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Llanymynech is a village straddling the border between Powys, Wales, and Shropshire, England, about 9 miles (14 km) north of the Welsh town of Welshpool. The name is Welsh for "Church of the Monks". The village is on the banks of the river Vyrnwy, and the Montgomery Canal crosses through it. The border runs for the most part down the centre of the village's main street, with the eastern half of the village in England and the western half in Wales. The border also passed right through the now closed Lion pub, which had two bars in Shropshire and one in the former Welsh county of Montgomeryshire. At one time Welsh counties were referred to as "wet" or "dry" depending on whether people could drink in pubs on Sundays. When Montgomeryshire was dry it was legal to drink on Sundays in the two English bars of the Lion but not the Welsh bar. Two of the remaining open pubs in the village are entirely in England and the third is entirely in Wales. Just to the north of the village is Pant (the civil parish of Llanymynech and Pant covers the English part of Llanymynech and the whole of Pant). Further north is the English market town of Oswestry. ==History== Llanymynech Hill is one of Wales' earliest mining sites. Evidence suggests that copper was mined and smelted here in the late Bronze Age, and that ores were used for the manufacture of bronze weapons and other implements. The hill above Llanymynech is crowned with an extensive Iron Age hill fort, which extends over 57 hectares, and surrounds a cave opening known as the Ogof. The magnitude of this hill fort is probably explained by the presence of the copper mines. The hill fort would have served as protection for the mine, and housed the labourers employed in the extraction of copper. The Bronze Age British miners would have used fire-setting mining techniques, but with the arrival of the Romans the cavern was extended and more extensively mined. According to the Clwyd Powys Archaeological Trust, before the hill was landscaped for the current golf course, at least ten shafts were visible on the southern part of the hill, together with a large number of shallow pits and shaft-mounds. The main entrance to the mine is still the Ogof. A number of Roman artefacts have been found in the mine including a number of bones and burials, and a hoard of thirty first and second century silver coins of Roman currency found in 1965 by some schoolboys, now conserved at the National Museum of Wales. The mine was probably abandoned c. 200CE. In early medieval times, Offa's Dyke was built c. 430 and 652. through what is probably the main street in Llanymynech, on the east side of the road. It is thought the west wall of St Agatha’s churchyard was built on the raised part of the dyke.〔 Today, the Offa's Dyke Path passes through the village. Under the Normans, the town came under the rule of the Lord of the March (or border countries), and a fortification called Carreghofa Castle was built by the Earl of Shrewsbury around 1101.〔 The position the castle was (probably) built, at Tanat Camp, just to the west of Llanymynech Hill and overlooking the Tanat valley, implies it was defending the hill which was being mined for copper and lead, as well as silver. Being situated directly on the borderlands, the castle changed hands between the English and Welsh numerous times during the 12th and 13th centuries. In 1187 the castle was captured by Owain Fychan, prince of Powys, who was then murdered at the castle by his cousins Gwenwynwyn and Cadwallon. In 1194, the castle was recaptured by the English with the purpose of re-opening the mines on Llanymynech Hill and extracting silver. Richard I had been captured and held for a ransom of £100,000, and the Bishop of Salisbury, Hubert Walter, heard of the discovery of silver at the Carreghofa Mine on Llanymynech Hill; he decided to develop the mine and re-open the mint at Shrewsbury to refine the silver and make it into coins. Unfortunately, the total amount of silver produced only came to the value of £20, 11 shillings and 11 pence. This mine was located north of the present quarry, and just south of the present golf course clubhouse. In the 1230s, the castle was destroyed and the stones were eventually removed and used to construct nearby Carreghofa Hall. Very little remains of the castle today.〔 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Llanymynech」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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