March Events

We have three events this month:

Friday March 1^st 7.30pm at Monkton Church Hall: Dewi Sant evening to celebrate St David’s Day.  Supper of Welsh fare (bring a bottle if you wish) and there will be entertainment as well.  Tickets £3.50

Followed by

Saturday March 2^nd 10.30am Coffee Morning with exhibition and old film show. Free event.

All proceeds of these two events will go to Monkton Priory Church – please give your support to help keep the doors open of this wonderful, ancient Church.

Friday March 15th 7.30pm Quiz Night with buffet, £3.50

February 15th - our AGM and Talk by Simon Hancock

On Friday 15^th February, we held our 3^rd AGM at Monkton Priory Church Hall.   Besides electing the Officers and Committee, the AGM is an opportunity to report on the years successes and I am glad to report that we have some new people voted on board – anyone wishing to join us is very welcome.  Take a look at our website to see the range of work we are engaged in. Also agreed by the AGM was the introduction of a membership of £3 per year for those who wish to join.

Having got the boring bits over with, we were pleased to introduce Simon Hancock who came to talk to us about “the last man hanged in Pembrokeshire”.  The tale of William Roblin hanged in Haverfordwest  is fairly well known but Simon told us about an astonishing discovery made about two years ago, when he came upon an eyewitness account buried in old newspapers. This gave a rather different take on the story.  Roblin’s end came on 24^th April 1821, executed by the High Sheriff of Pembrokeshire, Joseph Harris.  Apparently there were 18 applicants for the post of executioner, but the identity of the man who did the deed was never made known.  His body was anatomised and dissected then buried within the prison grounds without Christian ceremony. But even then, he was not allowed to rest in peace.  His body was dug up and the skeleton sold.  After passing through several hands, most of it was lost – except the skull.  And that, dear readers, now lies in a box in Pembroke Castle.  How it got there remains a mystery.

Haggar's Night at Llangwm Community Hall

On February 11th Llangwm History Society invited us to a Haggar's Night - Vicki Haggar addressed a large audience, the hall was packed out!  It was an enjoyable evening and the films were accompanied by the piano - it all went brilliantly.  Above, Vicki is pictured with Jeff James and Chairman Liz.

Dyfed Archaeology WW1 Project Febraury 9th

Society members Stuart Asman, Vicki Haggar, Mary Dewhirst 

with Alice Pyper and Ed Davies (Centre) of Dyfed Archaeology

Last Saturday, 9^th February, Dyfed Archaeological Trust along with Planed held an open meeting at the Picton Centre, Haverfordwest to discuss the Great War in Pembrokeshire and to launch an appeal for information: WW1 and its aftermath have been little studied in Pembrokeshire. There was much interest and a large number turned up for the event.

 Dyfed Archaeological Trust’s Project

Ed Davies of Dyfed Archaeology opened proceedings.   He stated that CADW has funded a scoping project to assess the impact of the war in this region. It is an attempt to find out what remains are still visible, the location of the camps, the impact on our agriculture and industry.  Dyfed Archaeology is looking at the physical remains while the NLW is collecting documentary evidence.  Planed is coordinating events.

This is a project that we in the Pembroke &Monkton Local History Society are becoming involved in, hoping that if any of you can supply information you will get in touch with us.  I am hoping too that Dyfed Archaeology will stage an event here in Pembroke which will give you the opportunity to discover more and contribute. 

Coffee Morning and Exhibition February 2nd

The subject of our exhibition at Saturday’s Local History coffee morning was ‘Pembrokeshire’s contribution to early aviation history’. We usually make up an exhibition on different themes to accompany the coffee mornings (which are held on the first Saturday morning of the month at Monkton Priory Church Hall) and this involves a fair bit of work.  So, for a change, we borrowed an exhibition from the Pembrokeshire Museum’s Service. 

 From Pembrokeshire to Ireland

Did you know that the first successful flight across St George’s Channel to Ireland took off from Goodwick?  Well, this exhibition tells the story of that remarkable flight one hundred years ago when Denys Corbett Wilson flew his Blériot aircraft from Goodwick to Crane, near Enniscorthy, a journey of 65 miles which took one hour and forty minutes.  

Talking to Pembroke Dock Civic Society

On Wednesday January 30th we were invited to talk to the Pembroke Dock Civic Society at the Pater Hall. Stuart and I gave a presentation about our project 'Through My Eyes: a community history of Pembroke and Monkton" which seemed to go down well and create much interest.  Well, ... they've asked us if we can come back to talk to them later in the year.