Kings Norton, Birmingham, where Powell remained until 1930. The Powells were of Welsh descent and from Radnorshire (a Welsh border county), having moved to the developing Black Country during the early 19th century. His great-grandfather was a coal miner, and his grandfather had been in the iron trade. Powell read avidly from a young age; as early as three he could "read reasonably well". Though not wealthy, the Powells were financially comfortable, and their home included a library. By the age of six Powell was addicted to reading, predominantly history books. Powell's Toryism and regard for institutions was formed at an early age: around this time his parents took him to Caernarfon Castle and he removed his cap when he entered one of the rooms. His father asked him why, to which Powell replied that it was the room where the first Prince of Wales had been born. Every Sunday Powell would give lectures to his parents on the books he had read and he would also conduct evensong and preach a sermon. Once he was old enough to go out on his own, Powell would walk around rural Worcestershire with the aid of Ordnance Survey maps, which instilled in him a love for landscape and cartography. Powell attended a dame school run by a friend of his mother's until he was eleven. He was then a pupil for three years at King's Norton Grammar School for Boys before he won a scholarship to King Edward's School, Birmingham in 1925, aged thirteen. The legacy of the First World War loomed large for Powell: almost all his teachers had fought in the war, and some of the pupils who had scratched their names on the desks had subsequently died in the conflict. Powell also read books on the war, which helped form his opinion that Britain and Germany would fight again. The head of classics at the school saw that Powell had an interest in the subject and agreed to transfer him to the classics side of the school. Powell's mother taught him Greek in just over two weeks during the Christmas break in 1925 and by the time he started the next term he had attained fluency in Greek that most pupils would reach after two years. Within two terms Powell was top of the classics form. His classmate Christopher Evans recalled that Powell was "austere" and "really unlike any