of how much exposed area any two dimensional object has. It is expressed in square units, and is calculated by adding together the areas of all the faces of the object.

Area formulas

Note: For 2D figures, the surface area and the area are the same.
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This is a list of principal areas of Wales ordered by area.

Rank District Area (km²) Type
1 Powys 5,196 County
2 Gwynedd 2,548 County
3 Carmarthenshire 2,395 County
4 Ceredigion 1,795 County
5 Pembrokeshire 1,590 County
6 Conwy 1,130 County borough
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Orders of magnitude for area Conversion of units for area
1 E-30 m = 1 fm 1 E-24 
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Square kilometre (U.S. spelling: square kilometer), symbol km², is a decimal multiple of the SI unit of surface area, the square metre, one of the SI derived units. 1 km² is equal to:
  • 1,000,000 m²
  • 100 ha (hectare)
Conversely:
  • 1 m² = 0.

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Llandrindod Wells
Welsh - Llandrindod


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The Office for National Statistics coding system is a hierarchical code used in the United Kingdom for tabulating census and other statistical data.

Authorities, wards, and census areas


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population is the collection of people or organisms of a particular species living in a given geographic area or mortality, and migration, though the field encompasses many dimensions of population change including the family (marriage and divorce), public health, work and the
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In physics, density is mass m per unit volume V—how heavy something is compared to its size. A small, heavy object, such as a rock or a lump of lead, is denser than a lighter object of the same size or a larger object of the same weight, such as pieces of
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This is a list of principal areas of Wales ordered by population. The figures are mid-year estimates for 2006 from the Office for National Statistics [1] .
Rank District Population Type
1 Cardiff City and county
2 Rhondda Cynon Taff County borough
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This is a List of Welsh principal areas by population density in the 2001 UK census.

Rank Area People / km²
1 Cardiff 2263
2 Newport 734
3 Torfaen 717
4 Blaenau Gwent 631
5 Caerphilly 614
6 Swansea 597
7 Rhondda Cynon Taff 547
8 Bridgend 530
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Welsh}}} 
Writing system: Latin alphabet (Welsh variant) 
Official status
Official language of: Wales (de facto)
Regulated by: no official regulation
Language codes
ISO 639-1: cy
ISO 639-2: wel (B) 
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This is a List of Welsh principal areas by the percentage of those professing some skills in the Welsh language in Wales in the 2001 UK census. The census did not record Welsh speakers living outside of Wales.
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independent is a politician who is not affiliated with any political party. In countries with a two-party system, independents may hold a centrist viewpoint between the two parties, or may feel that neither of the two parties adequately represents their viewpoint.
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Affiliation Members
Labour Party
Conservative Party
Liberal Democrats
Democratic Unionist Party
Scottish National Party
Sinn Féin
Plaid Cymru
Social Democratic and Labour Party
Health Concern
RESPECT The Unity Coalition
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Martyn David Jones (born 1 March 1947) is a Labour Party politician in Wales.

Born in Wrexham, he is a microbiologist, and worked at the Wrexham Lager Beer Company before his election to the House of Commons.
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Lembit Öpik (IPA for Estonian pronunciation: ['lem.b̥it 'øpik]) (born 2 March 1965) is a British politician of Estonian descent. He is a Liberal Democrat Member of Parliament for the Montgomeryshire constituency.
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Roger Hugh Williams (born January 22, 1948, Crickhowell) is a British Member of Parliament, a Liberal Democrat elected from Brecon and Radnorshire in 2001.

Born in the town of Crickhowell, Roger Williams studied at Christ College school in Brecon and Cambridge University.
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Wales

This article is part of the series:
Politics of Wales

  • Contemporary Welsh Law
  • English Law
  • Courts of England and Wales
  • National Assembly for Wales

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Karen Sinclair AM (born November 20, 1952 in Wrexham) is a Labour politician and member for the constituency of Clwyd South in the National Assembly for Wales. She was born and brought up in Wrexham, North Wales and has lived in Llangollen for more than twenty years.
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Mick Bates (born Loughborough 1947) is a Welsh Liberal Democrat politician, and has been Member of the Welsh Assembly for Montgomeryshire since 1999. He was previously a Powys County Councillor.

Professional career

Science Teacher (Humphrey Perkins Jn.
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(Victoria) Kirsty Williams (born 19 March 1971 in Taunton, Somerset) is a Welsh Liberal Democrat politician, and Member of the Welsh Assembly for Brecon and Radnorshire.

Early life

Williams was born in Taunton, Somerset to Welsh parents.
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Mid and West Wales is an electoral region of the National Assembly for Wales, consisting of eight constituencies. The region elects twelve members, eight directly elected constituency members and four additional members.
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European Union

This article is part of the series:
Politics and government of
the European Union


Treaties
Rome Maastricht (Pillars)
Amsterdam Nice Reform
Institutions
Commission President Jos Manuel Barroso
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principal areas of Wales. They came into being on April 1, 1996 by virtue of the Local Government (Wales) Act 1994 (1994 c. 19).

1

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The Preserved counties of Wales are the current areas used in Wales for ceremonial purposes such as Lieutenancy. They are based on the counties created by the Local Government Act 1972 and used for local government and other purposes between 1974–1996.
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Motto
Cymru am byth   (Welsh)
"Wales forever"
Anthem
"Hen Wlad Fy Nhadau"
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: Top - 0–9 A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z

A

  • Abercynafon, Aberhafesp, Adfa,

B

  • Bettws Cedewain, Brecon, Builth Wells, Bwlch, Berriew,

C

  • Caersws, Cilmery, Crickhowell, Crossgates

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Montgomeryshire, also known as Maldwyn (Welsh: Sir Drefaldwyn) is one of thirteen historic counties and a former administrative county of Wales.
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