Beadles, George Harold (1897-1958)
Footballer, born Llanllwchaiarn in 1897. 2 international caps (Cardiff City v Scotland, v England 1925). Inside left (circa 1912-1930) for: Newtown FC, Graysons FC, Liverpool, Graysons FC, Liverpool, Cardiff City, Sheffield Wednesday, Southport, Workington, Dundalk FC (player-coach). On leaving school George Beadles went into employment with a furs and mantels firm in Newtown and played for the town. He served in the 1914-1918 War with the Royal Welch Fusiliers (won the Serbian Gold Medal for gallantry in Turkey). He settled in Liverpool after the War and from there his career took off. When he retired from football he went into hotel management in Liverpool with Bents Brewery.
[Davies & Garland]
Beddoes, John (d.1576)
The exact origins of John Beddoes are unknown but is likely that he was the son of Lewis Bedoe of Ludlow. He was himself a man of substance and was appointed Justice of the Peace in 1557. He founded a free school in Presteigne in 1565 and secured its future by endowing it with the annual income from 70 acres of grazing land, several houses, eleven other miscellaneous plots and a water mill. He owned a fulling mill and weaving sheds in Presteigne and was wealthy enough, even after his endowment of the school, to be one of only eleven Radnorshire men required in 1570 to provide an armed horseman for the service of the crown. He was against the Reformation and made it a condition of the endowment that a curfew bell should be rung "nightly for ever at every eight of the clocke," except in times of plague. The school (a comprehensive in 1980 with 700 pupils) still has a song with the chorus: Hail John Beddoes, hail our Founder! May they flourish, School and Bell. In 1980 the commissioners of the school had frozen the revenue accrued from all the fields left to the school, allowing it only the interest, which was a bone of contention.
[Newspaper cutting, dated 28.12.1980]
Benbow, R.E.G
The second Chief Constable of the Mid Wales Police Authority, 1958-63 [G.R.]
[P/CON/1-2]
Bennett, Fanny
Worthen, Montgomeryshire. Convict on the ship Stateley to Van Diemen's Land for 7 years, tried at Montgomeryshire Quarter Sessions October 1848. She was aged 13 when she committed the crime which led to her transportation. She was serving a one month sentence in Montgomery gaol for stealing clothing. The chaplain of the gaol, the Rev J Lloyd, and the rector of Llanmerewig took pity on her. They found her a job as (residential) housemaid in the rectory at Llanmerewig. (She had previously been living with her mother and one brother and sister). She began work on 28th July, but on the morning of 19th August 1848 she went missing. She took with her various items of clothing from the rectory, namely one recently purchased black whittle, two small shawls and an umbrella. She did not get far, and was tracked down by a policeman. (Described by Tasmanian authorities as a small girl, with grey eyes and sandy hair.)
[Beddoe]
Bernard De Neufmarché (fl.1088-1125)
Bernard was the key figure in the Norman conquest of Brycheiniog. He was a distant relative of William I (his maternal great-grandmother was a sister of Duke William's grandfather!). The family home had been at Neufmarché-en-Lyons on the French-Norman border, but by 1066 it had been taken back by the duke for some offence. Bernard however made good by service to William Rufus. Sometime after the Domesday survey he married Nest, the daughter and heiress of Osbern fitz Richard of Richard's Castle, and acquired estates in Herefordshire on the death of Alfred of Marlborough which gave him a foothold in the March. In 1088 he joined Osbern fitz Richard and others in revolt against William II, but after this was put down by the king Bernard turned his energies to Brycheiniog. By 1088 he was established in Glasbury, and for the next five years he and his supporters probed the defences of Brycheiniog. The decisive battle was fought in Easter week 1093 (17-23 April) when Rhys ap Tewdwr of Deheubarth was called in to help defend the kingdom and he was killed in battle with "the Normans who were living in Brycheiniog" near where the Honddu falls into the Usk. (Bernard had started to build a castle there, an act of provocation which brought Rhys, the overlord of the district, out to battle.) The death of Rhys left the way open for the Normans to expand into Brycheiniog and elsewhere, which they did, creating the lordship of Brecon. Bernard was the first lord of Brecon and established his castle at Aberhonddu (which the Normans renamed Brecon), where he founded a priory church and a small borough and bestowed on Battle Abbey the means of establishing a cell there. In 1121 his daughter Sibyl married Miles of Gloucester who inherited the lordship when Bernard died c.1125.
[R.R. Davies, Lloyd, Walker]
Berriew village
From an old engraving held at
Powys County Archives Office
Berriew: Maen Beuno
Standing stone approximately 1.6 metres tall standing on the verge of Dyffryn Lane, about a mile to the SE of the village of Berriew. Aerial survey of the upper Severn valley by the Clwyd-Powys Archaeological Trust over the 1970s and 1980s has revealed a neolithic ceremonial landscape with a complex network of barrows on the gravel terraces of the valley. The standing stone was therefore a feature of this neolithic landscape.
Tradition says that the stone was used as a useful assembly point by St Beuno when he lived and preached in the area in the early 7th century.
[MC; Burnham]
Berriew: Vaynor Park
A manor house was built on this site for Edward ap Hywel ab Ieuan Llwyd in the mid 15th century. (Vaynor is an anglicization of the Welsh Faenor = manor). A praise poem about the house by Guto’r Glyn from about this time claims the house was higher than Glyndŵr’s at Sycharth, and built of oak and stone. He claimed its smoke could be seen from right across Wales – a measure of its hospitality.
The present brick building was probably first built by George Devereux around 1658. This original Flemish bond brick structure was unusual for buildings of this scale in the county. From 1748 it was the home of the Moxon, Lyon, and Corbet Winder family and was remodelled by Montgomeryshire County Surveyor Thomas Penson between 1840 and 1853.
This was done in an appropriate 17th century manner for the owner at the time John Winder Lyon Winder.
[MC; Haslam]
Berwyn mountains: air crashes
The highest peak is Moel Sych (Dry Bald Hill) 2,713 feet into which a B-17 Fortress crashed on Craig Berwyn in 1942 with the loss of the entire crew. From the known 17 crashes in this range there were only 3 aircraft with survivors, (two on Moel Sych).
Foel Wen: on March 1940: a Bristol Blenheim L4873 from 90 Squadron broke formation on entering cloud and hit Foel Wen; the crew of 3 were killed.
Pen y Gwely: on 15 January 1941 a Miles Master N7807 made a forced landing on Pen y Gwely due to weather, fuel and being lost; there were no casualties.
Godor: on 16 February 1941 a Faerey Battle L5755 flew into Godor/Berwyns; and was lost for 6 weeks.
Moel Sych: on 7 September 1941 an Avro Anson N9617 at 2,713 feet hit Moel Sych, killing the pilot and badly injuring the other four crew.
Moel Sych: on 15 November 1942 an Airspeed Oxford BM824 lost engine power over the Berwyns and the starboard wing hit the mountainside near the summit of the ridge leading to the peak of Moel Sych; one crew member was killed.
Cadair Bronwen: on 14 December 1942 a Supermarine Spitfire P7295 flew into Cadair Bronwen in bad visibility, killing the pilot. Cadair Bronwen: on 15 December 1942 a Westland Lysander T1655 struck Cadair Bronwen, caught in a down-draught whilst searching for a lost Spitfire; the pilot was killed.
Berwyn Mountains: on 15 December 1942 an American Douglas C-47 Skytrain flying from Prestwick to Aldermaston (the last leg of an almost 3,000 mile journey from Maine) in dense cloud grazed two peaks at 1,900 feet; the plane later crash-landed at Montford Bridge airfield.
Trum Y Fawnog: on 2 February 1944 a Grumman Avenger FN821 flew into Trum y Fawnog in cloud while carrying a torpedo; 3 crew killed.
Pen y Gwely: on 21 November 1944 an Armstrong Whitworth Whitley EB410 crashed into the 1,450 feet slopes of Pen y Gwely near Llechradau farmhouse on the eastern fringe of the Berwyns; one crew member died soon after.
Cadair Berwyn: on 7 September 1968 a civil aircraft G-ASWD Cessna F.172F carrying a pilot and three passengers flying from Luton to Liverpool was found in the afternoon by a farmer and his sons a few feet below the summit of Cadair Berwyn; all on board had been killed and the aircraft was 25 miles off course.
Moel Sych: on 15 October 1982 a Hawker Siddeley Harrier GR.3 XZ973 flew into Moel Sych in cloud, killing the pilot.
[Doylerush]
Berriew: church of St Beuno
The parish church is said to have been founded by St Beuno himself (see below) which would indicate a building of some sort on the site from the 6th century. The earliest records of a church here date from the thiteenth century when and it is known to have been appropriated by the monastery at Strata Marcella about that time.The existing building is mainly 16th century, heavily restored in 1868. The tower was built in the 1520s as is attested to the brass in the church dating from around 1531 which reads: 'Pray for the soul of Rev John ap Meredith of Powys, formerly vicar of this church of Bettws; in whose time the tower was built; and at different periods bells were bought and many other good works done in the said church'.
[Haslam; CPAT website]
Betws Cedewain: Dolforwyn Castle
The castle stands on a wooded hill overlooking the fertile Severn valley. It was built between 1273-77 by Llywelyn the Last as a forward position in his territory, and overlooking the English lordship of Montgomery. This rectangular castle stands on the highest point of a ridge along the Severn valley, guarding Llywelyn's southeastern frontier. Its initial construction led Edward I to write to Prince Llywelyn in 1273, forbidding him to build the castle. The prince replied that he did not require the king's permission to raise a stronghold in his own principality. Dolforwyn was, however, taken by Roger Mortimer after a fortnight's siege in 1277, and given to the Mortimers, a powerful marcher family. The castle was kept in repair for some years, but was ruinous by 1398.
Llywelyn's new civil community on the ridge to the west of the castle was suppressed under the English, who did not welcome competition with Montgomery. Instead, Roger Mortimer founded Newtown in 1279 on a river crossing in the Severn valley.
The castle stands on a rock platform with ditches protecting the north-east and south-west approaches along the ridge. A drawbridge led from the settlement across the south-western ditch to a simple gate in the rectangular curtain wall. A large rectangular keep stands at the western end of the bailey with a round tower at the eastern end.
Ranges of buildings lay along the southern and northern sides of the courtyard. Stone balls have been found across the site which may have been fired from English siege engines in the attack of 1277.
The site has been excavated over many years by York University and consolidated by CADW so that it is now possible to see that the castle was closer in to other strongholds built by Welsh princes than those - like nearby Montgomery - which were built by English authorities.
[MC; Jeffrey Thomas - "The Castles of Wales" Website]
Beuno, Saint
Born sometime in the late 6th century, he was the son of noble parents who lived in the Berriew area. He was sent to Caerwent to be educated and trained for the priesthood. On coming back to the Berriew area he was given land on which to found a church there. The Bronze Age standing stone called Maen Beuno which stands about a mile from the village near the River Severn is said to mark the site of his preaching to the local people. After a number of years in the area he moved North. Legend says he left the area after hearing a huntsman calling to his dog in the English tongue and realising that westward colonisation by Anglian settlers would put the people of the fringes of Powys under pressure. In North Wales he impressed the local chieftains and princes enough to be granted land on which to found many religious communities. This culminated in the founding of a college at Celynog under the patronage of Cadfan, King of Gwynedd. Beuno was also the tutor of Saint Winifred and is said to have invoked her miraculous restoration after she had been beheaded. He died and was buried at Celynog in 642 AD.
[MC 25, 29]
Bevan, George Jones (d.1829)
Vicar of Crickhowell 1812. The son of William Hibbs Bevan of Lincoln's Inn. He built Glanyrafon. Died 1836.
[Crickhowell & District Civic Society]