ABSTRACT
From the peat-topped slopes of Pen Pumlumon Arwystli, the second of five lofty peaks overlooking the Irish Sea, a stream cascades eastwards before taking shape as a river, known locally in Welsh as Afon Hafren. According to legend, it is named after a princess Sabrina, who drowned in the river in atonement for the sins of her forefathers. After descending along the Falls of Blaenhafren, the river flows north, crossing the former county of Montgomery as it approaches Wat’s Dyke and Offa’s Dyke, ancient markers of the border country between England and Wales. Now the river passes by the market town of Y Trallwng whose name, which translates as ‘the boggy place’, so displeased its English residents that they proposed an English name: Pool. This seemed a good idea until someone realized that similar names were used for towns in Yorkshire and Dorset but, they argued, this was a Welsh Pool, and so from 1835 Welshpool it became.
