Talgarth, Breconshire
Historical Description
Talgarth, a market-town, the head of a petty sessional division, and a parish in Brecknockshire. The town is 8 miles SW of Hay, and 8½ NE of Brecon, and has a station on the Cambrian railway and the Hereford and Brecon branch of the M.R., and a post, money order, and telegraph office (R.S.O.) It had anciently a castle, and is a borough by prescription. The market-hall, in the centre of the town, was built in 1877, and includes an assembly-room. Markets are held on Fridays, and horse and cattle fairs nearly every month. The petty sessions are held at the police station. There are two banks. The church is ancient and has a fine square tower; it was restored in 1873. There are Baptist, Calvinistic Methodist, and Congregational chapels. Trefecca House, about a mile from the town, is a college for Calvinistic Methodist students, and was originally founded in 1752 by Howel Harris, the founder of Welsh Methodism. The parish contains also Trefecca, Pwllywrach, Tredustan, and Trewalkin hamlets, and comprises 12,294 acres; population of the civil parish, 1318; of the ecclesiastical, 1396. Great Porthamel, a former seat of the Vaughan family, is now a farmhouse, with an embattled entrance tower. The living is a vicarage in the diocese of St Davids; net value, £221 with residence. Patrons, the Dean and Canons of Windsor.
Administration
The following is a list of the administrative units in which this place was either wholly or partly included.
| Registration district | Hay | 1837 - 1974 |
Any dates in this table should be used as a guide only.
Land and Property
A full transcript of the Return of Owners of Land in 1873 for Breconshire is online.
Newspapers and Periodicals
The British Newspaper Archive have fully searchable digitised copies of the following newspapers online: