Woolly says – My ears were hurting! Two women jabbering on is enough to drive any mammoth insane, Alfie the Dog didn’t seem to mind as it meant more belly rubs and fuss for him so he must be deaf. Zoe’s arrival for a couple of days did however mean that we could head back to a place that we all love with the added excitement of the castle that was there being open to the public for the first time.
As we drove through the country lanes, I wondered how many books we might return with, Hay-on-Wye known locally as Hay is a market town in Powys, Wales, it lies in the historic county of Brecknockshire with the rive Wye running through it. With over twenty bookshops, it is often described as “the town of books” and is both the National Book Town of Wales and the site of the annual Hay Festival. First stop was the newly opened Hay Castle.
Hay Castle is a medieval fortification and 17th-century mansion house, originally constructed as part of the Norman invasion of Wales, the castle was designed as a ringwork overlooking the town in either the late-11th or early-12th centuries. It was rebuilt in stone around 1200 by the de Braose family and then had a turbulent history, being attacked and burnt several times during the First and Second Barons’ Wars, the wars with the Welsh princes, the rebellion of Owain Glyndŵr and the Wars of the Roses. In the 17th century a Jacobean mansion house was built alongside the medieval keep and the property became a private home. Serious fires in 1939 and 1977 gutted the castle and, despite repairs in the 1980s, by the 21st century much of the building was derelict and unstable. Since 2011 it has been owned by Hay Castle Trust who have restored the property to form a centre for arts, literature and learning. Following the restoration, partly funded by grants from the National Lottery Heritage Fund of over £5m, the castle opened to the public on 26 May 2022. During our last visit it had been shrouded in scaffolding, so I was excited to see what had transpired.
The manor house section looked very grand as we approached, we peeked into an exhibition area showing pictures of the restoration and work that had been carried out before turning our attention to the castle keep.
Steep steps led up from the town to an impressive arched entrance with its 13th century gate, the oldest working defence gate in the UK which is quite something.
Desperate to see inside we left Zoe and Alfie the Dog to wander the grounds whilst Jo and I headed into the castle, the directions took us into the cellar, which was large, a short animated film showed us pictures of the history of the castle but sadly with no actual information given in a commentary.
Heading upwards we wandered into an area with timbered walls and a printing press on display.
A further flight of steps led us up to a library area which looked very modern and completely uncastle like.
The floor above was equally modern and held an exhibition of artwork, I sighed, there wasn’t anything much to do with the old castle and I felt somewhat robbed at the lack of information or features from the former stronghold.
Arriving at the highest point we made our way outside to stand at the top of the keep which had a rather nice bronze giving information about the surrounding areas. Jo and I looked out across the small town nodding an acknowledgement to the dozing pigeons.
With nothing else to see we headed back to the bottom of the building and outside to swop over with Zoe who had found a nice spot to sit in with barking boy.
Both of us felt disappointed in the castle and once Zoe had been round, she agreed that it wasn’t really worth the effort. Not to be deflated we climbed down the castle steps and headed toward the cheese market.
Woolly says – The first municipal building in the town was a market hall which was completed in the 17th century. After the original structure became dilapidated it was demolished, and a local businessman, William Enoch, commissioned a butter market which was erected at the east end of the site: it was designed in the style of a Doric Temple, built in rubble masonry and was completed in 1833. It later became known as the cheese market. The space now held lots of information about Hay and its bookshops as well as being used on market day for stallholders to continue selling their cheeses.
We wandered along the small streets taking in the many bookshops, the town boasts over twenty in number until we arrived at the oldest and one of our favourite ones, Richard Booth’s Bookshop which had opened in 1962.
Its grand façade and tiled frontage means that it stands out from the crowd, entering the huge place we split up, Zoe looking for all sorts of things but mainly fiction, Jo heading towards the travel and children’s books whilst panting boy and I ambled along the hundreds of shelves admiring the huge tomes on display.
With so many bookshops in the town we could happily spend a whole day just browsing shelves and as we arrived at each doorway, we eagerly raced inside to see what delights we might find.
Passing the town clock took us to one of Jo’s favourites which is mainly because this is the shop where over the decades she has bought more books than anywhere else, today sadly there was nothing that took her fancy.
Alfie the Dog however had other ideas and seemed fascinated with one section which resulted in him having to be dragged out of the shop.
I think it was the smell of mice rather than books that took his fancy.
Woolly says – That might explain his intense interest! Our last bookshop of the day was the Cinema Bookshop which seemed to be the largest in town, outside were the book boxes that had once been on every wall in the town but now seemed to have vanished.
With miles and miles of shelves and written format we again split up to seek out our favourite topics, currently I’m still looking for the women who were last seen in the psychology section, please send help as I have now run out of food and seem to have lost myself in the cookery section which is making me hungrier!