Welsh Journals

Pool Quay. THE LATE JOHN PUGH. [Mr. John Pugh was born in the year 1842, and in 1863 was appointed schoolmaster in Pool Quay. He lived in that village until his retirement in 1908, when he went to live in Welshpool. For some time he had intended to write his reminiscences of the village he had served so well. He died in 1940, and the following paper is an uncompleted description which he left among his manu- scripts] Prior to 1862, Pool Quay was the name given to the village and the immediate district only, but, on the opening of the church (St. John the Evangelist) on the date named above, an Ecclesiastical Parish was formed which extended from the bottom of the Abbey Bank on the south to (but not including) the Ark, Arddleen, on the north. The River Severn was the boundary on the east. The west boundary is difficult to follow. Roughly it extended from the gamekeeper's cottage, through Crowther's Coppice, and then followed Gilfach dingle and the water course there, down to its junction with the brook flowing by Varchoel Hall; then on to the junction of this brook with the Belu brook near little Wern. Then for a short distance the Belu brook is the boundary. This brook flows under the canal on the Wern. The canal is then the western boundary to a point opposite the Perthy. The north or really north-east boundary follows the water course from this place which flows by the Gardin Cottage and Ark Cottage and joins the Belu brook by the bridge on the road from Arddleen to Rheteskin. The Belu brook is then the boundary to its junction with the Severn. The south boundary extends from the bottom of the Abbey Bank to the footbridge over the canal under the Rallt Wood then up the little lane between the two cottages under the wood, up the wood to the top of the Rallt, and on to the gamekeeper's cottage. From the top of the Rallt to the gamekeeper's cottage is really more west than south. THE VILLAGE. It is difficult to imagine that this was a very important village, probably the most important village in the county, even as important as the town of Welshpool, from which it takes its name, the Quay of Pool. Welshpool is, even in these days, often called Pool by the inhabitants of the surrounding district.