Inn Sign of the Blue Boar at Hay-on-Wye 2001 [Photograph taken by the author on July 23rd, 2001]

Inn Sign of the Blue Boar at Hay-on-Wye 2001

I took this photograph in July 2001 at Hay-on-Wye in Breconshire, though now within the county of Powys. The Blue Boar was a prevalent inn sign during former times, a heraldic reference to the Earl of Oxford. The number of signs increased after the Battle of Bosworth in 1485, a campaign in which John de Vere, 13th Earl of Oxford, was a principal commander of the victorious army of King Henry VII. The White Boar was a symbol of the vanquished King Richard III and, according to legend, most inn signs bearing a white boar were painted blue, a badge associated with John de Vere, Earl of Oxford.

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