1. At the Dissolution of the Monasteries, estates were sometimes established either directly upon or around the abandoned religious establishment. Often the new residential quarters were built using materials scavenged from the ruins of the religious house. The indications seem to be that this did not happen at Abbey Cwmhir until the nineteenth century,(19) and that nearby Devannor (Ty Faenor: SO 0715 7106) became the residence most influential in controlling the local Abbey Cwmhir estates after the Dissolution of the Monasteries. A building probably dating to the earlier part of the seventeenth century, (20) its environs may nevertheless exhibit more unusual indications of contemporary landscaping. Simple terracing, a well-known feature of chalk and limestone soils, was a common solution for providing hillside cultivation from prehistoric times. It is at present difficult to ascertain how far terraces of a type recognisable around valleyside farms elsewhere in Wales, which rise up to 2 m on gently sloping ground behind the dwelling at Ty Faenor was developed in response to local social or economic pressures or environmental processes, or is in fact a demonstration of Italian or Classical influences (21). However, in its day Ty Faenor was probably sufficiently important a house for terracing to have been created under contemporary Renaissance influences, influences which might accord with the view that elsewhere in Powys double pile houses derived from villa designs in North Italy (22).

Sources:
19. L.Cooke,'Report on the Abbey Cwmhir Estate 1822',Trans Radnor. Soc.51 (1981), 45-56.
20. P.Smith, Houses of the Welsh Countryside (defaenor) (Second Edition, HMSO:19).
21. Briggs op cit n. 5.
22. Haslam op cit p 46.

From Briggs unpubl 1995.

2. This garden is depicted on the Second Edition Ordnance Survey 25-inch map of Radnorshire XVI, sheet 2 (1903). The main element on that map is a terrace. C.H. Nicholas, RCAHMW, 25th August 2006.