Sunday 10th August PEMBROKE - MY
ANCESTRAL VILLAGES - TENBY
Another busy, delightful day here in Pembrokeshire. The
weather is turning warmer – it reached the dizzy heights of 21 degrees here
today, and I’m amazed at how hot that is. It’s possible we’re going to suffer
rather badly when we get back to Australia…let’s hope the cooler weather sticks
around for our sakes!
We had a nice lazy start to the day today, in our little flat. It’s called The Railway Inn, and the railway station is just across the road, so I’m assuming at some stage in the past that, yes, it was once an inn. By half past eight we were ready to head out. I had a list of my ancestral villages here in Pembrokeshire I wanted to revisit. All of them are really quite close together; people didn’t tend to move far away from home at all until the Industrial Revolution upended everything.
Our first stop was the little town of Carew, where my 4X great
grandmother Martha Palmer was born and married. It also has the very impressive
Carew Castle, built by one of the Normans in the early 1100s on the site of an
earlier Iron-Age fort after marrying a Welsh princess. Future owners improved
the site, but it was slighted, like so many others, after the Civil War. The
village grew up around the castle from the 1200s. Later owners also added a
huge tidal mill, which has now been restored. Carew is also the home of the
Carew Cross, which is 4 metres high and dates back to about 1035. It’s a
memorial to a fallen Welsh king.
Next, we headed to the Cresselly estate area to find a house called Norton, where Martha (now the widowed Martha Griffiths) spent the last decade or so of her life. Her husband had been a tailor, who I’m assuming had worked for the Allen family of Cresselly, and Martha was given a home by them in her old age after his death. Confusingly, the old map of the area I have gives both Norton and Norton Cottage. Google maps takes you to Norton; however the one named Norton Cottage on the map has a nameplate saying ‘The Norton’. After looking at the 1841 census again, I’m pretty sure that’s the house. We also had a peek at Cresselly House, where the Allen family still live.
This is Norton, the 'grace and favour' house where
Martha Griffiths lived out her days.
From here we drove down to Cresswell Quay, where (of course) there’s a pub by the lake – it’s a beautiful spot.
Then we drove to the pretty little town of Jeffreyston, where Martha and her husband John spent most of their married life, and her daughter Mary, my 3 X great grandmother, was born. The town is on a hill, and the church of St Oswald is right on the highest point. Professor Alice Roberts reckons it’s on the site of a prehistoric fort, and she’s probably right, when you look at the unusual round shape of the church yard. Leaving Jeffreyston, the navigator took us down the narrowest country lane we’ve been down yet. It was so narrow that the brambles/vines on BOTH SIDES of the lane were touching the car! Thankfully we didn’t meet any oncoming traffic.
With all my family history needs met, we paused only to photograph the cross at Carew (which we’d somehow missed on the way through) and headed for Tenby, on the seaside.
We visited Tenby in 2014 and adored it; today once more it
was lovely with the sunshine sparkling on the water. It’s obviously one of
those magical places where the sun always shines! But first, however, we had to
get parking….the dreaded parking curse struck again, as Lex and many frustrated
others tried for 15 minutes or more to somehow pay for it: coins wouldn’t work,
cards wouldn’t work etc. I was reading the council’s blurb on parking online to
see if it offered any help, but it was just a long lie about how stress-free
and wonderful their new parking machines were. This incensed me so much that I
got on and gave them a one-star review and left some pity comments.
Anyway, he finally managed to pay online, so we set out for the walled city area next to the beach, about a 15-minute walk. Up the hill. Tenby is all hills! Being Sunday, it was of course madly popular, and the crowds were building at the shops. But it was lovely wandering around the town, and we found a Welsh souvenir shop where we just had to buy a few things. Then we had morning tea in a nice little café – by the time we came out, there was a line up out in front with a queue to go in. We headed for the steps down to the beach as it was low tide – there are many staircases, including a LOT of private ones, and all are made of stone.
We walked around the point feeling rather overdressed in our jeans and joggers as the Welsh frolicked on the beach! We climbed the stairs at the end of the next beach to the rotunda at the top, then around the cliff walk to see the bay where the harbour is. The views are glorious; Tenby is such a pretty town. Coming back, we climbed the hill to admire the statue of Good Prince Albert, and enjoyed even more stunning views. Then we realised that our parking time was nearly up, so we headed back and retraced our steps through the city walls and down to the car park.
From there, we came back home to Pembroke, calling in at a Morrison’s on the way to grab some bread and milk, then home to make some sandwiches for lunch, have a bit of a rest and decide what we were going to do this afternoon. I took the opportunity to change into cooler clothes, which was such a nice change to jeans and joggers! Lex dropped me off near the castle, then headed down to Neyland at Milford Haven and had a most enjoyable walk on the trail there.
I walked around the castle and enjoyed the views; I didn’t go in, as we’d visited it already in 2014. Pembroke Castle was first built in 1093 by one of the Norman lords, but its main claim to fame is that it was the birthplace of Henry VII in 1457. I also visited St Mary’s church, opposite the castle, where my 3 X great grandparents were married in 1823. It was locked last time, but today I was able to go in and see the church’s interior, which was lovely. Then I walked back to our flat via the Millpond Walk and communed with the swans! When I got back, I sorted photos, had a very refreshing nap on the sofa, and washed my hair, so a nice bit of down time.
Lex arrived back around 5, had some afternoon tea and a bit of a rest before heading out for a walk up to town as well. I do love Pembroke, it’s such a historical town in general, and for my family history especially.
Tomorrow, we say goodbye to Wales, sadly, and are off across
the Severn to Bristol.
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