Hay Castle

The first Norman castle, c1100.

The border wars
The borderlands between England and Wales, the Welsh Marches, were a battleground for the two nations over the centuries following the departure of the Romans. In 784 the Anglo-Saxon King Offa of Mercia in the English Midlands marked the boundary between his territory and that of the Welsh by constructing the lengthy earthworks of Offa's Dyke. The Dyke remains today a close approximation of the present border between Wales and England.

After the successful invasion of England by William of Normandy in 1066, the king rewarded his supporters with lands along the borders of Wales. These powerful Marcher Lords were permitted to seize land from the Welsh in the 12th century, and they built motte and bailey castles, firstly of earthworks topped by timber pallisades and later rebuilt in stone, to secure the conquered lands.

The land around Hay was taken by the Normans around 1100, when their first small castle on an artificial mound to the south-west of the present town centre was constructed. This original castle site, close to the parish church of St Mary, was abandoned around 1200 when it was replaced by a much larger stone castle built on high ground at the centre of the town.
The old photograph shown above is of the earthworks, long referred to as 'The Tump', near the River Wye at Hay, close to the site of the present Cattle Market.

The second castle, c1200.

A turbulent history
The second castle at Hay, the remains of which overlook the present town, has had a long and troubled history, having been sacked by the Welsh and by the English over the years. From 1100 to 1500 the Marches went through many turbulent episodes as powerful Marcher Lords changed sides in the hope of advancing their own interests.

Much of the early history of Hay Castle was bound up in the fortunes of the dynasty of the mighty Barons de Breos until the mid 13th century. The castle was then held by the de Bohun family until early in the 15th century.

Hay Castle and much of the then town had, by some accounts, been totally destroyed by Owain Glyndwr and his forces in the early 15th century as he travelled south after his victory at the battle of Pilleth, near Presteigne. It is now believed that any damage in Hay was much less severe, possibly because of support for Glyndwr in the area at that time.

Very little of the original castle has survived, other than the main gateway and part of the keep. A many gabled Jacobean mansion, which dominated the town below, was built alongside the castle remains in about 1660.

Criminals and clergy, 1800's.

Visits from Kilvert
As recently as the early 1800's the dungeon of the original castle was still being used as the gaol for the town. In 1810 a new 'lock-up' for Hay was built on the site of St John's Chapel in the centre of the town.
In its later years the mansion attached to the castle became a residence for the 'gentry'. From 1825 until the turn of the century it served as a vicarage for the clergy of Hay, and the Rev. Francis Kilvert, the famous Victorian diarist who held the living in nearby Clyro for many years, was a frequent visitor to the castle.

The mansion was severely damaged by a disastrous fire in 1939, but was later substantially restored. Another fire in 1977 caused as much destruction as the first, and today much of the Jacobean building is little more than an empty shell open to the elements.

The habitable part of the castle is now part of the second-hand book trade brought to Hay by Richard Booth, for which the town is now known all over the world.