Hay on Wye

Location

The town lies on the south-east bank of the River Wye and is within the north-easternmost tip of the Brecon Beacons National Park, just north of the Black Mountains. The town is just on the Welsh side of the border with Herefordshire, England, here defined by the Dulas Brook. Where the brook joins the River Wye just north of the town, the border continues northwards along the river. The Wye was the boundary between the former counties and districts of Radnorshire and Brecknockshire.

The adjacent village of Cusop lies on the English side of the Dulas Brook. The nearest city is Hereford, county town of Herefordshire, some 22 miles (35 km) to the east.

The Royal Mail depot in Hay is a sub-office of Hereford, England and has the HR3 postcode.

Governance

Hay-on-Wye is a Welsh community with a Town Council. Its boundary follows the English border/Dulas Brook from the River Wye southeastwards for just over a kilometre, turns south-west to a point just south of Oakfield house, thence north to Greenpit Farm and north westwards, enclosing the Hay Showground and meeting the National Park boundary near the B4350, Brecon Road. From this point, it follows the National Park boundary to the River Wye and the river back to the Dulas Brook.

The Town Council consists of a Mayor, Deputy Mayor and eight councillors.

Hay also participates in the election of a councillor to Powys County Council as part of a larger county division.

Communications

The B4350 runs through the town and the B4351 links it with the main A438 from Brecon to Hereford, on the far side of the River Wye. The town was formerly served at Hay-on-Wye railway station by the train services known as the "Canney Creeper", which closed in 1963 under the Beeching Axe.

Book town

Hay-on-Wye is a destination for bibliophiles in the United Kingdom, still with two dozen bookshops, many selling specialist and second-hand books, although the number has declined sharply in recent years, many becoming general antique shops and similar.

Hay Festival

Since 1988, Hay-on-Wye has been the venue for a literary festival, now sponsored by The Daily Telegraph newspaper, which draws a claimed 80,000 visitors over ten days at the beginning of June to see and hear big literary names from all over the world.

HowTheLightGetsIn

First held in 2010, HowTheLightGetsIn is a philosophy and music festival, held yearly in Hay at the same time as the Hay festival. Billed as "The World's Largest Philosophy and Music Festival", it attracts over 35,000 visitors to its programme of 450 events of music, comedy and philosophy. In 2015 the festival was held from the 21st to the 31st of May. Acts included Mike Skinner, Simon Blackburn, Jamie Woon, Lawrence Krauss, Natalie Bennett and the IAI School, aimed at 16- to 18-year-olds, presented by New College of the Humanities.

Other activities

Hay Golf Club (now defunct) was founded in 1903. The club continued on its nine-hole course until the onset of WW2.

The town's football club is called Hay St. Marys, and they currently play in the Spar Mid Wales League First Division.

Hay was named one of the best places to live in Wales in 2017.

History

Hay-on-Wye, like Builth Wells, has two Norman castles within a short distance of each other. It seems likely that Hay was first fortified by William Fitz Osbern during his penetration of south-east Wales in the summer of 1070, when he defeated three Welsh kings. The history of the site then continues through the lordships of the de Neufmarchés, which was confirmed at the Battle of Brecon in 1093, and also the Gloucester/Hereford families until 1165, when the district of Brycheiniog passed into the hands of the de Braose dynasty of Marcher Lords. In 1230 Hay Castle passed to the de Bohuns and the local history, including the battle near Hay in 1231, is continued through the Mortimer Wars of the 1260s and the battle near Brecon in 1266 down to the death of Earl Humphrey de Bohun in 1298.

The first castle

Lying close to St Mary's Church on the western edge of Hay-on-Wye is a small but well-preserved motte. The site overlooks a gorge and small stream, locally known as The Loggin Brook, that flows into the River Wye, which was undoubtedly one reason for the construction of a motte and bailey castle there. A recently levelled platform under the car park to the north east may have once have housed the castle's bailey. This little fortress was probably the work of William Revel, a knight of Bernard de Neufmarché who is usually referred to as Bernard Newmarch, and may later have been the seat for the manor or commote of Melinog. Other than this, the motte has no further recorded history.

The stone castle

The main fortress within Hay-on-Wye was situated on the great site commanding the town and river under the current ruins of the castle and mansion. This was undoubtedly the 'castello de haia' handed to Miles of Gloucester, 1st Earl of Hereford, in 1121 with Sibyl de Neufmarché, the daughter of Bernard de Neufmarché. It is most likely that the keep stood by this time. It is therefore possible that this is the oldest Norman tower in Wales, dating to the onslaught of William Fitz Osbern in 1070. During the anarchy (1136–54) in the reign of King Stephen a series of charters were passed by the Gloucesters concerning the castle. In 1165 the last of Miles of Gloucester's male descendants was killed at nearby Bronllys Castle and Hay-on-Wye Castle passed into the hands of William de Braose, 3rd Lord of Bramber and of New Radnor and Buellt. The de Braose dynasty were energetic lords and probably built the core of the gatehouse which now stands besides the keep. In the summer of 1198 a major English army formed here before marching off to victory at the Battle of Painscastle some four miles to the north.

In 1230 the last de Braose of Brecon, William de Braose was hanged by Prince Llywelyn ab Iorwerth and Brecon lordship with Hay-on-Wye passed into the hands of the de Bohuns. Taking advantage of this in 1231, Prince Llywelyn ravaged the lands of his de Bohun in-laws during which Hay-on-Wye town was burnt, although the castle survived the onslaught. The castle saw service in the Barons' War of 1263 to 1266, changing hands three times, once being surrendered to the great Simon de Montfort, 6th Earl of Leicester. With the conquest of Wales by King Edward I Longshanks life became more peaceful in this Marcher town.

Around 1401 both town and castle suffered damage by the forces of Owain Glyndŵr, although the castle was listed as defensible against the Welsh in 1403. The fortress later passed to the earls of Stafford, who were to become the unlucky dukes of Buckingham during the Wars of the Roses. The castle was repaired during the conflicts of the 1460s, although its military use would have been somewhat dubious against cannon.

In the 1660s, James Boyle of Hereford built a new mansion on the north side of the castle, and most of the curtain wall was demolished to improve the views. The mansion is now used for second-hand bookselling.

Remains of castle

The keep is roughly thirty feet (9 m) square, and once had four storeys. The corners of the tower have been much rebuilt, probably due to insecure foundations. The entire south east corner of the tower has been replaced and it is possible that when first constructed there was a spiral stair here to allow access to the upper floors. This tower is similar to the keep found at Goodrich Castle.

Some time in the 12th century the strong curtain wall with gate was added to the site. This gateway is one of the finest carved castle gateways in Wales and is comparable with the much more ornate work at Newcastle near Bridgend. The two gates hanging within the gateway, although of different ages, would appear to be very old — the gates at Chepstow Castle have been dendrochronologically dated to the reign of King Henry II (1154–89).

Probably during the troubles of the Barons' War a small tower was added in front of the gateway to make a proper gatehouse complete with portcullis. The portcullis mechanism mounted on the wall walk was reached via a flight of steps up over the back of the gate passageway, which also allowed access to the wall walks.

Twinning

Hay-on-Wye is twinned with Redu, a village in the Belgian municipality of Libin, and with Timbuktu, Mali, West Africa.

King of Hay-on-Wye

On 1 April 1977, bibliophile Richard Booth conceived a publicity stunt in which he declared Hay-on-Wye to be an 'independent kingdom' with himself as its monarch and a National Anthem written by Les Penning. The tongue-in-cheek micronation of Hay-on-Wye has subsequently developed a healthy tourism industry based on literary interests for which some credit Booth. In 2005, Booth announced plans to sell his bookshop and move to Germany; on this occasion local MP Roger Williams was quoted as saying "His legacy will be that Hay changed from a small market town into a mecca for second-hand book lovers and this transformed the local economy".

Notable people