![Cnwch](webphotos/cnwch.jpg)
CNWCH
GRID REFERENCE: SN 718714
AREA IN HECTARES: 35.1
Historic Background
In the Medieval Period this area lay within Strata Florida
Abbey’s Mefenydd Grange. On the Dissolution the granges were granted
to the Earl of Essex. Subsequently, in 1630, they were sold to the Crosswood
estate. It is likely that the upland, unenclosed character of this area
ensured that it was considered Crown land. It has remained essentially
unenclosed up to the present day.
![Cnwch](webphotos/cnwch2.jpg)
Description and essential historic landscape
components
This is a small block of unenclosed land - essentially
a hill - ranging from 220m to the east up to 320m to the west. It formerly
formed part of a large tract of moorland, but almost all of this is now
under coniferous plantation. It is unenclosed and according to the only
large-scale manuscript map of the area, the tithe map (Gwnnws Tithe Map
and Apportionment, 1847), it has been unenclosed since 1847. It comprises
improved grazing with rougher ground and bracken cover on steep, craggy,
east-facing slopes. Some redundant earth boundary banks are present on
the eastern fringes of this area at its junction with cultivated land.
These banks represent the shifting border between unenclosed and enclosed
land. Wire fences on the banks now demarcate the boundary. There are several
spoil tips from mineral or stone workings. The tithe map marks these as
slate quarries.
Clearly the creation of a coniferous plantation on former
unenclosed land has robbed this area of much of its coherence and integrity,
but sufficient open land survives to warrant its separation into a single
landscape character area.
![Cnwch map](webphotos/cnwchmap.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 |