Brecon (/ˈbrɛkən/;[3] Welsh: Aberhonddu; pronounced [ˌabɛrˈhɔnði]),[citation needed] archaically known as Brecknock, is a market town in Powys, mid Wales.

Today only fragments survive, including some earthworks and parts of one of the gatehouses; these are protected as scheduled monuments.

[11] In Shakespeare's play King Richard III, the Duke of Buckingham is suspected of supporting the Welsh pretender Richmond (the future Henry VII), and declares: O, let me think on Hastings and be goneTo Brecknock, while my fearful head is on!

[12]A priory was dissolved in 1538, and Brecon's Dominican Friary of St Nicholas was suppressed in August of the same year.

[14] Saint Mary's Church began as a chapel of ease to the priory but most of the building is dated to later medieval times.

The first parish priest, Maurice Thomas, was installed there by John Blaxton, Archdeacon of Brecon in 1555.

[19] After the Reformation, some Breconshire families such as the Havards, the Gunters and the Powells persisted with Catholicism despite its suppression.

The Watergate house was sold in 1805, becoming the current Watergate Baptist Chapel, and property purchased as the priest's residence and a chapel between Wheat Street and the current St Michael Street, including the "Three Cocks Inn"; about this time Catholic parish records began again.

A simple Gothic church, dedicated to St Michael and designed by Charles Hansom, was built in 1851 at a cost of £1,000.

[22] The town sits within the Usk valley at the point where the Honddu and Tarell rivers join it from north and south respectively.

[26] During the worldwide Black Lives Matter protests the plaque was removed and thrown into the River Usk.

In 1776 a separate body of improvement commissioners was established to supply the town with water and pave and light the streets.

[37] The junction of the east–west A40 (London-Monmouth-Carmarthen-Fishguard) and the north–south A470 (Cardiff-Merthyr Tydfil-Llandudno) is on the east side of Brecon town centre.

[38] The town's primary public transport hub is the Brecon Interchange at the B4601 Heol Gouesnou, served mainly by the long-distance T4, T6 and T14 routes operated by TrawsCymru.

It then continues to Newport, the towpath being the line of communication and the canal being disjointed by obstructions and road crossings.

Therefore, Brecon lost all its train services before the 1963 Reshaping of British Railways report (often referred to as the Beeching Axe) was implemented.

[40] October sees the annual 4-day weekend Brecon Baroque Music Festival, organised by leading violinist Rachel Podger.

[50] Idris Davies put "the pink bells of Brecon" in his poem published as XV in Gwalia Deserta (by T. S. Eliot).

This was copied in "Quite Early One Morning" by Dylan Thomas, put to music by Pete Seeger as the song "The Bells of Rhymney", then recorded by the Byrds where it became known to millions although by then the Brecon line had gone missing.