Find out why one Welsh town devoted itself to the written word.
Located, on the River Wye, just inside the Welsh border with England, Hay-On-Wye is a small town of less than 2,000 people, and around thirty bookshops. Why so many bookshops? You can thank King Richard. Richard Booth that is. Hay-On-Wye was declared an “independent kingdom” by Booth on April 1, 1977, crowning himself king. This publicity stunt changed Hay-On-Wye forever. Ever since, it has developed a healthy tourist industry based on books, lots and lots of books.
The main street through town is lined with bookshops and coffee houses. The town’s second most profitable industry has to be coffee, as vendors are everywhere, perfect locations for discussing the latest bestseller. More than thirty book shops sit within the borders of the town, many selling second-hand (perfect for cheapskates like me) and wonderful antique books. The tourist center even gives out maps showing where all the stores are located, and most of them are conveniently clustered together.
The little blurry town of Hay-On-Wye (rainy/cloudy plus old camera equals not so great photos of this town.)
I drove into town in the late morning. A path leads from the awesomely large parking lot, up a small hill, with its own castle and down onto the main street. The path is lined with old stone buildings and a couple of shops, including a lovely coffee shop. The Norman castle had been turned into a mansion in the late 1600s, and now is used for selling books.
I must say, this is a cool book shop.
At the foot of the castle was shelves, lots of shelves, all unmanned, full of old paperbacks. This “shop” used the honor system, hoping you would pay. There were even shelves for book donations, for a charity.
One of the honor system stalls.
With less than an hour, I had to choose quickly which shops to check out. You know you are a nerd when you want a book as a souvenir. Bargain shoppers need not fear; I eventually found an interesting book in my low-price range at the third shop, with twelve minutes remaining on the parking meter. In this town, even the most jaded can find a book to their liking, as there are so many to choose from.
A proper used bookstore.
Hay-On-Wye, since 1988, has held the Hay Festival, a literary festival that draws an average 80,000 people to this tiny town, over ten days, to see and hear big literary names from all over the world. I could only image the chaos on the local two-lane curving roads of the area. Traffic was bad enough as it was when I was there.
Hay-On-Wye is a book lovers dream. One can spend days just perusing all the shops. It may be a small little town, but it has so much to offer.
Hay-On-Wye was visited on Day 25 on my Around Great Britain in 30 Days adventure. Check it out here!
