Hay-on-Wye

Hay-on-Wye, or simply Hay (Welsh: Y Gelli Gandryll; Welsh pronunciation: [ə ˈɡɛɬi ˈgandrɪɬ] or simply Y Gelli), is a market town and community in Powys, Wales, in the historic county of Brecknockshire. With over twenty bookshops, it is often described as a "town of books"; it is both the National Book Town of Wales and the site of the annual Hay Festival. The community had a population of 1,675 at the 2021 census.
The town is twinned with Redu, a village in the Belgian municipality of Libin, and with Timbuktu, Mali, West Africa.
Hay-on-Wye is often named as one of the best places to live in Wales and has been named as one of the UK's best Christmas destinations.
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 parish of Cusop lies on the English side of the Dulas Brook, with parts of the urban area of Hay now crossing the border into the parish of Cusop. The nearest city is Hereford, county town of Herefordshire, some 22 miles (35 km) to the east. Hereford serves as the post town for Hay, so that its official postal address is "Hay-on-Wye, Hereford", despite Hay being in Wales and Hereford in England.
Hay-on-Wye is in the area known as "Kilvert country" which includes Clyro, Capel-y-ffin, Llowes, Glasbury, Llanigon, Painscastle, Clifford and Whitney-on-Wye.
The settlement's name is first referred to between 1135 and 1147 as Haya; in 1299 the name of La Haye is used. By the 16th century it was simply called Hay, and the use of the river as a suffix is a later addition. In 1215, a Welsh name, Gelli was recorded, and Gelli gandrell in 1614; the two names may have been used concurrently in 1625. The English language name, Hay, is derived from Old English hæg, possibly meaning a "fenced area" and a noun used in late Saxon and Norman times for an enclosure in a forest. The Welsh word celli (lenited to Gelli) has a range of meanings, including wooded areas of various extents.
The legal name of the community is Hay rather than Hay-on-Wye. In 1947 the General Post Office changed the name of the postal locality from Hay to Hay-on-Wye. The change of postal address did not change the name of the urban district which then covered the town, which retained the name Hay and was subsequently converted into a community called Hay in 1974.
The village of Llanigon is about 2 miles (3 km) south-west of the town of Hay-on-Wye. Before the Norman Conquest, Hay-on-Wye was part of the parish of Llanigon. The church of St. Eigon (possibly identified with Saint Eigen) in Llanigon was the principal church for the area. This was because the settlement in Llanigon predated the settlement in Hay-on-Wye.
Brycheiniog (an independent kingdom in Wales) was conquered between 1088 and 1095 following the second Norman invasion of Wales. The Norman invaders were led by Bernard de Neufmarché, a marcher Lord. He divided Brycheiniog into smaller lordships, which were gifted to the knights who contributed to the conquest. The Llanthomas lordship (in Llanigon) was part of the Hay lordship owned by William Revel, one of Bernard's knights. Motte and bailey castles were typically built soon after a lordship was allocated to a knight.
Hay-on-Wye grew after the conquest. Around 1121, a motte and bailey castle was built near St. Mary's. It is thought to have been built by William Revel. The castle remains are known as Hay Tump. The church of St Mary's was built around 1135 and took over the role of the principal church and parish for the area. St. Mary's is near Login Brook and the River Wye.
The main part of the town was subsequently developed on a spur of land between the River Wye and Dulas Brook, about 200 metres east of Hay Tump. The town was fortified with walls and defended by Hay Castle, which appears to have been built from the late 12th century onwards. The earlier centre of settlement around Hay Tump and St Mary's Church lay outside the later town walls. A chapel dedicated to St John was subsequently built inside the town walls around 1254.
In post-conquest times, Hay-on-Wye was divided between two manors, known as an Englishry (i.e. English Hay or Haya Anglicana) and a Welshry (i.e. Welsh Hay or Haya Wallensis). The Englishry was within the fortified town of Hay. The Welshry was outside the fortified town; it included some rural land, the village of Llanigon and the hamlet of Glynfach.
In 1894, Hay Urban parish was created from part of the Hay Urban District. Hay Tump is within the Hay Urban parish. Hay Rural parish was created from the rural part of the parish of Hay, and includes another Norman castle called Llanthomas Castle Mound. It is on the same lane as the Hay Festival fields (Dairy Meadows). D. J. Cathcart King's list of UK castles numbers Hay Castle as Hay No. 1, Hay Tump as Hay No. 2 and Llanthomas Castle Mound as Hay No. 3.
Hay Castle initially took the form of an earth ringwork with a stone gate-tower. It was reinforced in stone around 1200 with a curtain wall. The castle was damaged during the Welsh rebellion led by Owain Glyndŵr around 1401, and again in 1460 during the Wars of the Roses. It was substantially expanded in the 17th century, creating a Jacobean mansion. Substantial restoration work on Hay Castle was completed in 2022.
Hay-on-Wye is a destination for bibliophiles in the United Kingdom, 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-on-Wye was already well known for its many bookshops before the festival was launched. Richard Booth opened his first shop there, called The Old Fire Station, in 1962, and by the 1970s Hay had gained the nickname "The Town of Books".
Since 1988, the Hay Festival based in Hay-on-Wye has been the venue for an annual literary festival, now sponsored by The Daily Telegraph newspaper, which draws a claimed 80,000 visitors over ten days at the end of May or beginning of June to see and hear big literary names from all over the world. Devised by Norman, Rhoda and Peter Florence in 1988, the festival was described by Bill Clinton in 2001 as "The Woodstock of the mind". Tony Benn said: "In my mind it's replaced Christmas". In late July 2021, co-founder and director Peter Florence resigned as Festival Director.
There are two tiers of local government covering Hay, at community (town) and county level: Hay Town Council and Powys County Council. The town council is based at offices on Brecon Road. For elections to Powys County Council, there is a ward called Hay which covers the same area as the community of Hay.
The parish of Hay was created around 1135 from the north-eastern parts of the older parish of Llanigon. Until 1536 Hay was a marcher lordship. In 1536 the Hay lordship was included in the new county of Brecknockshire.
The area of the fortified town was sometimes described as a borough, but it was never given a charter and it appears that no borough council ever operated; instead the town was administered by officials appointed by the lord of the manor. Any residual claim Hay may have had to be called a borough was extinguished under the Municipal Corporations Act 1883.
In 1864 the north-eastern part of the parish of Hay, covering the built-up area as it then was and some adjacent areas, was made a local government district, administered by an elected local board. Such districts were reconstituted as urban districts under the Local Government Act 1894. The 1894 Act also directed that parishes were no longer allowed to straddle district boundaries, and so the parish of Hay was split into a Hay Urban parish covering the same area as the urban district, and a Hay Rural parish covering the part of the old parish outside the urban district.
Hay Urban District was abolished in 1974, with its area instead becoming a community called Hay within the Borough of Brecknock in the new county of Powys. The former urban district council's functions therefore passed to Brecknock Borough Council, which was in turn abolished in 1996 and its functions passed to Powys County Council. The Hay Rural parish also became a community in 1974, but was abolished in 1986 and its area absorbed into the neighbouring parish of Llanigon.
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 has a road/pedestrian bridge spanning the River Wye linking Clyro with Hay-on-Wye.
The town was formerly served by train services at Hay-on-Wye railway station on the Hereford, Hay and Brecon line. On a stormy night in 1880, a goods train on the way to Brecon was derailed and destroyed a 3-arch masonry bridge. The train fell into Digeddi Brook at Little Ffordd Fawr, near Llanigon. The driver George Parker died, and his stoker John Williams had life changing injuries. The line closed in 1962, due to the line's commercial underperformance.
Hay St. Mary's Football Club is based on Hay Sports Field, off Brecon Road, and they compete in the Central Wales Football League.
Hay-on-Wye Cricket Club is also located on Hay Sports Field. The 1st team compete in The Marches Cricket League.
Hay-on-Wye bowling club is affiliated to the Mid Wales Bowling Association and the Women's Mid Wales Bowling Association.
Hay Golf Club (now defunct) was founded in 1903. The club continued on its nine-hole course until the onset of World War II.
Hay hosts a philosophy and music festival, HowTheLightGetsIn, which occurs annually in May. It aims "to get philosophy out of the academy and into people's lives."
In 2013, Hay-on-Wye had 145 Listed Building entries. All are Grade II listed apart from Hay Castle which is Grade I listed. Other listed buildings include St Mary's parish church, Dulas Bridge (Newport St), the Swan Hotel (Church St), Harley’s Almshouses (4 Brecon Rd), Post Office (3 High Town), Ashbrook House (1 Brecon Rd) and part of the town wall, as well as many of the town centre inns and shops. Oakfield is a Grade II listed Regency house located south of the town centre: built in about 1820, it was recorded in 1842 as the home of Henry Allen Junior.
The Butter Market was commissioned by William Enoch and erected in the form of a Doric temple in 1833. the Cheese Market was commissioned by Sir Joseph Bailey, 1st Baronet and completed in 1835. The Butter Market and the Cheese Market had an arcaded ground floor to sell butter and cheese and dairy products, respectively. The first-floor assembly room has now been renovated to serve as holiday accommodation. On the end wall is a sculpture of Henry VII.
Hay-on-Wye has a Victorian clock tower about 50 ft high. The tower was erected in 1881 at a cost of £300. It is built of dressed Bath stone and native stone from Christfield quarry. It was known by locals as the "clockless tower". The clock faces and bell were added in 1884 after fund-raising by Canon Bevan and family. It was set going on Christmas Day 1884. The bell was paid for by a donation as a memorial to T. W. Higgins, Hay, and Guidfa House, Radnorshire.
Christian chapels and churches in Hay-on-Wye include:
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, the 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 and book lovers and this transformed the local economy."