Mary Richards, Darowen (1787-1877), was the daughter of Rev Richards, the local rector. She was a musician with a great interest in Welsh literature, and collected Welsh music manuscripts. These manuscripts are now held for posterity in the National Library of Wales.
Darowen School
There's a great deal of history on the Web relating to Darowen's little school, with extracts from the School Log, etc., at:There's a story which tells of a fiddler, named Dick, who routinely spent all the money he made from fiddling on drink. After "a week's fuddle" at Darowen he started the walk back to his family in Llanidloes, passing via Fairy Green Lane - just above Cefn Cloddiau farm. To give himself courage he played his fiddle, which the fairies must have liked, because suddenly it felt heavy and something rattled inside. When he got home his wife was very angry that he had been away from home so long, spending all their money on booze and not leaving enough to pay the rent. However, Dick shook his fiddle and a pile of coins fell out. He took this money the next day to pay the rent and very sensibly got a receipt for it from their landlord, because - as often happens with fairy money - the coins later turned into cockleshells.
Read about it in detail at: http://www.sacred-texts.com/neu/celt/wfb/wfb27.htm
I've read elsewhere that it was once the tradition in Darowen on Saint Tudur's day (15 Oct) to carry a young man around in a procession and beat him with sticks. Another version is that on 25 Oct, or the next Sunday, a boy carries a long pole or branch around on hi shoulder, and it's this that beaten by the others, in remembrance of St. Tudur's persecution.