Banc y Celyn, Brecknockshire - Royal Commission on the Ancient ...

Uplands Initiative – <strong>Banc</strong> y <strong>Celyn</strong> 20083.5 Roads and Trackways<strong>Banc</strong> y <strong>Celyn</strong> is crossed by many minor trackways and paths which have been created overcenturies by travellers, drovers and farmers. Few of these possess any importance beyondmeeting purely local needs to move from farm to pasture. Two tracks merit further mentionhowever. A trackway shown on modern maps, and still well used, which runs to thenortheast from Cwm Owen, until it turns eastwards to pass Twyn y Bîg and descend intothe Wye Valley, is said to be an old droving route (Moore-Colyer, 2002, 145).The southern end of the study area is crossed by the line of the early post medieval roadconnecting Brecon and Builth Wells (NPRN 247185). The road is shown on Ogilby'slate 17th century map of the road network in the county. It runs into the area from thesouth, and is a noticeable linear feature crossing Cefn Clawdd, before running northnorthwest,where it merges with the modern B4520. The modern road itself wasoriginally a turnpike road, built to improve communications through the area and iteffectively replaced the old road.Some parts of the old road are in use as a modern trackway or footpath. Along itscourse, one or two interesting features survive from the time when it was in fact themain north-south route through the district. Three old milestones, still roughly 1 mileapart, can still be seen. The best of these, NPRN 247024, is seen in Plate 39. Thisstone has been re-erected, but the other two are now recumbent. They mark the distanceto Brecon, being 9, 8 and 7 miles as one travels from north to south (NPRNs 247027 &247175 complete this series). Two other milestones recorded further north (NPRNs247176 & 247177) could not be found and seem to have been removed or buried as aresult of road maintenance along the B4520.Plate 40: The line of the old Brecon toBuilth road (NPRN 247185) is seenbelow as a snow-filled linear hollow,entering from the left.Plate 39: Milestone NPRN 247024, has alsobeen used as a boundary stone and bears theintials JBG (Joseph Bailey Glanusk).68