Staylittle (Welsh: Penffordd-las), sometimes referred to colloquially as Y Stay or Y Stae, is a small village set in the shallow upland basin of the Afon Clywedog on the B4518 road, equidistant from Llanidloes and Llanbrynmair in the historic county of Montgomeryshire, Wales, although now administered as part of the unitary authority of Powys.

[2] The lands to the north of Staylittle were granted to the Cistercian monastery Strata Marcella by the Prince of Powys Wenwynwyn in 1187.

On the dissolution of the monasteries the land in the possession of Cwmhir Abbey passed into the hands of Robert Dudley, Earl of Leicester, who on his death in 1588 bequeathed them to University College, Oxford, which owned them until 1920.

The study of the area by CPAT [1] argues that this was, '...probably due to its position on the edge of unenclosed common land roughly midway between Llanidloes, Machynlleth and Llanbrynmair.'

Not one of them had ever attended a place of worship from the time of their birth and he most emphatically declared that, unless he was allowed to keep his children in his own way, without at all being interfered with, he would be bound to become a pauper at once.

Under the care of John Goodwin, it subsequently played a significant role in the development of Quakerism in Montgomeryshire.

When Quakerism in Montgomeryshire declined in the latter part of the 18th century it is said that,[5] '...the major focus of the movement had moved from Efyrnwy valley and Dolobran to the farmhouse of Esgair - goch, near Staylittle, where penurious but persevering John Goodwin and his wife strove valiantly to save Quakers from extinction.'

Later, in the 19th century, Staylittle played an important role in the provision of non-conformist places of worship - Baptist and Methodist (originally at Rock Villa) for the nearby farming and mining communities.

[6] For Blaen Hafren ward, in the north of which Staylittle is situated, the Welsh language does not have such a strong foothold, with 42% of the population having one or more skills and 21% having all three.

From 1851 its population grew steadily if not spectacularly with people migrating from out of the area to work in the nearby mines of Dylife and Dyfngwn.