Visit Brecon's fantastic museum & art gallery, y Gaer and read about its amazing history. This is the 3rd stop in WALK: The Brecon Story, our heritage trail around Brecon.
y Gaer Museum, Art Gallery and Library
At the far end of the Bulwark we stand in front of a grand piece of early Victorian design - the Shire Hall - now y Gaer Museum, Art Gallery and Library (plaque 7). Opened in 1842, in Grecian Doric style, Brecon builder Samuel Hancorn won the tender to build it for £6,248. It is one of the finest examples of early Victorian ‘Greek Revival’ architecture in Wales. It housed the Assize Court until 1971 as well as a second Petty Sessions court. The Brecknock Museum was moved here and officially opened in 1974. Pop inside to see the court itself, the reconstruction of a Victorian school room and many fascinating reminders of our community’s long and distinguished history.
Outside, take a closer look at the cast iron railings around the front and side of the Shire Hall. Much of it is probably as old as the building itself. The support posts joining each section are actually modelled on fasces - bundles of rods, bound together by leather straps holding in place an axe head. They were carried before Roman magistrates as a symbol of authority and punishment.
To the right of the magnificent entrance to the Shire Hall stands a water trough commemorating the coronation of King Edward VII in 1902. It was one of many celebrations in the town which were also due to involve a tea for 1,400 children and a hot dinner for 250 aged poor people. The dinner was to include: ‘roast and boiled beef, mutton, veal and ham, two vegetables, plum pudding and tart, bread and cheese together with a pint of beer or, if preferred, tea or mineral water.’
Watton Mount
Opposite y Gaer stands the imposing Watton Mount, a grand early 19th century town house. It was home until the early 20th century of John Atcherly Webb, a railway man who developed the train line from Brecon to Llanidloes before building up limestone quarries and a coal mine. He was said to be such a good employer that, during the great coal mine strike of 1898 “not a single man left his colliery, all being perfectly satisfied with the conditions of labour and pay.” By the 1920s a town library was housed in rooms on the lower floors. In its rear car park, once part of the two acres of ‘pleasure grounds’ - and hidden by yet more shrubbery - stands the ruined north eastern tower and about 25 metres of the 13th century mediaeval town wall. Much of the wall, running for 1066 yards, was demolished during the Civil War, in the 1640s, in an attempt to avoid Brecon being turned into a garrison town, or being subject to a siege.
y Gaer and Watton Mount are part of our WALK: The Brecon Story heritage trail. Click here to access the Google Earth map or visit the next place on our trail.
