Forty Years of Wye Valley Beer

 Wye Valley Brewery marks its fortieth anniversary this year - that's a lot of pints of Butty Bach along the way!

Back in the 1990s, when I was an active member of CAMRA, we used to meet at the Barrels, the Wye Valley brew pub in Hereford.  We were among the first to see the pump clips for their new Dorothy Goodbody range.  Pete Amor wanted to show them to the ladies in the group, because he was slightly worried the artwork might be seen as a bit sexist - but we thought they were fine.  The beer was certainly fine.

Since then, the business has grown - brewing has moved to bigger premises, they've bought new pubs in the area, and they still hold their beer festival at the Barrels.  Founder Pete Amor retired, and his son Vernon took over.  Pete even made a little film, going round other independent breweries around the country, as a way of celebrating local breweries like his.

I regularly stock up with their bottled range, including Butty Bach and Wholesome Stout, from Londis. 

Dydd Hapus Sant Dwynwen

 

Happy St Dwynwen's Day - she is the patron saint of romantic love, and she was local to Mid Wales, being one of the many daughters of King Brychan.

First Snowdrop

 

I always look for snowdrops, and this year the first one I saw was on the patch of ground at the top of Backfold.  The first sign that spring is on the way!

Healthcare Fellowship Award

 Congratulations to Melanie Prince - she works in healthcare as a Point of Care Testing Co-ordinator, and she has been selected as one of six Healthcare Scientists in Wales to receive a Healthcare Science Service Transformation Fellowship.  She will be going to Norway in February, to study how the Norwegians organise urgent care pathways in remote rural areas, and she will be bringing back what she learns there to improve healthcare service locally.  It's a very exciting opportunity!

North Weir Trust

 The North Weir Trust are starting 2026 with three applications for funds:

three teenagers want support for an educational and charity based trip to South Africa 

a local forest school wants to support volunteer engagement and knowledge

and a local primary school wants to support love of reading.

The North Weir Trust was created to support all sorts of projects locally, and does really good work.

They have a website at nwtrusthay.org.uk 

Health Drop-In at the Swan

 

There will be a drop-in session at the Swan on Thursday 22nd January from 3pm to 6pm, for anyone who's interested in what's going on in local health services.

They'll be talking about Better Together, the local mental health services, and temporary service changes, particularly to the Minor Injury Units, Ready to Go Home Units and Rehabilitation Units.

There'll be tea and coffee available, and staff will be able to chat. 

Banking Hub for Hay

 There was a knock on the door this morning, while I was in the middle of watching an episode of Star Trek with my friend.

On the door step was Jane Dodds, the MS for this area, and another Lib Dem campaigner.  They wanted to drum up support for a banking hub for Hay.  

The last proper bank in Hay, Barclays, closed in 2018.  There used to be three bank branches in total, the others being Nat West and the Midland, which became Santander (and is now a clothes shop).  The Nat West send a van every fortnight, which parks outside the Cinema Bookshop for three quarters of an hour.

The idea of a Banking Hub is that several different banks share the same premises - so on Monday it's Barclays, on Tuesday it's Nat West, and so on. 

I was immediately enthusiastic, and so was my friend, who also came to the door to sign the petition.

At the moment, if I want cash I can go to the cash point at the Craft Centre, but it often runs out of money, and at the moment it is closed down until repairs can be made after someone tried to break into it.  The other option is the Post Office, which has taken on some of the functions of a bank branch.

If I want to do anything more complicated with my money, I have to take the bus into Hereford, which takes about an hour, and then I have to make sure I have other things to do in Hereford, because the X44 only runs, at best, every two hours (and not at all in the afternoons).  So what used to take me ten minutes at a local branch now takes me half a day.

I'm quite capable of organising online banking - I'm computer literate enough to have a blog, after all - but I refuse to do it.  I want to be able to go into a branch and speak to an actual human being who knows what they're doing, face to face.

So I have filled in the questionnaire they gave me, and I'm about to take it to the post box now.

For anyone who wants to join in the survey to say how the loss of banking services in Hay has affected them, they are also gathering information online at www.brlibdems.uk/HayHub

They will then take all the answers to the regulators to convince them that Hay needs a Banking Hub. 

Guitar Workshops for Women

 Sometimes I think it would be a nice idea to learn to play the guitar.  Occasionally, I've even got as far as buying a cheap guitar from a charity shop and having a go - but I've never got very far, and the guitar has always been given away again.

Having said that, the workshops at Racquety Farm look interesting.

Tomorrow, Saturday 17th January, there will be two workshops for women who are learning to play guitar.  In the morning, starting at 10am, there's a half day workshop for beginners, and the afternoon session, starting at 1.30pm, is for improvers.

Contact www.guitarforwomen@gmail.com for more details. 

 

Wholly Cow

 When I came home from the concert on Saturday evening, I decided to walk down St Mary's Road onto Brecon Road and round that way instead of going up the hill round the Swan, just for a change.

I've walked past the playground and the sports centre several times, and I've never noticed this before:

 In the dark, it was all lit up, so I couldn't miss it!  So this morning I went to have a proper look.  

On one end is a coffee machine.  In the middle is a milk vending machine (or milkshakes!) and on the other end there are snacks, with a screen to pay at the nearest end.  It's open 24/7, which is why it was all lit up at night.

I imagine it will be quite popular as the weather gets warmer, and there are parents bringing their children to the playground and people using the sports facilities.  There were quite a few footprints in the mud, indicating that people are using it now. 

Hay Vouchers

 I saw in the December issue of WyeLocal that this is the tenth anniversary of the start of Hay Vouchers.  These are gift vouchers for use in local businesses in Hay, and they've been a great success!

They are administered through Pughs at Londis, and in the ten years the scheme has been running, they've sold an amazing £75,000 worth of vouchers, which can be spent in 113 businesses in Hay.  Some have even been sold to collectors around the world.

This keeps money circulating within the local economy, instead of being spent at national retailers or online and disappearing from the local economy.

The vouchers can be used just like cash, and then the business redeems the money for them from Pughs. 

Hay Theatre - Towards Zero

 The Senior Youth Theatre group are rehearsing for their next play.  It's Towards Zero, by Agatha Christie, adapted for the stage by local writer and director Janine Sharp.

National Lottery Wales and PAVO Youth-Led Grant Scheme are funding the production, which will be performed in Clyro Village Hall on Saturday 21st and Sunday 22nd March.

The eleven to eighteen year olds in the group chose the play themselves, because they wanted to perform a traditional murder mystery, and they are also making the set, props and costumes.  They also applied for the PAVO grant themselves.

There will be some slight changes to the original plot - instead of being set in Cornwall in 1944, it is now set on the coast of Clyro near Hay Sands in 1949.  This is because the first female Detective Inspector in Britain was appointed in 1949 - the doctor in the play is also a woman, because of the shortage of men after the Second World War.

It's not too late to get involved - there will be an open rehearsal and masterclass on Saturday 31st January from 1pm to 3pm at Clyro Village Hall (free, and refreshments will be available).

Then from 3pm to 4.30pm on the same day, they will be talking about what goes on behind the scenes, with the set, props and costume. 

Majolica Retrospective

 Pat Birks is one of the founder members of The Hay Makers Gallery - she's a potter, and has made many gorgeous jugs and jars and other pottery over the years, in the style called Majolica ware.  Some Majolica is very intricate and  colourful.  Pat's style is mostly blue and white patterns.  I found this picture on the Haymakers website:

 The Hay Makers Gallery are holding a retrospective exhibition of Pat's work, and they are looking for loans of her work.  They can be contacted on info@haymakers.co.uk, and would like to see a picture of the piece.

The exibition will run from 22nd to 31st January, at the St John's Place Gallery, open from 10.30am to 4pm. 

Nordic and Baroque Music at St Mary's

 The Hay Music concert was brilliant!

Erik Rydvall on the nyckelharpa, (from Sweden) and Olav Mjelva on hardanger fiddle (from Norway) are both folk music stars, and they were joined by Max Baillie on the classical violin.

There were times when the nyckelharpa sounded like more than one instrument - it looks very complex, but Erik said it was quite easy really (!).  It's an instrument which has been evolving since medieval times, when nyckelharpas were included in wall paintings of medieval musical angels.  He said he chose his current one because he can play Bach on it (and proceeded to demonstrate).

It's played with a bow, over four groups of four strings, and then each individual string has a peg to sound the note. 

By contrast, the classical violin hasn't really changed in 400 years.

The Hardanger fiddle has several differences from the classical violin, too.  Olav said that he comes from a mining area of Norway, and in the 19th century German mining engineers wanted to hear the latest European fashions in music, like the polka and the waltz, so sent local folk fiddlers off to places like Copenhagen to learn the new styles, which got incorporated with the local traditions.

On Friday, they went into the school to give a workshop, and several of the children turned up for the concert with their families - they seemed to be really enjoying it.

As well as Nordic folk music and baroque music, they have started to branch out into Eastern European music from composers like Dvorak - who themselves went off into the countryside to collect folk music to incorporate into their music.  And they played pieces that they had written themselves.

They have made a CD, Bach to Folk, so I had to buy a copy.  They said that, if anyone took the CD home and didn't like it, they could send it to Olav - and he would send them back a CD that he didn't like!  There was a warning that it would probably include accordion music!  They added that some people had actually taken the offer seriously....
 

At the beginning of the second half, Janice Day took the mic to advertise the upcoming concert Rhapsody in Green, which features her husband Martin Litton and Mike Hatchard sharing one piano, with Janice performing some musical comedy. The concert will be at St Mary's on Thursday 29th January, from 7pm.  Early bird tickets are £13 each, and can be booked via the website www.vintagebythewye.com

Crime in the Craft Centre

 

This is the first time I've had a chance to get up to the Craft Centre, where someone tried to break into the ATM on Sunday.  They failed, but damaged the wall inside the building badly enough that the toilets have had to be closed until further notice, until the damage can be repaired.  Obviously, the ATM isn't working either, but cash can be obtained from the Post Office across the road.

The miscreants have not been caught yet. 

Lodestar Trio

 Hay Music is starting off the New Year with an afternoon concert at St Mary's Church at 4pm on Saturday 10th January.  I went down to the Tourist Information office to get my ticket yesterday.

The Lodestar Trio plays classical and baroque music on violin, Swedish nyckelharpa and Norwegian hardanger fiddle, which is quite a combination!  They also play traditional and contemporary Nordic tunes.

Doors open at 3.30pm, and there will be a bar. Tickets are £20, and £10 for under-25s, with a limited number of free tickets for under-25 year olds, first come, first served.

Then on Saturday 31st January, at 6pm, there's a children's concert at Hay Castle. Tickets are £15, with under-25s free.  The Solstice Collective wind quintet are doing Peter and the Wolf, with Felix Ashley as narrator.

I love Peter and the Wolf, and have happy memories of seeing Johnny Morris (of Animal Magic fame) narrate it at a concert at Lancaster University back in the 1980s.  Sadly, I'll be away that weekend, so I won't be able to see this version.