Welsh Journals

Jonathan Williams in his History of Radnorshire p. 279 mentions Gwernyreselog, a recently built farm House, near the town of Rhayader, the residence of Mr. Busht formerly the property of a family of the name of Price, it is situated at the distance of a mile from the right hand of the road leading from Rhayader to the Church of Nantmel," and on page 282 The tithes are equally divided between the Chapter and Chanter of St. Davids and the Vicar (of Nantmel). The present lessee is Hans Bush, Esq." Hans Bush is evidently a misprint for Hans Busk, for Hans Busk of Nantmel was Sheriff of Radnorshire in 1837. Though the name of Busk does not appear in any of the Registers at Nantmel yet in a copy of a Terrier orginally dated 1720 the following note was added without mentioning the date The original Terrior was sent to London by mistake for a law suit Busk v. Lewis. The name of the house where Hans Busk dwelt has been changed to Glenalders, but it still bears some resemblance to Gwernyreselog, in that alders is the English for Gwern. It is a large farm house. The front part of it is early 19th Century, which Jonathan Williams describes as recently built.' The family connection with the neighbourhood was not of long duration. It seems that they took a lease of the tithes of Nantmel, and therefore required a farm to store their goods in kind. Nantmel being a Vicarage and not a Rectory, the Vicar only received a portion of the tithes, The Chapter and Chanter of St. David's Cathedral received the other portion and being so far away they could not collect the tithe in kind, so they leased the collection for a term of years at a fixed annual charge. The Tithe Act of 1836 changed this custom into money payment, and so tithe barns, the necessity of earlier Rectors lost their usefulness.