Lucy Powell from Hay has vivid memories of the markets :
"On a Monday it would be a mart day up at the cattle market the farmer would come on his pony and his men would drive the cattle to market, and on a Thursday they would bring the trucks to bring their wives in to do the weekly shopping. They usually came in about 10 o'clock. The market would start finish about 1 o'clock then they'd spend several hours in Hay 'til about 5 o'clock and go home. Some would come in for a few hours in the morning, others would come for a few hours in the afternoon and of course where I am now, I am out of the market when as we had it in the street, I was in the centre."
More of Lucy's memories...
Nesta Muddiman was born in Hay and has lived in the town all her life :
"There used to be big open markets down by the town clock, stock markets with eggs and butter and all those kinds of things - all the way down broad street and then there was a big cattle market and then sheep sales, but there's nothing like that now."
There's a market in Hay-on-Wye every Thursday in the Buttermarket Hall. Old photos of Hay...
your comments
David Cowen
I remember hay market in the 1964 when I appeared at Robert Williams ltd to start a new job one hour early and they had stalls set up.
Mon Apr 7 09:19:43 2008
Do you remember the market heydays in Hay? Add your memories to the page by filling in the boxes below:
Some of Hay-on-Wye's oldest residents recall the heydays of the town's markets when people from all round would flock in to buy and sell their wares. 
