Inside the Workshop: The Spring Beside Castello de Haye

When I began making soap in 2010, I was told that natural spring water was the best thing to use in a traditional bar. I found mine in Hay-on-Wye, at Swan's Well. It's just before the ravine, with St Mary's Church on one side and the Motte & Bailey on the other. The water comes down from Llanigon hill, in the foothills of the Black Mountains, and I've collected it ever since.

I didn't know then how much history was running alongside it.

A place of wells

The Normans built the motte and bailey on one mound and the church on the mound beside it, in the late 11th century. The church was endowed in 1115. Around it lay three wells, the Walk Well, the Eye Well and St Mary's Well, with the Swan Well close by.

Local writers have recorded what each was known for. In 1907, C. G. Portman noted that water for baptisms was once brought from St Mary's Well, which sits just beyond a low wall from the churchyard. Tradition says that when the tower was being built and caught fire, a shoot of water rose from the well and put it out. J. W. Babb, writing in 2011, notes that the Swan Well was said to be good for sprains, and that water from the Eye Well was used to ease tired eyes. Portman adds that the Walk Well was visited in the early morning for bathing the eyes.

These are traditions, and I can only pass them on as such. But they show how long people have valued this ground and the water that comes from it. Portman also mentions St Eigion's Well at nearby Llanigon, so the parish where my water rises has its own well tradition too.

A name from the same hillside

Reading G. L. Fairs' A History of the Hay, I learned that this motte may be the site of the first Norman castle. It appears in a royal charter of 1121 as Castello de haia taillata, among the lands that came with Sibyl de Neufmarché when she was given in marriage to Miles of Gloucester. The charter's editor notes that "haia taillata" gives us the origin of Hay, from the French haie taillée, a cut hedge. It's also where Castello de Haye comes from. I first spelled it Haia, and changed it when it turned out nobody could say it.

Back to the workshop

The spring water goes into every batch I make in the workshop. Everything is natural, scented with pure plant essences and essential oils, and made in small batches with the seasons in mind. I began by gathering nettles from St Mary's churchyard, beside the well, and that sense of place is still part of how I work. There is no palm oil, no harsh foaming agents, and nothing is tested on animals.

As J. W. Babb writes, the past continues to live in the present. For me it does, each time I fill a bottle at the spring.