Rhayader
Rhayader (Rhaeadr Gwy; ) is a market town and community in Powys, Wales, within the historic county of Radnorshire. The town is 20 mi from the source of the River Wye on Plynlimon, the highest point of the Cambrian Mountains, and is located at the junction of the A470 road and the A44 road 13 mi north of Builth Wells and 30 mi east of Aberystwyth.
The population was 2,088, with 55% of the community having some form of Welsh identity, according to the 2011 census. The community is the largest in Wales by area, with 137.31 sqkm. It includes the Elan Valley.
Rhayader holds the record for the lowest-ever temperature recorded in Wales, -23.3 °C on 21 January 1940.
The name, Rhayader, is a partly-Anglicised form of its Welsh name, Y Rhaeadr (the waterfall), or, to distinguish it from other places named after waterfalls, "Rhaeadr Gwy" (waterfall [on the] Wye). Strictly speaking, according to place-name spelling conventions in Welsh, the name of the town would be 'Rhaeadr-gwy', and the waterfall itself 'Rhaeadr Gwy', but it seems that this distinction is usually ignored.
In the Welsh of the area the name is Rheiad, as one would expect on the pattern of similar words in colloquial Welsh,. (That is, a final "r" is dropped after "d", as in "aradr" (= plough) > "arad", ·Llangynid" (= church of Cynidr, a village in Breconshire) > "Llangynid", "Cadwaladr" (forename, = battle-leader) > "Cadwalad", "'Dwalad".)
Little remains of the waterfall itself, it having been destroyed in 1780 to make way for the bridge linking the town to Cwmdauddwr and the Elan Valley - the Lakeland of Wales.
The population was 2,088, with 55% of the community having some form of Welsh identity, according to the 2011 census. The community is the largest in Wales by area, with 137.31 sqkm. It includes the Elan Valley.
Rhayader holds the record for the lowest-ever temperature recorded in Wales, -23.3 °C on 21 January 1940.
The name, Rhayader, is a partly-Anglicised form of its Welsh name, Y Rhaeadr (the waterfall), or, to distinguish it from other places named after waterfalls, "Rhaeadr Gwy" (waterfall [on the] Wye). Strictly speaking, according to place-name spelling conventions in Welsh, the name of the town would be 'Rhaeadr-gwy', and the waterfall itself 'Rhaeadr Gwy', but it seems that this distinction is usually ignored.
In the Welsh of the area the name is Rheiad, as one would expect on the pattern of similar words in colloquial Welsh,. (That is, a final "r" is dropped after "d", as in "aradr" (= plough) > "arad", ·Llangynid" (= church of Cynidr, a village in Breconshire) > "Llangynid", "Cadwaladr" (forename, = battle-leader) > "Cadwalad", "'Dwalad".)
Little remains of the waterfall itself, it having been destroyed in 1780 to make way for the bridge linking the town to Cwmdauddwr and the Elan Valley - the Lakeland of Wales.
Map - Rhayader
Map
Country - United_Kingdom
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The United Kingdom has evolved from a series of annexations, unions and separations of constituent countries over several hundred years. The Treaty of Union between the Kingdom of England (which included Wales, annexed in 1542) and the Kingdom of Scotland in 1707 formed the Kingdom of Great Britain. Its union in 1801 with the Kingdom of Ireland created the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland. Most of Ireland seceded from the UK in 1922, leaving the present United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, which formally adopted that name in 1927. The nearby Isle of Man, Guernsey and Jersey are not part of the UK, being Crown Dependencies with the British Government responsible for defence and international representation. There are also 14 British Overseas Territories, the last remnants of the British Empire which, at its height in the 1920s, encompassed almost a quarter of the world's landmass and a third of the world's population, and was the largest empire in history. British influence can be observed in the language, culture and the legal and political systems of many of its former colonies.
Currency / Language
ISO | Currency | Symbol | Significant figures |
---|---|---|---|
GBP | Pound sterling | £ | 2 |
ISO | Language |
---|---|
EN | English language |
GD | Gaelic language |
CY | Welsh language |