Small Business Saturday

Here's Hey Hair, one of several hair salons in town.

For Sale

This used to be Cusop Village Hall. There's now a new Village Hall, nearby, and this building was sold for conversion to a private house.
After doing a lot of work on it - or at least, paying Ron Smart the builder to do a lot of work on it - the owner has now put the building up for sale.
I love the way estate agents use language! When I saw the sign up in their window, the building was described as a "breath-taking conversion".
"Breath-taking" is one word for it. From the picture, I'm not sure you can get the full glory of the Grecian urns etched on the glass....

Literary Pilgrimage

Tim the Gardener has finished doing his weekly round ups of the Open Mic night, after sticking at it every week for an entire year. He's also giving up going to Open Mic nights for a while, as he's saving up for a literary pilgrimage. After some extensive reading of Mervyn Peake, he wants to go to Sark, where Peake lived (and where he set Mr Pye).

Latest on Mali

There has been a military coup in Mali, with the president deposed, and new elections apparently coming soon. It seems that Tuareg mercenaries who were being employed in Libya by Col. Gaddafi were sent home when his regime fell, and they have been involved in the uprising.
See the Jump4Timbuktu website (on the side bar) for more details.

Hay Together

This is going to be another of those long posts - but bear with me, because this is important.
There has been one meeting already of this new group, called by Gareth Ratcliffe, and this second meeting, last night, was broadening out the original base of local groups and organisations.
It's all to do with Localism (though the Localism Act doesn't apply in Wales) and a new Community Plan. And to have a Community Plan, you have to involve all of the community, or as much of it as you possibly can.
So at this meeting, at the school, there were representatives of the Cricket club, PC Thomas from the police station, St Mary's Church, Elizabeth Haycox as a bookseller and for Hay Castle, Fairtrade, the Screen at Hay, Transition Towns, the WI, Scouts, CRAP (the parking group), Hay First, Jump4Timbuktu, the Chamber of Commerce, Plan B, Dial-a-Ride, Community Support, PAVO, and the Town Council - and Gareth, our County Councillor. There may have been one or two others that I missed, too!
Over the course of the meeting, it was suggested that there were various other groups in Hay who really ought to be involved in this new process - some had been invited and hadn't come along (such as a representative of the booksellers, and the Festival) and some hadn't been thought of originally, like the Bell Bank Club.

There were two chaps there who had been brought in as guest speakers - they have worked with communities, mostly in England, to work out what that community thought were its highest priorities, and then to work out how to reach those aims. They said that there is usually some sort of catalyst to get people to want to work together - if everything is going along all right, nobody is going to turn up to a meeting to discuss a plan for the future of the community. But if there is some sort of outside threat, or something urgent that brings the community together, then people are ready to sit down and talk seriously about what they want for that town.
In Hay, obviously, the catalyst is the need for a new school, and what is the best way to bring that about?
Steve and Jeff, the guest speakers, talked about making a framework for the future, but remembering that some issues were urgent and had to be tackled as the plan went along. They stressed the need for good record taking, and for keeping everything as open and transparent as possible, all the way along the process. Eventually, the community plan would have to be presented to the County Council, or Welsh Assembly, or other outside bodies, and it has to be something that they can't pick holes in or ignore. As Localism Network Consultants, they can also provide technical help and support, as well as knowing of examples where an idea has been tried before, and either worked, or not. They said that community plans work best where the local Council is involved - but it mustn't just be the local Council; it has to be as many other local groups as possible. They said that one of the problems that communities face is the sense of powerlessness in the face of decisions made elsewhere that affects them directly, and this can often lead to NIMBYism, and a resistance to change. Working together on the problems, instead of dwelling on the negative aspects, can often be fruitful and good for the community in the long run.

The immediate issues for Hay were identified as 'Plan B' (which is short for all the controversy surrounding school/supermarket/etc), CRAP (the problems of traffic and parking), and the sports fields.
These come with added implications that link into other local concerns, and the idea of the community plan is to identify those links so that everything works together, rather than every little group going off in a different direction and trying to re-invent the wheel. There's more chance of something happening if everyone pulls together than if lots of little groups are trying to do their own thing.
To this end, the important word is COMMUNICATION!! Groups need to talk to each other, and know who each other are. In Hay, we are lucky to have WyeLocal, and the new Hay TV, and there was some talk of the Festival providing a space for community ideas this year.

At the moment, Community Support are trying to put together a complete Directory of every group in Hay. One single list of all the groups just doesn't exist - and they are trying to make one. So it's very important that anyone who belongs to a group, of whatever sort, in Hay, should GET IN TOUCH with Community Support and make themselves known. The office is by the Dentist's, and they are open Monday, Wednesday and Friday. When they have a list, they will make sure it's available (for instance in the Library).

It was generally agreed that the most important thing to focus on to start with is the school. Gareth said that he had got a promise, in full Council, that Hay would have a new school by 2015 - but the Cabinet had said nothing about how it would be funded, or where it would be built. That's where it comes down to the people who have already been working hard on the problem with Plan B, and anyone else with an interest in the future of the school - and that includes people from the surrounding villages where their schools are going to be closed by the County Council.

So that the people of Hay don't waste any time going round in circles, not knowing what the next step for the town should be, the guest speakers suggested that they should give a Workshop, which would provide a space for everyone to work out how best to proceed. It would take half a day - and would cost £2000.
However, as one of the Plan B people said, better to spend £2000 now than £40,000 further down the line on consultants or whatever other advice was needed because the basic ground work hadn't been done. Looking round the room, various people suggested that, with so many groups already represented in the room, each one wouldn't have to stump up very much money to make it to £2000 - and it would show how determined the people of Hay are to get something done. PAVO, and the Chamber of Commerce and the Town Council - and even the Welsh Assembly, can also offer grants for work like this, so it was seen as something quite achievable.

One other matter which adds urgency to the whole project, of course, is the up-coming local elections, and Plan B have just organised a meeting of all the candidates for the election at the Parish Hall on April 25th. It's not just a Plan B meeting - it's for everybody to come along and ask the candidates whatever they want to ask.

The meeting ended with five or six people volunteering to form a small committee just for the purpose of making the Workshop happen. When that is done, they will disband, and be replaced by whatever comes out of the Workshop. This group will be led by Gareth Ratcliffe, with the chap from the cricket club, and Mary Fellowes, and a couple of others involved. The first step will be getting a letter together by Monday to present to the next meeting of the Town Council, to ask for some money from the Recycling Fund.

So that's where it stands at the moment. Could this be the dawning of a new era for Hay?

Up-coming Events

There are a couple of things I've been asked to mention - and shall probably be going along to.
The first is a fund raiser for Plan B. It's on the evening of the 30th March, at the Globe, and will be featuring Soul'd and DJ Kate Holmes from Client, among others. It's £8 to pre book and £10 on the door.
Then at Lion Street Gallery on Saturday 31st March, there will be a private viewing of the art of Bryan Smith - his exhibition is intitled "Looking to Light: Dawn to Darkness" and includes some wonderfully detailed pencil drawings. That will be from 3pm to 6pm (with glass of wine).

'English Buildings' Visits Hay

Actually, he says he visits Hay quite a lot, but since we are just over the border into Wales, he doesn't usually include the buildings of Hay in his architectural blog. However, this time he's made an exception for the frontage of Booths Books, which he blogged about on February 14th.
He says of Hay: "It's a stimulating place to browse, and you never know what you will find - it's the opposite of a search engine, the ultimate in non-targetted, algorithm-free discovery."

Small Business Saturday

JoJo Beauty Studio, opposite the Blue Boar. (This is an alien world for me - I've never had any of those beauty treatments in my life!)

Plan B Rumbles on

I'm sure a lot of people thought "Phew! We don't have to think about this again until May." But just because the County Council have said they're making no decision until after the elections in May doesn't mean that everything has stopped happening.
A couple of evenings ago, a chap from Ledbury came over to share their story of beating off the planning applications of first Tesco and then Sainsbury's from their town. He brought some of the publicity materials they had used with him, for the Plan B people to look at, and possibly adapt for Hay. The situation in Ledbury, though, was a rather more straightforward one than in Hay - it was Supermarket, Yes or No? whereas here it's Supermarket/School/Care Home/Llewelyn ward at Bronllys all tangled up together.
Yesterday, there was a Plan B stall at the market again, setting out the various options for the two sites - the present school site and the site by the Doctor's surgery.
There are also plans for merchandise - bookmarks, carrier bags, postcards, that sort of thing.
Meanwhile, Tim Organ is busy designing a new school, and someone has been over to Staunton on Wye, where they built a school for 70 children at a cost of 1.7 million pounds which they raised themselves - Staunton is a tiny place, but at one point they were raising £10,000 a week!
In the national news, the Daily Mail mentioned Hay in an article about supermarkets, and a piece about supermarkets in Holmfirth (the Last of the Summer Wine town) in the Observer also mentioned Hay in passing.

Hay on TV Launch Party

Downstairs, we could hear loud laughter from the drama group occasionally.
Upstairs, there were a few problems with technology, but on the whole it was a very good presentation about what Hay TV has achieved so far, and what lies ahead in the future. There were clips from some of the films they have put up on the website, including a wonderful one about a lad who has got interested in sheep shearing - and has even been to New Zealand to improve his technique!
Tam, who runs the whole venture, along with her techie chap, said that one of the wonderful things about it is the instant feedback - she can put a film up one day, and hear people talking about it in the street the next. When she did the film about being a local, someone watched the film and had a questionnaire out and distributed around the shops the following day! So then there was a film about that.
One of the topics they covered early on was the supermarket/school issue - with their accompanying poll. They found that one person had voted over 300 times - and put a little film clip up offering a prize of a packet of jelly babies if that person would come forward! After stripping out the duplicate votes, the final result was that 80% opposed a new supermarket, and 20% were in favour.
Some people have chosen cartoons as their favoured medium, including one short film about Ludlow, which was in favour of supermarkets.
They have 20 tiny little cameras available for anyone who would like to make a film, on any subject, and they are training people on Wednesday evenings at the Globe if anyone wants to go along. They've also made contact with Gwernyfed School, and got quite a bit of interest from the pupils there.
And now they're at the stage where they want to make the venture self supporting in terms of money. It's incredibly cheap to run, apart from time (of course), and they were suggesting short films from local businesses that also functioned as an advert for that business. As an example, Tam did a film about her Zumba class, and the next time she went she could hardly get in because so many people had turned up!
Later in the evening, there was a lady Tam had met at Glastonbury DJing - which is about when I left (nothing to do with the quality of the music - a DVD I wanted had arrived in the post earlier in the day, and I wanted to watch it before I went to bed!).
There's a link on the side bar to see Hay TV in action.

Flowers for the Trees

The Castle grounds are looking a bit barer now (quite a lot barer, in fact), as several trees have come down and are being chopped up.
Round near the gate on Oxford Street, someone has left a bunch of flowers - and when I passed over the weekend, there were some potted plants there - with the chalked message "for the trees".
I think quite a few people around town are sad to see them go (and I did hear someone query whether the jackdaws had been given a proper eviction order!).

Cardiff Castle

We had a day out down to Cardiff on Thursday.
We thought we'd organised it brilliantly - we looked up the bus timetables online the day before, and I've used the 60-60 bus before. We decided to go early from Hay to give ourselves enough time to return by the bus that connected with the next to last Hay bus - we've done the nail-biting last minute journey where we were still at Libanus when we should have been in the bus station and we didn't know if we'd get the connection before, and we didn't want to do it again.
All went well until we got to Brecon bus station. Seeing us looking bemused (there was no sign of the 60-60 bus) another passenger pointed us in the direction of the T4, which I'd never heard of. He was on his way to Merthyr, and recommended it - and when we looked at the timetable with another passenger it looked as if there would be plenty of time for us to get back for the last bus home....

We'd never been into Cardiff Castle, though we'd heard about the wonderful Victorian decor of the place, and I'd picked up a very old guide book.
It was well worth the £11 entry fee. We strolled around the Castle battlements (we could have picked up an audio guide, but we decided to just bimble round this time), and then dropped down a level to a long, long corridor inside the walls. Up ahead of us, we could hear a loudspeaker - and then the unmistakable sound of bombers droning overhead, and bombs falling. We had found the World War Two area, which was used as public shelters during air raids.
Outside again, we headed for the shell keep, up formidably steep stairs, and admired the defensive walls and moat and space for the portcullis at top and bottom - no-one would have stormed this before the age of cannon!
A short pause at the shed which houses the falcons (including a European Eagle Owl), and then it was into the public rooms - there's a tour of more of the castle for an extra fee. We got the impression that the architect was quite mad (Burges) but the results were wonderful! We spent ages admiring the Arab Room, and working out the Latin captions in the wall painting story of Stephen and Matilda in the Hall (it helped that we both knew the story of the Anarchy period, and who people like Robert of Gloucester were). The library is also rather wonderful, though I do feel that the Marquis of Bute was showing off a bit when it was decorated - the names of what were supposed to be his favourite authors were all around the walls, on little signs held by putti (little cherubs), and he must have been extraordinarily well read if he had managed to read all of those classical authors!
After that, we went down into the depths of the modern building near the entrance for the Firing Line, the museum of Welsh regiments, which was brilliant - and the staff were really helpful and knowledgeable. I think they were ex-Regimental themselves. Uniforms, saddles, weaponry, and a long timeline going back to the 17th century.

Just across the road from the Castle is Forbidden Planet, which is where we headed when we'd finished with History, and after browsing the SF and comics we were in need of liquid refreshment. The Goat Major was nearby, and proved to be a very fine pub, serving Brains and a guest (a Scottish beer from somewhere the bar tender wouldn't attempt to pronounce!).

There was just time for a short amble around the shopping centre, and then to the bus stop. The bus was ten minutes late. This wouldn't have mattered, but then there was an accident of some sort on the dual carriageway, which slowed all the traffic down to a crawl. After that, the driver went as fast as he could, but we were back to sweating and wondering if we'd make it to Brecon in time again.
Instead of a good half an hour to spare, we walked straight off the T4 and straight onto the 39, and set off immediately.
"Let us not go to Cardiff again," Mark said.

Good Beer and Live Music

I seem to have spent rather a lot of time in Kilvert's over the last week.
Mark brought some bottles of beer for Eddie to try out (from Kernel Brewery in London), and we had to sample some of the delights behind the bar.
Then there was Open Mic - with more people arriving with instruments than were able to play. There was a wonderful jam session early on with some good Irish music on fiddles, banjo, guitar, bodhran and squeeze box, and later there was a chap with a soprano saxophone, who was called on to accompany another performer - all unrehearsed and ad lib, which is one of the fun things about open mic. You never know what's going to happen next! Anna finished the evening on the piano, with Chris reading from his book right at the last ("I've already had my free pint!" he said, when Anna's last song of the evening was announced). Tim says, in his weekly flyer, "I sometimes wonder if these evenings can get any better under the circumstances - and an impish little voice whispers in my ear 'Yes they can, yes they can'."
It was a good week for Irish music, Saturday being St Patrick's Day, and half a dozen players of Irish music turned up, with no electronics, to play in a corner of Kilvert's after the rugby finished (I understand Wales won!). It wasn't so loud that it drowned out conversation, but loud enough to be listened to by those who appreciated good music - and they were all very good.
Beer of the week, among some excellent contenders, had to be a bottle of Raging Bitch (I forget the brewery), which Mark described as "Jaipur's older brother when he's gone through puberty" - Jaipur being a rather excellent IPA from Thornbridge, with a hoppy taste that dances on your tongue!

Going Greek in Hereford

I went into Hereford to meet my Young Man off the train last week. We had a while to wait for the bus, and he'd had an early start, so we decided to catch a later bus and treat ourselves to lunch in Hereford.
The Lichfield Vaults is a pub about half way along the alleyway between the Cathedral and the big square in the middle of town. It does good real ale, including Adnams Broadside (I started drinking real ale in Norwich, so one of the first really good beers I ever tried was Broadside). It also does very good Greek food.
We ordered a mezze between us - which means a lot of little dishes to taste. It's something I used to enjoy when I lived on Kos, and it was lovely to sit in the sun in the yard at the back of the pub, with blue sky above and the seagulls crying on the chimney pots - not quite like being on the beach front just outside Kardamena, with the lights of Turkey twinkling across three miles of Mediterranean sea, but as close as you can get in Hereford in March!

Small Business....Sunday

My Young Man has been here for the week, so blogging has had rather a low priority! However, I saw him off on the bus this morning, so normal service is being resumed.
This is Paddles and Pedals, the cycling and canoeing business on Castle Street, with its rather wonderful sign.

Welsh Businesses

Well done to Drover Holidays, who were chosen by Google as an example of how to set up and run a successful business online! There's a good article in the B&R this week about them, and how Google UK are helping small businesses with workshops to improve their web presence (at www.gbbo.co.uk/wales).

Meanwhile, in the Hereford Times, The River Cafe in Glasbury is on the market. The present owners have been there for eight years, also running Wye Valley Canoes next door, and they've built up a very good reputation. I took my young man there once, and he's still praising their butternut squash soup!

And finally, the Rhydspence Inn, across the river, is getting a new lease of life. The historic pub reopens tonight, with Golden Valley beer at the bar, and it is being run by the couple who presently run the Castlefield pub in Clifford. Before that, they ran the Maesllwch in Glasbury, so they've got a lot of local knowledge and experience.

The Cheesemarket and other History

I went down to the Blue Boar last night to find out what the new local history group is doing. They're very much tied up with the renovation of the Cheesemarket, but the interest in local history doesn't end with the history of that particular building - they want to know what it is that makes a successful market town as well. Other towns in the area set up markets in the Middle Ages, but they failed - Longtown, for example. They also want to know what the previous Town Hall looked like - some of the beams in the present building seem to have been re-used from an earlier building. And they want to know about the origin of the name. When it was built, it was called the Town Hall, and only got the name Cheesemarket later - was it because the Town Clerk, who handled the sale of the building from the Glanusk Estate to the Town Council, was called Mr Cheese?
The documentary evidence is - patchy, I think it's fair to say. When the Glanusk Estate, Lords of the Manor of Hay, were approached, they said that a lot of documentation had gone up in flames because they were lodged with a London solicitor during the Blitz! There are disappointingly few pictures of Hay in the 19th century and before - one chap has been trying to find out more about the Tannery where the new houses on Millbank now are, and has only been able to find pictures of Underhill's Garage.
A trip to the National Archive at Aberystwyth has been suggested, possibly in April - they are supposed to have some of the documents that Geoffrey Fairs consulted for his book about Hay - and his card index, which would be very useful.
It's got me excited about local archaeology again, too - so I'll be having a look for the archaeological reports of the various digs that have happened in Hay over the last twenty years or so, and before, if I can.
The history group will be meeting again on 2nd May, at the Blue Boar, at 8pm, if anyone is interested in finding out more.

Poetry at the Globe

Last night it was Poetry of the City. Annette de Grandis read some of her poetry about London, with backing music from iBardic, followed by an open mic session, followed by a cosy chat over sticky cakes and coffee. Next month, the theme will be the Beat Poets.
Meanwhile, in the cellar of the Globe, the book group were discussing Cannery Row.
Over at Kilvert's, the usual Tuesday night open mic session was also going on, but without Toby this week. He's in Tennessee - another young hopeful headed for Nashville with his guitar and harmonica!

Shopfitting

There's a rather bright yellow carpet going into Pembertons - which will shortly become Adela's Dress Agency.
Meanwhile, across the street, a lot of shelving is being taken out of the Bookshop Formerly Known as Mark Westwoods.
And on the corner of the Pavement, work continues behind the whitened windows....

The Primose story Part 2

Here's the second part of the slide show on Primrose Farm - he talks about the salad packs at one point, and I can confirm how tasty they are. I buy a lot of them over the summer!

Art, Artisans and Good Conversations

The morning was taken up by the Fairtrade walk up Cusop Dingle, which was fun - I was able to tell stories of local history to people who hadn't heard them before, as we discussed the industrial landscape of the Dingle (there was once a brickworks!), Cusop school, the electrification of Brynmelin (when the mill was converted into a small power station), Cusop Castle and Cusop Church. We also passed Major Armstrong's house - and the group's keen birdwatcher is convinced that we saw a water rail chick (but to be fair he is very little, and it was the first picture of a black bird that he saw in the book).
On the way home, I passed by the Buttermarket, where the Artisans of Hay were displaying their wares. Jackie of Castello de Haia soaps said she now has a shed/workshop where she can spread out while she works, and Shelley showed me a wooden duck on a stick toy from a neighbouring stall that had fascinated Arthur the dog.
In the afternoon, I went along to Lion Street Gallery, which was packed out! There was a Sally Matthews horse statue near the doorway, thankfully smaller than the one that was there before Christmas - or we would never have squeezed in. Eugene Fisk has been painting historical buildings; Sarah had some of her portraits up; and there were some strange, intricate pictures of people showing their internal anatomy. And some shells that looked as if they had been put together from a mosaic of smaller pictures, and some subtle landscapes - all sorts of styles, as well as sculpture that looked as if it had been put together using Dr McCoy's instruments from Star Trek, and bronzes (I liked the goats).
The lady from the Swan said that the gallery has been using the huge wall of their dining room as display space, which is working well for both of them, and they are hoping to have a marquee full of art in the Swan garden for the Festival, as well as outdoor sculpture.
I ended up in a corner talking local history with Ian, who invited me to a Local History meeting in the Blue Boar on Wednesday. He got interested because of his involvement with the Cheesemarket regeneration scheme ("Why is there a statue of Henry VII hanging on that wall, anyway? And why does he look like an angel?") and Cusop Parish Council - looking up early records he saw that the most popular councillor in 1919 was Major Armstrong!

Small Business Saturday

Here's the Cinema Bookshop, including Francis Edwards Antiquarian Books. The building started out as the Plaza Cinema.
Behind the Cinema is another B&B, The Firs.

Singing

I'm a bit late in mentioning this, but Hay Community Choir are having an Abba day at the Globe today. The organiser, Catherine Hughes, sang last year at the St David's Day celebrations at Bethel Chapel, organised by Geoff Evans, who sadly passed away not long afterwards. She has a beautiful clear soprano voice, and will be performing Welsh folk songs, with harp accompaniment by Paul Sweeting, at a Booth's concert on 24th March. The tickets, as usual, will be £10.

Culture in Hereford

Arthur's Dad told me about an exhibition in the Art Gallery in Hereford, of work by Edward Ardizzone. He illustrated a lot of children's books, until his death in 1979, and had a style that was instantly recognisable, so I was interested to see what else he had done. There were film posters, and illustrations for books for adults, as well as lots of the children's illustrations, and the exhibition also showed pictures of the artist at work in his studio, and told a little bit about his life.
The space was being shared with a local Herefordshire artist, Brian Hatton, one of that generation of talented men who were wiped out by the First World War. He died in Egypt in 1916, but not before he had painted some impressions of life there - apparently he wasn't an official artist, so he was free to paint whatever took his fancy.
Later, I indulged in a bit of 'retail therapy' and found myself in the Entertainer toyshop, which has taken over part of the building that used to be Chadd's department store. I didn't see anything I wanted, but I got talking to the young man behind the counter - and had to mention to him: "It's a bit sexist, the layout, isn't it?"
He looked blank. He'd obviously never considered it.
So I pointed to the area of the shop decorated in light blue. "Boys' toys," and then to the area that was awash with pink; "Girls' toys."
"We've got Preschool," he said, slightly desperately.
"That's not really the point, though, is it?" I asked. "I mean, why shouldn't a girl have a sword for a pirate?" I pointed to the pirate toy section, which was firmly in the blue area of the shop. "When I was a kid, I would have wanted one of those. I thought this sort of thing was going out of fashion in the seventies!"
As I was leaving (poor lad - he only works there - he didn't design the layout) I noticed that the shop had won an award for Toyshop of the Year last year.
I mention this because, over the Christmas period, there was a campaign on just this issue centred on the famous Hamley's toyshop in London, which separated boys and girls onto entirely different floors of the shop - and they have now changed their layout by the type of toy, rather than the presumed sex of the child who will like it.

Artisans at Hay

Saturday is going to be a busy day for me. In the morning, I'm going on the Fairtrade "Take a Step" Walk down Cusop Dingle (meet at the recycling bins in the car park at 11am - bring Fairtrade snacks to share!).
At the same time, Artisans at Hay will be in the Buttermarket, with all sorts of quality goods - wooden toys and items for the home, ceramics, handbags, silk scarves, decoupage, recycled glass, ironwork and soap.
And in the afternoon Lion Street Gallery are having a grand opening for their exhibition featuring Sally Matthews, Eugene Fisk, Kate Milsom, Dix, Sarah Putt, Niel Bally and Stewart MacIndoe - what a lot of talented people we have around Hay!