Site Record

Lower Bryn y Groes farm is situated three miles north east of Llanfair Caereinion. According to heritage consultancy Trysor, 'the area around Lower Bryn y Groes is shown on the Ordnance Survey's Original Surveyors Drawings Meifod sheet, surveyed in 1829. This was the first detailed map series of the whole country. It did not map field boundaries but does differentiate between farmland and woodland. The land around Lower Bryn y Groes is identifiable as farmland on this map. This map does not label Lower Brynygroes farm. A building appears to stand at the location of the modern farmstead, but the "Brynygroes" name is written further north and not associated with any particular building or group of buildings. To the east, the site of modern Upper Brynygroes is labelled as "Trefedrid." This was also the name of one of the historical hamlets or townships which made up the parish of Meifod.'
'When the Ordnance Survey published their 1 inch to 1 mile scale First Series map for the area in 1836, based on the 1829 survey, a similar picture is shown, although the topography of the area is better represented.'
'The first detailed map of the field system of the area is the Meifod parish tithe map of 1840. This shows that the essential character of the field system in the area was already existence. It also confirms that there is a complex history to the names of the cottages and farms surrounding modern Lower Brynygroes.'
'Cross-referencing the evidence of the tithe schedule with that of the 1841 Meifod parish census returns shows that the holding rented to Thomas Davies was known as Trefedrid. This confirms the evidence of the 1829 Ordnance Survey map which marks the farm now known as Upper Brynygroes as "Trefedrid".'
'The census returns for 1841 shows that the present Lower Brynygroes was at that time an unnamed cottage. It formed part of a second holding named Trefedrid which was a 138 acre farm rented out at that time to a Thomas James. This second Trefedrid is now known as Tycerrig.'
'The 1841 census shows that two cottages just 150 metres to the northwest of what is now Lower Brynygroes were at that time both knows as Brynygroes and occupied by agricultural labourers and their families. These cottages were also part of the smaller Trefedrid, farmed by Thomas James.'
The 1886 1:2500 map shows that the farms and cottages of the area had changed their names since the 1840 tithe map. The smaller of the two Trefedrid farms of the tithe map was now known as Tycerig. The larger Trefedrid was now Brynygroes and Lower Brynygroes had adopted its present name. The two cottages known as Brynygroes on the tithe map had been reduced to one building, which is not named on the 1886 map. The 1902 edition of the 1:2500 shows the same names in use at Tycerig and Lower Brynygroes, but by this time Upper Brynygroes had also received its current name.'
'The boundary banks on the holding are post-medieval in date and would appear to have originally been earthwork banks with hedgerows upon them. During the past century changing agricultural practices and requirements have seen the earthwork banks become denuded and post and wire fencing added to strengthen the boundaries. Hedgerows have not generally been maintained, many were no longer regularly cut during the 20th century and the hedgerow shrubs and trees became overgrown or intermittent and lost their value as barriers to stock animals.'
Source: Trysor report entitled 'Lower Bryn y Groes, Meifod, Powys Historic Environment Assessment' by Jenny Hall and Paul Sambrook, published November 2015
M. Ryder, RCAHMW, 11th March 2019