Crickhowell-old Welsh market town

Family reunion tonight in the Bear hotel, Crickhowell.

This inn goes back to 1432 and is the social centre of this old market town, which has become gentrified, in recent years.

I grew up on Ty -Llangenny farm a mile and half outside Crickhowell and that too has been converted into upmarket dwellings.


The name Crickhowell is taken from that of the nearby Iron Age hill fort of Crug Hywel above the town, the Welsh language name being anglicised by map-makers and local English-speaking people.

The town lies on the River Usk, on the southern edge of the Black Mountains and in the eastern part of the Brecon Beacons National Park.


Today the former market town, with its population of nearly 3,000, is a very popular tourist area.

Its claim to fame is that it has produced a handful of famous rugby players, a man who had Everest named after him and Roddy Llewellyn, TV presenter, landscape gardener and former lover of Princess Margaret.

I am not sure what this says about the people of Crickhowell...