SEPTEMBER 2024 · ROAM
Capel y Fin
Hay-on-Wye and Capel-y-Ffin, Black Mountains, Wales
I brought a 1939 Russian lens to Hay-on-Wye. It's the kind of glass that gives you imperfect edges and a particular quality of flare, and for this pair of locations — a town packed with old books and a valley with scattered ruins — the age of the lens felt like the correct decision.
Hay itself is dense. The Honesty Bookshop under a stone archway with bunting above the dark entrance passage. Dense shelves in narrow interiors, rows of second-hand volumes, the spines a specific palette of faded colour. A second-hand bookshop window display: a white duck figurine and stacked books behind a metal grille. An outdoor book market with volumes stacked in metal bins along the paved street. Books everywhere in Hay are furniture. A convex mirror reflecting the interior of one shop, surrounded by decorative shells — the mirror showing what the 1939 glass won't: a wide, undistorted view.
Both are in the business of keeping what time would otherwise work on.
Hay-on-Wye and Capel-y-Ffin — September 2024
A wooden sign for Capel Odda Dyde Farm obscured by wild overgrowth on a narrow country path. The lens reads this correctly. A rural gate beside a telephone box on a tree-lined road. A stone farm building in dense woodland, weathered slate roof, dark entrance.
Llanthony Priory in the valley: Gothic stone ruins with ribbed vaulting and an arched colonnade leading toward the hills. The vaulting and clustered columns of the ruined cloister, the hills visible through the openings. A stone arch ruin opening toward a distant mountainous landscape, the Gothic ribbed vault framing the valley beyond.
A white-washed stone chapel with steep pitched roof and wooden door. Shadow patterns from a stone archway cast across paved ground, the hillside beyond.
The bookshops hold something. The ruins hold something. Both are in the business of keeping what time would otherwise work on.
Shadow patterns from stone archway cast across paved ground and hillside beyond
White-washed stone chapel with steep pitched roof and wooden door in rural setting
Gothic stone ruins of abbey with ribbed vaulting and arched colonnade leading toward distant hills
Weathered wooden sign for Capel Odda Dyde Farm obscured by wild overgrowth on narrow country path
The Granary Café storefront with painted signage, wooden doors, climbing ivy and seating outside
Second-hand bookshop window display with white duck figurine and stacked books behind metal grille
Dense bookshelves in narrow interior showing rows of tightly packed second-hand volumes
Stone archway entrance to Honesty Bookshop with bunting strung above and dark passage within
Decorative wall shrine with ornate wooden frame and wild flowers growing in front
Outdoor book market with rows of volumes stacked in metal bins along paved street
Dark doorway with ornate pilaster framing against stone wall with creeping ivy above
Convex mirror reflecting interior of second-hand bookshop surrounded by decorative shells
Vespa scooter parked on sidewalk beside bookshop window with pumpkins displayed
Stone farm building nestled in dense woodland with weathered slate roof and dark entrance
Rural gate beside telephone box on tree-lined country road with fields beyond
Stone ruins of abbey with dramatic Gothic arch and colonnade overlooking forested valley
Ribbed vaulting and clustered columns of ruined abbey cloister with hills visible through openings
Stone arch ruin with dramatic Gothic ribbed vault opening toward distant mountainous landscape