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Knighton is a small market town and community situated chiefly in Powys, Wales, within the historic county boundaries of Radnorshire. Lying on the River Teme, the town straddles the English-Welsh border; Knighton railway station, as well as a small part of the town's built-up area, is located in Shropshire, England. Knighton is the sixth largest town in Powys. The name Knighton derives from Old English meaning 'A settlement of servants' Cniht or cnihta (forming the now used 'knight' aspect) originally meaning servant rather than the oft mistaken 'Knight' as in the soldier. This was both an Anglo-Saxon settlement (though no trace of this has ever been located) and later a Norman fortified town. Tref-y-clawdd, its Welsh name, is not a translation: it means 'town on the dyke' (i.e. Offa's Dyke) and not Knighton, and is first recorded in 1262.
Inevitably, Knighton's earliest history is obscure but there are local clues: Caer Caradoc (an Iron Age hillfort associated with Caradoc or Caractacus) is 2 miles (3 km) away and just off the road towards Clun.[6] Watling Street, a Roman road, passes a few miles to the east at Leintwardine. Any settlements around the Knighton area would have been part of the Iron Age kingdom of Cornovii which consisted of the modern-day counties as Cheshire, Shropshire, North Staffordshire, North Herefordshire, parts of Powys and Worcestershire.
Knighton is known for a well-preserved section of Offa's Dyke. Intriguingly, Wat's Dyke also runs parallel to Offa's Dyke and a few miles to the east. An earthwork that runs north-south along the English/Welsh border from Basingwerk near Holywell to Oswestry. The dykes aside, two Norman castles, constructed in the 12th century, are the oldest survivors in modern Knighton. The town became a borough in 1203, with a charter permitting a weekly market and annual fair. The castle was besieged by Owain Glyndwr in 1402 and the castle and much of the town were destroyed. The major battle of the rebellion was fought at Pilleth (Welsh: Bryn Glas) 3 miles (5 km) south of the town in the same year.
The town's church dates from the 11th century, but much of it was rebuilt in the 19th century. It is one of only two in Wales dedicated to St Edward; the patron saint of England before St George. This dedication to an English saint is a symptom of the dual English/Welsh nature of the town that was not legally resolved until 1535 when Knighton was finally confirmed as part of Wales by the Acts of Union. Knighton also has a Baptist chapel and a small Catholic church.
Knighton first prospered as a centre of the wool trade in the 15th century and was later an important point on the two drover routes from Montgomery to Hereford, and from London to Aberystwyth. Otherwise, Knighton was remote from the centres of commerce. It seemed likely that the railway revolution would also fail to reach the town; the 1840s and 1850s saw considerable railway building right across Great Britain but Radnorshire had a small population and little industry. The construction of the railway was made economically viable - just - by an entrepreneurial drive to connect the Mumbles and Milford Haven with the cities and factories of the industrial Midlands. The Knighton Railway Company was formed by local landowners and businessmen to build a line from Craven Arms to the town. Work began in August 1858 and the line reached Knighton in March 1861. The station itself was built in 1865. To mark the accession of H.M. Queen Elizabeth II in 1953 the initials "ER" were planted out in deciduous trees within an evergreen forest on the hill to the north of the town.
In August 1970, Knighton hosted a rock festival with bands such as The Move and the somewhat more obscure Pete Brown & Piblokto, Roger Bunn, Forever More, Clark-Hutchinson, James Litherland's Brotherhood (James was originally part of Colosseum) and Killing Floor. Comperes were radio DJ Pete Drummond and local resident and bluesman Alexis Korner, who also performed.
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