What Happened Here?
" Y Dyn Bach "
by Kim Hawkins (11)

The Market Hall in Llanboidy with a weather vane in the shape of a fox on the top of the roof. Kim Hawkins is 11 years old. The event that Kim Hawkins remembers most strongly: During the last century, on the outskirts of the little country village of Llanboidy, there lived the Howell family, descendants of Cadifor Fawr. In 1796 Walter Rice Howell Powell succeeded to the estate. He was loved by all the people he knew and they started calling him "Y Dyn Bach". He was a keen sportsman and a breeder of horses and was also a master of foxhounds. He also became a Member of Parliament. He was also Honorary Secretary of the Llanboidy Agricultural Society. He owned 3,468 acres at this time. He had a racetrack on his land and invited his guests to visit his family and share in their sporting activities, and because he couldn't fit them all in to his mansion, he built the Market Hall. In fact he built most of the houses in Llanboidy including Piccadilly Square, the school, the hall and the Maesgwyn Arms. Actually he used the money he won with one of his horses in the Derby to pay for the building of the Hall. We still use the Hall to this day, and on the roof of the Hall we see the symbol of the squire, a fox with a streaming tail on the weather vane - the same fox that is on our new school uniform. It is amazing to think that this quite dreamy little village was once a hive of activity, playing host to the gentry of Great Britain, when they came here to enjoy the horse racing on his private track and to the huge Agricultural Show that was held on his land every year. On his death his last wish was that Llanboidy should have water pumps instead of having to carry water from the well. There is a plaque on the wall of the Hall to commemorate this it says "God and Plenty"- his personal motto.