It’s a temenos, a holy grove, surrounding Pilleth’s old and simple church. It lies along a track off the road between Knighton and Presteigne near the England-Wales border, looking down from a site of no great elevation, but of seclusion and quiet beauty, on to the valley of the River Lugg. I visited here last week. Swallows and house martins still hawked around in pursuit of sparse insect fare, feeding up before long southwards migration. Swifts had left weeks before.
I first came to this lovely place 40 years ago. The little church, St Mary’s, with its sturdy bell tower, then had something of a ramshackle, neglected air. My late son Will was with me. I told him the story of Owain Glyndŵr’s great uprising against English rule at the outset of the 15th century. It was here at Pilleth, on 22 June 1402, that he fought a major battle against the English force of Edmund Mortimer.
