HAY, market town and urban district of Breconshire, south Wales, 20 M. N.W. of Hereford with G.W.R. and L.M.S. connec tions. Pop. (1931) 1,509. The town occupies rising ground on the south bank of the Wye, which here separates the counties of Brecknock and Radnor but immediately below enters Here fordshire, from which the town is separated on the east by the Dulas.
Hay guards an important way into Wales between the Radnor Forest and the Black Mts. This district was heavily forested in early times and settlement was unimportant until the Norman period. Bernard de Newmarch conquered the district about 1088. The manor of Hay, which probably corresponded to some exist ing Welsh division, he gave to Sir Philip Walwyn, but it soon reverted to the donor, and its subsequent devolution down to its forfeiture to the crown as part of the duke of Buckingham's estate in 1521, was identical with that of the lordship of Brecknock (see BRECONSHIRE). The motte and bailey castle, probably built in Newmarch's time and rebuilt by his great-grandson William de Breos, passed on the latter's attainder to the crown, but was again seized by de Breos's second son, ,Giles, bishop of Hereford, in 1215, and retaken by King John in the following year. In 1231 it was burnt by Llewelyn ab Iorwerth, and in the Barons' War it was taken in 1263 by Prince Edward, but in the following year was burnt by Simon Montfort and the last Llewelyn. From the i6th century the castle has been used as a private residence.
The Welsh name of the town is Y Gelli ("the wood"), or in full (Y) Gelli ganddryll, which roughly corresponds to Sepes Inscissa, used by Walter Map. Its Norman name, La Haia (from the Fr. haie, cf. English "hedge"), was probably intended as a translation of Gelli. Hay manor, like that of Talgarth, consisted of an Englishry and a Welshry, the latter, known as Haya Wal lensis, comprising the parish of Llanigon with the hamlet of Glynfach, and in this Welsh tenures and customs prevailed. The manor is specially mentioned in the act of Henry VIII. 5) as one of those which were then taken to constitute the new county of Brecknock.
Even down to Leland's time Hay was surrounded by a "right strong wall," but the town within the wall has "wonderfully de cayed," while to the west of it was a suburb with the church of St. Mary overlooking the river. This was rebuilt in 1834. The old parish church of St. John within the walls, used as a school in the 17th century, has entirely disappeared. There are 18 alms houses for poor women, built and endowed by Miss Frances Harley in 1832-36, and Gwyn's almshouses for six aged persons, founded in 1702 and rebuilt in 1878. Hay is the centre of a rich agricul tural country, and its undulating landscape has a charm of peace f ul well-being.