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Welcome to Brilley

 

Brilley is in northwest Herefordshire, in the region called The Scarplands, because it rises above the Central Plain at the core of the county.  The Scarplands are a remote,thinly populated.,border country sharing much of the character of Welsh Radnorshire, which it bounds.

Brilley’s landscape consists of fields and woods, intersected by brooks and dingles, paths and lanes; it is a managed, rather than a wild countryside.  Farmsteads and houses are quite evenly distributed, some loosely grouped in small hamlets.

The oldest evidence of settlement we see now must be the Iron Age Camp at Pen-twyn, crowned by a clump of trees on the skyline, visible as a landmark from all over the valley.

Brilley lay on the route between the cattle rearing areas of Wales, and the English markets.  The drovers brought their animals through, getting pasture for them, and cider for themselves, on the way - possibly at The New Inn (with its cider press still standing behind it), and certainly at The Rhydspence.  The latter was a focal point for drovers – a main drove road came over the hill from Painscastle, down the Rhydspence pitch, because the river could be forded there.

 

Visit the Brilley Website