According to Clwyd Powys Archaeological Trust, ‘Llanbister is one of several settlements on the east side of this particular stretch of the river Ithon. It is 13km north-east of Llandrindod Wells.’ The settlement’s name ‘first appears as Lambister in 1252 and Lanbyster in 1334. If there was a saint with the name of Pister or something similar he is otherwise unrecorded.’ 

The church at Llanbister (NPRN 308272) is considered ‘to have been the mother church of North Radnorshire’, and therefore ‘one of the most important churches in the region in the pre-Conquest period.’ The church is dedicated to the pre-eminent saint in Radnorshire, and ‘supposedly originated as the cell of St Cynllo in the 6th century AD.’ The oldest part of LLanbister village occupies the valley to the south of the church. 

Llanbister’s subsequent development, after the establishment of the church, remains unrecorded. ‘Common land or waste lay immediately to the north of the church, and another small patch looks to have lain immediately beyond the south-western edge of the churchyard. Dwellings or other buildings were erected around and then within this, and other buildings emerged beside the lane leading southwards into the valley. By the mid-19th century a small group of dwellings clustered to the south of the church.’ There are also a ‘considerable number of farms in the parish which go back to the 16th or even the 15th century, but there is no evidence for any buildings of a similar date in the settlement around the church. While it might be tempting to see a longer history with LLanbister as a small nucleated settlement in the late medieval era, there is no substantive evidence to support such a view.’ 

Today, Llanbister has amenities such as a village primary school, which educates around 60 pupils through the medium of English. The village also has a public house called the Lion Hotel, which was built towards the end of the 19th century.  

Sources: Clwyd Powys Archaeological Trust report, PRN 16159, accessed from Historic Wales website. Estyn report on Llanbister primary school, published in November 2019, and the Lion Hotel Llanbister website (https://www.lionhotel-llanbister.co.uk/index.html) 

RCAHMW, 1st April 2020