West Glamorgan

(capital of the county: Swansea)

West Glamorgan (Welsh: Gorllewin Morgannwg) is a preserved county and former administrative county of Wales, one of the divisions of the ancient county of Glamorgan.

West Glamorgan was created on 1 April 1974, by the Local Government Act 1972 from the county borough of Swansea, the municipal boroughs of Neath and Port Talbot, the urban districts of Glyncorrwg and Llwchwr, Gower Rural District, Pontardawe Rural District, and all of Neath Rural District except the parish of Rhigos. From 1982, the main council offices were located in County Hall, Swansea.

West Glamorgan had four districts, as follows:

• Swansea – Swansea CB and Gower RD
• Lliw Valley – Llwchwr and Pontardawe RD
• Neath – Neath and Neath RD
• Port Talbot – Port Talbot and Glyncorrwg

Following the Local Government (Wales) Act 1994, West Glamorgan and its component districts were abolished on 1 April 1996, the area being divided into the two unitary authorities of Swansea and Neath and Port Talbot. Lliw Valley was partitioned between the two authorities. A West Glamorgan preserved county was created for the limited functions of Lieutenancy and High Shrievalty.

Mid Glamorgan

(capital of the county: Merthyr Tydfill)

Mid Glamorgan (Welsh: Morgannwg Ganol) is a preserved county of Wales. From 1974 until 1996, it was also an administrative county, with a county council.

Mid Glamorgan was formed in 1974 under the Local Government Act 1972. It consisted of part of the former administrative county of Glamorgan, and the county borough of Merthyr Tydfil, along with the parishes of Penderyn and Vaynor from Brecknockshire and the urban districts of Bedwas and Machen, Rhymney and part of Bedwellty, from Monmouthshire.

It was divided into six districts:

• Cynon Valley
• Ogwr
• Merthyr Tydfil
• Rhondda
• Rhymney Valley
• Taff-Ely

Mid Glamorgan and its component districts were abolished in 1996 and the area split into the unitary authorities of Bridgend, Merthyr Tydfil, Rhondda Cynon Taf and part of Caerphilly as a result of the Local Government (Wales) Act 1994.

The communities of Wick, St Brides Major, Ewenny (from the Ogwr district) became part of the Vale of Glamorgan county borough, while Pentyrch (from the Taff-Ely district) was added to the Cardiff unitary authority area. Because of this, they became part of the preserved county of South Glamorgan. In 2003 the ceremonial borders were further adjusted, placing the entire Caerphilly county borough in the ceremonial county of Gwent.

The county council's offices were located in the Glamorgan Building (the former headquarters of Glamorgan County Council), in Cathays Park, Cardiff, outside of the Mid Glamorgan boundaries.

South Glamorgan

(capital of the county: Cardiff)

South Glamorgan (Welsh: De Morgannwg) is a preserved county of Wales.

It was originally formed in 1974 under the Local Government Act 1972, as a county council area. It consisted of the county borough of Cardiff along with the southern part of the administrative county of Glamorgan, and also the parish of St Mellons from Monmouthshire.

These areas were divided between two districts: Cardiff and Vale of Glamorgan. Of the counties created in the Act, this was an unusually low number of districts, with only the Isle of Wight being the only other county with two. As well as Cardiff, the county included the main towns of Barry, Cowbridge, Llantwit Major and Penarth.

Following the Local Government (Wales) Act 1994, South Glamorgan was abolished on 1 April 1996, with both district councils becoming unitary authorities. These new authorities each also included small parts of Mid Glamorgan, with Wick, St Brides Major, and Ewenny transferred to the Vale of Glamorgan from the Ogwr district, while Pentyrch and Creigiau (from the Taff-Ely district) became part of Cardiff.

South Glamorgan continues in existence as a preserved county for purposes such as lieutenancy, and as such includes those communities.

Cardiff is the capital of this county, and it is also the capital of Wales, The city is Wales' chief commercial centre, the base for most national cultural and sporting institutions, the Welsh national media, and the seat of the National Assembly for Wales. The unitary authority area's mid 2010 population was estimated to be 341,054, while the population of the Larger Urban Zone was estimated at 861,400 in 2009. Cardiff is a significant tourism centre and the most popular visitor destination in Wales with 18.3 million visitors in 2010. In 2011, Cardiff was ranked 6th in the world in National Geographic's alternative tourist destinations.

Gwent

(capital of the county: Newport)

Gwent is a preserved county and a former local government county in south-east Wales. It was formed on 1 April 1974, under the Local Government Act 1972, and was named after the ancient Kingdom of Gwent.

The authority was a successor to both the administrative county of Monmouthshire (with minor boundary changes) and the county borough of Newport (both authorities which were considered to be legally part of England until the Act came into force although considered jointly with Wales for certain purposes). Under the Local Government (Wales) Act 1994, Gwent was abolished on 1 April 1996.

The name however remains as one of the preserved counties of Wales used for the ceremonial purposes of Lieutenancy and High Shrievalty, and it also survives in various titles, e.g., Gwent Police, Royal Gwent Hospital, Gwent Wildlife Trust, Coleg Gwent college and the Newport Gwent Dragons rugby team. Given the similarity in area, it is sometimes used as a synonym for the historic county of Monmouthshire — for example the Gwent Family History Society describes itself as "The key to roots in the historic county of Monmouthshire".

When it existed, the administrative area was divided into several districts: Blaenau Gwent District, Islwyn District, Monmouth District, Newport District and Torfaen District. The successor unitary authorities are the Blaenau Gwent County Borough, Caerphilly County Borough (part of which came from Mid Glamorgan), Monmouthshire (which covers the eastern 60% of the historic county), City of Newport and Torfaen County Borough.

In 2003 the preserved county of Gwent expanded to cover the whole of Caerphilly County Borough; the Gwent Police area having already been realigned to these boundaries in 1996. In 2007, the population of this enlarged area was estimated as 560,500, making it the most populous of the preserved counties.

Dyfed

(capital of the county: Carmarthen)

The Kingdom of Dyfed is one of several Welsh petty kingdoms that emerged in 5th-century post-Roman Britain in south-west Wales, based on the former Irish tribal lands of the Déisi from c 350 until it was subsumed into Deheubarth in 920. In Latin, the country of the Déisi was Demetae, eventually to evolve into Welsh as Dyfed. Following the Norman invasions of Wales between 1067–1100, the region was conquered by the Normans and by 1138 incorporated into a new shire called Pembrokeshire after the Norman castle built in the Penfro cantref, and under the rule of the Marcher Earl of Pembroke.

In the latter days of the Roman Empire through to the early post-Roman period, the Déisi Muman peoples, a name which originates in Irish as déis meaning "vassal", migrated to the region between 350 and 400 ad. Their migration may have been with the support of Magnus Maximus, who contracted with them to become vassals and seafaring defenders of Britain from Wales to Cornwall, following standard Roman policies. Gaelic became, or remained, the predominant language of the region, as evidenced by twenty stones dated to this periode with Irish ogam inscriptions. One inscribed stone in Castelldwyran near Neath memoralizes one leader known as Voteporix  in Latin and in ogam, with his title given as Protictoris, who claimed decent from a Magnus Maximus, suggesting that "one of his ancestors was a member of the retinue of an emperor and that the title had become hereditary," according to Professor John Davies. Davies suggests that Voteporix may be descended from the same Maximus that had encouraged the Déisi to settle in the region in the late 4th century.

Dyfed may have originally occupied the area that bordered the rivers Teifi, Gwili and Tywi, and included contemporary Pembrokeshire, the western part of contemporary Carmarthenshire, and with the town of Carmarthen. Dyfed eventually comprised at least seven cantrefi: Cemais, Deugleddyf, Emlyn, Cantref Gwarthaf, Pebidiog, Penfro and Rhos, with an approximate area of about 2284 km². During times of strength, the kingdom expanded to additionally cover the Ystrad Tywi (Valley of the [river] Tywi), including Cydweli and Gwyr, and even bordered Brycheiniog. Dyfed lost the Ystrad Tywi region to Ceredigion, another petty kingdom, in the late 7th century.

During the 'Age of the Saints', Dyfed may have had as many as seven bishops: one for each cantref. However, by the High Middle Ages the bishopric of St. David's emerged as one of only three episcopal diocese in Wales, with St. David's covering all of West Wales and part of Mid Wales.

Dyfed was subject to extensive raids during the Viking Age between the 8th and 11th centuries, causing social and political instability, and with the Vikings establishing settlements in southern Dyfed. By the latter part of the 9th century, the rulers of Dyfed had grown cautious of the influence of the sons of Rhodri the Great, and sought out an alliance and the patronage of Alfred the Great of England. The precise nature of the relationship between King Alfred and the rulers in Wales remains unclear, whether a transitory alliance or a formal mediatization of the Welsh rulers to the king of England. Historical attempts have been made to cast the relationship as one as a confederation of Christian unity on the isle of Britain, under the leadership of Alfred, against the heathen Danes. However there evolved a significant degree of coercion in the relationship, according to Davies. "The recognition by Welsh rulers that the king of England had claims upon them would be a central fact in the subsequent political history of Wales," according to Davies.

In about 904 Dyfed's ruler, Llywarch ap Hyfaidd, died, leaving his daughter Elen as his heiress. Elen was married to Hywel, ruler of neighbnoring Seisyllwg and grandson of Rhodri the Great through his second son Cadell. Through his marriage to Elen, Hywel incorporated Dyfed into an enlarged realm to be known as Deheubarth, meaning the "south part", and later went on to conquer Powys and Gwynedd. However, both Powys and Gwynedd returned to their native dynasties on Hywel's death in 950. Hwyel's grandson Maredudd ab Owain recreated the kingdom of his grandfather, but his rule was beset with increasing Viking raids during the latter part of the 10th century. It is during this period that Viking settlements increased, particularly in the area in the cantref of Penfro, with other Viking settlements and trading station at Haverfordwest, Fishguard and Caldey Island in Dyfed. Viking raids upon the Welsh were "relentless", according to Davies, and Maredudd was compelled to raise taxes to pay the ransoms for Welsh hostages in 993, and in 999 a Viking raiding party attacked St. David's and killed Morganau, the bishop.

Dyfed remained an integral province within Deheubarth until the Norman invasions of Wales between 1068-1100. In the Dyfed region, the cantrefi of Penfro, Rhos, Cemais and Pebidiog became occupied by Norman overlords. The Normans influenced the election of the Bishops of St. David's, in Pebidiog, from 1115 onwards. The Princes of Deheubarth, and later Llywelyn the Great as the Prince of a virtual Principality of Wales from 1216, fought to recover the region until the Edwardian Conquest of Wales in 1284 settled the matter. The 1284 Statute of Rhuddlan established the English county of Pembrokeshire and Carmarthenshire out of the region formally known as Dyfed.

Read more: https://www.answers.com/topic/kingdom-of-dyfed#ixzz1wD1n78XA

Powys

(capital of the county: Llandrindod Wells)

Powys covers the historic counties of Montgomeryshire and Radnorshire, most of Brecknockshire (Breconshire), and a small part of Denbighshire — an area of 5,179 km², making it the largest county in Wales by land area.

It is bounded to the north by Gwynedd, Denbighshire and Wrexham; to the west by Ceredigion and Carmarthenshire; to the east by Shropshire and Herefordshire; and to the south by Rhondda Cynon Taf, Merthyr Tydfil, Caerphilly, Blaenau Gwent, Monmouthshire and Neath Port Talbot.

Most of Powys is mountainous, with north-south transportation by car being difficult.

The majority of the Powys population is made up of villages and small towns. The largest towns are Newtown, Ystradgynlais, Brecon, and Welshpool with populations of 12,783, 9,004, 7,901 and 6,269 respectively (2001). Powys has the lowest population density of all the principal areas of Wales.

Just under a third of the residents have Welsh linguistic skills and Welsh speakers are concentrated mainly in the rural areas both in and around Machynlleth, Llanfyllin and Llanrhaeadr-ym-Mochnant (where William Morgan first translated the whole Bible into Welsh in 1588) in Montgomeryshire (Welsh: Sir Drefaldwyn), and the industrial area of Ystradgynlais in the extreme south-west of Brecknockshire (Welsh: Sir Frycheiniog). Radnorshire (Welsh: Sir Faesyfed) was almost completely Anglicised by the end of the 18th century.

This area is named after the older Welsh/British Kingdom of Powys, which occupied the northern two thirds of the area as well as lands now in England, and came to an end when it was occupied by Llywelyn ap Gruffydd of Gwynedd during the 1260s.

In December 2007 Powys was awarded Fairtrade County status by the Fairtrade Foundation

Clwyd

(capital of the county: Wrexham)

Clwyd (Welsh pronunciation: [ˈklʊɨd]) is a preserved county of Wales, situated in the north-east, bordering England with Cheshire to its east, Shropshire to the south-east, and the Welsh counties of Gwynedd to its immediate west and Powys to the south. It additionally shares a maritime border with the metropolitan county of Merseyside along the River Dee. Between 1974 and 1996, it was a county with a county council, and it was divided into six districts. It is named after the River Clwyd, which runs through the region. It was also a Royal Mail postal county before the postal county scheme was abolished in 1996. Clwyd County Council was based in the county town of Mold.

From the late 1950s, the radical reform of local government in Wales was considered more pressing than that in England, due to the small size of many of the existing authorities, especially the upper tier county councils. The Local Government Commission for Wales set up in 1958 was the first to recommend wholesale amalgamation of the administrative counties outside Glamorgan and Monmouthshire, with extensive boundary changes; however the then Minister of Housing and Local Government Sir Keith Joseph decided not to accept the report, noting that county amalgamations in England had been highly unpopular when proposed.

In 1967, after a change of government, the Secretary of State for Wales Cledwyn Hughes published a white paper which revived the idea of amalgamation, but instead of the boundary changes proposed in the previous report, treated each county as a whole. The report recommended a single new county of Gwynedd incorporating Denbighshire, Flintshire, Caernarfonshire, Merionethshire and Anglesey. The white paper stated that "the need for early action is particularly urgent in Wales", and so the issue was not referred to a Royal Commission as in England. Opponents criticised the proposed new county for being too large, and in November 1968 a new Secretary of State announced that Gwynedd would be divided into two.

This revised proposal was continued in a further white paper in March 1970, although this proposed that the counties be unitary authorities which would have no district councils below them. The incoming Conservative government resurrected two-tier local government in a consultative document published in February 1971, again with the same upper-tier boundaries. Some minor changes having been made to the existing county boundaries due to special local factors, the Local Government Act 1972 duly created Clwyd as a merger of Flintshire with most of Denbighshire, along with the Edeyrnion Rural District from Merionethshire. The 1970 white paper had introduced the name of Clwyd by reference to the River Clwyd and the Clwydian range of hills; Clwyd was the only new Welsh county which did not take its name from an ancient kingdom.

Gwynedd

(capital of the county: Caernarfon)

Gwynedd (Welsh pronunciation: [ˈɡwɨ̞nɛð]) is an area in north-west Wales, named after the old Kingdom of Gwynedd. As a local government area it is the second biggest in terms of geographical area and also one of the most sparsely populated. A large proportion of the population is Welsh-speaking. The name Gwynedd is also used for a preserved county, covering the two local government areas of Gwynedd and the Isle of Anglesey. Culturally and historically, the name can also be used for most of North Wales (for instance, the area covered by the Gwynedd Constabulary), corresponding to the approximate territory of the Kingdom of Gwynedd at its greatest extent.

Gwynedd is the home of Bangor University and includes the scenic Llŷn Peninsula, and most of the Snowdonia National Park.

Gwynedd was an independent kingdom from the end of the Roman period until the 13th Century when it was conquered and subjugated by England. The modern Gwynedd was one of eight Welsh counties originally created on 1 April 1974 under the Local Government Act 1972, based on the principal territory of the former realm. It covered the entirety of the old counties of Anglesey, and Caernarfonshire along with all of Merionethshire apart from Edeirnion Rural District (which went to Clwyd), and also a few parishes in Denbighshire: Llanrwst, Llansanffraid Glan Conwy, Eglwysbach, Llanddoged, Llanrwst and Tir Ifan.

The county was divided into five districts: Aberconwy, Arfon, Dwyfor, Meirionnydd and Anglesey.