Royal Visits and memories - our May exbition

Pembrokeshire Pubs - a Talk by Keith Johnson

Keith gave us a fascinating talk on Pembrokeshire Pubs. His talk explored the history and social background of the public house and how it has evolved and changed through centuries. Keith, who was born in a Pembrokeshire Pub - the Carew Inn - has written a series of books on the subject but unfortunately the volume covering Pembroke, Pembroke Dock, Tenby and South Pembrokeshire is currently out of print.

We launch our Monkton Heritage Leaflet

A really good crowd assembled for the launch of our Monkton Heritage Leaflet. We were pleased to welcome guests Kate Lindley of Planed, who arranged for the production of the leaflet, and George Lewis, who illustrated it. Chairman gave a short, illustrated talk about what we as a Society are hoping to accomplish and work in progress. The leaflet is a good beginning to our publishing ambitions.

The exhibition covered the history of Monkton as well as photographs of its more recent past which have been collected since the commencement of the Monkton History Project just one year ago - see March 2010 entry. It was a busy morning but hugely enjoyable.

Visit to St Brides

Along with Pembroke Civic Trust, on Saturday 19th a visit was arranged to view the St Bride’s Haven archaeological excavation. Mike Ings of Dyfed Archaeology met the group for a tour of the site where once stood a chapel long gone, swept away by the sea. Burials can still be seen eroding from the low cliffs and Mike stressed the importance of recording the surviving remains before they too are worn away. He also took us on a walk along the Coast Path to Nabs Head (where many flint tools have been discovered) and to Tower Point where there is an extremely well preserved promontory fort dating back to 700 BC. Not only was this a very interesting visit, but the lovely sunny day and beautiful setting combined to make it one to remember! Many of the group expressed a wish to revisit the dig at a later date to view its progress.

Next Event - April 2nd Monkton Heritage Leaflet Launch

Working with PLANED we have now completed work on our Monkton 'Sense of Place' leaflet and we will be launching it at our April 2nd meeting at Monkton Priory Church Hall. We will be putting together an exhibition on Monkton history and there will be a short presentation at 11am. Many thanks to George Lewis for supplying the illustrations (the originals will be included in the exhibition) and to Kate Lindley of PLANED for producing it.

The leaflets will be free and available on the morning.

Saturday March 19th - visit to St Brides

I have arranged for us to visit the Archaeological Excavation at St Bride's Haven next Saturday (19th March). The Dyfed Archaeological Trust are undertaking an archaeologial excavation here from March 14th following on from a small investigation at the site in 2009. Then they found evidence of a stone building , likely to have been associated with the fishing or lime-burning industries. They also found a ditch, and several early medieval burials. The early mediaeval cemetery is eroding from the cliffs in the bay. This year Caw, PCNP and PLANED are funding a four week excavation.

Duncal Schlee of Dyfed Archaeology will be showing us around the site and explaining how and why they are excavating and what they have discovered.

Interested? If so we meet at St Bride's Chapel at 2pm but please let me know if you are coming so that I have an idea of numbers. And please share lifts as space is limited.

Phone Linda on 01646 622428.

Welsh Day - March 5th

Welsh Day proved very popular with David and Pat Rye giving a fascinating talk on the Welsh Costume. Pat went through several changes of costume (looking immaculate thoughout) while David explained all in great detail. It was all hugely enjoyable.

52 people visited over the course of the morning and were able to enjoy also an exhibition of Welsh costume and prints. Thankyou to David and Pat Rye, who brought along their own collection, Judy and John StJohn Stimpson and Mark Thomas of PCC Museum's Service (Scolton Manor) for the prints and costume exhibits.

Our hospitality this time extended to lunch - leek and potato soup made by Pauline went down well as did the Welsh cakes and bara brith. Thankyou to everyone who contributed.