IMAGES TAKEN NEAR TO
Cwmdu, CRICKHOWELL, NP8 1RY

Felindre is a cluster of dwellings a short distance south of the main village of Cwmdu, and means the place where there was a mill (felin) on the river Rhiangoll. Above, the scarp of Pen-gloch-y-pibwr is visible through the mist.

The road is on the west bank of Rhiangoll, a tributary of the River Usk. Mill Cottage https://www.geograph.org.uk/photo/5787676 is on the right.

Facing southbound traffic on the A479, the main road through the village. Ahead are two minor roads at the edge of the hamlet of Felindre. The former village school, now an art studio, is on the left. https://www.geograph.org.uk/photo/5774305

Indicating a keep clear (no stopping or parking) zone, the yellow markings are faded in May 2018, several years after the closure of the school. The former school building https://www.geograph.org.uk/photo/5774305 is now an art studio. The A479 is the main road through the village.

In May 2018, a nearby nameboard shows CWMDU STUDIOS - WELSH ACADEMY OF ART - LEE WRIGHT STUDIO. A plaque on the A479 side of the building shows NATIONAL SCHOOLS. ERECTED 1873. See https://www.geograph.org.uk/photo/1210143 for Ceridwen's photo taken in 2009 when the school was still open.

A tributary of the River Usk, Rhiangoll flows towards the camera on this https://www.geograph.org.uk/photo/5788454 bridge.

The school was established in 1873, a little way outside the village of Llanfihangel Cwmdu. It incorporated a schoolteacher's residence. The place has changed little since the photographer was a pupil here in the 1950s but this side entrance and carpark are a subsequent addition. When I attended the school, pupils either walked the short distance from the village with mothers or friends (returning home for the midday meal) or, if from further afield, were transported by school bus, van or taxi, in which case you took school meals, prepared in the annexe. Nobody was delivered by car! The only entrance was the gate from the road and this area was just a field. There were around 40 children on the roll then, and there are 32 today, still with two teachers. There were two classrooms, one heated with a stove, the other with a coal fire. The headmaster in my day was Mr T. Davies who gave the children a good grounding in the Welsh language and was not averse to using corporal punishment occasionally. He bore a strong resemblance to Aneurin Bevan which I found confusing, and wondered whether they were one and the same person. [The school was closed in 2012 when it had only 26 pupils.]

The whitewashed cottage is on the west bank of the river named Rhiangoll. Felindre is a hamlet near the village of Cwmdu in Powys.

In September 2023 the board facing the A479 in Cwmdu shows "CWMDU STUDIOS" "LEE WRIGHT STUDIO" and "WELSH ACADEMY OF ART"