PEMBROKE RIVER RALLY - JULY 19th

Congratulations Pembroke Town Council and West Wales Maritime Heritage Society on another successful River Rally. The River Rally is a reminder of our once great maritime past when the Pembroke River was of vital importance to Pembroke. Pembroke’s medieval charters granted it a monopoly of sea trade in Milford Haven, which brought great prosperity. Whilst Pembroke’s importance as a port declined, the sea remained a main highway until well into the 20th century when the last of the coastal traders, the Kathleen & May, made her last trip up the Pembroke River to the North Quay in 1960. Now, unfortunately, boats are a rare sight sailing into Pembroke: a barrage effectively blocks the way, but can be opened by arrangement. For the River Rally it is lowered to allow boats to enter Castle Pond and, in so doing, maintain the right of navigation up the Pembroke River on behalf of the people of Pembroke. Despite the South Quay presently being the scene of great building works, the event took place on Pembroke Mill Bridge, site of the Henry VII statue and here the Mayor, Cllr Gareth Jones read the traditional proclamation declaring Pembroke’s right of navigation. Here also Pembroke Town Council organised stalls, activities and music on the Quayside for all the family – a great day out!

Saturday May 3rd Coffee Morning and Talk

Saturday's event was very well attended as you can see from the photographs! Our popular speaker was Andy Jones who gave us a most entertaining and interesting talk about ‘St Catherine's Island, Tenby: its History, Restoration and Future’. Andi, who is the Island Coordinator, gave a brief history of the Island and Fort covering news on its restoration, present uses, volunteers and future plans as a visitor attraction and venue. Please note, this is the last talk in our current programme: we will launch a new programme of talks on October 4th ie the first Saturday of the month. Also - Good news! The Town Hall building works are now complete and we were able to open up the Museum to visitors during the coffee morning. From now on it will be open weekdays 10am - 3pm, Fridays 10am to 1pm.

Next Event - Saturday May 3rd

Quiz Night April 25th

Friday's Quiz Night was again well attended with 10 tables filled. Our Quiz Nights are fun occasions with a buffet at half time and lots to eat! Quiz Master was Rose Blackburn and the worthy winners were Prue Pattison, Meg Burrell, Diana Turberville, Glynis Atherton and Margaret Howells.

Quiz Night on Friday April 25th

Saturday April 3rd - Your Family Tree

On Saturday we welcomed Colin Potter of the Dyfed Family History Society as our speaker of the month. It was a most interesting talk giving tips on how to go about researching your family tree with examples based on his own family history research in Pembrokeshire. As usual we began the morning with a Coffee Morning but, again, we were unable to open up the museum because of ongoing building works. We do hope that normal service will be resumed in time for our next talk on May 3rd, when Andi Jones will talk to us about St Catherine's Island, Tenby: its History, Restoration and Future. I will post when the museum will open again - hopefully after Easter. In the photograph: Colin & Cate Potter with History Society Trustees Ron Rees, Linda Asman and Roy Smith

April Events

St David's Day in Pembroke Town Hall

Our St David's Day celebration was very well supported. We were not able to open up the Museum as usual as the Town Hall is undergoing repair works. Instead, for entertainment, we showed a silent movie from the Museum's Haggar collection - the Maid of Cefn Ydfa, based on a Welsh tale of tragic love. This was followed by a talk by Society Chairman, Linda Asman, on the Welsh Princes and the Evolution of Wales and the day ended with our national anthem 'Mae Hen Wlad Fy nhadau. It was a rousing finish to an enjoyable morning. We have also assembled a St David's display in the window next to Brown's Cafe in Main Street with artefacts from Pembroke Museum's Welsh Collection.

St David's Day event

Pembroke & Monkton Local History Society will be celebrating St David’s Day with a Welsh themed coffee morning and talk on Saturday March 1st. The title of the talk, by Society Chairman Linda Asman, is ‘The Welsh Princes and the Evolution of Wales’. We will be taken back to a time when Wales as a geographical expression did not exist: the Iron Age tribes of Britain shared the same laws and customs and spoke a common language. Tribal groupings survived the Roman occupation, emerging as independent kingdoms led by native rulers following the fall of Rome. Despite invasions from Europe in the East and Ireland from the west, the rulers of this part of Britain we now call Wales held firm, although divided into several kingdoms. Powerful leaders emerged who sought to extend their rule over the entire country until Edward I finally defeated Llewellyn ap Gruffudd, Llewellyn the Last, bringing an end to the line of the truly independent Princes of Wales. This was not the end of the story, however. Hope never died and, despite conquest and oppression, Wales always retained its strong, national identity.

Saturday February 1st

Saturday’s meeting proved very popular. As usual the morning began with a Coffee Morning and an opportunity to look at the museum. Then we all assembled in the main hall to listen to this month’s Talk, which drew a large audience. Our speaker was Maggie Goodall and she is Volunteer Coordinator of the Friends of Friendless Churches, an organisation dedicated to the work of saving redundant (closed) historic places of worship in England and Wales from demolition, decay and unsympathetic conversion. Maggie introduced us to the work of the Friends of Friendless Churches, which cares for more than 60 buildings of architectural and historic importance across Wales and England. Examples of restoration work were shown and a look at Pembrokeshire churches which the Friends care for including nearby Castlemartin, Rhoscrowther and St Lawrence’s Gumfreston, which is currently under restoration. Our next meeting is on Saturday March 1st when we will be celebrating St David’s Day with a Talk on ‘the Welsh Princes and the Evolution of Wales’.

Pembroke Museum awarded full accreditation!

We've done it! Pembroke Museum has been awarded full accreditation status by the Welsh Government and we now have the certificate to prove it! To qualify for the award,we had to meet national standards on our organisation, on the services we offer and how we manage our collections. A decade ago we started the museum from scratch, just a local history exhibition of display boards of photographs and stories. But we soon began to attract artefacts and the museum grew and grew. We have been blessed with generous donations from the community with which we have been able to develop some very interesting and important collections relevant to the history of our town. It is to the credit of our dedicated volunteers that we have now met nationally agreed standards for UK museums and that we are recognised at the same level as Wales’ larger and professionally staffed museums. It's meant a great deal of work but well worth it! In the photograph Museum volunteers (left to right) Ron Rees, Stuart Asman, Mary Busby, Linda Asman, George Palmer, Rose Blackburn, Roy Smith.

OUR NEXT TALK -

Quiz Night January 17th

Good to see so many brave the cold January night to come to our Quiz Night and buffet in Pembroke Town Hall. An enjoyable evening with lots of lovely food as usual! 😊

It was good to see so many people turn out for our first meeting of 2025 on Saturday - a very cold, January morning but nice and warm in the Town Hall!! Chairman of Pembroke & Monkton Local History Society, Linda Asman, welcomed all present and spoke about the Society's aims and projects for the forthcoming year. The talk for the morning was 'Sir Rhys ap Thomas and the Great Tournament'. Following a short presentation about Sir Rhys - the man who is accredited with the killing of Richard III - a film was shown of the 2007 re-enactment of that great event which was made by John and Maxine Rolls of Video Magic. It was a major undertaking for a small community but the people of Carew were concerned that the National Park, which runs Carew Castle, had no real plans in place to mark the 500th anniversary of the Great Tournament of 1507 - the last great tournament to be held in Britain and a hugely important event in the history of the village. So a meeting was held in the village hall and the community took on responsibility for organising a full scale re-enactment of the tournament. It was a huge event taking place over three days of the early May bank holiday, involving re-enactment companies, professional jousting teams and medieval musicians from all over the country. And it also involved local performers, including La Volta and Pembroke's own East End Flyover Company. The local school got involved, Carew WI made costumes, the Pony Club took part, there was a special church service - it was a real community effort. The first day featured a re-enactment of the cavalcade from Carew Castle to Lamphey Palace for a blessing from the Bishop of St Davids. Then there were two days of jousting and other activities in a field overlooking Carew Castle, attended by thousands of people.

Quiz NIght on Friday!