Montgomery will be welcoming dozens of town criers from across the UK and beyond as it hosts a national town crier championship.

Coming to Wales for the first time, the Ancient & Honourable Guild of Town Criers (AHGTC) Guild Championships will see 40 of the UK’s best town criers arriving in the Powys town on Saturday, September 14, to be judged on their skills and performance of the historic craft.

The elaborately dressed public speakers are part of a tradition that dates back to the 18th century, making official proclamations in the streets and accompanied by their iconic hand bells.

Montgomery’s town crier of 22 years, Susan Blower, has helped organise the town’s championship hosting duties.

She said: “It’s a very prestigious, very unique kind of event coming to Montgomery, which has a long and storied tradition of town criers so is the perfect venue to host it. It should be really remarkable.

MORE NEWS:

“I was selected to run it as Montgomery’s town crier. I was approached by the town council to run it in conjunction with them after we were chosen by the championship’s board of trustees.

“We’ve got some incredibly gifted criers visiting Montgomery for these championships, from across the country and beyond.

“One of them will be Daniel Richer, a full-time bilingual town crier who is travelling all the way from Canada. A member of the First Nations Abenaki tribe and an experienced storyteller, he’ll also be visiting some local schools during his week-long stay in the town.”

The competition will see the criers making two proclamations during the day, the first being their home cry, followed by a cry of 125 words related to a specific topic chosen by Ms Blower. She picked Montgomery-born poet George Herbert.

She added: “One of our judges is actually a descendant of George Herbert so it’ll be especially meaningful to see what our criers come up with.

“In the evening, we will have a big civic reception for our criers, along with the town’s mayor and any of our sponsors. We are still accepting sponsorships from any local businesses as well. We’ve also booked Newtown’s Male Voice Choir as entertainment.

“The idea of a competition like this is to give people an opportunity to show their skills and showcase the craft itself. Historically, the role of a town crier goes back to the days when most people could not read or write, so the criers served as the main way people received news.

“Today most town criers are volunteers, helping to maintain the heritage of their areas.”