Hay on Wye
Hay on Wye is a small town on the Welsh/English border, in the Borugh of Brecknockshire, with a population of around 1500 people. Walking thorugh the streets of Hay, you'll see bookshop after bookshop (and the odd cookshop), offering new and second hand books, some of them specialised and others selling a broad range of books. What you don't see in Hay on Wye are national chain stores - instead there are locally owned shops, arts, crafts, clothing, fishing & sporting accessories just to name a few, and all of them with their own style and character. The Hay Festival of Literature and Arts
How can such a small town host an event that attracts visitors from all over the world, including celebrities like Sting, Jimmy Carter, Salman Rushdie, Desmond Tutu and many more? Organised by Peter Florence, the fist festival was held in 1988 and from there was no looking back. First held around various location around Hay, it now is being held at the same location every year, just at the outskirts of the town. More information can be found on the Hay Festival Website.
Note: After much speculation about it's future, Hay Festival is organizing the 2009 Brecon Jazz Festival in the neighbouring town of Brecon. Hay on Wye Castle
Well, this should really be 'Hay-On-Wye Castles' as the town has two of them. 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 leading to the River Wye, which was undoubtedly one reason for the construction of a motte and bailey castle here. 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, and may later have been the seat for the manor or commote of Melinog.
The main fortress within Hay-on-Wye was situated on the great site commanding the town and river under the ruins of the current castle and mansion. The keep of Hay Castle is roughly thirty feet square and was once of 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.
Some time in the 12th century the powerful curtain wall or shell keep with gate was added to the rampart around the site. This gateway is one of the finest carved castle gateways in Wales. The two gates hanging within the gateway, although of different ages, would appear to be very old.
Probably during the troubles of the Barons' War a small gatehouse 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. The King of Hay
Hay-On-Wye ows much of its current day fame to a bookseller who moved there from London back in 1961. On April 1, 1977, Richard Booth proclaimed Hay an "independent kingdom" with himself as king Richard Cœur de Livre and his horse as Prime Minister. The publicity stunt gained extensive news coverage, and resulted in several spin-offs such as "passports" being issued.
On April 1, 2000, Booth followed up with an investiture of "The Hay House of Lords" and created 21 new hereditary peers for the "Kingdom of Hay".
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