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MarketTimesFebruary2016

7 It was like lighting the blue touch paper. Hayon Wye is a fiercely independent town with mainly book and antique shops, and barely a brand store in sight. It is a far cry from the cloned high streets of towns up and down the UK. Research uncovered the fact that the Cheese Market had been given by an estate benefactor with the stipulation that it could only be sold for the original value of the property — £200. Powys County Council conceded defeat and granted the chamber a 99-year lease to take responsibility for the building. It obtained a £300,000 Heritage Lottery Grant to restore it to its former glory. The building is now an attractive, Grade II listed landmark with a converted holiday flat in the upper level, the rent from which pays for the upkeep of the building. The ground floor houses food stalls on Thursdays and a fledgling produce market every Saturday. And food — particularly local produce — is what Hay-on-Wye Market is all about. One of the longest serving traders, Michael Price, who has run his fish, poultry and game business on the market for 36 years, said: “Hay is a really good market, and it is the top quality food businesses that are the backbone of the market.” There are plenty of them — and the quality and variety is on a par with anything the best London food markets can offer. Fish, game, poultry, meat, cheese, fruit and veg, fabulous home-cooked delicacies and award-winning bread baked by the UK’s artisan baker of the year — you name it, Hayon Wye has got it. And the variety and quality is phenomenal. Beneath the clock tower are two upmarket food businesses that have won national acclaim. Malcolm Gooch sells his son Alex’s artisan bread which has won numerous awards including Waitrose’s Country Living award for 2009, Radio 4’s Food Producer of the Year for 2010, and, most recently, Artisan Baker of the Year for 2015. Alex trained and worked as a top chef, but became fascinated by bread making. His loaves don’t come cheap. The most expensive is £8 and they average £3. But you won’t find finer bread anywhere. The ingredients are all organic, the bread making traditional and artisan, and Malcolm regularly sells out on Hay market. Next door is the highly rated Weobley Ash stall run by David Pickersgill, which specialises in mutton, hogget and lamb as well as apple juice, all reared, grown and produced on the smallholding where his wife is the shepherdess. Recently featured on the popular BBC programme Countryfile, the Pickersgills’ business has taken off after they began selling on Hay market. David quit the rat race at 50 because he was tired of all the travel involved in his highflying job as a senior executive with the large corporation Johnson and Johnson. “We planted an apple orchard in 2007 and make our own apple juice which is really popular,” David said. Malcolm Gooch is the artisan bread man on Hay market. His son, Alex, has a string of awards for his bread, including Artisan Baker of the Year for 2015 Cherille Jones started Bezzers Biscuits four years ago and sells the gourmet dog biscuits she makes at her farm on Hay-on- Wye market David Pickersgill is a former senior executive with a large corporation who retired early and now sells the mutton and apple juice produced on his nearby smallholding Emilia Koziol-Wisniewsci sells pieragi, a cross between a Polish delicacy and a pastie. She sells mainly at food festivals but finds it worth her while to stand Hay market because of the buzzy atmosphere t


MarketTimesFebruary2016
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