The name Crickhowell is an anglicised spelling that corresponds to the Welsh Crucywel. The name is derived from Crug Hywel, meaning 'Hywel's mound'. This is usually identified with the Iron Agehill fort on nearby Table Mountain, although this has the local name of Mynydd y Begwn. It may be that Crug Hywel refers to the castle mound in the town itself.[3] The language of Crickhowell (and Llangynidr) was originally Welsh. In his 1893 book Wales and her language, John E. Southall, reports that over 60% of the population of Crickhowell spoke Welsh, although the town was only a few miles from more anglicised Abergavenny.[4]
There is a primary school and a secondary school; both act as a central point for a large catchment area. There is some light industry on the outskirts of Crickhowell at the Elvicta Industrial Estate. The town centre[5] includes a variety of traditional businesses, many of which are family owned. Other facilities in Crickhowell include a library, two play areas, public toilets and the CRiC building, which houses a tourist information centre, an internet cafe, an art gallery and a local history archive. There are pubs, cafes, restaurants and two hotels: "The Bear" and "The Dragon".[6]
In 2015, Crickhowell appeared in a TV documentary, claiming it as the first British settlement to purposely use similar tax avoidance tactics used by multinational businesses to avoid paying taxes themselves, in protest at the way large corporations use legal loopholes to avoid paying UK corporation tax.[9]
A market and fair have been recorded since 1281.[10]
Governance
Clarence Hall: Main building (centre) is events venue, with Clarence House (town council offices) to right and Crickhowell Resource and Information Centre to left
There are two tiers of local government covering Crickhowell, at community (town) and county level: Crickhowell Town Council and Powys County Council. Planning matters fall to the Brecon Beacons National Park Authority. The town council meets at the Crickhowell Resource and Information Centre on Beaufort Street and has its offices in the adjoining Clarence House (part of the Clarence Hall complex).[11]
Administrative history
Crickhowell was an ancient parish in the Crickhowell (or Crucywel) hundred of Brecknockshire.[12] The manor which covered the town was called the 'borough of Crickhowell', but it was never given a charter and it appears that no borough council ever operated.[13] Any residual claim Crickhowell may have had to be called a borough was extinguished under the Municipal Corporations Act 1883.[14]
When elected parish and district councils were introduced in 1894, Crickhowell was given a parish council and included in the Crickhowell Rural District. The rural district was abolished in 1974, after which Crickhowell was included in the Borough of Brecknock in the new county of Powys; the borough in turn was abolished in 1996 and its functions passed to Powys County Council. The parish of Crickhowell was redesignated as a community in 1974; its community council took the name Crickhowell Town Council.[15][16]
Crickhowell Market Hall (originally the Town Hall) on The Square dates from 1834, nowadays with market stalls on the ground floor and a cafe in the first floor old courtroom. In 2007 Powys County Council handed over responsibility of the hall to a charity, the Market Hall Trust.[19] The stone building, raised on twin doric columns, is Grade II* listed.[20]
Colonel Sir George Everest (1790–1866), eponym for Mount Everest. Surveyor and geographer, served as Surveyor General of India from 1830 to 1843. His father had an estate nearby called "Gwernvale Manor".[23]
The former Crickhowell & Penmyarth Golf Club was founded in 1897 and played on a course at Glanusk Park. The club and course disappeared in the late 1960s.[25]
^"George Everest was born on 4 July 1790 but the location is open to doubt. This uncertainty as to his birthplace arises because his father William Tristram Everest had an estate near Crickhowell in South Wales and some reference works suggest he was born there. [...] George's baptismal certificate certainly indicates that he was baptized in Greenwich but although the certificate also bears his date of birth it does not indicate the locality." Smith, James R. (2015). "Sir George Everest". In Martin, Geoffrey (ed.). Geographers: Biobibliographical Studies, Volume 15. Bloomsbury Publishing. ISBN9781474226653.
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