| Elan Valley in 1833 | ||
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This image is taken from an Ordnance
Survey map first surveyed in 1833.
It gives us an excellent picture of the landscape
of the Elan Valley at the very
beginning of Queen Victoria's reign. |
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working people of the area at this time were mostly tenant farmers, estate
workers or shepherds. The wild upland ridges were pasture for great flocks
of Welsh mountain sheep. Most of the area belonged to the Lewis Lloyd family of Nantgwyllt. Nantgwyllt House itself is just off the bottom of the map, but you can see a scatter of houses and the chapel which made up the tiny hamlet. |
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 The
grand house marked Cwm Elan can be seen
on the west bank of the river, standing in its own grounds. For a short
while this had been the home of the great poet Shelley. During the Victorian period it was the home of wealthy people who enjoyed the romantic setting of the valley and the rugged landscape of the Cambrian mountains. (To see what happened to the house, see the pages on the building of the Elan Valley dams). |
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