A LEGEND in her own lifetime Hay-on-Wye’s celebrated landlady, the late Lucy Powell, whose pub was considered a “time warp”, will never be forgotten.

Friends from the town and from all around the world have paid homage to the memory of 96-year-old Lucy who died earlier this year. The former proprietor of the 400-year-old Three Tuns inn, where she once served drinks to the Great Train Robbers, her name will forever remain above the door as a lasting tribute from the town she loved.

A family-run business for 85 years, the Three Tuns was badly damaged by fire in 2005. Lucy retired to her house in town, taking with her salvaged pieces of scorched furniture, and new owners undertook major restoration work on the old premises before it reopened.

“She will never be forgotten, she was a legend in her own lifetime,” says regular customer at Lucy’s bar, Haydn Pugh. “After all, how many people are turned into a living saint?”

Haydn, who runs the Haystacks’ vinyl record shop in Hay’s Backfold Lane, refers to an annual event customers used to hold to celebrate St Lucy’s Day on December 13. “The Santa Lucia Festival coincided with the Christmas lights going on,” he explains. “Everyone dressed up, including Lucy who would wear a long white dress with a red sash and a battery-operated crown with lights. Some thought we were a weird cult.”

He continued: “The pub was a bit of a time warp, it was very special.”

Self-proclaimed King of Hay, Richard Booth also remembered her as a dear friend and a “very tolerant” innkeeper, and famous faces such as Jools Holland and Marianne Faithfull patronised her pub. When Bruce Chatwin’s celebrated book, On the Black Hill was made into a film, one scene featuring actor Bob Peck was filmed in Lucy’s bar.

But it was in 1963 when Lucy was serving in her parlour bar – where strong liquor was discreetly hidden behind a little curtain – when a group of men walked in. One produced a huge wad of notes to pay for drinks, and Lucy’s suspicions were confirmed. She recognized the Great Train Robbers’ ringleader, Bruce Reynolds who was among five hiding out near Hay after the gang’s spectacular £2.6 million Glasgow to London mail train heist.

Lucy calmly stepped out into the street. “They had parked their large shooting brake outside, so I went out to see if the policeman was about,” she later recalled. Seeing there was no help to summon, she wisely decided not to tackle the men herself. A few days later, one of them was spotted coming out of a barber’s shop in Hay and the gang fled, though arrests were made in Abergavenny some days later.

“She really was a legend in her own lifetime,” said Haydn. “We all thought a lot of her, even though we knew it was really the Last Chance Saloon.”