Over one hundred people attended our Tudor Morning in Pembroke Town Hall. Opened by Pembroke Mayor Cllr Dennis Evans, proceedings began with an update of the Henry VII Statue by Society Chairman Linda Asman who said she was delighted with the overwhelming community support for the project. So much is being achieved to promote our heritage with Town Council and History Society working together and thanks were extended to the Mayor and Councillors for their support.
It was an eventful morning with two excellent speakers. First, Rev. Luke Holden spoke about herbs and healing in Tudor times. Luke, who lives in Llanelli, has a background in Ancient and Medieval History, Art History and Archaeology. As well as being a Greek Orthodox Priest, he has enjoyed a varied career which included teaching and running a farm small holding from which grew his interest in plants. Luke regularly takes part in Tudor re-enactments assuming the character of Welsh Tudor Herbalist Luke ap Pagrig.
Second guest speaker was Tudor author Tony Riches, who took part in the Henry VII Statue consultation last October and subsequently became involved in the Statue Committee. The first book of his Tudor Trilogy, OWEN, explored the life of Owen Tudor, grandfather of Henry from whom the Tudor dynasty descended. It topped the Amazon historical fiction charts in the UK and US – and reached number one in Australia. Since then JASPER has also become an international best-seller and Tony is now writing the final book, HENRY. Tony kindly denoted a copy of OWEN to the Raffle.
Between speakers, the audience were able to sample some Tudor baking as the committee had been studying appropriate recipes to go with the theme. The event was free at entry but funds were raised on sales of coffee and raffle - in all £226 was raised and this will be given to the Henry VII Statue appeal.
