Welsh Journals

THE COUNTY ARCHIVES GORDON REID Introduction In this article I hope to give an indication of some of the variety and richness to be found among the collections at the County Archives Office at Llandrindod Wells. The office has come a very long way in a short time, and I welcome the opportunity to bring readers of the Transactions up to date. It is not my intention to reproduce here a list of collections pertaining to Radnorshire.1 Instead, I have chosen to use as a model the hundred of Rhaeadr, which included the parishes of Llanfihangel Helygen, Llanyre, Llansanffraid Cwmteuddwr, Nantmel, Rhaeadr itself, St Harmon, and the chapelry of Abbey Cwm-hir. From this I hope to show what classes of records are available for consultation in the Archives Office and to illustrate some of their potential as a source for the local history of Radnorshire. The County Archives Office The Powys County Archives Office first opened its doors in January 1991. Until then, there was no institution within the county whose prime objective was the collection and preservation of documentary material relating to the history of the new county of Powys, nor of the old counties of Brecknock, Montgomery and Radnor. Why did it take so long? Record offices are very much a development of the twentieth century. The Local Government Act of 1888 which established county councils also made them responsible for the care of their records, including the large collections which they had inherited from the Quarter Sessions. In the decades following the 1888 Act many counties established County Records Committees, which in turn paved the way for the creation of record offices: Glamorgan set up its archive service in 1939; Shropshire in 1946; Flintshire in 1951. Indeed, by the time of the 1974 local government reorganization, only four Welsh counties had made no provision for archives. Three of them went to comprise Powys; the fourth, Cardiganshire, was to receive an area office at Aberystwyth as part of the new Dyfed archives service. The whole question of records was raised specifically with the passing of the 1958 and 1967 Public Records Acts; records defined as "public" (such as those of the Quarter Sessions) could only be held by approved archival institutions. Counties without an archives office had a simple choice, either to provide one or else to deposit their public records elsewhere. For the county councils of Brecknockshire, Montgomeryshire and Radnorshire the solution was to deposit these records (and many others) with the National Library of Wales at Aberystwyth. When the new county of Powys was created in 1974 the county council considered the question of archives afresh. In the end, it was decided to continue the existing arrangements with the National Library "until such time as changing circumstances might justify the