The start of the Severn Way is of course at the source of the Severn, the only problem is that the river starts from a rather boggy hillside with numerous streams and pools all of which could claim to be the source. Fortunately some kind soul has erected a pillar to define the start although I suspect it was tempting to dig it up and move it 20 yards to another likely spot, I don’t think anyone would have noticed so the council have surrounded it in concrete and stone slabs to stop any such tomfoolery.
I am not sure why that spot has been defined as the source, there seem to be many other candidates around the bog.
The hill is called Plynlimon which means "Five Tops" or "Five Beacons" and from the same hillside the river Wye and the river Rheidol have their sources. The area gets over 40" of rain each year so perhaps it is not surprising.
To get there Gill dropped me off first thing at Rhyd-y-benwch in the Hafren Forest. Hafren is the Welsh name for the Severn from where I walked the 3¾ miles uphill to the source against 40 mph winds and rain took a photograph of the pillar and walked back plus another 8 miles to Llanidloes thankfully with the wind behind me. All downhill from now to Bristol. The best thing about the walk is that I could leave my pack in Llanidloes, no point in carrying it today.
In 1854 a slightly mad English landowner called George Borrow spent his summer in North Wales and was perhaps one of the first bloggers as he published a diary about his travels. He spoke Welsh and seemed to spend the summer shouting at the locals in their own language which supposedly frightened the life out of them. He visited this hill and insisted in drinking from the source of all three rivers, I guess his constitution was better than mine, the water did not look inviting. If you have trouble sleeping then I can recommend Wild Wales by George Borrow, it only costs a few pence on Kindle as it is long since out of print. At the time he wrote it the big news was the war in Crimea, some things never change.
The great thing about Llanidloes (called Llani by locals) is that the main road misses it completely so only “those in the know” go through the town. In the centre is a medieval roundabout – the old market hall built around 1620 is in the centre of the crossroads. Today the town is quiet and peaceful but in 1839 there were riots by the self employed weavers who were being replaced by machines. They were part of the Chartist movement demanding votes for all (men). At the time only 86 men were eligible to vote, 2% of the population of the area. There don’t seem to be any riots now and surprisingly the women of Llanidloes have been give the right to vote.
The other interesting landmark is St Idloes Church, no one seems to know much about St Idloes but his church does have a splendid hammer beam roof which was purloined from a monastery during the dissolution. It also has a modern stained glass window which shows the creation and a dog. The creation apparently was the start of everything and the dog belonged to the people who paid for the window.
I took a couple of pictures of it this afternoon but they are not very good so you will have to make do with a plaque outside the jail.