More on Bus Stops

 

This is the bus stop by Hay Castle.  Looks a bit sad, doesn't it?  And windowless, thanks to some spray painting vandals several years ago.

And this is the bus timetable across the road at the top of the car park - good luck with finding out when the next bus goes from that!  You'd think that the bus company would want people to have up to date information on when their buses run, so that more people could use them.  The Tourist Board office does what it can to help, but they are not always open.

(both photos kindly supplied by Francoise Verger-Moulinier and Pierre Moulinier).

The green bus stop belongs to the Town Council, and several Town Councillors including Fiona Howard, have made positive responses to the emails that have been sent to them regarding the state of the bus stop.  As ever, though, there seems to be no money to fix the problem.

County Councillor Gareth Ratcliffe (MBE!) has said that he would like to see new bus stops rather like the one in Cusop by Lower Mead.  It's a very nice, wooden bus stop with a seat, but it leaves one side exposed to the weather, which would be a problem at the Hay Castle and car park bus stops.

The car park bus stop is owned by Powys County Council, and there is a possibility of that one being replaced.  It's also a bit shabby, but gives better protection from the weather than the Hay Castle bus stop.

So councillors from the PCC and the Town Council are now aware of the problem.  Mention was made of them looking for grant money to fund a replacement bus stop.  Although Talgarth has a nifty little electronic display board to tell passengers when the next bus is due, this does not seem to be viable in Hay - Talgarth was funded by the Welsh Government because of the nearby trunk road, apparently.  Even so, it would be nice to have improved bus stops.  More people need to be encouraged to use the bus services, for a whole host of environmental reasons, and for that to happen, bus travel has to be made comfortable and appealing - and with a timetable that gets people where they need to go in a timely fashion.

Bus Consultation

 There's an article in the Brecon and Radnor Express of the 8th January about a consultation on bus timetables that Powys County Council are holding.  

The survey, which includes other bus related matters, can be found at 

www.haveyoursaypowys.wales/

If anyone wants to take part in the consultation, it runs until Thursday February 13th.  Be aware that you first have to register to "join the community", which involves thinking of a password and answering a few general questions.  Then you can click through to the consultation you're interested in.

There are currently four consultations on the go, including one about the County Council's Sustainable Resource Strategy that I will probably go back and have a look at later.

As far as Hay is concerned, the new proposed timetable shifts the time of the bus to Hereford to be earlier by about 10 minutes, and will change the number of the bus to the X44.

The last bus from Hay to Brecon will be at 19.52

The last bus from Brecon to Hay will be 17.07

The last bus from Hay to Hereford will be 17.47

and the last bus from Hereford to Hay will be 18.53

They are also proposing a new service, the B49, which will be a pre-booked service from surrounding villages into Brecon on Tuesdays and Fridays, and from surrounding villages to Hay on Thursdays.  I didn't see details of how to book this service in the consultation itself, but it seems worth checking up on.  There will be one journey each way on each day.

Also, if anyone wants to put their views about the state of the bus stops in Hay, and the timetables (or lack of them) at the bus stops, there is a place to do that in the consultation. I've been talking to Francoise Verger-Moulinier and Pierre Moulinier, who live close to the bus stops.  They have been trying to get local councillors interested in improving the state of the bus stops and the provision of up to date timetables that are not shredded by the weather, with little success so far.

Cusop History Society - The Baskerville Family

 I got it slightly wrong yesterday - the Cusop History Society meeting actually started at 4.30pm, so I was rather early.  The hall was full, though, and the £3 entry fee included a glass of wine.

Paul Remfry was talking about the Baskerville family and their lordship of Cusop.   He was also talking about the difficulties in interpreting medieval documents - were Ralph, Roger and Robert brothers, for instance?  We know the mother of one of them was called Juliana, but was she the mother of the other two - or were they some sort of cousin or nephew?  Some of the documents were written long after the events they recorded - the Diocese of Llandaff, which had land holdings locally, claimed to have records dating back to 500AD - but did they really?  Or were they writing documents that just claimed that they had always held that land?

Another famous chronicler of medieval Wales was Gerald of Wales - who was notoriously selective in his recording of facts, especially concerning families who he considered to have blocked his ambitions to be Archbishop of Wales (there was no Archbishop of Wales until 1924, when the Welsh Church finally became independent from the Church of England). So it was Gerald who attributed a quotation to Henry II about how terrible the Baskerville family were, presumably because he had fallen out with the Baskervilles himself.

What we do know is that Ralph who died in 1086 held most of the Baskerville lands, including Cusop, and across to near Aberystwyth and in the other direction across the Midlands, and there is a paper trail through the records that survive showing that Cusop was passed down the family until it came to a family called the Clanvowes, which may be a corruption of theWelsh Llanfair - and one of the Clanvowes may have married a Baskerville daughter.  Possibly.

But what about the time before the Baskervilles arrived?  They were Normans, so before 1066, Cusop was Welsh, and there are various Welsh princes who were probably lords of Cusop.  It all got quite complicated, and also included stories about the Earl of Hereford known as Ralph the Timid!

At any rate, it was the Normans who built several of the local castles - Hay, Clyro, and Cusop all have a very similar plan, though Cusop doesn't seem to have a motte like the others, and Hay became far more elaborate over the centuries.

It was a fascinating talk, about a complex and confusing period of history (though doubtless the original Baskervilles would have been quite clear about who was related to who, and which brother owned which lands).

I'm looking forward to the next meeting - possibly in March?  Details to be arranged.

Enchanted Hour

 I had great fun at the Library yesterday - I was giving the talk for Enchanted Hour.

I trained as an archaeologist, so my chosen subject was the obscure archaeological remains in the local landscape.  The area around Hay is rich in Neolithic and Bronze Age tombs, and there's a Roman fort at Boatside Farm, and several medieval mottes.  A good crowd turned up for the talk, and they asked interesting questions afterwards, and everyone seemed to have a good time.  I even got filmed!  John Price, who films a lot of local events, was there with his camera.  It's the first time I've ever worn a microphone to do a talk.

Mary Anne, who organises the talks, thought it would be a wonderful idea if a group could get together to go to visit the tombs later in the year, and she's a lady who gets things done, so I may end up acting as a tour guide!

This afternoon, at 4pm, the Cusop History Society are meeting at Cusop Village Hall - I hadn't heard about it until someone told me yesterday.  They're going to get an update on work at Cusop Castle, so I'm going to go along to that.

Mary Anne is going back to South Africa in February, so the next Enchanted Hour will be in March, a talk about a journey that involves a dancing hippoptamus!

Wassail!

 It's traditionally Wassail time - when the apple trees are blessed so that they will produce good cider later in the year, with morris dancing and fire and loud noises to scare the evil spirits away.

Artistraw Cider are having their Wassail on Saturday 11th January - no morris dancers, but there will be a Green Man, folk music, flaming torches, a bonfire and mulled cider.  

It starts at 6pm at Bryntirion, Clifford.  Tickets are £3 each, available from the Artistraw website, and under 18s are free - they've had to introduce tickets because there is limited space.  The parking is also very limited.  They are not allowing dogs, and there will be no food available, but people are welcome to bring their own snacks.  As the walk from the parking at Clifford church to the farm is unlit, people are also advised to bring a torch, and wrap up warm with good boots!

A Wide Variety of Music Coming Up this Year

 Hay Music are starting the year with a bang - a concert by the Marsyas Trio, with Australian soprano Lotte Betts-Dean at St Mary's, on Sunday 12th January, at 3pm (doors open at 2.30pm).  Tickets are £20, and £10 for under-25s.  ~The afternoon will include the world premiere of a work by Michael Finnissy, plus a work by Dame Judith Weir, who was Master of the Queen's Music (and then the King's Music) from 2014 to 2024.

Both the composers will be present at the concert, and they will join the players in a pre-concert conversation, which will make it quite a special occasion.

There will also be music by Ravel and Saint-Saens.

I'm also looking forward to February, when the Engegard String Quartet will be playing Norwegian Folk Music at the Clobe on Saturday 15th from 8pm, followed by classical music on the Sunday afternoon (Beethoven and Brahms) and more traditional Norwegian folk songs.

Walking Out

 Another lovely sunny day, so I've been over the bridge and half way to Clyro.  I went down the public footpath by Racquety Farm - I haven't been that way for a while, so it was a bit of a surprise to find the bridge over the ditch at the bottom looking like this:

The supports have been washed away on one side, but it's still crossable with a bit of care.

On the way across Hay Bridge going up, I saw a pair of egrets stalking about in the shallows at By the Wye.  I don't think I've ever seen a pair together before.  On the way back, there was a heron flying downstream.