Supporting Macmillan

We in the Pembroke and Monkton Local History Society are always happy to support other voluntary groups in Pembroke and last Tuesday we were at the Town Hall with an exhibition supporting Macmillan Cancer Support’s World’s Biggest Coffee morning.  

Next Event - Saturday October 6th

Local History Fair on Saturday 22nd September

Our display at the Local History Fair



Saturday saw us participating at the Local History Fair held at Haverfordwest Library.  The Fair is an annual event in which Heritage groups from all over Pembrokeshire participate to display their work and generally network.  There was a theme and this year it was Pembrokeshire 1900 – 1920.  So we attempted to put together a display to illustrate some aspects of life at the beginning of the 20th Century - we actually found we had a great deal of material with many photographs.

September - we begin our Autumn Programme

Terry John and George Lewis hold up a picture of Titanic

We held our first coffee morning of the Autumn Programme on Saturday September 1st and were treated to a morning of old home movies introduced by Pauline Waters.  Home movies reveal so much more about the community and its personalities than still photographs, and are fascinating to watch.  One of the films, shot in the early 50s, belonged to Mary Dewhirst who gave us a commentary.

Then on Friday evening September 14th, we met at Monkton Priory Church Hall for a talk by Terry John.  Terry has helped us a great deal in our research: together we have worked on a series of interpretation boards outlining Pembroke’s history. An interesting and popular speaker, he is very much in demand and his subject on Friday was ‘Titanic- fact and fiction’.  The Titanic continues to fascinate. Despite the passage of time, interest has not waned and has given rise to numerous books and films.  This is probably why so many stories have grown about her, and Terry, in his talk, attempted to unravel fact from fiction, examining conflicting claims, misconceptions and stories of survivors.

We win HLF Funding for our Community History

Our Project Team



We have now won HLF approval for our Project "Through MY Eyes: a Community History of Pembroke and Monkton. This ambitious project is described on our website and involves making a DVD of digital stories made by around 40 Pembroke people with an accompanying book. We envisage this taking 12 months and aim to complete by next September. Thank you so much Heritage Lottery for making this possible.

Looking Back on summer events



Our display in Stackpole Church

 Haven't been blogging much of late - time has marched on and have been trying to keep up!  This summer has been a busy time for us in the Pembroke and Monkton Local History Society:  we have been supporting many local organisations with our exhibitions – these include the Castle, St Mary’s Church (did you see their beautiful Flower Festival? It was lovely!), the River Rally, the Spitfire Shop, the Pembroke Show, and local history exhibitions of the Lamphey and District History Society and Stackpole Church.   We are always pleased to support other community groups – but I think we will have to try to acquire some more display boards!