Forty Years of Wye Valley Beer

 Wye Valley Brewery marks its fortieth anniversary this year - that's a lot of pints of Butty Bach along the way!

Back in the 1990s, when I was an active member of CAMRA, we used to meet at the Barrels, the Wye Valley brew pub in Hereford.  We were among the first to see the pump clips for their new Dorothy Goodbody range.  Pete Amor wanted to show them to the ladies in the group, because he was slightly worried the artwork might be seen as a bit sexist - but we thought they were fine.  The beer was certainly fine.

Since then, the business has grown - brewing has moved to bigger premises, they've bought new pubs in the area, and they still hold their beer festival at the Barrels.  Founder Pete Amor retired, and his son Vernon took over.  Pete even made a little film, going round other independent breweries around the country, as a way of celebrating local breweries like his.

I regularly stock up with their bottled range, including Butty Bach and Wholesome Stout, from Londis. 

Dydd Hapus Sant Dwynwen

 

Happy St Dwynwen's Day - she is the patron saint of romantic love, and she was local to Mid Wales, being one of the many daughters of King Brychan.

First Snowdrop

 

I always look for snowdrops, and this year the first one I saw was on the patch of ground at the top of Backfold.  The first sign that spring is on the way!

Healthcare Fellowship Award

 Congratulations to Melanie Prince - she works in healthcare as a Point of Care Testing Co-ordinator, and she has been selected as one of six Healthcare Scientists in Wales to receive a Healthcare Science Service Transformation Fellowship.  She will be going to Norway in February, to study how the Norwegians organise urgent care pathways in remote rural areas, and she will be bringing back what she learns there to improve healthcare service locally.  It's a very exciting opportunity!

North Weir Trust

 The North Weir Trust are starting 2026 with three applications for funds:

three teenagers want support for an educational and charity based trip to South Africa 

a local forest school wants to support volunteer engagement and knowledge

and a local primary school wants to support love of reading.

The North Weir Trust was created to support all sorts of projects locally, and does really good work.

They have a website at nwtrusthay.org.uk 

Health Drop-In at the Swan

 

There will be a drop-in session at the Swan on Thursday 22nd January from 3pm to 6pm, for anyone who's interested in what's going on in local health services.

They'll be talking about Better Together, the local mental health services, and temporary service changes, particularly to the Minor Injury Units, Ready to Go Home Units and Rehabilitation Units.

There'll be tea and coffee available, and staff will be able to chat. 

Banking Hub for Hay

 There was a knock on the door this morning, while I was in the middle of watching an episode of Star Trek with my friend.

On the door step was Jane Dodds, the MS for this area, and another Lib Dem campaigner.  They wanted to drum up support for a banking hub for Hay.  

The last proper bank in Hay, Barclays, closed in 2018.  There used to be three bank branches in total, the others being Nat West and the Midland, which became Santander (and is now a clothes shop).  The Nat West send a van every fortnight, which parks outside the Cinema Bookshop for three quarters of an hour.

The idea of a Banking Hub is that several different banks share the same premises - so on Monday it's Barclays, on Tuesday it's Nat West, and so on. 

I was immediately enthusiastic, and so was my friend, who also came to the door to sign the petition.

At the moment, if I want cash I can go to the cash point at the Craft Centre, but it often runs out of money, and at the moment it is closed down until repairs can be made after someone tried to break into it.  The other option is the Post Office, which has taken on some of the functions of a bank branch.

If I want to do anything more complicated with my money, I have to take the bus into Hereford, which takes about an hour, and then I have to make sure I have other things to do in Hereford, because the X44 only runs, at best, every two hours (and not at all in the afternoons).  So what used to take me ten minutes at a local branch now takes me half a day.

I'm quite capable of organising online banking - I'm computer literate enough to have a blog, after all - but I refuse to do it.  I want to be able to go into a branch and speak to an actual human being who knows what they're doing, face to face.

So I have filled in the questionnaire they gave me, and I'm about to take it to the post box now.

For anyone who wants to join in the survey to say how the loss of banking services in Hay has affected them, they are also gathering information online at www.brlibdems.uk/HayHub

They will then take all the answers to the regulators to convince them that Hay needs a Banking Hub.