MATHRAFEL, a township and a hundred in Montgomery. The township is in Llangyniew parish; lies on the river Vyrnwy, 3 miles NE of Llanfair; and is sometimes called Malthyrafel. Real property, £884. The Roman station Mediolanum is supposed to have been here; and a castle of the Princes of Powys, and of the Vipouts, stood on what is thought to have been the Roman station. The castle was refortified by one of the Vipouts about the beginning of the 13th century; L le welyn ap Jorwerth laid siege to it in 1212; and King John, coming with a force from England, compelled Llewelyn to retire, and burnt the castle to the ground. Vestiges of a rampart and a deep fosse still exist, and enclose a quadrangular area of about 2 acres. Three sides were defended by the fosse; the fourth side was defended by a steep eminence overhanging the Vyrnwy; and the N E angle, on that side, has a lofty moun d on which may have stood an outwork, commanding a full view up and down the vale.-The hundred contains five parishes, and parts of two others. Acres, 62,9 48. Pop. in 1851,5,784; in 1861,5,677. Houses, 1,168.

(John Marius Wilson, Imperial Gazetteer of England and Wales (1870-72))