It was a mountain community of 52 farms, home to more than 200 people whose ancestors had tended the landscape for hundreds of years. Yet within a few months, the area of Epynt in Powys was empty, its homes deserted and its livestock gone. In September 1939, an Army officer arrived to scout the area, nine months after the outbreak of World War Two. By Christmas, each farm had received notices giving them until the end of April 1940 to leave, as the Ministry of Defence wanted the region's 30,000 acres for a training ground.
Many residents believed the arrangement was temporary and that they would return after the war. Some even ploughed their fields in preparation. One farmer regularly travelled back to light a fire in his hearth to protect the stonework, until soldiers told him his home had been reduced to rubble. Another woman insisted on taking her front door with her. The forced evacuation was met with outrage, but speaking up was seen as opposing the war effort against Hitler.
The memory of Epynt has faded over 81 years, unlike the better-known destruction of Capel Celyn in the Tryweryn Valley, flooded in 1965 for a Liverpool reservoir. A mural reading 'Cofiwch Fynydd Epynt' (Remember Epynt Mountain) in Llanrug, near Caernarfon, serves as a reminder. A Facebook page, 'tgofion Eypnt' (Epynt Memories), was set up by teacher Bethan Price, whose grandfather Iorwerth Davies lived there until age 16. 'My great-grandmother always thought they'd go back. She even left the key in the lock,' Price said. 'A week later their sheep farm was knocked down to build a bridge.'
