Jaap van 't Veen's photos with the keyword: Powys

Hay-on-Wye was first - between 1135 and 1147 - mentioned as "Haya" and in 1299 the name of "La Haye" was used. By the 16th century it was simply called "Hay" and the use of the river as a suffix is a later addition Hay-on-Wye is a small characterful market town at the border between Wales and England. With over twenty bookshops, it is often described as "the town of books" and is the National Book Town of Wales. Many of the bookshops are selling specialist and second-hand books, although the number has declined sharply in recent years, many becoming general antique shops.

Brecon Cathedral - or officially “Cathedral Church of St John the Evangelist” - started life in 1093 as the Benedictine Priory of St John the Evangelist, built by the Normans on the site of an earlier Celtic church. At the dissolution of the monasteries in 1537 it became Brecon's Parish Church. It became a cathedral only in 1923 on the establishment of the Diocese of Swansea and Brecon. Adjacent to the cathedral lies the graveyard in one of the most charming, serene and peaceful settings I have ever seen for a graveyard. Old tombstones and Celtic crosses are scattered throughout the yard sometimes overgrown with plants or moss in a park-like area and during my visit with huge fields of wild cyclamen.