Hay History Books
Over the years many books have been written about the history of Hay on Wye.
Below is a list of books written by members of Hay History Group that have been published over the last ten years and are available to buy.
We also give a list of books which may be out of print but which are available to buy second-hand or to be borrowed from the library.
Memorials of Hay St Mary - by Alan Nicholls - This book contains a fully indexed photographic survey of the churchyard and interior memorials of St. Mary's, Hay-on-Wye which was undertaken between the years 2017 and 2021. The churchyard was closed to new burials in 1870 and later burials were in the new graveyard in Brecon Road cemetery. Cost: £15. Buy at www.Lulu.com
The Lords of Hay - by Alan Nicholls -This book makes extensive use of the original documents produced over the centuries which have been brought together to weave a fascinating and comprehensive story of the lords of Hay and keepers of the castle. Cost: £15. Buy at www.Lulu.com
Historical Directory of Hay on Wye - Second edition - by Alan Nicholls. The survey of the town of Hay in this volume is organised alphabetically, street by street, and each building that was listed on the census from 1841 to 1911 is included with many pictures, handbills and illustrations. (Note: Brecon Road, Forest Road and St Mary's Road are in the Rural Edition). Cost: £20. Buy at www.Lulu.com
Haywire Volumes 1 & 2: Published by Alan Nicholls - This collection of Haywire Magazines, in two volumes, has been published to safeguard a unique record of Hay-on-Wye life and history and to make it available to all who love the town and its people past and present. Cost: £13.50 each. Buy at www.Lulu.com
Hay at War 1914 - 1918 - by Alan Nicholls - From the start of the Great War the people of Hay were caught up in the conflict across the globe. Whether serving on the front line, in allied occupations, or at home awaiting news from their loved ones, Hay was there. This account of the Great War is seen through the columns of the Brecon County Times. It deals with the news as seen weekly by the residents of Hay and it gives an insight to the everyday life in Hay during those war years. Cost: £11. Buy at www.Lulu.com
Historical Directory of Hay on Wye - Rural Parish - by Alan Nicholls - The Historical Directory of the Rural Parish of Hay on Wye complements the earlier volume which covered the town of Hay. The survey in this volume includes Brecon Road, Forest Road and St. Mary's Road as well as the buildings and farms in the wider parish. Cost: £15. Buy at www.Lulu.com
Matilda, Lady of Hay - by Dr. Peter Ford - Matilda was the wife of the most powerful Norman baron in the country William de Braose, the ‘Ogre of Abergavenny’. William was a staunch supporter of King John, yet the king destroyed William’s wife by walling her up, with her eldest son, in his favourite property at Corfe Castle. Here is the story of her life, and death, and the amazing legends about her and her alter ego Moll Walbee. Did she build Hay Castle in a night, defend another castle from over 3,000 Welsh attackers, throw a magnificent slab cross over the River Wye to land in St Meligs Churchyard in Llowes, and really cause the downfall her husband? Is that her effigy in St Mary’s Church Hay on Wye? Cost: £7.99. Logaston Press.
Doctors, Disease and Death. The Story of Public Health in Hay on Wye - by Dr. Peter Ford - Life may have been hard in Hay, a small rural town in the March of less that 2,000 inhabitants, but did it really need 50 doctors working there over the past 200 years? Was it a hotbed of disease with the spectre of ill-health, infirmity and death ever present? Was it just full of hypochondriacs?
Read about the diseases inhabitants were exposed to, the healthcare they received, and the evolution of medical practice from the apothecaries to the early surgeons and later doctors. Learn about the range of the doctor’s work, and how the towns counsellors tried to look after the health of its inhabitants. Here are its workhouse, isolation hospital, almshouses, surgeries, nurses, dentists and chemists. The doctors are listed, together with stories around their medical practice and incidents in which their services were required, a cross section of life in a typical rural market town. Cost £10. Amazon.com
The following books may be out of print:
The History of Hay - by Geoffrey L. Fairs - Phillimore & Co.
Annals of a Parish A Short History of Hay on Wye - Geoffrey L Fairs - a companion to his History of Hay.
Book of Hay - by Kate Clark
The Town of Hay, Then and Now - by Eric Pugh
Nobody Had Heard of Hay - by Hay Millenium Society - Logaston Press
Independence For Hay - by Richard Booth
A Handful of Hay - by Hay and District Writers’ Circle
My Father’s Life in Hay - by Eric Pugh
A History in Verse - by Maurice John - Hay Study Group
Crime in Hay-on-Wye 1600 - 1915 - by David Bennett - at Lulu.com
Grant’s Guides to Hay on Wye, Talgarth and the Black Mountains - by H.R.Grant and sons.
Walking Round Hay - by Ronald Rose
Wisps of Hay, with other chaff - by Cyril Marwood
To The Fallen - by Eric & Tim Pugh
Old Hay in Pictures and Prints - Eric Pugh
Hay on Wye History Notes 2018 - Hay History Group
Trial of H.R. Armstrong - Filson Young
Major Injustice - David Bennett - at Lulu.com
The Hay Poisoner - Martin Beales
Kilverts Diary
Planet Hay - Hew Parsons.
Hey Days in Hay - Eugene Fisk and Jeremy Sandford.
The Hay Railway - CR Clinker
Local History from the Pubs and Inns of Hay on Wye - David Bennett - at Lulu.com