Saturday May 2nd Coffee Morning and Talk: Monkton: Hidden History

Our Saturday Coffee Morning and Talk marked the end of our current programme — we now take our usual summer break, returning in October. Our volunteers, however, continue their invaluable work at Pembroke Museum, located on the first floor of Pembroke Town Hall and open weekdays 10–3 (10–1 on Fridays). Saturday’s talk was given by Society Chairman, Linda Asman, who spoke on Monkton: Hidden History. Since the Society’s formation in 2010, an enormous amount of research has been devoted to uncovering Monkton’s past. Our very first publication was the leaflet Monkton: A Sense of Place, followed by the ambitious HLF﷓funded Through My Eyes: A Community History of Pembroke and Monkton — a book and DVD of digital stories created from the memories of 45 contributors. More recently we published Monkton: Hidden History, a major work that proved so popular it is now out of print. Unfortunately, current printing costs make a reprint impossible, but the full book is available to read online at www.pembrokeandmonktonhistory.org.uk. Monkton has a rich and varied history, and we are proud that our Society has been able to record, preserve, and share so much of it for future generations

Quiz Night - Friday April 24th

All eyes down and spirits high at tonight’s Pembroke & Monkton Local History Society quiz night. Great fun, lots of laughter, and a delicious buffet to keep us going. What a lovely evening with even lovelier people.Thanks to June Wilcocks and Mary Willington for organising it, to all who contributed to the buffet and, of course, to Rose Blackburn for reading out the questions!

Saturday May 2nd - Coffee Morning and Talk

Our next Coffee Morning and Talk will take place on Saturday, May 2nd in Pembroke Town Hall. There has been a change to the original programme: the advertised speaker has withdrawn, but Society Chairman Linda Asman will step in with a talk that is especially relevant to the group —‘Monkton: A Hidden History’. Linda was invited to give a similar talk to the Pembrokeshire History Society last October, following strong interest in the book she co-authored with Keith Johnson and many members of the old Monkton community who contributed their memories. The Society was originally based in Monkton Church Hall, and its very first public meeting was a walk through Monkton led by the late Pauline Waters. That event sparked the sharing of memories and photographs and the beginnings of a local archive. The Society’s very first publication was ‘Monkton: A Sense of Place’, a leaflet written by Linda, illustrated by George Lewis and funded by Planed. Continued research eventually led to the publication of 'Monkton: Hidden History' that proved so popular it is now out of print — though available to read online on the Soceity's website.

Quiz Night on Friday April 24th

April 11th - Coffee Morning and Talk

Saturday was really cold - hailstones and all! Nevertheless many brave souls ventured out to our coffee morning and talk in Pembroke Town Hall which was, I must add, lovely and warm. Our speaker this time was Rose Blackburn who is President of our Society and is well know in Pembroke as Town Crier, a role she has performed for many years - although she will be passing the bell over to Mayor Gareth Jones in May when his term as Mayor will end. He came along to the event and can be pictured here with Rose at the end of her talk 'Romancing the Stones - stories behind personal adornment through the ages'. Rose is a lady of many parts and it was a surprise to many to discover that she is a qualified gemmologist - as well as councillor, community worker etc (work for which she was awarded the BEM). She is also a miniaturist and her lovely displays can be seen in Pembroke Museum.

APRIL EVENTS

Saturday March 7th talk - the life and times of Tudor women

Saturday’s event was a great success. We were honoured to welcome the eminent Tudor historian and author, Melita Thomas. She received a great response - the Town Hall was full with over a hundred people attending. Dressed for the occasion in Tudor costume, Melita gave a most interesting talk on Tudor women, a topic I had requested as, with our latest statue project, we really want to celebrate women’s role in history, a role that is so much neglected. Following the talk, Melita was available for a book signing. Among the books she brought along with her, was her latest title ‘1000 Tudor People’. Three years in the making, it is a compendium of biographies of one thousand people who lived during the Tudor period 1485 to 1603: as well as individuals famous and infamous, it includes lesser-known people drawn from all sectors of society. The book is a great reference source for anyone interested in the Tudor era – academics and teachers as well as generalist history lovers. A copy was purchased for the museum library. Melita helped found the website www.tudortimes.co.uk and regularly writes content for the site. To find out more – visit the site! She also contributes articles to magazines such as BBC History Extra.