Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
Hay-On-Wye
(Y Gelli Gandryll)
POP 1600
Hay-on-Wye, a pretty little town on the banks of the River Wye, just inside the Welsh bor-
der, has developed a reputation disproportionate to its size. First came the explosion in
secondhand bookshops, a charge led by the charismatic and forthright local maverick
Richard Booth. Booth opened his eponymous bookshop in the 1960s, stocking it with
cast-off libraries from various national institutions and country houses. He went on to pro-
claim himself the King of Hay, among other elaborate publicity stunts, while campaigning
for an international network of book towns to support failing rural economies.
With Hay becoming the world's secondhand book capital, a festival of literature and
culture was established in 1988, growing in stature each year to take in all aspects of the
creative arts. Today the Hay Festival is a major attraction in its own right, famously en-
dorsed by former US president Bill Clinton, a high-profile guest in 2001, as 'the Wood-
stock of the mind'.
But Hay is not all about book browsing and celebrity spotting - it also makes an excel-
lent base for active pursuits, with the Black Mountains, River Wye and Offa's Dyke Path
all within easy access of the town's superb facilities.
The small town centre is made up of narrow sloping lanes, peppered by interesting
shops and peopled by the differing types that such individuality and so many books tend
to attract. Even outside of festival time, it has a vaguely alternative ambience.
Hay has had a tempestuous history, due to its borderlands position. In fact, at the time
of the Norman Conquest it was administered separately as English Hay (the town proper)
and Welsh Hay (the countryside to the south and west).
Around 1200 William de Braose II, one of the Norman barons (marcher lords), built a
castle here on the site of an earlier one (Richard Booth became king of this castle, buying
the dilapidated remains in 1961). For the next three-and-a-half centuries Hay changed
hands many times. Following the Tudor Acts of Union it settled down as a market town,
and by the 18th century it had become a centre of the flannel trade.
