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Emily is running workshops to make costumes, to be used when the Castle is finally able to open to the public. I've already had a lot of fun talking to her about 13thC clothing, and I'm hoping to go along to at least one of the workshops. They also have two new Trustees. Fiona Howard was head of Hay School and on Hay Town Council, including periods as Mayor. Chris Fyles is a recent resident of Hay, having moved here from Cornwall eighteen months ago. He has experience of being a Charity Trustee from his time as Trustee of the Porthcurno Telegraph Museum near Penzance. I was inspired to do some research after seeing the film - the balloon flight in the film was actually made with a male colleague, and Amelia Wren was fictional, but based on some real lady balloonists of the time. If you’re a bookstagrammer, they also host Bookstagram Hay, which is when bookstagrammers all descend upon the town for one weekend. Fingers crossed I get to participate one day!
In Powys, Talgarth Mill will be open, which is always worth a visit (and the cafe is very good!), and also Pontysgawrhyd Mill near Meifod, on the River Vymwy near Welshpool.I grew up in a village so transitioning from the city had a pleasant sense of home-coming to it. The different tempo hit us hard, of course. At night, the lights go out. I'd forgotten that about the countryside. The weather feels closer too, and the seasons starker. Yet what took me most by surprise was the absence of the ubiquitous, everyday paraphernalia of city life. Like traffic lights. The nearest to here is sixteen miles away. Or regular public transport. There's just one bus from our village to the nearest town. It leaves on a Wednesday.
Outside the marquee there were food stalls selling a vast variety of take away food - Indian, goat curry, Parsnip-ship's organic and vegetarian food, Welsh pizzas, mulled wine, and more. You can see from the photo above that Richard Booth’s Bookshops is simply gorgeous with its striking facade. This bookshop is housed in a converted chapel, which seems apt as I think most people who visit this town worship books. The trio had ‘a pleasing repertoire of 19 th century light music’ and performances were always rapturously received. He was a bass baritone and sang with gusto in several choirs. There were presentations, too - Mary Fellowes got a special certificate, which they'd managed to keep secret from her, and Dial-a-Ride was presented with a Dementia Friendly sign. The lady presenting it said she thought that Hay was the first community bus service to get such an award, and it was all thanks to the enthusiasm of the office secretary, Lesley Moore. And all the volunteers got a little scroll. The service has also been awarded a Community Transport Association Quality Mark, and several awards (from PAVO and others) for Volunteers of the Year. The jugglers weren't the only buskers - up at the top of the Pavement was a chap with an electric guitar who has become a regular fixture, playing something mellow.In 1970, he became of of the group of 40 martyrs who were declared to be saints by Pope Paul VI. The feast day is 25th October. The Parish Hall was set out with tables, with candles burning, and so many people turned up that they had to bring more chairs out. Which was very gratifying for the lady introducing the evening, who had been out earlier in the Market Square shouting "Free Madrigals" to drum up custom! A friend asked for a bit of help in researching the Forty Martyrs - Catholic saints who had been executed in England for their faith in the 16th and 17th centuries. I was already familiar with several of them - St Nicholas Owen, who built priest holes where the persecuted priests could hide from the authorities, for instance and, because we share a name, St Edmund Arrowsmith, who came from Lancashire. This residence was full of Edwardian baroque furniture and was staffed by three messengers and a servant. Geoffrey
Phillips was himself affected by the diseases that ravaged the ship on that voyage, and became permanently deaf. He retired to Brecon and never sailed again. He died in 1713, aged around 48. It was a fascinating talk, with examples right around the world and up to the present day, though there were several stories from Victorian England. One of the conclusions Thomas Waters has drawn from his fifteen years of research for his book Cursed Britain is that, although some cunning men and witches were undoubtedly charlatans, others performed a valuable service to their clients not unlike counsellors and therapists today. In the evening, there's a talk at the Swan, with speakers talking about walking in the Brecon Beacons, Wainwright's Coast to Coast Walk, and The Shropshire Six - six hills on a 40 mile route which is traditionally completed in one day!
Eigon
I managed to visit just about every bookshop in the centre of Hay-on-Wye during one weekend there but I’ve compiled a list of the creme-de-la-creme of Hay-on-Wye bookshops here. For the second meal I went for the beef and plum and apple crumble option. Again, the beef was delicious, and the crumble came in two little pots - one for the crumble itself and the other for ice cream. They also offered a gluten-free pudding option from the ordinary menu.
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