Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
Getting There & Away
Berriew is situated 6 miles south of Welshpool, just off the A483; take bus X75 from
Newtown (20 minutes) or Welshpool (12 minutes).
Montgomery
POP 1300
Set around a market square lined with august houses in stone and brick, and overlooked
by the ruins of a Norman castle, genteel Montgomery is one of the prettiest small towns in
the country. A charming mixture of Georgian, Victorian and timber-framed houses line the
streets and a choice of excellent places to eat combine to make it an unexpectedly reward-
ing place to stop. Near the town is one of the best preserved sections of Offa's Dyke with
6m-high ditches flanking the B4386 a mile east of town.
Sights
Montgomery Castle
Rising from the craggy outcrop above the town are the ruins of Norman Mont-
gomery Castle. Work on the castle began in 1233 and in 1267 during treaty negotiations at
the castle, King Henry III granted Llywelyn ap Gruffydd the title of Prince of Wales.
Little remains of the once great fortress but the views over the chequerboard countryside
that surround it are beautiful.
RUIN
St Nicholas' Church
(Church Bank; 9am-dusk)
Sturdy Norman St Nicholas' Church dates from 1226 and boasts a
vaulted ceiling decorated with intricate coloured bosses, a beautifully carved prereforma-
tion rood screen and striking mid-19th-century stained-glass windows. Look out for the
elaborate canopied tomb of local landowner Sir Richard Herbert and his wife Magdalen,
parents of Elizabethan poet George Herbert. In the churchyard is the Robber's Grave, the
final resting place of John Davies of Wrexham who was sentenced to death by hanging in
1821 for highway robbery. He vehemently protested his innocence and declared that grass
would not grow on his grave for 100 years. It remained bare for at least a century.
CHURCH
Old Bell Museum
MUSEUM
