Town in Powys, Wales
Hay-on-Wye
Hay-on-Wye once declared independence, crowned a bookseller king and made his horse prime minister. Today this tiny border town has more bookshops than most cities.
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Key information
- County
- Powys
- Nation
- Wales
- Population
- about 1,500 (2011 Census)
- Known for
- Second-hand bookshops and the Hay Festival
- Famous people
- Richard Booth, Peter Florence, Francis Kilvert, Maud de Braose
About Hay-on-Wye
The king, the horse and the independent kingdom
On 1 April 1977, Richard Booth declared Hay-on-Wye an independent kingdom. He crowned himself king, handed out titles and made his horse prime minister. It was a joke with a serious point: Booth was fed up with the neglect of rural Wales and wanted to draw attention to the town. The stunt made headlines around the world, and it worked. Booth had already been turning Hay into something unusual since 1961, when he opened a second-hand bookshop in the old fire station. He bought up redundant buildings, including the cinema and the castle, and filled them with books, many shipped over from libraries and country houses in Britain and America. Other booksellers followed, and the world's first "book town" took shape.
Why a town of 1,500 has more than 20 bookshops
Hay's bookshops cover everything from rare first editions to cheap paperbacks in the street. You can find shops devoted to cookery, poetry, maps, children's books and military history, plus the odd one that is little more than a room full of cardboard boxes. The idea was copied across Europe and beyond, and dozens of towns now call themselves book towns, with Hay as the model. It is a rare example of a place reinventing itself around a single, slightly mad idea, and the idea has lasted for more than sixty years. The narrow streets and old stone buildings suit the job, as nothing about Hay feels hurried.
The festival that started in a hotel garden
The Hay Festival began in 1988, when Peter Florence and his parents organised a small gathering of writers at the Swan Hotel. It grew into one of the biggest literary festivals in the world, held each year around late May and early June. The festival attracts tens of thousands of visitors, and the fields on the edge of town fill with tents, stages and book queues. Bill Clinton once called it the "Woodstock of the mind", a line the festival has used ever since. Hay Festival has also spread abroad, with sister events in places such as Cartagena in Colombia and Segovia in Spain.
Castle, giant and starving queen
Hay Castle was a Norman stronghold, and its history is dramatic. The de Braose family, who held it, fell out badly with King John. In 1210, Maud de Braose and her eldest son were starved to death in royal custody. Local legend turned Maud into "Moll Walbee", a giant woman who built the castle in a single night. She is said to have carried a stone in her apron and dropped it at Llowes, a few miles away, where it still stands in the churchyard. A fire in 1939 gutted the Jacobean house attached to the castle, and it stood in a battered state for decades, with Richard Booth among its owners. A major restoration by Hay Castle Trust reopened it in 2022. Outside, the castle's shelves of books stay open to browsers around the clock, with an honesty box to pay into.
Hills, rivers and a curate's diary
Hay sits where the River Wye leaves the hills, with the Black Mountains rising behind it. The road over the Gospel Pass climbs to the foot of Hay Bluff, a high ridge popular with walkers and paragliders. The Offa's Dyke Path passes close by, and the Wye is a favourite for canoeists. Just across the river is Clyro, where the Victorian curate Francis Kilvert lived in the 1860s and 1870s. His diaries, packed with sharp observations of local people and the landscape, remain a favourite among readers of rural life. For food, expect Welsh lamb from the surrounding hills, local cheeses and Herefordshire cider from across the border. Tea rooms and pubs round off a day spent walking or browsing.