![Blaen-glasffrwd](webphotos/blaengalsffwrd.jpg)
BLAEN-GLASFFRWD
GRID REFERENCE: SN 767631
AREA IN HECTARES: 230.9
Historic Background
In the Medieval Period this area lay within Strata Florida
Abbey’s Pennardd Grange. Upon the Dissolution, the granges were
granted to the Earl of Essex, who sold them to the Crosswood Estate in
1630. It is likely that Pennardd, in common with the other granges, was
divided into farms and leased out on a commercial basis by the end of
the Medieval Period, if not earlier. The farms in this area may have originated
in this system. The tithe map of 1845 (Caron parish) is the earliest large-scale
survey of the area. This shows the farms of Blaen-Glasffrwd, Hafod Newydd
and Tynygarreg, plus two un-named cottages having small fields nearby
and larger fields further out, set in a sea of unenclosed sheep-walk.
Since the tithe survey there has been a retreat of settlement, and enclosures
tend to be farmed as very large units. A hafod place-name suggests that
the farm containing that name originated out of a system of transhumance.
Description and essential historic landscape
components
This area, which is now surrounded by forestry, lies
in an open upland valley between 400m and 500m. One farm is currently
occupied, and sits in a landscape of improved pasture with peaty and rushy
hollows, and rough grazing on some of the steeper slopes. Boundary banks
that formerly divided the area into fields are generally redundant, and
wire fences now form the main stock-proof boundary. These divide the area
into a series of large units. It is a treeless landscape.
Deserted post-Medieval settlements in the archaeological record testify
to a far more populated landscape than now. Several Bronze Age round barrows
or cairns and a possible standing stone add time-depth to the landscape.
This area is clearly defined by a surrounding forestry
plantation.
![Blaen-glasffrwd map](webphotos/blaenglasffrwdmap.jpg)
Base map reproduced from the OS map with the permission
of Ordnance Survey on behalf of The Controller of Her Majesty's Stationery
Office, © Crown Copyright 2001.
All rights reserved. Unauthorised reproduction infringes Crown Copyright
and may lead to prosecution or civil proceedings. Licence Number: GD272221 |