Local History

I was in the Blue Boar last night for a meeting of the Cheesemarket local history group. The Cheesemarket committee are waiting to hear if their grant application has been accepted - they'll hear in December. Meanwhile, they have plans to knock down the toilet block under the Cheesemarket building, to open it up as it was originally. The toilet block is painted to look like stonework - and that was done for the filming of Dandelion Dead, twenty years ago!
They're also selling pieces of a mosaic which will go up in the renovated building - and on Tuesday they presented one piece of the mosaic to Josie Pearson. It will be the only gold piece, and has her name on it.
One member of the group is trying to track down missing documents relating to Hay's history - they're missing from boxes that were stored at Llandrindod Wells, donated by Williams Beales solicitors, and may possibly be in Hereford.
There's also some enthusiasm for making the group a more general Hay History Society, for research purposes and also to have visiting speakers, and to be a voice to protect local history. For instance, there was no archaeological dig in advance of the Millbank houses being built on the site of Underhill's Garage - which was previously the site of a mill (and possibly a tannery somewhere in that area), and a Local History Society would be better able to call for something like that than individual members of the public. The mill existed until about 1935, when the machinery was sold off by Mr Cadman, who also owned the Corn and Seed Merchants where the Granary now is. One of the complaints at the time was that he couldn't work the mill because the mill pond was being used as a source of water by the local fire brigade, and to flush the sewers out, and for other uses, and there wasn't enough water left for him! There don't seem to be any pictures of the mill - we don't even know if it was an overshot or an undershot wheel.
Kington has a thriving society, and they have started putting documents about their local history on-line - and all sorts of things have been donated to them as a result. The old Hay History Society still exists, in cold storage, with a bank account (and about £50), and Malcolm Smith, who ran it, might be persuaded to start it up again, with a new committee. It would be easier to do it that way than to start from scratch with an entirely new society.

There will be a Brecknock History Weekend next September, and that might be something for Hay to work towards - perhaps to host an event. There will be a meeting at Brecon Library, upstairs, on Tuesday 9th October, at 10.30am, to discuss plans for it. It would be on at the same time as the Open Houses Scheme, when historic buildings that are not normally open to the public are opened for the day. They have a website at www.opendoorsdays.org.uk.

The Cheesemarket was built at about the same time as Glanusk House - and there was some speculation about the architect of the house. He might have also drawn up the plans for the Cheesemarket, though he was known more for Gothic country houses than classically arched market halls. It is possible that he just drew a few sketches and left a local builder to do the best he could with them. There is a roof truss in an awkward position that an architect would have designed differently, but a builder with less experience might have worked himself into a corner and made a bit of a bodge to make the thing work.
A picture was passed around of a sort of bus shelter arrangement that was on the end of the Cheesemarket in the 1970s, where the tables from Shepherds are now.

And finally, talk turned to the Catholic Church. One of the Maddy family was married at the Cheesemarket, which also did duty as the Catholic Church at the time. Then the congregation had the chance to move into the present building, which was originally a Presbyterian chapel. At the time (it must have been the 1960s) Ian Paisley was coming to Hay to browse the theology section of Richard Booth's shop - and it is said that he lay down in the road in protest against the Catholics!

The Cheesemarket group will be at the Hay Together Community Fair at Hay Castle on September 29th, with a big historical map of Hay (and a treasure seeking game), and more details of what they're doing.