Small bay near St Davids. The purple sandstone used in the construction of St David's Cathedral was obtained from the quarry here.
Caldey Island is famous for the Monastery and Monks who have lived there. However, the history of human occupation on the island goes back much further. Flints, blades and penknife points have been found in caves on Caldey Island, indicating that humans occupied the area 12,000 years ago. However, at that time the sea level was lower, so the coastline would have been further out and Caldey Island would have been a hill in the Bristol Channel plain. The island was also occupied during later periods, and Stone Age bones have been analysed to investigate what people were eating. The Mesolithic bones suggest a very high sea diet - up to 70% of the diet - but by the Neolithic, they were not eating fish. This provides strong evidence that the transition from hunting and gathering to farming happened quickly - possibly within a hundred years. However, it is not clear whether farming was brought in by people from other parts of Britain and the continent or whether it was adopted in the Neolithic age by local people.
Island is the natural breakwater for Tenby harbour - about 450 acres consist of highly productive land and there are about 100acres of foreshore.
Has been called the Island of Saints. As early as the 6c, if not before, it was the site of a monastery reputed to be an offshoot of the famous one at Llantwit Major - Archbishop Dubricius,(a descendant of the Roman Emperor Maximus[383-8] was said to spend Lent on the island and on the death of Abbot Piro or Pyr (the first Abbot) in 521AD he appointed a monk named Samson as the new Abbot. For a time St David, St Dyfrig, Gildas, Maglorius, Paul de Leor and Illtyd dwelt upon the island.
From the 12 to the 15c it belonged to the Benedictines of the congregation of Tiron
. Upon the dissolution of the Monasteries in the reign of Henry VIII it passed into secular hands. In 1906 it became the property of an Anglican Benedictine community which was received into the Church of Rome in 1912 and in 1928 it was sold to the monks of the Cistercian Order from Chimay, Belgium. The Monastery (the Abbey of St Samson) is the principal building on the Island. The village church is a small and very plain building possibly of Celtic Foundation The old Monastic buildings (St Illtyds Priory) date from the 13c. An interesting relic is an Ogham stone containing two inscriptions and dating from the 6th or 8th century. Viking name of Caldy meaning cold island. Old name Ynys Pyr (the island of Pyr) probably from the first abbot.It is 2 1/2 miles south of Tenby and is one and a half miles long by two thirds of a mile wide 500 acres approx and is one of the few places in the UK where the Mediterranean snail Felix pisana can be found.
Abbey of St Samson - first Celtic monastery [6c]
1113 island given by Henry 1 to Martin de Tours, who gave it to his mother who handed the island over to the Benedictine abbey of St Dogmaels in 12c. Remained a priory of 12 monks until the Reformation. In 1500 the Priory had an income of under £100 or less than 6 religious.
When it was dissolved 1535 the land was granted by Henry VIII to John Bradshaw of Presteign whose family held it till 1612 after which it passed through many hands
In 1897 Rev. W Done Bushell, chaplain of Harrow school bought it. Restored Priory church and St Davids Church (parish church of the island built by the Benedictine monks 12c). East window in priory church is a memorial to his work.
1906 island sold to Benedictine Monks of the Church of England who did much building and restoration work.
1913 their Abbot and most of the monks went over to the Church of Rome.
They moved in 1928 to Prinknash Abbey and the island was sold to the Cistercians. The stain glass window of St Illtud in the south wall of the nave of the old priory church is by Dom Theodore Baily a Benedictine monk.
Interior of the Abbey was gutted by fire in 1940 and rebuilt ten years later, Coates Carter architect.
The church of St Illtyd claims to be the the oldest British Church now in Roman Catholic hands.
A memorial stone from 6 or 8c and has Latin and Ogham inscriptions crosses on its faces and in Ogham it says MAG---DUDR---INB; parts of the inscription are broken off. The latin Inscription is AT SINGNO CRUCIS IN ILLAM FINGSI ROGO OMNIBUS AMBULANTIBUS IBI EXORENT PRO ANIMAE CATUOCONI {AND BY THE SIGN OF THE CROSS WHICH I HAVE FASHIONED UPON THIS STONE I ASK ALL WHO WALK THERE THAT THEY PRAY FOR THE SOUL OF CATUONCONUS}.
It is feasable that the inscription refers to to the servant of Dubricius - meaning Piro - in about 750ad a cross and a latin inscription were added. The stone was discovered in the ruins of the priory in the 19c and then used to form the lintel for a window, later it was used for a garden seat.
St Dubricius (Dyfrig) set up the first monastery and Piro was appointed abbot. He is reputed to have enjoyed a drink or two and one night in about 520 AD he had one too many and on returning to his cell in a state of drunkeness he fell into the monastery well. When his fellow monks pulled him out they found he had drowned. In spite or may be because of this, he was still regarded as a saint. Samson was then appointed as Piro's successor. He tried in vain to curb the monks drinking habits. Finally, defeated, by problems of discipline he left Caldy and retired with some of the more temperate monks to Stackpole where they took over an abandoned camp - and Samson settled in a cave in the side of the headland.
The caves on the island were once inhabited in the Old Stone Age, one was Nanna's Cave. During quarrying many artefacts have been found including flint tools, animal remains and evidence of Middle Stone Age flint "factory". There is also a Bronze Age burial mound.
More recently,in 1780s John Paul Jones the American privateer is reputed to have repeatedly "watered" his frigate "Ranger" at Caldy Island.
St Margarets island only 2 acres in extent was broken off from Caldey by great storms about 1530; it has some remains of old buildings, probably monastic, which were converted into cottages for quarrymen during the last century.
A Topographical Dictionary of Wales.
CALDEY ISLAND, the principal of a cluster of insulated rocks in the bay of Tenby, and forming an extra-parochial district, in the hundred of Castlemartin, county of Pembroke, South Wales, 2 miles (E.) from the main land: the population is returned with the parish of Penalley. This island, of which the ancient British name is Ynys Pyr, is about one mile and a quarter in length, and half a mile in breadth, and comprises upwards of 600 acres of land, lying on a bed of limestone, something more than half being in a state of cultivation. Owen, speaking of the fertility of the spot, describes it as abounding with corn; but he adds that "all their ploughs goe with horses, for oxen the inhabitants dare not keepe, fearing the purveyors of the pirattes, as they themselves told me." There are some large limestone quarries. Robert, son of Martin de Tours, founded a priory here in the reign of Henry I., which he dedicated to St. Mary, and made a cell to the abbey of Dogmael, to which establishment the whole of the island was granted by his mother. Its revenue, at the Dissolution, was £5. 10. 11. The remains have been mostly converted into offices attached to a mansion erected on part of the site, now belonging to the proprietor of the island. Among them is the tower of the ancient conventual church, which is surmounted by a stone spire, and forms a conspicuous object of picturesque appearance, imparting, with the rest of the ruins, an interesting and romantic character to this sequestered spot. An ancient chapel, about a quarter of a mile from the priory, was repaired a few years ago, and service is performed in it when any clergyman crosses from the main land for the purpose. A lighthouse, with a steady light, has been erected on the island, which is of great service to vessels entering Tenby harbour, distant about three miles.
Acc/to South Pembrokeshire Place Names - P Valentine Harris.
1324 Kameros Welsh - cam rhos - crooked moor.
South Wales by Wade 1913.
A parish in Pembrokeshire 4 miles north west of Haverfordwest. The church preserves a piscina, a sanctus bellcote, an early font and a chalice of 1574.
Archbishop Baldwin & Giraldius Cambrensis passed through the place on their way to St Davids in 1188.
Church - St Ismael
Arch Camb 4th series No 8 p 214
There are remains of the staircase which led to the rood-loft in the north wall of the chancel. The Chancel arch is pointed without any moulding. Width of chancel 17ft 3in. Chancel arch width 13ft 5in. Nave width 20ft 10in.
RCAM Pembroke 1920 No 110.
The church was very thoroughly restored in the year 1883. It consists of Chancel, nave and west tower. The chancel arch is sharply pointed. In the north wall are the remains of the rood stairs and facing the nave on either side of the chancel are two plain corbels which supported the loft.
Acc/to The Old Parish Churches of South West Wales by Mike Salter (1994).
A scalloped Norman font lies in the long nave which has a rood-loft stair on the north side and a 15c south doorway. The chancel has a blocked 13c lancet, a 14c piscina, and a 15c south window. A 14c south chapel has been demolished and the single arches to the nave and chancel blocked up. The thin west tower is of uncertain date. The nave windows are of 1883.
There is a restored mill in the parish and the site of the motte and bailey castle was converted into a folly hill during the 18c.
Return to C Return to GazetteerRCAM 1925 - Church built 18c restored 1895.
Pembrokeshire Parsons - This living is now a perpetual curacy held in plurality with Llanfihangel Penbedw. It was formerly a chapelry, and so far as can be judged, was from 1394 to 1497 held with the chapel of Cilvowir, in the parish of Manordeifi; at all events the only references during that period to Capel Colman, or Llangolman, as it was then called, show that the custos or incumbent of the one chapel also held the other.
The Valor Eccl. makes no mention of this benefice, although it gives particulars of the chapel of Kileveweir. In 1594 Capel Colman was in the hands of the Queen, but about that period it seems to have been, at all events temporarily abandoned - Owen's Pem., Pt. 2, p. 297.
That the chapel was abandoned prior to 1721, so far as religious services were concerned, is plainly shown by the following extract: "here are some churches that are totally neglected, and that very rarely, if at all, have any service performed in them and which, if they are not converted into barns and stables, which is the case of many churches in England as well as Wales, do only serve for the solitary habitations of owles and jackdavrs; such are St. Daniels, Castelharn, Kilvawyr, Mounton, Capel Colman, and others in Pembrokeshire." View of State of Religion in the Diocese of St. Davids about the beginning of the 18th Century, by E[rasmus] Saunders], D.D., published in 1721.
The tithes and ancient endowments of Capel Colman were presumably all seized by the Crown, but the church has gradually been re-endowed during the last two hundred years.
On 18th January 1895, a faculty was obtained for the restoration of this church.
A Topographical Dictionary of Wales - S. Lewis 1849.
CAPEL-COLMAN, otherwise, LLANGOLMAN, a parish, in the union of Newcastle-Emlyn, hundred of Knlgerran, county of Pembroke, South Wales, 6 miles (SW. by W.) from Newcastle-Emlyn; containing 142 inhabitants. This parish is situated on the road from Newcastle-Emlyn to Narberth; and is bounded on the north by Llanvihangel-Penbedw, on the south by Penrith and Clydey, on the east by Cardiganshire, and on the west by Eglwyswrw and Llanvair-Nantgwyn. It comprises about 750 acres, of which sixty are woodland, and the remainder nearly equally divided between arable and pasture: the surface is undulated, and the scenery, embracing wood and water, picturesque and beautiful; the soil is dry, and the chief produce, corn, butter, and cheese. A rivulet, called the Dylas, runs through the parish.
Knlwendeg, the seat of Miss Jones, (see Orielton/Monkton) an elegant mansion, erected within the last seventy years, is ornamented with a receding portico in good taste, and occupies the centre of an extensive demesne, beautifully laid out in plantations and pleasure-grounds, to which are entrances by two handsome lodges, more recently built; the lawn in front of the house embraces a view of some of the finest scenery in the county, including the luxuriant woods around Fynnonau. Miss Jones, and her brother, the Rev. John Jones, are the principal landed proprietors, and Pryse Pryse, Esq. is lord of the manor.
The living is a perpetual curacy, endowed with £800 royal bounty; net income, £72: the patronage and impropriation belong to Miss Jones. The church, dedicated to St. Colman, from whom the parish takes its name, is a small neat edifice, erected in 1835, partly by subscription, and partly by a rate on the inhabitants; it is forty feet in length and twenty-two in breadth, and has a large gallery.
In 1602 Thomas Wiliems copied what he described as a very ancient manuscript. This manuscript had been part of the library of Bangor cathedral till the reformation. His copy is in the Peniarth collection. This manuscript contained Lessons and a Collect Commemorating St Deiniol. The lessons were used on the Saint's day, but do not describe the life and work of the Saint at Bangor.
Funny this because it seems very unusual for lessons on a saint's day, especially a saint who spent most of his life in the area to commemorate his work elsewhere. And seem to predate the Norman Conquest by a good margin. If the Norman bishops could have changed these lessons they would have done so. Well what do these lessons have to do with Carew? The lessons describe St Deniol life on the hill above what is now Pembroke at his hermitage between 516AD and 535AD and one of them refers to his well and the healing.
"Again a certain woman from the district of Caerw (Carew), in the diocese of Mynyw, was so swollen beyond measure that she could find no relief by any advice of physicians. At last, coming to the church of St Deniol, and afterwards to the aforementioned well, and imploring the Saints help, she drank of that water so as to regain health and before leaving came to the entrance of the Church, and cast forth from her mouth, while many stood by and observed, three horrible worms, each with four feet, and the woman was made whole from that very hour." (I wonder whether the original said with four feet or whether it described the worms as four feet long?)
RCAM
Carew Beacon.
Sometimes called Hays or Hayes Beacon, stands on the Ridge-way at this point the southern boundary of the parish, on a field known as Beacon field, the hedge of the field being carried up to the mound.According to the Rev. W. G. Spurrell, rector of the parish (History of Carew 1921 p. 69), "its height was increased in 1813 (probably was actually 1803 because it was then that it was selected as one of the four Pembrokeshire heights that warning beacons were to be lit on in the event of a French landing) for beacon purposes". The sepulchral origin of the mound was proved by excavations carried out by Mr. James Deaden in 1851, when, at the depth of about 5 feet from the original height, and 12 feet from the beacon level, and beneath a large flagstone, an interment was met with - "The portions of bone remaining were in a very decomposed state, like small powder, and intermixed with portions of sand and stone that had fallen from the sides of the grave. We found a fragment of a ring-shaped ornament, supposed to be made. of ivory, and a flint arrowhead, also a broken earthenware vessel, very crudely made, and slightly ornamented with lines. The covering of the Kist was of a species of flag not know in this neighbourhood by the oldest inhabitant. The grave or Kist was about 2 feet, and the interment was nearly due west and east." (Arch. Camb. 1852 April 19l) All knowledge of the discoveries appears to be lost.
Williamston Mounds.
On each side of Rosemary Lane is a sepulchral mound, that on the north side of the lane being the larger and better preserved of the two. It has a base circumference of 250 feet and a height of 10 feet. It is formed of earth and small stones. 1910 it was disturbed for stone. The field on which it stands is known as Trumpet Levs (tithe Schedule, Nos. 915, 917).
The second mound has a base circumference of about 200 feet and a height of 3 feet It stands about 500 yards directly south of the field called Butty Park (Tithe Schedule, Nos. 890-1). About the year 1880, during drainage operations, "human bones and metal arrows" are said to have been found beneath a stone slab. These objects were destroyed. The mounds are not marked on the 6 in. Ord. Survey map.
Cuckoo Stones.
These are the stones of a cromlech which once stood on a field of Pincheston farm about 500 yards north-east of the house. The supporters have been forced from the upright by the growth of an ash tree. Four of them have fallen, the fifth though slanting dangerously, still sustains one end of the capstone. This stone is 6 feet by 5 feet and 2 feet in thickness; it shows a flat surface to the chamber and has a somewhat irregularly shaped top. The structure occupies a slight eminence and around it are some of the base stones of the covering cairn. It is not marked on the 6 inch Ord. sheet.
Stone Celt.
A stone Celt found at Carew was exhibited to the Cambrian Archaeological Association at its Tenby meeting in 1851 (Arch. Camb., 185l ii, 334). Nothing could be learnt of its present locality.
Carew High Cross.
The 11th century Carew Cross) is one of three fine early Christian monuments found in Wales - the others being at Nevern and Maen Achwyfan. The cross stands guarding the entrance to Carew Castle. It may be described as a wheel headed cross on a tall shaft which is beautifully inscribed with intricate patterns. Its mixture of Celtic and Scandinavian influences hearken back to pre-Norman Wales, when the country was ruled by powerful, independent princes. The cross is inlaid with fine Celtic knot-work and interlaced ribbon pattern, its two sides displaying different variations. After years of controversy, the crude inscription on the cross was finally translated in the 1940s. The cross is a royal memorial. The inscription "Margit eut rex etg(uin) Filius" commemorating Maredud ap Edwin, who became joint ruler with his brother of Duheubarth, the kingdom of Southwest Wales, in 1033, only to be killed in battle two years later. He was the great-grandson of Hywel Dda and was killed in battle when Cynan ap Seisyllt invaded Dyfed and Dheubarth. This cross was erected as a royal memorial soon after that date.
Carew Castle is justly celebrated as one of the most magnificent castles of south Wales. Its position is low-lying, but still prominent in the flat land around the tidal reaches of the Carew river. The castle stands at the end of a ridge at a strategically excellent site commanding a crossing point of the then-still navigable river.
The modern entrance to the castle is from the east, following the medieval route through the bailey, within which lie low grassy footings of the later medieval service buildings. These were protected by a gate house, a wall and a massive rock-cut ditch. Excavations have shown that this ditch was in fact a recut of a much earlier one, dug as part of a defensive system cutting off the ridge in pre-Norman, perhaps Iron Age times.
Little now remains of the earth and timber castle that was built here by the Norman Gerald of Windsor around 1100. It is first mentioned in 1212, when for some reason, King John seized it for a short time when passing through Pembroke on his Irish expedition. By this time it is probable that the first stone structure, the Old Tower, had been built to protect the original castle entrance.
In 1212 described as "the house of Carrio" [Rot Lit Pat 92b].
The son of Nesta, William adopted the name Carew. He died at the age of 70 and was succeeded by his son Raymond de Carew who had been taking part in the invasion of Ireland. His descendant Sir Nicholas de Carew, held high office in Ireland between 1284 and 1310 and accompanied Edward 1 into Scotland. He ravaged Galloway, and was present at the siege of Caerlaverock (Dumfries). The Roll Of Caerlaverock speaks of him as "a valiant man of great fame".
His son John also did good service against the Irish and the Scots, and when he died in 1324, Edward III granted his widow , Joan, "six tuns of wine a year during the Kings pleasure".
The son and namesake of Sir John fought in the French Wars, and in recognition of the prowess of his Welsh archers at Crecy, the black lion of the Carew crest carried a golden arrow.
His great-grandson another Sir Nicholas, who died in 1447 was succeeded at Carew by his son , Sir Thomas, whilst his fifth son, William married the heiress of Sir Hugh Courtney of Haccombe beginning the long connection of the Carews with the west country holding lands in Devon and at Camerton and Crowcombe in Somerset and were the ancestors of the present owners of Carew Castle.
The last of the older line to hold Carew was Sir Edmund, who mortgaged the estates to Sir Rhys ap Thomas in 1480.. Five years later both fought for Henry VII at Bosworth and both were Knighted on the field of battle. Sir Edmund was slain by a "gonne" at the siege of Touraine on June 28 1513 and was buried at Calais.
Sir Rhys ap Thomas entertained Henry at Carew after he landed at Dale but it was twenty seven years later that he held the most spectacular event at Carew - a tournament to celebrate his admission into the Order of the Garter.
After the death of Sir Rhys various people held Carew with little good luck.
In 1601 Sir George Carew, son of Dr. George Carew, Dean of Windsor , and afterwards Earl of Totnes wrote to Lord Burleigh that his "grandfather , Sir Edmund mortgaged Carew Castle to Sir Rees ap Thomas, whose grandson Sir Griffith ap Rees, Sir John Perrot, and the Earl of Essex possessed it since. They all died attainted and two were executed, so I think that land will prove unlucky to all men that shall enjoy it, except it be a Carew".
In 1607 Sir John Carew of Crowcombe took up residence at Carew and eventually bought back the estate. His descendants have remained in possession ever since although they ceased to live at Carew in 1687. the present descendants and owners are the Trollope-Bellews of Crowcombe Court.
Prof.. A. Hamilton Thompson observes (Military l. Architecture in England During the Middle Ages, p. 330):
At Carew, in Pembrokeshire, three stages in the development of the domestic ideal as applied to military architecture can be studied in close proximity. On the east side of the ward are the earlier domestic apartments, somewhat cramped and gloomy, with outer windows which, wherever they occur, as in the chapel and adjacent rooms, admit daylight very faintly. On the west side is the great Hall, built in the fifteenth century by Rhys ap Thomas, with its imposing porch-tower and entrance stair, a large and amply lighted room . on the north are the additions made in the sixteenth century by Sir John Perrott. The eastern rooms are those of a house within a castle: the Western hall is that of a house which, although military considerations have had no part in its planning is still confined within an earlier curtain. On the north side, however, the curtain has been broken through and a series of apartments has been built out beyond its limits, proclaiming with their long mullioned windows piercing the walls from floor to roof that the day of castles is over.
Carewe Castell. description 1531.
this castle standeth by the watersides nine miles from Milford Haven, and is built with hard stone, Severed in four parts or stories, with a quadrant court within the same, the east part whereof containeth in length 160 feet, and the west part containeth in length without the castle 164 feet. the north side containeth in length 142 feet, and the south side in length 198 feet. And the court within the quadrant in length 86 feet, and in breadth 75 feet, within which court is a fair lavatory in the midst made of stone, and the water running out of pipes of lead in the top of the same.
The east part of the said castle with the two frontours adjoining to the same containing in length as is before said, hath in parts beneath and above these buildings:
First, the Hall there, containing in length 55 feet and in breadth 26 feet, with 18 steps leading from the ground to the hall.
Item, a chapel vaulted, a buttery vaulted.
Item a pantry, a cellar, a larder house, with 15 upper chambers and neither chambers there
All which buildings be covered with slate, and the walking places by the battlements leaded, and at the north end a high turret to view the country.
The west part of the castle:
First, 23 steps of stone leading up to the hall, with a porthole chamber at the hall door.
Item, a great hall there, containing in length within 81 feet and in breadth 30 feet, and of either side the hall a chimney, and in the midst a hearth of stone, and 15 feet in breadth at the upper hall is tiled with Flanders tile, which said hall is covered with lead.
Item, under the said hall a buttery vaulted of like length and breadth.
Item, a tower adjoining to the upper end of the hall, wherein is contained a low cellar with two chambers, one above the other, with winding stairs leading in to the battlements of the same, which tower is covered with slate and the walking place leaded, and is in compass round 100 feets with 8 steps in to the height of a little watch tower in compass 27 feet.
the tower at the South end of the hall, wherein is builded a cellar, two chambers one above another and covered with slate, and the walking place leaded, which tower is in compass within the battlement 100 feet, and above the same n little turret compass 24 feet, with 11 steps leading from the battlements to the same.
The south side of the castle:
A tower builded square, containing in length 33 feet and in breadth 28 feet, wherein is builded a larder house, a kitchen above the same, with half a loft over and a way leading in to the battlements, and at one corner a little turret.
The north side of the castle:
A story containing in length 60 feet and in breadth 25 feet wherein is contained two low chambers and a chapel over them and a way leading to the battlements thereof , with a little turret in the top of the same.
Item, before the east part of this castle there is a gate house builded four square with chamber over the same, and a way in to the battlements, with. little turret in the top.
This forefront of this said castle is double walled, with l dyke of 20 feet broad counter-mured.
The length of the base court is 225 feet and in breadth 189 feet, wherein is builded these edifices ensuing:-
First, over the South side of this court a house containing in length 87 feet, and in breadth 21 feet wherein is a stable of 60 feet long with a loft over the same, and a brew house of like breadth and 27 feet long, with a chamber over. And at the west end of the same a house called bake house, in length 18 feet and breadth 15 feet, with a chamber over the same.
Item} over the south side the said court, a barn in length 75 feet and in breadth 30 feet - over the said south part a smiths forge, in length 33 feet and in breadth 18 feet. All these houses covered with slate.
Items a stable nigh to the water, containing in length 128 feet and in breadth 20 feet, with a loft over the same.
The contents of the buildings of this castle within the quadrant, with the gate house:- 2 chapels 2 butteries vaulted, 2 pantreys, 2 cellars, 2 larder houses, 23 clambers low and higher 7 turrets.
Items there is belonging to this castle 2 parks walled, one of them nigh the castle and the compass thereof a mile, and the other park being a mile from the castle is in compass 2 miles-
(Pubs Record Office: Exchequer, Treasurer of theReciepts; Miscellaneous Books, Vol. 151, fo. 7.)
There can be little doubt that the additions of Sir John Perrott were made at the cost of considerable damage to the more artistic improvements of Sir Rhys ap Thomas His fall and tragic end, however, came before the work then in hand was completed. All the new buildings had been roofed, and some of the rooms had their windows glazed, but others were still unglazed. He also increased the demesne which was about 136 acres by about 320 acres , 191 being added to the castle demesne, while a further 129 acres went into the creation of his new dairy farm at New shipping, just across the tidal creek from the castle. Most of the land 118 acres in all, was purchased from Lady Jones, 27 acres were bought from Richard and David Meredith, 14 acres from Henry Adams, and 9 acres from Hugh Owen, gent.: the rest of the newly acquired demesne lands seem to have been acquired from various customary tenements.
After Sir John Perrotts death in 1592, the castle and its demesne was granted upon lease to one Edward Webb, who conveyed it to Sir John Carew, both of whom successively appear to have resided there. The latter in turn conveyed his interest to Sir John Phillipps of Picton and Clog y fran near St. Clears, co. Carmarthen, to whom succeeded his son Sir Richard Phillipps. Complaints had frequently been made to the Crown authorities of the destruction wrought upon the castle by the successive lessees, and several Crown enquiries were held into the charges, as well as several suits brought in the Court of Exchequer by each outgoing lessor against his predecessor for waste for which he found himself liable. As an answer to the last of these brought by Sir John Carew (with whom was joined Sir John Williams, attorney general, as representing the Crown) against Sir Richard Phillipps of Picton, the defence produced the jurors schedule to a Crown surveyor taken in the eighth year of James I (1611), which specified the "decays" then existing in the castle and attendant properties, with the estimated cost of restoring them at that date. The list is of considerable interest as showing how grievously the splendid edifice had suffered in the course of a few years. The schedule is as follows:
A particular note of the decays of Carewe Castle, the French Mills and New shipping dayrie, taken by vertue of a commission from His Majestys Court of Exchequer upon the 3rd day of April, anno., James of England, etc., 8th [1610].
The decays of the lead and timber of the great hall £39 0s 0d
... ... ... ... ... great bay window in stone and glass £11 18s 0d
... ... ... ... two chambers at the upper end of the great hall £7 2s 3d
... ... ... ... two chambers at the lower end of the great hall, in the roof and glass £6 18s 2d
The bower at the east end of the new buildings, decayed £4 0s 0d
The decays in the new buildings ... £66 2s 0d
The decays of the dining chamber ... ... ... £33 0s 0d
The decay in the bell chamber ... ... ... ... £1 1s 9d
The decay of Sir Thomas Perrotts chamber ... ... ... £16 19s 3d
The decay of the vault chamber ... ... £0 9s 4d
pastrie under the kitchen, and the kitchen £2 14s 4d
porch chamber ... ... ... ... .. £3 9s 2d
bridge under the gate house.. ... ... ... £2 0s 0d
The decay in the water pipes, cisterns, and conduits belonging to the castle £97 13s 4d
The decay of the stable ... ... ... £53 10s 0d
brew house ... ... £1 10s 0d
bakehouse ... ... £6 0s 0d
slaughter house ... ... £1 0s 0d
poultry house ... ... £4 0s 0d
falconers house ... ... £1 10s 0d
barn ... ... ... £1 0s 0d
new orchard wall ... ... ... ... ... £12 10s 0d
waste of the grove of wood growing near the castle ... £43 0s 0d
the French Mills ... ... ... ... ... ... £80 0s 0d
Mill Park wall ... ... ... ... £49 0s 0d
New shipping farm ... ... £16 0s 0d
Williamston Park wall and lodge ... £82 10s 0d
sheep cote £8 0s 0d
The evidence given at Carew on the 24th April, 9 Ch. I, in reply to interrogatories in the suit of Sir John Carew and others against Sir Richard Phillipps, gives a sad picture of the depredations to which the castle had been subjected since the attainder and execution of Sir John Perrott.
John Will, of the parish of Carew, yeoman, aged 40, deposed that he knew the castle, the farmhouses of New Shippon Deyrye [dairy], where those of Somerton do lie though he was never there, and the mills adjoining the castle commonly called the French mills, and did know a bridge made with lime and stone which he conceiveth to be the bank or wall mentioned in the interrogatory, and the two parks known as Mill park or Carew park, and Williamston park.
William Barlow, of Creswell, esq., aged 61, spoke of the occupation of the castle and premises by Sir John Carew some fifteen years previously and the succession of Sir John Phillipps, bart., deceased. At the time of Sir John Carew's death the castle was in decay, and some of the lead, timber, windows and glass were also in decay, and some of the lead pipes through which the water was formerly brought to the said castle had been taken away. The new buildings which, as he believed were never finished, are now a great deal more in decay than when Sir John Carew, one of the complainants left: the timber and roof, glass windows and iron bars of the windows of the two towers near adjoining to the great hall [the north-west and south-west towers] are more decayed. Prior to Sir John Carew one Edward Webb occupied the castle premises, in whose time decays, wastes and spoils were committed.
Thomas Howell, of Llanboydye, eo. Carmarthen, aged 30, deposed that the defendant's steward had deliver to him being a joiner, ten oaken planks brought forth out of the castle, which were converted to the use of the said Sir John Phillipps, deceased, and turned into rails for wainscot for 8 windows at the then dwelling house of the said Sir John Phillipps at Clog - y - Fran in the county of Carmarthen.
John James, of Carew, shepherd, aged 54, said that a year before Sir John Carew gave up occupation (about 14 years since) all the roofs of the old hall, and the roofs of all the new buildings were covered with lead, but whether all the leads were sound and whole to defend wind and weather he knew not. At which time also some of the windows were glazed, and some were in decay. In Sir John Carew's time water was conveyed from the head of the well through pipes of lead into the kitchen. The brew house is fallen and utterly decayed in the time of Sir John Phillipps which in the time of the precious occupier was supported by"strods and propts".
John Bartlett, of Carew, smith, aged 50, deposed that in the time of Sir John Phillipps he saw therein the castle two carriages for ordnance which wanted wheels, but what is become of the same he knoweth not.
(Public Record Office- Exchequer Depositions, Pembroke, 9 Charles 1. , Easter, No. 3.)
The castle stands upon a small piece of rocky ground that rises a few feet above a reach or pill of Milford Haven which flows within 100 feet of the north- Western curtain. There can be no doubt that the conformation of the site governed the departures from strict regularity of plan that are to be found in the structure. The general plan was the simple one of a rectangle, deviating slightly from a perfect square, with towers at each corner. The space enclosed within the quadrangles called in the survey the quadrant court, measures midway about 90 feet from east to west and about 100 feet from north to south. The original buildings were doubtless ranged along the inner side of the curtains; these have disappeared entirely from the north and south sides of the court, having been cleared away from the former by Sir John Perrott to make room for his contemplated hall and galleries. On the west side much of the basement storey, above which rises Sir Rhys ap Thomas reconstruction, consists of the original building, though the chambers were probably altered considerably to adapt them to the new superstructure. The east side, where is the gateway, was least changed by both Sir Rhys ap Thomas and Sir John Perrott. The gateway was placed close to the south-east tower. As to this part of the castle, Prof. Hamilton Thompson account is as follows:- "The [south-east] tower at Carew, is at earliest of late 13th-century date, and has several advanced features. Though its projection from the curtain is regularly rounded, its inward projection is rectangular, so that its plan is actually an oblong with a rounded end. It seems to have been intended to have been used in connection with the gate house; its first and second floors had no direct connection with each other, but both communicated with the gatehouse, and the ground-floor of the gatehouse had a large lateral opening in the direction of the first floor of the tower. The corresponding tower at the north-east angle was used in connection with the domestic buildings and had a vaulted chapel upon its first floor, from the north-west wall of which open two rooms for the use of the priest, with a garde-robe in the second. One tower therefore, was purely defensive, additional precautions having been taken no doubt to guard a postern which opens from the basement upon the scarp of the ditch; while the other was merely an annexe to one of the two dwelling houses within the enclosure."
Mr Cobb describes the chapel at length and argues for an earlier date.
To the east of the hall is the chapel 36 1/2 ft by 17 ft. that is , exactly one -third smaller than the chapel at Manorbere It is vaulted, as is the crypt beneath, and had ribs of plain hammer-dressed stones, 10 inches wide, forming two bays and a half. The east end is a demi-octagon, having three lights; one at the east, and one on each of the north and south sides on the right of the entrance is the sandstone recess for the stoop. Between the east and south windows is the piscine, also of sandstone, evidently once highly finished, and most distinctly Early English; and on the corresponding face a plain aumbry. Between the north window and the door to the priest rooms is a good-sized built plain fireplace, clearly original; and at the west end, between the two doors, is an arched opening to the lower eastern hall, 4 feet wide and 4 feet high, similar to that which existed at Manorbere before the latter was converted into a door. The windows, apparently, were built up at the bottom, and widened, probably to admit Sir Rhys freestone but every vestige of it has now disappeared. Fortunately, however he built over the sill and one jamb of the original sandstone Early English window. This I have uncovered, and from it can be clearly made out the character of what it had been. The priest rooms consist of one chamber with a fireplace, and beyond it a smaller with latrine, all vaulted."
There can be no doubt that both the north and south angle towers, as also the east and west towers with their intermediate curtain, are portions of the original work of about 1270. The entire range of apartments backing upon the Curtain and looking out upon the quadrangle, including the connected rooms of the same level in the end towers, were reconstructed by Sir Rhys ap Thomas. So thorough where the alterations effected by Sir Rhys that it is difficult to ascertain what original features of the basement store he retained. He at any rate converted the entire space on the ground level between the towers into one chamber divided down the centre by a row of nine piers, both compartments being vaulted [Mr. Hamilton Thompson thinks this basement chamber may have been used as stables, while Mr. Cobb, with greater probability, suggests it may have been "for the use of followers". At the time of the Survey it was used as a buttery.]
The floor above Sir Rhys devoted to what must have been a magnificent apartment. "It is," says Mr. Cobb, "about 90 feet long, and nearly 30 feet broadly [actually 81 feet by 30 feet.] and had a timber high-pitched roof, the ridge of which was about 40 feet from the floor. At the south end is an arched recess with an elaborate window at the back not included in the alcove dimensions. This was probably the musicians gallery; and on the east side of the north end was a bow window projecting into the court Three lights to the west, which were Early English, were widened and filled up, both alcove and below with perpendicular freestone. The most northerly still shows the Early English jambs and seats."
Entrance to this splendid apartment was obtained by a flight of twenty-three broad steps from the courtyard which gave upon a fine porch leading to what the Survey calls "a porthole chamber at the hall door." is The Survey adds that the chamber was warmed by two fireplaces, and that the "upper hall or dais, was tiled with Flanders tiles. The towers at either end of the hall had each of them a cellar entered by a flight of steps from the buttery; above cellars were only two storeys, each floor having but one room, the lower floor communicating with the buttery, the upper with the grand hall.
The present south curtain, though doubtless in its foundations and lower courses of the earlier date, appears to have been reconstructed, possibly by Sir Rhvs ap Thomas. At mid-length is a square tower which does not accord with the angle towers, though it is battlemented and has a small turret. It contained the kitchen and larder, and its erection may have been occasioned by the alterations consequent upon the construction of Sir Rhys grand hall.
It is probable that when Sir Rhys ap Thomas, in addition to innumerable minor alterations, including the modernising of practical every window throughout the castle, transformed the basement chambers beneath his new hall into a buttery he provided his dispossessed followers with more comfortable quarters in the hall on the opposite side of the courtyard.
The outer or base court of the castle was occupied by stabling and other domestic outbuildings, as well as a smith forge, all of them additions of Sir Rhys ap Thomas. Water was! obtained from a well which supplied a stone cistern in the quadrangle.
Among Charles Norris drawings is a sketch of a beautiful wheel window that was placed near the entrance to Sir Rhys great hall and was in situ about the commencement of last century, but which exists no longer.
The changes effected by Sir John Perrott (d.1592).
The north side of the castle was practically entirely swept away, and its place taken by a grandiose conception, which, was never finished,. The destroyed buildings appear to have contained two long, low chambers, and a chapel; all of which may have formed part of the work of Sir Rhys ap Thomas.
The Civil War and Carew castle.
At outbreak of the Civil War the tenants of Carew Castle were the Phillipses of Picton [Parliamentarians] but it was held for King in siege of March 1644 and August 1645.
The castle was refortified and the angular redan for guns still survives as a low, grassy bank immediately outside the middle gate house.
In the first attack Laugharne approached Carew with a small party of troopers and a few foot soldiers. The castle was defended by fifty Musketeers and the Old Rectory was also garrisoned (Leach History of the Civil War in Pembrokeshire and its Borders) Lieut. Jones commanding the castle garrison marched out to attack but Laugharne charged the musketeers capturing twenty of them including Lieut. Jones who afterwards served in the Parliamentary forces although Laugharne did not capture the castle or the Old Rectory and in the rest of his campaign just bypassed them.
On the 9th August 1645 after defeating the Royalist forces at Colby Moor and taking Haverfordwest Laugharne again appeared before Carew castle. Owing doubtless to the greater strength of the gateway and eastern curtain, additionally defended as they were by an outer wall and square tower, built by Sir Rhys ap Thomas for effect rather than for serious warfare, and, moreover, protected by a dry moat which extended for 30 yards in front of this outer wall, the Parliamentary leaders determined upon attacking the weak south wall. This they managed to breach, doing much damage to the interior face of the gatehouse and the immediately adjoining buildings. By 13 September Carew, Manorbier and Picton castles were all in Parliamentary hands.
A "large cannon ball found in Carew Castle" was exhibited at Tenby in 1851 to the Cambrian Arch. Association by the Rev. G. N. Smith, then vicar of Gumfreston- At the same meeting Sir. Nicholas Roch exhibited "two small cannon balls, ploughed up in a field at Paskeston, within range of Carew Castle" (Arch. Camb., 1851, II, ii. 335) The were doubtless relics of the assault upon the medieval castle in 1644.
Carew Tidal Mill - The French Mill.
The present mill dates from 16 century and was first mentioned in 1541 but there was an earlier one on site.
From late 1700s until 1937 the Mill was constantly in use, milling barley, oat meal, wheat flour, bone meal and fertilisers. At one time there were two working water wheels, each driven by water as it was released from the mill pond. This pond was filled at high tide. The Mill and one wheel was restored by G Argent Builders 1972. I understand that the pegs on the Mill wheel cogs had to be made from apple wood.
Historic Houses.
The Old Rectory. Within a hundred yards of the parish church is a residence known as the Old Rectory, which name, there can be little doubt, correctly represents its former status. The original house may have been built at the time when Sir Rhys ap Thomas was engaged in modernising the neighbouring castle, that is, within the period 1490-15I0; but it probably suffered from neglect and want of repair until about the middle of last century when it was considerably altered and renewed. Fenton describes it about 1800 as "of a singular appearance, having a square tower on one side through an arched opening, in which, now stopped up, was once the principal residence. It is a large, irregular building, a great part of considerable antiquity, unroofed, and in ruins" (Tour, p. 271). The low square tower, with its corbel table and newel staircase still remains it should be compared with the square tower in the south curtain of the neighbouring castle; and a portion of the embattled walls which surrounded the house has also survived.Arch.Camb., 1877, IV, viii, 312; 1881, IV, xii, 238, ill.
Major Francis Jones records "Though now a mere farmhouse the place bears traces of considerable antiquity and appears to have been built with an eye to defence. The massive walls are corbelled out beneath the eaves of the roof which is pitched at a steep angle giving the old structure a picturesque appearance. The house has apparently formerly been enclosed within a walled precinct and a tradition tells of "the soldiers" having been quartered there in the turbulent days of old."
Ford.A farmstead on Ford Pill between Carew Castle and Paskeston. In the 17th and early 18th centuries it belonged to the Philipps family, a branch of Picton Castle. John Philipps of Goodhook agent to his cousin Sir John Philipps, built the residence at Ford. He was agent in 1650 and was still acting as such in 1699. Sir John wrote a memorandum of what Privilege my cozen John Philipps had with me from Picton since 1650 and included among them are the following: "I gave him as much timber as did build two parts of his house at Ford, and the use of my tenants to carry his slates from Llangolman to Picton Key, and my lighyter to carry them from there to Ford, and to carry his limestone from Williamston Park to Goodhook during the time he lived there, and to carry his corn and household stuff from Goodhook to Ford."
The Philipps family continued to own Ford for most of the first half of the 18th century. Edward Philipps of Ford died leaving a son and four daughters. John Philipps, the son, matriculated at Jesus College, Oxford, in 1722, and in 1735 was High Sheriff of Pembrokeshire He died without issue, and the Ford estate passed to his sisters, coheiresses, Elizabeth, married John Smith of Jeffreston, Anne married John Relly of Pembroke, Mary married Reverend James Higgon of Haverfordwest, and Katherine married David Rice of London, apothecary. In 1786 John Smith Esq. is described as owner of Ford.
A residence on high ground 1 l/4 miles north-east of Carew Castle.
Lewis in 1840 comments on the site as follows - "Freestone Hall residence of J. Allen Esq. commanding from the grounds some of the finest views in the county, embracing Lawrenny and its fine estuary, Clareston, and the hundred of Rhos to the west."
The mansion, built by Roger Allen (1734-1782) second son of John Allen of Cresselly, is a three-storeyed main block with a wing stretching to the rear at one side. A good photo was taken of the house by C. S. Allen of Tenby in 1871. James Allen (son of Roger) presented a paten and flagon as a New Years Gift to the parish of Carew in 1844, and further plate was presented by Thomas Allen of Freeston Hall in 1886 in memory of his eldest son Captain Griffith Allen late of H.M. 98th Regiment.
In 1910 Freestone Hall, an old House Mansion now used as a farm was advertised for sale; it comprised a porch, entrance Hall, dining room, parlour, kitchen, Pantry, a large back kitchen, and a dairy and outbuildings. There where 7 bedrooms 78 acres were attached.
A residence, half a mile north-west of Carew Cheriton church, marked on Colbys map as Milton House within grounds on the edge of Milton village. Comparatively modern, it was owned by the Revd. William Holcombe in 1786, with William Phelps as tenant. By the early 1830s William Bowen was living at Milton House, being the first of that family there which was to continue there for nearly a century and a half.
Lewis wrote in 1834: "Within the parish are several gentlemens seats of which the principal are Milton House formerly part of the extensive estate of Upton Castle, and now the property and residence of William Bowen Esq., an elegant modern mansion pleasurably situated within grounds".
William Bowen sister had married James Summers of Haverfordwest, Clerk of the Peace, and it was to his nephew, James Summers, he left Milton House. James Summers then added Bowen to his name; James Bowen Summers settled there and was High Sheriff in 1874. He was followed by his son Sutton Bowen Summers, who sold Milton House after World War Two. It is now a hotel.
Welston.
A modern residence of fair pretensions. It stands upon the site of an earlier house of the same name, occupied by a Mr. Cuney about the middle of the 17th century. Cromwell, on his way to the siege of Pembroke in May, 1648 is said, with much probability to have had his quarters here, and Fenton states that in his time a lady, who was a descendant of the family of Cuney, then possessed a quilted counterpane that covered the General's bed; white lined with crimson and stained with ink spilt as he was writing one of his despatches during his confinement in his room with gout (Tour, 373). An adjoining field is still known as Bowling alley.
Acc/to Major Francis Jones.
Home of the Cuny family. The present house stands on the site of an earlier house of the same name occupied by a member of the Cuny family in the middle of the 17th century. It was pulled down early in the 19th century. When Cromwell was besieging Pembroke he made Welston his HQ. According to Fenton "there is a quilted counterpane of white linen that covered Cromwell's bed still in the possession of a lady, a descendant of that house, stained with ink spilled as he was writing one of his despatches during his confinement." The "confinement" refers to the tyrant's attack of gout which obliged him to stay in bed for a few days.In the will of Richard Cuny of Pembroke dated 24th October 1627 he mentioned four of his farms which he left to his son Walter Cuny including Welshtowne (Welston). Walter was still in possession in 1638, and it was in Walter's time that Cromwell commandeered the house. Walter was Mayor of Pembroke when he died. His daughter married Francis Parry to whom there is a marble tablet in St. Mary's Church, Pembroke.
(Vide Thomas Roscoe s Wanderings and Excursions in South Wales, 1836, p. 154).
By the 18th century the Cunys had moved to Golden near Pembroke.
In 1834 the property, described as "a substantial modern house" was the seat of George Donne (or Dunn) Esq. The Dunns still had it in 1873 but in 1904 John Evans was owner of the freehold.
The Parish Church dedi. St. John.
See also Spurrell, History of Carew (1921).
Acc/to Pembrokeshire Parsons.
ap Morgan 1543 Kayrue (Carew) PRO 223/423 Churchwarden
Beynon Richard 1543 Kayrue (Carew) PRO 223/423 Churchwarden
Clergy.
Rectors.
1382. Jan. 2. Hugh de Cotingham.
1388. Dec 14. John Carp.
1392. John Porter.
1403. Dec. 9. William Webber, vice John Porter, deceased.
1461. Nov17. Hugh Raglan.
1493. Oct,20. John Barrett vice Hugh Rawlins, deceased.
1496. Aug. 2r John Talley, vice John Barret, deceased.
1535 - 6 - Dr.Vaughan.
Vicars
1403. John Bole.
1404. Feb. 28. William John, vice John Bole, resigned
1482. Oct 10 Peter David
1482. John Watkin
1482. Nov. 5 David Veyn vice John Watkin resigned
1486 Peter Coker.
1486. Jun. 2. Thomas Williams vice Peter Coker deceased
1491. May 13. Lewis Tailor vice ....Thomas deceased
1492 John Tasker vice Lewis Tailor resigned.
1534 Richard Joneys
1554. June 5 George Radcliffe priest
Henry Williams - he was turned out of his living for drunkeness but presumably was restored to it later
1668 Aug 9 Lewis Beddo vice Henry Williams deceased.
1718. Mar 12 David Thomas vice Lewis Beddow deceased
1735 Aug 5 Thomas Edwards MA vice David Thomas deceased
1737 Aug 2 John Andrews vice Thomas Edwards resigned
1743 Nov 14 Delabere Prichett vice John Andrews instituted to Prendegast
1801 Dec 22 John Rees vice Delabere Prichett deceased
1835 May 19 Gustavus Lodwick Hamilton MA vice John Rees deceased
1839 Aug 27 William Beach Thomas MA vice Gustavus Lodwick Hamilton deceased
1842 Jun 22 Henry Robert Lloyd MA vice William Beach Thomas instituted to Aberedw
1845 Sep 19 John Phelps MA vice Henry Robert Lloyd resigned
1877 Dec 28 Hugh Harries Gibbon MA vice John Phelps resigned
1884 Mar 15 John Popkin Morgan MA vice Hugh Harries Morgan instituted to Glasbury
1891 Mar 21 Joseph Polland Lewis vice John Popkin Morgan instituted to Llanfihangel Helygen with Llanyre
1911 Feb 18 William George Spurrell vice J P Lewis deceased.
Spurrel was the Vicar/ Historian whose History of Carew was published in 1921.
1535 The Rector's living at Carew was valued at £44 annually. It was one of the most wealthy in the county.
Between 1689 and 1750 the roof of the church was substantially repaired with constant purchases of new slates and timber a description of 1831 suggests that it had a wagon roof which was replaced in 1838 and in 1725 the church was whitewashed.
1807 a singing master had been engaged to instruct the congregation in singing.
1834 A Chalice and cover were sold to a Salisbury Silver smith it weighted 23ozs 10dwt . It was suggested that it was Elizabethan or Jacobean and was sold for 4s 10d per ounce. This could well have been the one described as a Communion Cup with cover of silver and double gilt in the inventory of 1547.
The Norman fort was replaced at a cost of £3 5s in 1836 by an exact copy of the original using limestone from Williamston Quarry.
1843 the two effigies in the north of the chancel were moved to their present position from the east of the porch.
In 1850 a new oak pulpit was installed and also a new reading desk.
1855 Restoration by G.G.Scott started.
1857 Carew Church restoration completed.
The Rood screen was removed by Rev Pritchett and the canopied oak seats at the west end of the chancel by Rev Rees.
The ancient west window with its portrayal of the nativity was totally destroyed and replace by a memorial to those who had fallen in the Crimean war in 1857 at the same time most of the other windows which originally had been flat perpendicular were replaced.
The interior walls of the church had been limed brown, with, according to the Church accounts, stonework picked out in black.
1881 The tower was refurbished including having the roof renewed.
1888 The Chancel, nave and Carew aisle re-roofed.
In 1889 stucco was put on the interior walls of the Church.
In the churchyard is a chapel on a vaulted chamber which was originally used as an ossuary. and the vault was divided by a wall and occupied by two female paupers up to 1840
The parish registers go back to 1718 and their are Bishop's Transcripts dating from 1685.
Non Conformist Chapels
.Pisgah -- Baptist.
The chapel was part of the Moleston circuit but preaching had occurred in homes from an earlier time. In 1838 the membership was 60.
Messrs. William Davies (Cresselly), John Thomas (Oak Hill) Lewis Thomas, Thomas Nicholas (The Grove), Benjamin Phillip, (New Brittain), John Cole (Williamston), Benjamin Davies (Pencoed), and Abraham Prickett, who were the pioneers of this cause, held services for some time at Pencoed, the residence of Mr. Benjamin Davies.
In 1819, these Baptists secured a plot of land about a mile from Pencoed, and erected a Chapel on the site of which the present Sanctuary now stands. The Church was constitutionally formed in 1820. It was fostered in its infancy by Rev. James Hughes Thomas, Waterholmes
. He was succeeded by Rev. Enoch Price who was also minister of Molleston. Following him was Rev. Henry Evans, who ministered here for twelve years.Another well-known minister was Rev David Phillips, who served this Church for twenty-three years: the first eleven conjointly with Molleston. He died in 1875, aged 72 years, and is interred in Molleston Baptist Burial Ground.
In 1875, this Church united with Martletwyn and Rev. Thos. Lodwig Evans, who was completing college studies at Haverfordwest. was invited to serve the Church His ministry extended for eight-years, He was succeeded by Rev Thomas Pandy John during whose three year ministry the manse was erected.
Other early ministers included Rev W M Morris, Rev Jesse Roberts and Rev S Howells.
The land for the Chapel Schoolroom, Dwelling House, Garden and Burial Ground were given by Henry Seymour Allen, Cresselly House.
In 1851 the return states that the general congregation is 200.
Carew Newton -Independent.
The Chapel was built in 1862 and it came under the direction of the minister of Horeb Martletwy although previously it had been a branch of Bethel St Florence.
Nebo.
In the 1851 census an independent chapel called Nebo is recorded erected in 1836 and having an average attendance of 20 in the morning and 50 in the afternoon.
Carew - Wesley Methodist.
This Chapel was built as part of the Pembroke Circuit in 1816 although a society was formed earlier probably about 1807.
The return for 1851 gives and average congregation of 130 People.
Neste children family names.
FitzHenry: (father was Henry I) killed in battle against Owain Gwynedd in Anglesey 1157, had a son, Fitzhenry Justiciary of Ireland in 1199 (Visited by Gerald in that year).
William FitzGerald/Carew: William, son of Gerald de Windsor & Nesta adopted the style of "de Carew" although he could have been another son of Henry I. One of his sons Baldwin de Carro took part in the Third Crusade in 1191.Maurice Fitzgerald: one of the principle leaders of the invasion on Ireland died 1176, in 1174 held the Castle at Wicklow and the county of Wicklow.
David FitzGerald: Bishop of St. Davids died 1176.Angharad: married William de Barry, they had three children, Robert de Barry, Phillip de Barry, Gerald of Wales (c 1146 -1223).
Robert - FitzStephen: seriously wounded in a battle against Owain Gwynedd after a sea borne attack on Anglesey 1157. 1166 Castellan of Cardigan Castle - betrayed to the Welsh under Rhys ap Gruffydd by a Welsh cleric Rhigyfarch - was imprisoned but released in time to take part in the Invasion of Ireland in 1170. Travelled through Leinster with Dermot King of Leinster (Acc/to Geraldus in his book on Ireland.)
Fitzroy
Owain, eldest son of Cadwgan, who had seen Nesta at a Feast at Cilgerran Castle - she was his second cousin, - saw fit to set fire to Pembroke Castle in order to carry her of to Powys. Afterwards he was constrained by the King to restore her to Gerald de Windsor, he refused she had two children by Owain. Henry I raised an army, invaded Ceredigion and devastated it. Owain escaped to Ireland - later he returned and succeeded to part of Powys but Gerald had not forgotten. While fighting side by side for the king against Gruffydd ap Rhys, Gerald and his men turned on Owain's men and slew Owain.
Gerald de Windsor ended his warlike career by dying peacefully at his wife's castle of Carew, (c1136) but his wife's career was not finished thereby. Though her children were now grown up and married, Nest still had her beauty - She transferred her affections to Stephen Constable of Caernarfon Castle then to the Sheriff of Pembroke, presenting each of them with a son.Sir Rhys ap Thomas, (1449 - 1525), the flamboyant and controversial Welsh military leader, who inherited the estates of Dinefwr, including Carew, on his father death. Thomas was the definition of Welsh chivalry. A brave lord and knight, fierce in battle and love, he played a major role in Henry Tudor victory over King Richard III at the Battle of Bosworth Field in 1485, a turning point in British history. Rhys was knighted on the battlefield and made Governor of Wales, by the now King Henry VII. By the time the Tudor came to power though, the age of chivalry was drawing quickly to a close. The last great Welsh tournament of knights was staged by Thomas at Carew in 1507. Spread over five days, the tournament drew over six hundred knights and retainers, with Rhys presiding over and judging the various contests. The sight was a marvel to behold. Chroniclers of the time wrote how the tournament was still the topic of conservation years after its conclusion.
He died at the age of 76 but although he left behind him only one son born in wedlock he had no less than 14 natural children most of whom founded or married into some of the leading families in South Wales.
Sir John Perrot was the reputed son of Henry VIII and Mary Berkeley Maid of Honour at Court who later married Sir Thomas Perrot. Sir John was probably born at Haroldston in 1527 but later resided chiefly at Carew and Laugharne.
1577 During the reign of Elizabeth I the Privy Council sent an indignant letter to Sir John Perrot cataloguing the misdeeds of John Callice "whereas their Lordships are given to understand that one John Callice, a notable pirate frequenting that county and arriving lately at Milford, was lodged and housed at Haverfordwest, and being there Known was suffered to escape, their Lordships do not a little marvel at the negligence of such as are Justices in those parts".
Acc/to Sir John Perrot - G Douglas James.
1527 Sir John Perrot born 1527 - natural son of Henry VIII, to whom he bore a remarkable resemblance in appearance, voice and temperament. His mother was Mary Berkeley, a lady of the Court and wife of Sir Thomas Perrot, a direct descendant of one of the Conqueror entourage. Born at Haroldston, near Haverfordwest noted for his abrasive manner, swearing, ungovernable temper, great strength.
1570, 1575, 1576 - Mayor of Haverfordwest.
1548-52 MP for Carmarthenshire.
1563-67 MP for Pembrokeshire.
1588 MP for Haverfordwest.
1551 High Sheriff for Pembrokeshire - later Vice Admiral for West Wales - part of his responsibilities was the suppression of piracy - but there is a strong suspicion that he shared in the proceeds.
Friend of Edward VI who made him a Knight of the Bath. Relationship acknowledged by Edward VI, Mary and Elizabeth. Imprisoned by Mary for favouring Protestantism and harbouring heretics at Haroldson.
One of the four who carried the canopy at Elizabeth's coronation - she appointed him Lord President of Munster to quell the Desmond Rebellion.
He was one of the wealthiest subjects of the Crown and had a great love for Haverfordwest which he endowed with a grant of property.
1591 falsely accused of High Treason - denounced by it is believed by Thomas Cardarn of Prendergast - condemned to death but Elizabeth refused to sign the death warrant - she resolved to pardon him but before the pardon was signed he died in the Tower and was buried in St Peters Church there.
"SIR JOHN PERROT"
The Elizabethan Era was perhaps the most glorious in our island history and one in which we can take great pride.
It saw the first fruits of the three outstanding events, the Renaissance, the Discovery of America and the Reformation, movements which revolutionised the activities and minds of the people of the Western World and when the people of our country passed to maturity and awakening, and awoke to the possibilities of a more intense and adventurous life of development.
With Elizabeth as its head, Burleigh as its eminent statesman, Shakespeare as the prince of dramatists, Bacon the great philosopher, Philip Sidney and Spencer its outstanding poets; Raleigh, Drake, Frobisher, its intrepid sailors, our country produced a galaxy of talent which, perhaps, has never been surpassed.
During this era our own county was the birthplace of one who, although he did not attain the eminence of the above named figures. was a very remarkable man who played a prominent part in those stirring times both nationally and locally. He was Sir John Perrott! a natural son of Henry VIII, to whom he bore a remarkable resemblance in appearance voice and temperament. His mother was Mary Berkeley a lady of the Court and wife of Sir Thomas Perrot, a direct descendant of one of the Conquerors entourage.
He was born at Haroldston, just outside the Borough of Haverfordwest and he was, throughout his life, the Outstanding personality in South Wales. From his earliest years he was noted for his ruffling ways, his prowess in athletics, his great strength and courage, and notorious for his arbitrary ways and ungovernable temper.
He was Mayor of Haverfordwest in 1570, 1575 and 1576, Member of Parliament for Carmarthenshire, 1548-52, for Pembrokeshire, 1563-67 and Haverfordwest in 1588.
In 1551 he was High Sheriff for Pembrokeshire and (1584-88). later Vice-Admiral for West Wales in which latter office he was responsible for the suppression of piracy, but he undoubtedly shared the booty of many a valuable cargo.
He was a great friend of Edward VI, who made him a Knight of the Bath, and although nothing was said of any acknowledgement of his parentage the relationship was frankly acknowledged by Edward VI, Mary and Elizabeth.
During the reign of Mary he was imprisoned for favouring Protestantism and harbouring heretics at Haroldston, but was released on her death.
Elizabeth granted him many favours. He was one of four who carried the canopy at her Coronation. She appointed him Lord President of Munster to quell the Desmond Rebellion, which he did in twelve months, and then returned to Haroldston and later to the Lordship of Carew Castle. Subsequently he was appointed Lord Deputy of Ireland.
In 1591 he was falsely accused of High Treason, being denounced, it is said by Thomas Cadere of Prendergast. He was condemned to death, but Elizabeth refused to sign the death warrant as she knew he was innocent and resolved to pardon him, but before the warrant was signed he died in the Tower of London and was buried in St. Peters Church there.
His portrait, which hangs in the Shire Hall, Haverfordwest, and presented to the County by Sir Charles E. G. Philipps, Bart., of Picton Castle, is a copy of the original painting in the possession of Sir John Pakington, Bart., of Twickenham and formerly of Westwood, Worcestershire, a direct descendant of Sir John Pakington, Bart., who married Hester, the inheritrix of Sir Herbert Perrot of Haroldston, in 1700.
In 1727 Richard Rawlinson, LL.D., F.R.S., St. Johns College, Oxford, received from Ireland the original manuscript of "The Life, Deedes and Death of Sir John Perrot" which he published in London the following year, and which has been authenticated as having been written by an unknown author about the latter end of the reign of Queen Elizabeth.
It is from this book that the following details of Sir Johns character have been extracted.
"Sir John Perrot was a man in stature very tall and big, exceeding the ordinary stature of man by much, and almost equal to the mightiest men that lived in his time. His body was very compact and proportional through all its parts. As he did exceed most men in stature so did he in strength of body. His hair was auburn until it grew grey in his elder years, his countenance full of majesty his eye marvelous piercing and carrying a commanding aspect. In time of danger he showed himself resolute and valiant. He had a very sharp wit, and was (as may be said) naturally wise, for though he was not learned in the sciences yet would he give as good a reason for matters of Experiment as most men. He had in him many excellent parts, as Magnanimity, Valour, Ripeness of Judgement, Understanding of the Languages as the French, Spanish, the Italian, and in fact, matters that a man not professing Learning could comprehend; he had some defects else had he not been flesh and blood. He would swear too much which proceeding from custom and partly from choler, he could hardly refrain when provoked."
The Rev James Phillips (1847-1907) in his "History of Pembrokeshire gives the following vivid and striking estimate of his character:
"He was a true son of Henry VIII. If he reproduced in an exaggerated form the faults and vices which stained his father's character without the genuine refinement and culture which half concealed them from the King's contemporaries, he also inherited those qualities that enabled the masterful Tudor to retain in so large a measure, the confidence and loyal admiration of his people.
Most significant is the admission of his bitter enemy that he was "friended" as well as feared.
Unclean of lip and life, unscrupulous in his greed ungovernable in his passions, cruel in his resentment, he was yet loved quite as much as he was hated.
Patriotic and loyal to the hearts core, and sincere in his attachment to the Protestant Faith, he might have taken a high place among the statesmen of Elizabeth's reign if it had not been for the violence of his temper and the foulness of his morals and his speech. The Queen entertained a high opinion of his abilities.
He had been one of the wealthiest subjects of the Crown, but the extravagance of his habits, the expensive vices in which he indulged, the number of his retainers and his princely liberality, left him little margin of income over expenditures.
Sir John had a great love for Haverfordwest and he always took a prominent part in its administration. He was Mayor three times and in 1588 was its Member of Parliament. During his lifetime the town attained great prosperity. It contained many men of enterprise and foresight, and the Queens Surveyor described it, "The best buylt, the most civill and quickest occupied towne in South Wales". George Owen of Henllys, Lord of Kemes, our first illustrious County Historian, stated that "Haverfordwest is a good towne, wealthie and well governed". With its seven guilds and the many productive activities in the town many merchants built up a lucrative and foreign trade, and in this Sir John was intimately interested.
It is therefore not surprising that being so engrossed in the towns prosperity and future development he should endow the town with a princely gift the benefits from which it still happily enjoys.
As will be seen from the GRANT dated 20th September, 1580, he directed that the rents and profits derived from the messuages, lands and tenements devised therein were to be expended to the improvement of the Town of Haverfordwest, and to the repair of the streets, bridges, walls, conduits of water, and all other dilapidations of Haverfordwest as well as to the rebuilding of the new quay in the town and all other useful works which may be needful or suitable for the improvement of the town.
The original document which is written in Latin inscribed on parchment is in excellent condition and is now displayed on the wall in the Mayors Parlour in the Corporation Offices, Picton Place. And interesting, is Sir John's seal attached.
In May 1899 the Deed was translated by Henry OwenEsq., D.C.L. (Oxon), F.S.A*
1588 - 1613
Acc/to Lewis Dwnn Dep. Herald of Wales.
Listed under Carew is Richard Grafton Esq. he was the son of the printer of Tyndall's New Testement and married 1st Joan Nicholson and 2nd Brichiart daughter of John Cheyne Esq.
Under Carew Castle is Sir John Carew Knt who married Elizabeth daughter of Thomas Southcote.
1200c among the Castles and Churches mentioned by Giraldus Cambrensis are those of Carew.
1210 June King John - on his way to Ireland - deprived William de Carew of his house and lands at Karrie.
1211 May 11 William de Carew on payment of a fine had his lands restored.
1213 William de Carew died his heir was a minor the wardship passed into the hands of William FitzJohn de Hapetre.
One son of William, Thomas de Carew became Bishop of St Davids in 1248 and was succeeded in 1256 by his nephew Richard de Carew.
1231 47 not dated Declaration by A(nselm) bishop of St Davids, that he has approved an arrangement whereby Richard of Carreu, Rector of Carreu, withdrew his claim in respect of certain lands on which Richard Melin and his men dwelt, in consideration of Richard Melin granting to him, in the name of the church of Carreu, four acres next the churchyard. PRO., Ancient Deeds, Kings Remembrancer D 3586 2,2
1293 Inventory of the Goods of the Bishop of St Davids.
KAIRU (Carew, Pembs.)
2 stacks of wheat estimated at 90 cribs worth £15 15s 0d at 3s. 6d. per crib
20 cribs of peas worth 40s. at 2s. per crib.
70 cribs of barley worth £9.1, at 2s. 9d. per crib.
4 cribs of oats worth 18s. at 4s. per crib.
Total £29 5s 6d
1324 August 20 Pembroke
C Edward II File 85
Extent made before John de Hamptona, Kings escheator, at Pembroke 20 August 1324 Jurors Walter Maeleufaut, Walter de Castro, John Keiez (Kneghey) John Melin, Walter Harald; Stephen Perot, Walter Eliot; Wioti de Laureny, John Cradok (John de Luny) William de Crippynes, Thomas Martin, and John Scorlags.
[as per C Edward II file 84 plus following]
Aymer had in the county of Pembroch 25 1/2 knights fees and one tenth knights fee, whereof:
Caru, 5 knights fees held by John de Carru, worth yearly, 100m.
1326 Acc/to the Black Book of St David's.
The tenants of the Bishop at Lamphey as part of their services had the following duties:
Item they ought to carry the material for the houses and mills at their own cost from Loydarth, Lawhaden, Tenby, Pembroke, Carrew, and Slebeech to Llantefey, and the value of this joint service is, according to its, true value, 6s 8d.
And they ought to load the waggons and carts of the Lord going for wine to Tenby, Pembroke and Carrew, and convey the same safe to the Lord s cellar at their own cost in addition to the stallage.
1328 1329
m 12d. View of the Account of John Cauntrel and Geoffrey Torytoun, reeves of Pembroke from Michaelmas 1328 to Michaelmas 1329.
yearly toll of the horses of Careu; 3s
1331 m49
Originalia Roll 3 Edward III m 49 County of Pembroke in South Wales.
The township of Carrew for the chattels of William de Carrew, parson of the church of Carrew, a fugitive, 40s.
This schedule was delivered at the Exchequer personally by William Casse, one of the Justices mentioned above.
1331 Dec 8 Clarendon.
Patent Roll 5 Edward III pt 3 m IId, (Cal p 236).
Commissions to Gilbert Talbot, Thomas de Chadesworth and Richard Simon; on information that certain persons have carried away from the castle of Manerbire, Penaly and Carru the goods of Richard Barri, Thomas de Carru and William de Carru, and have forcibly possessed themselves of the lands of these same men, which were lately seized into the king's hands by the steward of the county of Pembroke.
1348 September 2 Westminster.
I.P.M. Edward III, files 91 and 92 Lawrence de Hastynges
tolls of horses in the barony of Careu and in Castle Martin, 6s yearly
1348 September 24 Pembroke
Writ of certiorari de feodis etc., to John de Shol, escheator in Hereford and the adjacent March of Wales, 24 September, 22
Laurence de Hastings, Earl of Pembroke, had in the county of Pembroke 251/2 knights fees and three carucates of land, viz;
Carreu 5 fees held by John de Carreu, worth yearly 100m
Coydrath one tenth fee held by William son of Thomas of Carreu, John Maleufaut, John Perot, worth yearly 13s 6d
1358 May 10
Writ 10 May 32 Edward III, to Henry de Prestewode, escheater in co. Hereford and the adjacent marches of Wales, directing him to enquire of what liberties belonging to the earldom and lordship of Pembroke, the said earl was seised, and who has occupied the same since his death.(Laurnce de Hastings died 30 Aug 1348)
Inquisition made at Pembroke, Thursday the feast of St Petronilla, 32 Edward III (31 May 1358).
Carruw The suit of John de Carruw for his lordship of Carruw and all the other liberties aforenamed, as pertaining to the said county.
1375 April 21 Westminster Patent Roll 49 Edward III pt 1 m6 (Cal p 124)
Commission to John Joos "chivaler", Hugh Brumhull, parson of the church of Carru, and Thomas Castel, to be the king s attorneys, to receive seisin in his name from Walter Amyas, John Abraham, John Doune, John Prat, and Ralph de Walsham of the castle and county of Pembroke, the castles and lordships of Tynby and Kylgarren and the commote of Oystrelowe in Wales, to hold until the end of the term contained in certain charters indented, with remainder in tail to John, son and heir of John de Hastynges late earl of Pembroke, and reversion to the king and his heirs.
1376 August 24 Blatherwick Close Roll 49 Edward III m 23d (Cal p 248 ).
Witnesses: William Bishop of Winchester, Master Adam de Houton bishop of St David s, Sir William Latymer the chamberlain, Sir John de Neville steward of the household, Sir John Knyvet the chancellor, Sir Richard Lescrofte the treasurer, Sir Nicholas Carreu keeper of the privy seal, Sir John de Cavendish the chief justice, Sir Robert Bealknap chief justice of the Common Bench, Sir William Tauk chief baron of the exchequer. Dated Westminster 21 April 49 Edward III.
1376 20 November I.P.M., Edward III, 248, f. 105
5 knight's fees in Carrewe, held by John de Carrewe, worth £25 yearly; besides reprisals; one tenth of a knight's fee in Coytrath which William, son of Thomas of Carrew, John Malefaunt, and John Perot formerly held and worth etc 10s.
1401 PATENT ROLL, 3 Henry 1V, pt. I,m. 26d. (Cal., p. 66).
Commission to Thomas Carrewe, chivaler , and John Michel, serjeant-at-arms, to arrest David Perot of the county of Pembroke, esquire, and bring him before the king and council and to seize all his goods and any armour in his custody.
1403 16 June PATENT ROLL 4 Henry IV pt 2 m 19d ( Cal p280)
Commission of array in the county of Pembroke and the lordships and county of Rous to Thomas, Earl of Worcester Thomas, baron of Carrew, John Organ, John Joce, William Malelefaunt, Thomas .Roche, Richard Wiriot, John Eynor, and Thomas Rede, on information that Owen Glyndourdy and othel rebelsof those parts for want of victuals intend to come suddenly with no small posse to the marches of the county to seek victuals and waste the county.
1403 November 2
Guy etc. to Master John Kermerdyn licenciate in laws, our official, greeting etc. Sir Thomas Carreu, knight, has presented to us Sir William Webber, chaplain, to the parish church of Carreu, vacant and belonging to his presentation, as he says.
1404 February 28/29th London
Also on the last day of the month of February,in the year and place abovesaid, the bishop admitted Sir William John, chaplain, to the perpetual vicarage of the parish church of CARREU, of his diocese, vacant by the free resignation of Sir John Bole, last vicar there, as appears by a public instrument made upon the said resignation, at the presentation of Sir William Webber, rector of the parish church of Carreu beforesaid.
1407 February
Guy, etc., to John, prior of the priory of St.Thomas the Martyr, Haverford, greeting, etc.
Order, - Although all and singular who hinder or disturb, cause others to hinder or disturb, or ratify these things done in their name, any persons whatsoever holding ecclesiastical benefices and any one of them from being able to dispose freely in respect of such their benefices of the tithes, profits, rents, fruits and oblations of the same, or who lightly withdraw, carry away or take away, cause or procure to be withdrawn, carried away or taken away, tithes, fruits, rents, profits and oblations, beyond and contrary to the will of rectors and vicars and other ecclesiastics, or ratify such withdrawal, carrying away and taking away, done in their name, are in the constitutions of the holy father, in the condemnation of the sentenced the greater excommunication, nevertheless some sons of iniquity, satellites of Satans unmindful of their own salvation, have hindered and disturbed and still disturb Master John Cole, rector or warden of the free chapel of Ogiston, from being able to dispose freely in respect of his said chapel of the tithes, profits, fruits, rents and oblations of the same free chapel, as of right he should, and have ratified and still ratify such impediment and disturbance done in their name; and such his tithes, fruits, rents, profits and oblations, beyond and against his will, they have withdrawn, carried and taken away, caused or procured to be withdrawn, carried and taken away, and have ratified the withdrawal, carrying and taking away, done in their name, and still illegally detain such tithes etc. withdrawn, carried away and taken away, incurring the condemnation of the said sentence of the greater excommunication under which they still remain to the grave peril of the souls of themselves and of others Willing to have dealings with the same, and the great prejudice of the said Master John and his chapel aforesaid. Wherefore we commit unto [and] firmly enjoining in virtue of obedience and under pain of the greater excommunication command you that you solemnly pronounce in your churches during the solemnization of mass when the number of people present is largest, with ringing of bells, with the cross Uplifted, with candles lighted and thrown to the ground for their Condemnation, and the other solemnity usual in such denunciation, you denounce all and singular such malefactors as having been so excommunicated generally, and as being excommunicated, not ceasing from such denunciation until you have other mandate from us. Dated on the day and in the year and place abovesaid.
And like mandates went out to the rector and the vicar of Carrew; the rector and the vicar of Manerbeere; and the rector of St. Giles; and to all curates of the same deaneries.
1447 Nicholas de Carew held lands in Angle of Edward deShirburn, "by military service and suit of Edwards Court at Nangle".
1482 10 October
On 10 October at Monkton by Pembroke in the year as above R. (Richard Martyn ). Bishop of St David's beforesaid collated to one Peter David the perpetual vicarage of the church of the blessed Mary Cairiw, vacant and in his collation by lapse etc. And he had letters etc.
1482 5 Nov
On the fifth day of the month aforesaid, at Llanafan-fawr, the vicarage of the parish church of Carew vacant by the resignation of Sir John Watkyn last vicar there and in the said reverend father's collation, was collated to Sir David Veynor.
1486 June 2
On June 2 in the same year, in the manor of Lantfey, one Sir Thomas Williams , chaplain was admitted to the perpetual vicarage of the parish church of the Blessed Mary Cairiw, vacant by the death of the Sir Peter Toker last vicar there, on the presentation of master Hugh Raglan rector of the said church. And he had letters in the usual form.
1488 12 February
Henry etc. to H. bishop of St. David's, greeting:
we command you that you do not for any liberty omit to enter and cause to be levied for us of goods, benefices, and ecclesiastical possessions, of the underwritten churches in your diocese the sums written by parcels below, namely, -- of the church of Carew, £6.
1491 13 May
On 13 May etc. lord Hugh etc. admitted Sir Lewis Tailour, chaplain, to the vicarage of the parish church of Carew vacant by the death of Sir Thomas last vicar there; and he was canonically instituted in the same etc. And it was written to the archdeacon of St David's or his official touching his induction. He is presented to this vicarage by Master Hugh Raglan rector there, the patron.
Lewis Tailor was appointed acolyte February 1487, deacon March 1487, priest April 1487, 1491 was instituted as Vicar of Carew and resigned in 1492.
1492 5 January Llamphey
On 5 January in the year and place aforesaid Sir John Tasker, chaplain, was admitted to and instituted according to the form etc. in the parish church of St Mary, Carew, then vacant by the resignation of Sir Lewis Tailour last vicar there and in the gift of Master Hugh Raglan rector there.
1493 20 October
On 20 October etc. he admitted Master John Barret, chaplain, to the church of St. Mary, Carew, and instituted him rector and invested him in the same then vacant by the death of Master Hugh Raglan last rector there and in the gift of Richard Nywton, esquire, patron of the said church for this turn by reason of the advowson sufficiently granted and delivered to him in this behalf for a single turn by Edmund baron of Carew.
1517 there was a tax on the churches levied for the king for the preservation and defence of the famous realm and for other considerations of two tenths Carew was one of those exempt.
1527 Rhys ap Thomas died at Carew [ when his descendant Lord Dynevor repaired the tomb in 1865 there was found in it the skeletons of Rhys and his second wife Janet widow of Thomas Stradling. One of his natural daughters Margaret married Henry Wirriott of Orielton, High Sheriff in 1548; their son George had a son who died young and an only daughter who married Sir Hugh Owen of Bodowen, Anglesey.
1528 Sir Rhys ap Griffiths of Carew Castle complained to Cardinal Wolsey that 20,000 Irish "raskells" had landed in Pembrokeshire.
1531 Henry VIII granted the governorship of Carew Castle to his natural son Sir John Perrott of Haroldson and Jestynton by Mary Berkley wife of Sir Thomas Perrot of Haroldson. He owned many manors on the south side of the Haven among which where Pennar, East and West Popton and "Halle Place in Nangle" he died in the Tower in 1592 and had been Governer Deputy for Ireland in 1583 - 8.
1532. M1SC. BOOK NO. 151, ff. 31-3.
Seisin of the lands, etc., of Rice ap Griffith, attained in the county of Pembroke. The dates and places at which seisin and possession were taken to the use of the king by Maurice ap Henry, John Smith and William Brabazan, the royal commissioners appointed for this purpose.
County of Pembroke.
Town of Pembroke - in a tenement in High Street, 21 January, 23 Henry Vlll (1532), possession was taken of all castles, lordships, lands, rents, and of any other possession whatsoever in the aforesaid county, lately belonging to Rees ap Griffith, in the presence of many there.
Old Carewe. - in the castle there 21 January, 1532, Possession taken of all lands, etc.
1534 In the rural deanery of Pembroke there were 41 parishes all told. Within this deanery were some of the best benefices in the county: Carew (£43), Tenby (£26) and Narberth (£25). In all there were 12 parishes worth more than 10 pounds a year. Of these only two had a resident parson in 1534, and they were two of the least valuable - Begelly (£12) and Bosheston (£11).
1601 Robert Earl of Essex became a favourite of Elizabeth I and she bestowed Carew Castle on him but later fell in disgrace and was beheaded in 1601 on Tower Hill.
1689 William Lewis High Sheriff is described as of Carew castle - presumably he was a tenant.
1762 George Hair of Carew along with five others had to answer charges at the great sessions for Pembrokeshire for stealing from the sloop "Two Partners" wrecked in Lydstep Bay.
1803 Aug 17 Haverfordwest Robert B Prust Clerk of the General Meeting to John Colby Esq. at Finone.
At a general meeting of the lieutenancy of the county of Pembroke held at Haverfordwest the 15 instant, it was ordered that application be made to Lord Milford to have beacons erected on Presseli, Frenin Fawr, Carew Beacon and Roch castle.
(Owen and Colby MS 2181).
1834 The Topographical Dictionary of Wales S Lewis.
CAREW, a parish in the hundred of NARBERTH, county of PEMBROKE, 5 miles E by N. from Pembroke, on the road from Narberth, containing 1020 inhabitants. This parish probably derives its name, which was perhaps originally Caerau, from several ancient British fortifications, upon the site of some of which a magnificent castle in the Norman style was erected by Gerald de Windsor, lieutenant to Ralph de Montgomery, and who on the subsequent disgrace of that baron, was appointed by Henry I. castellan of Pembroke. Gerald married Nest, daughter of Rhys ab Tewdwr, Prince of South Wales, with whom, among other manors, he obtained that of Carew, on which he built a strong and superb castle, coequally adapted to the purposes of a military fortress and a splendid baronial residence.
Before Gerald was well fixed in his new palace, it was attacked by Owain, the son of Cadwgan ab Bleddyn, who, being informed of the surpassing beauty of Nest, at a banquet given by Caedwgan, at the castle of Aberteivy, or, as some think, at that of Eare Weare, in the parish of Amroath, became enamoured of her, and assaulting the castle at night, with a party of his adherents, carried her off by force.
This celebrated structure, of which the ruins plainly indicate its pristine grandeur, descended to William, the son of Gerald, who first assumed the name of Carew, probably corrupted from Caerau, and continued for several generations in his family till the reign of Henry VII when Sir Edward Carew mortgaged the estate to Sir Rhys ab Thomas, who, it is generally believed added the noble suite of state apartments on the north east and made it his residence during the latter period of his life. Sir Rhys being a knight of the most noble order of the garter, and unable from age and infirmity to attend his sovereign in London, on the celebration of St. Georges day kept that festival with princely magnificence at his castle of Carew, upon which occasion he entertained with sumptuous hospitality six hundred of the principal nobility and gentry of the surrounding country, whom he feasted for a whole week, and diverted with jousts, tournaments, and other exercises of chivalry.
On the attainder of Grufydd ab Rhys, son of the above nobleman, in the reign of Henry VIII., the estate was leased for a term of years to Sir Andrew Perrot and others, from whom the remainder of the term was subsequently purchased by Sir John Carew, lineal descendant of Sir Edward Carew, to whom the whole was granted in fee by Charles I.
Thomas Carew Esq., great grandson of Sir John, dying in 1760, without male issue, the estate was divided between his two daughters and coheiresses, and is now the property of John Warrington Carew, Esq., of Crocombe Court, in the county of Somerset.
The castle was erected on a peninsular promontory of inconsiderable elevation, in the southern branch of Upton creek in Milford Haven, and occupies a quadrangular area of considerable extent, defended at the angles with massive circular towers: the more ancient part, built in the reign of William Rufus is in the Norman style of architecture, and the splendid range of state apartments, on the north-east, is in the most elaborate and finished style of the later English. The ruins are extensive, and may be regarded as among the most interesting and beautiful in the principality: the walls of several of the noble apartments and of the chapel are still remaining and are replete with elegant detail; the former consisted of a noble range, two stories in height, lighted by lofty square-headed windows of elegant design, and enriched with beautiful tracery and the exterior of the front was decorated with two lofty and spacious oriel windows From the towers, to the summits of which an ascent is afforded by staircases in a dilapidated condition, an extensive and pleasing prospect is obtained of the haven, on one side, and of the surrounding country on the other, which abounds with interesting scenery, enlivened by humorous seats in the vicinity. Within the parish are several gentlemen s seats, of which the principal are, Milton House, formerly part of the extensive estate belonging to Upton castle., and now the property and residence of William Bowen, Esq., an elegant modern mansion, pleasantly situated within grounds tastefully laid out, and comprehending some interesting and diversified scenery; Freestone Hall, the residence of J. Allen, Esq., commanding from the grounds some of the finest views in the county, embracing Lawrenny and its fine estuary, Clareston, and the hundred of Rhos, to the west; and south Wilsdon a substantial modern houses the seat of George Donne, Esq. This last was erected on the site of an ancient family mansion, in which Oliver Cromwell took up his quarters, while besieging the castle of Pembroke: during his abode here, he was confined to his bed by an attack of the gout, and, in writing a dispatch to the parliament, is said to have spilled some ink upon the a coverlid, which is still preserved in the family. The parish contains a vast quantity of excellent limestone, which is conveyed in small craft of twelve or fifteen tons burden to the upper parts of this county and of Cardiganshire. Coal of inferior quality is procured on the north side of the parish but only for the supply of the immediate neighbourhood.
The living is a discharged vicarage, in the archdeaconry and diocese of St. David's, not rated in the King's books, endowed with £200 private benefaction £400 royal bounty, and £800 parliamentary grant, and in the patronage of the Bishop of St. David's. The church, dedicated to St. John the Baptist, is a spacious and venerable structure, in the early style of English architecture with a lofty square embattled tower, comprising a nave and aisles, a chancel, and a north transept; the floor is paved with bricks, several of which bear curious inscriptions. In the north transept, which was the sepulchral chapel of the owners of the castle, is an altar-tomb, on which are the recumbent effigies of Sir John Carew and his lady, with the date 1637 and in the south aisle are the effigies of a crusader and a priest, but without either date or inscription. In the churchyard is an ancient building, apparently coeval with the church, which is occasionally used as a parochial school, the master being appointed by the vicar. There are places of worship for Baptists and Wesleyan Methodists. Near the turnpike gate is a perfect cross, of that kind usually called St. Catherine's of which the circular head is fixed into a tall shaft, ornamented with scrolls and tracery, rising from a substantial pedestal; in one of the compartments into which the shaft is divided there is an illegible inscription.
The average annual expenditure for the maintenance of the poor amounts to £406. 13.
1838
According to the Tithe Survey under the Commutation of Tithes Act 1836.
The land utilisation was:
Arable land 1,568 acres
Pasture land 3,253acres
Cottages and Homes 50 acres
Woodland 22 acres
Roads and waste land 173 acres
Vicarial and Rectorial Glebe 35 acres
The Landowners and tenants were
George Henry Carew owned 1304 acres covering parts of the whole parish. He was not resident.
His Tenants were
James Allen
George Allen
George Bevan
George Bowen
John Codd
John Copp
James Edwards
Elizabeth Griffiths
John Harries
Thomas Heir
Thomas John
Richard Llewellin
George Llewellin
Sarah Llewellin
Mrs morgan
Henry Nutting
William Richards
John Rowe
Rebecca Rogers
William Shear
Isaac Vaughan
Martha Rowe
James Macken
James Rogers
Thomas Davies
John Beynon
John Gwyther
Margaret Allen
Hugh Lloyd
Michael Llewellin
Esther Rogers
Benjamin John
Richard Rowe
Thomas Moody
Thomas Griffiths.
Edward Laws owned 1167 acres in parts of the whole parish. He was not resident.
His tenants were
Mrs Mary Davies
Isaac Eynon
Elizabeth Griffiths
John Griffiths
Elizabeth Hooke
George Knight
William Morris
William Ormond
Mary Palmer
John Priest
Henry Phillips
John Phillips
Thomas Roberts
Thomas Rowe
John Rowe
John Prickett
James Stratton
John Sinnett
John Thomas
William Morris
William Lewis
John Hensleigh Allen owned 819 acres mainly located at Cresswell and Llandigwynett. He resided in the parish.
His Tenants were:
Martha Arthur
George Bowen
John Codd
Thomas Davies
Thomas Evans
Mrs Anne Ormond
Thomas Ormond
Mrs Elizabeth Palmer
James Picton
James Smith
Richard Thomas
Mrs Wilson
Benjamin Davies
Benjamin Hitchings
James Parcil
John Harcourt Powell owned 536 acres mainly at Carew Newton. he was non resident.
His tenants were:
Thomas Adams
Robert Brinn
Thomas Griffiths
Hugh Lloyd
John Lewis
William Morris
Anne Ormond
James Rees
Thomas Ormond
John Rowe
James Teague
Mrs Martha Phelps owned 227 acres around Stephen's Green and was resident.
She had no tenants
William Ormond owned 210 acres around Cardeeth and was resident.
He had one tenant
Hugh Edwards
William Bowen owned 207 acres around Milton and was resident.
His Tenants were:
Mrs Mary Davies
Thomas Thomas
Jeremiah Lear owned 192 acres at Poyerston and was not resident.
His tenant was:
George Dunn
Rev F George Leach owned 190 acres at Ford and was not resident.
His Tenant was
John Morgan
George Dunn owned 175 acres at Welston and was resident.
He had no tenants
Mrs Lettie Llewellin owned 73 acres at Carew Newton and was resident.
Her Tenant was
Thomas Adams
George Llewellin owned 72 acres at Williamston and was resident.
His Tenants were
William Lewis
John Phillips
Thomas Griffiths
Lord Bishop of St Davids owned the rectorial glebe and parsonage although non resident.
The Tenant was
Jane Francis
Rev William Paynter Evans Owned 8 acres at Milton and was non resident.
His Tenant was:
William Rogers
Rev Gustavus L Hamilton ( vicar) owned 6 acres (vicarial glebe) and was resident . He had no tenant.
The Tithe map also shows that there was :-
a road from Dairy Hays (Carew Cheriton) and Summerton.
Upper Lane parallel to Lower lane between Williamston and Carew Newton.
Between New Shipping Farm to Carew Bridge and Crickchurch Ford.
1563 Number of Households 70
1670 Number of households on Hearth Tax 104
1801 census number of families 183
1831 1020 total 520 m 500f 189 inhabited houses
1841 1056 total 497m 559f 230 inhabited houses.
It is believed that the chapel in the churchyard was used as a school from 1625 until a new school was built in 1872.There is a record that there was a school in the parish in 1837 as the Tithe Apportionment meeting was held in the Schoolroom on the 20th October 1837. The building was the Chapel within the Churchyard.
State of Education in Wales 1847.
PARISH OF CAREW. "National School". An old chapel, erected in the churchyard, is the school-room. It is in Good repair, except the floor. There is a way to it without going through the churchyard. It wants more light. The school is in great measure supported by the Vicar and the nieghbouring proprietors. The scholars pence are paid weekly in advance. The furniture consisted of the master's desk, five desks for the scholars, 11 benches, a large map of the ovoid published by Varty, and a black board. The scholars are composed of 10 farmers , and the rest labourers children. Very correct accounts of the scholars are kept. The school was closed for the Christmas holidays. The master, whom I saw at the School room, appeared to be an intelligent young man. He writes a superior hand as did many of his scholars, judging from their copy-books.
Mr. Kendry's School. This small school is kept in the master's dwelling-house, which is a very dilapidated state, almost falling down. The furniture for the use of the school consists only of two benches. There were in the room also a bed, a coffer, an old chest, and two or three old boxes. The master was a limestone quarryman until he met with an accident. His receipts from the school are trifling. He has 1s. a week from the parish. He could read tolerably well.
The first scholars he had are labourers children, seemingly of the very poor. He does not profess to teach anything except reading. A part of the 5th chapter of Acts was read. They could answer no questions from the chapter. To general questions proposed by me they said that Christ was born in Bethlehem, was crucified by the Jews, was buried, did not know where, is now in heaven, will come again to judge the world. Carew Newton is in the county of Pembroke. One said there were six, and another that there is eight days in a week, twelve months in a year, Christmas is tomorrow.
Dec 24th, 1846. WM. MORRIS.
(They were right because the inspection was on Christmas eve).
In 1541-2 Richard Gwyther was lessee of the fulling-mill at Milton for 26s 8d The mill is shown at the same value in the list of kings mills in 1608.
(Cal. Pub Records relating lo Pembrokeshire, III 181; Cat. of MSS relating to Wales in the British Museum, I 78)
The grid number refers to Milton township. There is a sixteenth-century water. mill, operating tidally on the Carew estuary, close by Milton (SN 041038;). Arch. Camb., 126 (1977), 171.
Milton waterworks, built in 1898 to pump water from Milton springs to supply the nearby towns of Pembroke and Pembroke Dock. It was built on the site of an early mill. The village pump was restored by local people and the Carew Wesley Youth Group. Nearby ,linked by a short straight sided Canal to Radford Pill There is an old stone quarry where during the I9c the blue grey Carboniferous Limestone was extensively quarried for use as building stone and the production of lime for agricultural use.
This was the site from which the "Blue Stones" were quarried and transported to Stonehenge.
Acc/to Wales before 1066 by Donald Gregory.
Carreg Samson in the parish of Mathry lying 7 miles to the SW of Fishguard, near Abercastle.
Today all that remains of a long barrow, which originally was probably covered by stones rather than by grass, are seven upright stones roofed by a capstone. Inland along this coast another ten similar neolithic sites may be found.
Carreg
Wastad
927406
Here is to be found the commemorative memorial to mark site of the last
invasion of Britain in 1797. When a French force commanded by General Tate
landed and where forced to surrender by a much smaller force of Militia. The
Battle Honour of "Fishguard" was awarded to the Militia Forces
that took part.
The site of a Miniature Tower House equipped
with fireplace and chimney - upper floor supported by stone barrel vaulted under
croft. Castell Coch is close to Canaston Bridge - Cross Hands road.
Acc to Medieval Buildings - published by Preseli District Council -
it is a
stone shell of a small moated mansion, with an adjacent fish pond just
discernable dating probably from the late 14c.
CASTELLAN, a chapelry, in the
parish of Penrith, union of Newcastle-Emlyn, hundred of Kilgerran, county of
Pembroke, South Wales, 6 miles (S. by E.) from Cardigan; containing 141
inhabitants. It forms an extensive portion of the parish, and is situated at the
northern foot of the Vrenni-Vawr mountain, the second in height in the county.
The chapel is in ruins, but the incumbent of the parish receives an annual
payment of a guinea from Lord Milford, the impropriator. There is a small place
of worship for Baptists, on the borders of this chapelry and the parish of
Llanvihangel Penbedw. Acc/to The Old Parish Churches of South
West Wales by Mike Salter (1994). Not much of this building stands above
the foundations. Tiny Roman camp on the acknowledged Roman
Road going towards "villa" at Wolfs Castle and on to St David's. A Topographical Dictionary of Wales - S Lewis 1849.
CASTLE-BIGH (CASTLE-BEITH), a parish, in the union of Haverfordwest, hundred of Kemmes, county of Pembroke,
South Wales, 10 miles (N. N. E.) from Haverfordwest; containing 266 inhabitants. The parish occupies some high ground, near the source of a
tributary of the Western Cleddau river. The living is a discharged rectory, rated in the king's books at £6, and in the patronage of the Lord
Chancellor: the church is dedicated to St. Michael. On the border of the parish are the
remains of a Roman encampment, through which runs the high road separating the
parishes of CastleBigh and Ambleston, and which is described in the
account of the latter place. There is another encampment near the church,
fortified with double ramparts, and occupying about four acres of ground. A
house in the parish, called "Poll-Tax Inn" received its name
from having been the place where that tax was collected. Acc/to The Old Parish Churches of South West Wales by Mike Salter (1994).
The plain pointed chancel arch dates
from c1200. The chancel was later widened southwards and given a recess on
that side. There was much rebuilding in 1875 but the building is now derelict. This
living is a rectory, formerly in the patronage of the Perrot family of
Haroldston, near Haverfordwest, being an appendage of their manor of
Castlebigh, but now in the gift of the Crown. Ecclesia ibidem ex collacione Johannis Parrot armigeri, domini hujus
manerii, unde Johannes Arnold, clericus, est rector valet communibus annis
clare £6. Inde decima 2s. - Valor Eccl. Castlebythe 23, £40 King's Books, £6. - Bacon's Liber Regis. An earthwork and cluster of houses not
far from the great bay of Freshwater West. The roundabout in the middle of the
village was the old cattle pound one of only two left in Britain the five
roads meeting at the pound the one leading in the direction of Linney Head bay
is still called Bull Street; then, as now, it led from the Castell to
Bluck"s Pwll, under Linney Head. The south portion of the parish in
now part of the Castlemartin Tank range and is not normally accessable. There is evidence of Middle
Stone age flint "factory". Members of the family of de Castro
Martini took part in the Irish Invasion under Henry II. and Strongbow, and
some remained and settled there, founding families; in later times the
daughter of an Irishman, Sir Nicholas de Castlemartin, married Sir Richard
Wellesley, an ancestor of the Dukes of Wellington. The
church, down a lane to the north, has a battlemented tower, and used to have
an organ that is alleged to have once belonged Mendelssohn. On the eastern side of the churchyard is a ruined building called "The Old
Rectory". The parish gave its name to a famous
breed of cattle, the long-horned Castlemartin Blacks. In 1874 they had their
own herd book but are know merged with the Welsh Blacks. Castlemartin was an exceedingly rich
and valuable corn-growing district. A tract of sand burrows and sand-blown
shorelands leading westward to Frainslake Sands and the sea. Here from time to
time traces of prehistoric man have been found. The collection which was at
Brownslade House comprised flint arrowheads, some with barbs. In the Tenby
Museum are two small unfinished celts and a well-formed spindle-whorl of
felsite fragments of chert have also been found, neither of these stones being
native. In the cabinet of fossels and shells known as the Bryant and Wright
collection, brought together in Pembrokeshire and West Wales in the latter
part of the 19th cent., and now in the Carmarthenshire Antiq. Society's
Museums is a fine specimen of a flint chisel labelled Brownslade concerning
which Mr. Reginald A. Smith, F .S.A., has reported "A Danish
Chisel of the last stage of the Neolithic period, say 2000BC and of a common
type in Scandinavia, but this is the first I have heard of from Britain". Danish flints have occasionally been
found near the east coast." There would seem to belittle doubt that the
chisel was found at Brownslade, and is unquestionably authentic". This is a
much-disturbed sepulchral mound standing in a field called Church-ways
belonging to the farm of Brownslade. It was
partially excavated in 1880, when remains of burials of men, women and
children where discovered on the south-eastern side, the bodies "
packed in tiers " of at least three deep With the remains were
found a piece of fine bronze which might have been an ear-ring ,a
finger-ring, and a small brass ring with a rude pattern of spots pounced on it
and also a small stoup, which is now fixed in the wall of Flimston Chapel.
Mixed with the human remains were animal bones, a few limpet shells, and a
flint flake. A little
to the north of this find was disinterred a human skeleton, placed on a
roughly-prepared clay surface and surrounded by rough dry masonry; with the
body was a horse's nipper, some animal bones and sea shells. In
the course of the reinterment of the human remains in the centre of the mound,
a cist burial was discovered about 3 feet below the surface; the bones were
much decayed-In the cist there some animal bones, a fragment of wheel-turned
pottery, a piece of Chert stone bored for use as a hammer, and a block of red
sandstone marked with V shaped lines. In the mound, but perhaps not connected
with any of the burials was a flat piece of limestone bearing a roughly
incised cross within a circle Laws, Little England! beyond Wales,
57-9, ill. Finds (a)
Wheel-turned pottery. (b)
A piece of fine bronze, possibly the remains of a finger ring. (c)
A small brass ring. (d) A
socketed pivot-stone, probably that of the door of the closely adjacent ruined
chapel; also a roughly hewn stoup
since fixed in Flimston Chapel (e)
A piece of chert about the size of half a brick, with a deep hollow on each
sidepossibly a cresset stone from the chapel. (f)
A block of red sandstone with indeterminate markings. (g)
A flat piece of limestone with roughly inscribed cross within a circle With the exception of the stoup all the above are in Tenby Museum. This earthwork is situated on the
verge of the cliffs at the mouth of Milford Haven, and at the boundary between
Castlemartin and Warren parishes. A natural peninsula is cut of by
two stony parallel banks, each of about 300 feet in length. The entrances are placed roughly midway, and are directly in line with each other. At the extreme point are
traces of a pathway down the cliff. This promontory camp is called by Fenton (Tour, 410) the Head of Man but that name
is not recognized to-day. It is of the usual character: a strong earthed bank,
having a fine outward sweep of about 500 feet in length, is cut across a wild
and storm-swept peninsula. The entrance is in the centre of the bank, the ends
being strengthened by a good stone facing, which has the original
construction. The exterior ditch is much silted up A zig zag path to the
sea at the extreme end of the camp is in good preservation. This earthwork is placed about 300 yards south-west of Bulliber farm-house. Continuous cultivation has largely
obliterated what was clear in 1880, when the earthwork was reported upon as follows:- Protected somewhat by a gully to the south, and gently sloping to the west, but the
ground rises slightly to the east and north. The main rampart is mostly about
3 feet above the interior with a 7 feet fall. To the north-west is a terrace,
35 feet wide, Beyond this there are two further banks with a ditch between
them. To the east, the most exposed-side, the defense is complicated; 62
feet in front of the first is a second rampart, the crest of which is 2 feet
higher than the first, with a small intermediate bank, 150 feet long, between
them, 4 feet lower than the first. And at the same distance in front is a
third rampart 3 feet higher than the first, with a 9 foot terrace
between it and the counterscarp of the second ditch. Forty-two feet in front
again is a fourth rampart 2 feet higher than the first, with a ditch in
front. All the ditches are about the uniform level of 3 feet below the ground
outside, except the main ditch, which is 5 feet. The southern side, owing to
the protection of the gully, is only defended by the rampart and ditch of the
inner enclosure. Round the western side up to the entrance there is the inner
rampart, with two others in front, with a ditch between the two last, but no
outer ditch. The entrance to the
enclosure has been disturbed; its present width is about 20 feet. The dry
weeks in May and June, 1922, revealed traces of an approach from the north. Spindle
Whorl. A small well-turned spindle whorl, found in Bulliber Camp was preserved at Brownslade. In the village of Castlemartin, in a
field north of the meeting of five roads, is the earthwork noted by Leland as
the "vestigia of Martine Castel." Though much
disturbed and somewhat difficult to determine, there can be traced a circular
bank, some 230 feet in diameter. It is best seen on the north, where it has a
12-feet fall to a ditch, now considerably effaced or occupied by buildings.
The counterscarp of the ditch rises 4 feet to the level. The ditch is
unusually wide, from 80 to 90 feet between the crest of the rampart and that
of the counterscarp to the north, decreasing to 60 feet on the west.
This has
been a moated homestead of somewhat irregular shape, enclosing about an acre of
ground, having the moat on three sides in fair condition and still fed
from an adjacent stream. The sides measure 180 and 150 feet respectively the
north arm of the moat has been filled in. The surrounding rampart has an
average rise of 2 feet from the interior level and falls 8 to 10 feet to
a ditch. The interior area bears no trace of buildings. Adjoining the site is
the farmhouse and mill known as the King's Mill. At the court farm is a
stone 18 inches by 15 inches bearing the profile of a crowned head in high
relief. It probably adorned the original King's Mill. The Old Vicarage. On rising ground in the
churchyard are the fragmentary ruins of a small domestic building known
as "the old vicarage," which was inhabited up to a few years
ago.
The Parish Church Ded. St Michael. The hands of their little boy were
used as a mold for the brass handles.
The
Church of St. Michael, Castlemartin, was on 29 June, 1299, granted to John,
called "Oysel," the Prior, and to the Monks of St. Nicholas,
Pembroke, by Joan de Valence, countess of Pembroke, and mother of Aymer de
Valence, Earl of Pembroke. - Pat. Rolls. To the
same priory William Marshall, Earl of Pembroke, granted the tithes of his mill
of Pembroke, Tenby, and Castlemartin. In 1461 the property of Pembroke Priory was granted by the King to the Abbey of
St. Albans, and on the dissolution of the latter house, Castle-martin Church
came into the hands of the Crown. In 1594 the Queen was patroness. - Owen's
Pem.
Under
the name, Castro Martini, this church was assessed in 1291 at £26 13s. 4d.,
the tenths thereon pay-able to the King being £2 13s 4d. - Taxaio. Vicaria
de Castro Martini. - Vicaria ibidem ex col-lacione prioris Pembr" unde
Thomas Lange, clericus, est vicarius sine gleba sed percipit in altilegiis
communibus annis viij li. In de in sinodalibus et pro cur acionibus quolibet
anno ij8 vjd. Et remanet dare £7 17s. 6d. Inde decirna 15s. 9d. - Valor
Eccl. Under
the heading "Livings Discharged": - Castle Martin V. (St.
Michael). Syn and Pro2r. quolibet anno 2s. 6d. Vah in altarag, &c. Prior
Pembrok. Propr. John Campbell, Esq., 1720, 1760, 1787 Clear yearly value,
£20.
King's Books, £7 17s. 6d. - Bacon's Liber Regis.
Robert
William
1345 Jan29 Castlemartin -vicar Froyne
Gilbert
1349 July 14 Castlemartin -vicar Hykedon
John 1390
Jan18 Castlemartin -vicar Malros
Philip
1390 Sep 12 Castlemartin -vicar Brown
Thomas 1398
Sep 12 Castlemartin -vicar Clement
Richard 1405
Apr4 Castlemartin -vicar Dole
John
1470 Nov20 Castlemartin -vicar Harry
William
1489
Castlemartin -vicar Baker
John
1489 Nov14 Castlemartin -vicar ap Owen
William 1501 Jan 22
Castlemartin -vicar Powell
Nicholas 1502
Oct1 Castlemartin -vicar Lewis
Thomas 1534
Castlemartin -vicar Lange
Thomas 1535-6
Castlemartin-vicar Walter
David
1554 Aug 2 Castlemartin -vicar Thomas
John
1563
Castlemartin -vicar Evans
John
1563 Oct8 Castlemartin -vicar Vaughan
Sir John 1563,4,5
Castlemartin## Butler
John
1564 Mar28 Castlemartim - vicar deprived of the
living 1565 ap Rice
Thomas 1565
Aug 12 Castlemartin - vicar Davies
William
1597
Castlemartin -vicar Loveling
Mathew 1671
Castlemartin -vicar Loveling
William 1672
Sep 23 Castlemartin -vicar Loveling
Thomas 1718
Nov5 Castlemartin -vicar son of
William Loveling previous vicar Phillips
Jeremiah
1760 Aug 12 Castlemartin -vicar Pritchett
Charles Pigott 1782 Oct 8
Castlemartin -vicar Jones
David
1814 Mar30 Castlemartin -vicar Allen
James
1839 Sep 10 Castlemartin -vicar Wilkinson
Clennell 1872
Dec 6 Castlemartin -vicar Puckridge Jonathan
Samual 1888 Nov 18 Castlemartin -vicar Parish
Registers held in the National Library of Wales go back to 1782 although
there are bishop's transcripts for 1685-7 Acc/to the returns for the census of Religious buildings in 1851
- the average
congregation was 73 in the morning and 19 in the evening.
Cross-Incised Stone.
During the inspection of this
church a stone built into the churchyard wall bearing a cross on both front
and back was noticed, apparently for the first time are very rude both in workmanship and in art. The stone was taken out of
the wall and removed into the Church,
Flimston Chapel St Martin. In the small burial-ground attached to
the chapel have been placed several large boulder-stones from the
neighbourhood, removed to save them from threatened destruction for road
metalling. That at the head of Lady Victoria Lambtons grave was taken from
just opposite Flimston Cottage to the south-east of the church, others were
brought from Pwllslaughters Bulliber Farm, Lyssery (Llysevery) Farm and
Merrion Pond. In the
east of the parish, by the side of the road leading to Flimston Chapel (No.
148), and north-west of Ermigate farm-house, is the three-tier base of a
cross; the field on which it stands is known as Cross Park (Tithe Schedule,
No. 308). An adjacent cottage is known as Addlegutter; referring to which
name and that of Ermigate the writer of Flimston Chapel (1914, p. 16)
says: "The assumption is that these names may be corruptions of St.
Emingitha and of St. Aethelgifa, either of whom may have made pilgrimages to
Pembrokeshire." Acc/to Edward Laws. Col Lampton in 1880 opened a tump in
the sand at Freynslake. It was built of sand and stones. In it he found two
skeletons in a kistvaen. From one he took the skull leaving the other as it
was. This skull was given to Tenby Museum and was described by Prof.
Rolleston as "the beautiful typical brachycephalic skull of a young
female". With it were ox ,pig, sheep or goat bones white water worn
pebbles and fragments of well baked black ware. A field next west to Linney farm-house
is so called (Tithe Schedule, No. 437) Nothing is now remembered of any
standing stone here. It was probably used when the adjoining coastguard
station was erected. Two fields
south of Brownslade Farm, the names being still in local use. This bridge over Castlemartin Corse, doubtless meaning Stone Bridge but
called. Stem Bridge on the Ordnance sheets, is situated at the point where
this parish meets those of Hundleton and Warren. This was the western limit of the
Lordship of Pembroke by the grant by Henry 1
(Fenton Tour 405) Said (Pem. Arch. Survey ) to be
built into the wall covering the over-flow of the Brownslade tank but seems to
have disappeared.
With dragonesque ornament found at Castlemartin - believed to be of Scandinavian origin ( in National Museum of
Wales). The
Castlernartin floors in South Pembrokeshire have produced the two stones, One,
partly bored slantwise, is, apparently, an unfinished hammer, thrown on one
side because the boring had "gone wrong." The stone is of a
green granite, similar to that found at Porth-gain in the north of the
county. It measures 4 3/4 ins. by 3 1/2 ins., and is 2 ins. in thickness. It
in in the possession of the Rev. A. S. Jeremiah, Vicar of Castlemartin. The
other, a finished hammer-stone, of a blackish felsite, has been worked with
much care and skill. It measures 4 1/4 ins. bv 3 1/2 ins., and is 1 in.
in thickness. The centre hole is of the hour-glass pattern. It is at present
in the possession of the Writer, but will eventually be deposited in the
National Museum of Wales, Cardiff. A G. O. MATHIAS. A magnificent bay in the far west of
the Castlemartin Peninsula. Glorious empty sands, massive sand dunes, and
fascinating rocky shores to explore Mesolithic and bronze Age sites.
Traces of submerged forest 6000yrs old
occasionally exposed. Devils Quoit Dolmen about 100yds over
a low fence opposite the drive entrance to Broomhill farm on the Angle Rd.
About 3 ft. above the ground - enormous capstone supported one side by two
uprights - otherside third upright has collapsed. Restored seaweed collectors hut
-- once used for drying the seaweed used to make laver bread..
In the
south, lies within the Army firing range and is out of bounds. Close to the
road you can see a restored seaweed collector hut - once used for drying the
special seaweed destined to become laver bread.
Inaccessible -- (on Castlemartin Tank
range) -- Fine group of buildings -- core a great hall with a stone built three
door passage partition at one end The earliest record on the house is in
1475 although there is records of a John and Matilda Prikker holding land in
Castlemartin in 1325. Name and site lost. A pedigree shows
descendants of John Warren of Trewern (1485 - 60 living at Bristol and at Bowood in Castlemartin, and were still at both places in 1638 Mathew
Warren at the former and John Warren at the latter (could this be the
farm known as Boughwood in 1660 in the parish of Monkton Castlemartin
Hundred, and held then by Captain Francis Meyricke who had difficulty in
paying the rent.).
"About
half a mile south of Castlemartin village, and westwards from the mansion we
follow Frains lake (the latter being an old Pembrokeshire word meaning stream)
to reach the sea coast at Frainslake Sands. The mansion was set in attractive
grounds, and adjoining the grounds is Brownslade Farm, and it would seem that
the farmstead was the original dwelling house" for we are informed by
Malkin (1809) that "we find the newly-formed residence of Mr.
Mirehouse. The ground now occupied by the house and lawn was a field twenty
years ago [c.1784]. Mr. Mirehouse began in the same year with Mr. Johnes; and
the present state of the Premises evinces the judgment with which his
operations have been conducted" and Malkin later states that the new
mansion was built about 1800. Plans and illustrations of the proposed house
were made in 1783 by William Thomas architect and surveyor.
The
property formed part of the estate of Lort of Stackpole Court, which passed to
Alexander Campbell by marriage to the Lort heiress. The old house was a
commodious building and in 1670 contained eight hearths, the occupier being
John Leach. Leach died in 1675, and in 1709 Lady Campbell granted a lease of
Brownslade for 21 years, to his son Abraham Leach, yeoman. The family remained
until the death of John Leach soon after 1774, and his widow Elizabeth (Prout)
surrendered the existing lease to John Campbell of Stackpole Court in 1789 for
£3,500. It is clear that another family lived at Brownslade at the same time
as that of Leach, which suggests that there may have been more houses there.
This was the family of Holcombe. The
will of William Holcombe of Brownslade, dated 1653, was proved in 1662: he was
followed by three generations all being described as of Brownslade, and who
interrnarried with Meares of Eastington, Meyrick of Bush, and Corbett of Nash.
The last of the family to live there was Admiral Essex Holcombe, R.N., who
died in 1769-70. Not
long after this, the Mirehouse family arrived, descended from Mirehouse of
Miresdyke Westmoreland. John
Mirehouse, born in 1753 had been at Cambridge University with John Campbell
(later created Baron Cawdor), and became his land-agent in Pembrokeshire. In
1786 John Mirehouse, Esq., was tenant of Brownslade, and it was he who built
the mansion house, and later bought the freehold. He was High Sheriff in 1810.
A progressive farmer and planter of trees, he converted a morass of 2674
neighbouring acres into productive land, for which he received the gold medal
of the Society for Encouragement of Arts, Manufacture, and Commerce in 1800. His
estate, including Brownslade, eventually passed to R. B. Levett who had
married a Mirehouse daughter, and his son R. W. B.Mirehouse, C.M.G., T.P., D.L.
of The Hall of Angle took that surname in 1864. His descendents are still at
the Hall. After the Second World war Brownslade
became a guest house . Later the area became part of an artillery training
range and the house and farm became ruinous. A
large farm about half a rnile south of Brownslade, formerly part of the
Stackpole Court estate, is now within an artillery range. When John Leach of
Slade, yeoman, died in 1675, his eldest son Richard Leach had a lease of
Bulliber where he died in 1732 and as he had no sons, he left the lease to his
wife Elizabeth. On her death the lease passed to her late husbands nephew,
Abraham Leach who remained there until 1776. Abraham was followed by his son
Nicholas Leach who died in 1811 without issue. In 1834 John Bowling held a
lease of Bulliber. Thereafter it was tenanted by farmers. About 300 years to
the south-west of Bulliber are the remains of an ancient promontory fort.
Was a knightly residence under the
Earls of Pembroke; William le Fleming from whom it probably derived
its name, held it in 1246, Walter de Castro in 1324.
A farmstead near the coast, due north of Eligug Stacks. According to Dr. B. G.
Charles the name is found in ancient documents of the period 1324-1331 as
variants of Flemisston, i.e. home of a Fleming many of whom settled in the
south of the county. From 1600 onwards the form Flimston is usually found, and
is thus spelt on Colbys map (1831). Near the house stood an ancient chapel,
and on the land is an early earth fortification. Flimston was a long,
commodious dwelling, an early vaulted house, with a hall above the
under-croft, and a tall round chimney at the main gable end. Many similar
houses occur in south Pernbrokeshire. in 1786 Flemiston was owned by John Hook
Campbell with Robert Jones as tenant. Another early house that has now totally vanished except for some low walling. Near the coast at the south-westem end
of the Castlemartin promontary, just south of Linney Burrows, and overlooking
the inlet called Black Cove. Marked as a knights fee on Rees 14.century map;
as Linney house, on George Owen map, 1603 as residence of "Row Esq" on the maps of Bowen (1760) and Kitchin (1763). Fenton wrote in 1811,
"Nearer the sea is Linney, an old mansion, formerly the property and
residence of the Rows, a family of middling fortune." It became property
of the Lorts, and in 1631 the owner was George Lort of Linney, gent. In 1670
John Leach was assessed at five Hearth taxes for Linney, and his will was
proved in 1675. The next was Richard Row, gent, who married Elizabeth Wearer.
He was High Sheriff of the county in 1729, and died before1735. His wife
died in 1750. They had two children, Francis Row, living at Linney in 1741,
who died without issue and Alice who married in 1721 James Bowen of Llwyngwair
and had issue. The property was afterwards leased to George Phelps gent., who was there in 1787 (the owner was John Campbell) and
he was followed by his only son John Phelps who inherited 10 leaseholds and was living at Linney in 1804. Thomas Jones gent., lived there in 1834. George Roch farmer was there in 1851. James Roch in 1904. A farmstead south-east of the church and marked on Colbys map. Land Tax 1786,
gives Moor and Moor Hays farms, owned by John Campbell, Esq. with Thomas
Edwardes, tenant. Fenton writes in 1811says "Turn to the left
from Castlemartin church, to see Moor one of the chief mansions ot this
district about two hundred years ago, of a very irregular form, with many
ruinous and extensive outbuildings, once entered by a gateway now stopped up,
leading to a porters lodge. With very few exceptions, this may serve as a
model of the style of building their houses among the greatest of that era in
this country, which invariably appears to have been surrounded by a high court
wall having a large arched gateway, and essentially differing from the form of
the principal houses of the date, in the upper part of the country; where,
notwithstanding the Norman encroachment, presumptuously called a conquest, as
the strongest proof of their never having been subdued, the natives retained
their language and the British fashions in everything continued evidently
predominant". Nearly a century later, Timmins wrote in 1895, "Moor Farm, where once
stood a goodly mansion, of which scarce a stone has been spared." In the
18th century it was the home of John Prout (will proved 1780) whose daughter
married John Leach of Brownslade and had issue. nd 1204 1214 (From an inspeximus 5 Edward III,Cal
Pat Rolls 1330 1334 p67 Dugdale , Mon., Vol IV p321) Grant by William Marshall, earl of
Pembroke, for the souls of himself, Isabella , his wife, and all his ancestors
and heirs, to the church of St John the Evangelist and St Nicholas the
Confessor, of Pembroch, and the monks there of the tithes of his vills of
Penbroke, Tynbeh, and Castle Martin, in free alms. Witnesses: Geoffrey, bishop
of St Davids Robert, son of Richard, Geoffrey son of Robert, Ralph Bluet,
Nicholas Avenel (included among other tithes, was that
of Kings Mill at Castlemartin).
1244 1307 September 20 Inq. Post Mortem, C Edward II File 4(1) (Cal p 21a) Lands etc of Joan de Valencia, Countess of Pembroke: Castle Martin 2 Carucates
of land each worth 50s yearly; 12a of meadow each acre 18d yearly; 60a pasture
worth 30s yearly; turbary, worth 20s yearly; 1 water mill, paying 77 yearly at
the two terms aforesaid; rent of 2 free tenants 14s payable at four terms,
namely All Saints, the Purification, Whitsuntide, and St Peter ad Vincula; the
rent of 60 gable tenants (gabularii) and 12 cottars, £80 8s 1d payable
at the aforesaid four terms; pleas and perquisities there are worth 20s
yearly. Aymer, etc., is next heir. 1324 At
the death of Earl Aymer de Valence in 1324 the Manor of Castlemartin was worth
£102. Inquisition "into the
Estate of Aymer de Valance held on August 20 1324 In the said county etc. the manor of Castlemartin 1 capital messuage 12d
yearly; 2 carucates of land worth 40s
each yearly; 15a meadowworth
12d
per acre 300a pasture worth 2d
per acre yearly; 100a marshland, worth yearly
10s,
and no more because[....] 1 water mill and 1 wind millworth
£ 9 yearly; rent of assize of the free
tenants £4 5s 4d. payable as under; at All Saints 32s, at the
Purification of Holy Mary 10s 8d, at Whitsuntide 32s, on the gul of August 10s
8d; the rent of Philip de Luny for a
certain weir attached to the lords land at the mill of Ffoyn, payable at All
Saints and Whitsuntide, £1 2 s rent of assize of the free tenants
with the rent of ffemyssheston, payable in equal sums at All Saints and
Whitsuntide
100 marks; the customary rents there
£72 , payable as under; All Saints £3 17s 2d; Purification of
Holy Mary, 62s 9 1 / 2 d; Whitsuntide £32 17s 2d; Gule of August
62s 9 1/2d ; the rent of John de Castro and
Isabella, his wife, who held for term of life one third of the vill of
Carston, 46s 8d payable in equal sums at Easter and Michaelmas; the rent of assize of the ville
of Angleat Michaelmas
18d; the rent of assize of the vill of
Lunyvill of Luny" at the same term 20d; the pleas and perquisites of the
courts there are worth
60s
yearly. 1324 December 6 Mary, the widow of Aymer de Valence as
assigned , as dower, on December 6th 1324, the manor of St Florence and part
of the manor of Castlemartin The Manor of Castle Martin as follows: a moiety of the capital messuage,
to wit, a moiety of the grange on the south with a certain adjacent plot for
the "Daeria integra, and a moiety of the oxhouse in the
east, the easementsof which are valued at
6d yearly; also 1 carucate of land extended
at
40s
yearly, 5a of meadow
" 5s, 100a pasture
16s 8d, 33 1/3a. of marsh land
3s 4d the rents and services of John de Luny, John Fitz Henry Dawe David Meyler and Joan his wife, free
tenants
34s 7d; the rents and services of David Swayn, Alice Bede, Henry Milot, Richard de Cruce, Henry Moriz, Richard Moriz, Robert Moriz, David Moriz, Rose Ermegard, John Goldeburgh, John Heylyn, John Robert Thomas Richard, Philip Haye, Rees Thomas, Hugh Joyl, Philip Rys, William le Yunge Philip le Yunge, Res Penkaron, William Rou, Philip Rou, John Knethill, Elen Gilbert, Ade de Leffery, William de Landfey, Walter Seys, John de Hibernia, John de la Hay Matilda Prikker, Mable Prikker, John le Prikker John son of Philip Rys, Richard Philip Joye and Mable his
wife, John Griffith, Henry Milot, Ade de Slade, Richard Adam, John Lewlyn, Ralph le Machon, David Eynon, John Ffiret, junior John Blethery, Alice Warynot, John Kayoc, John Kedyvor, John Streyt, John Bolour, Robert textor, Mable le gras, Robert Rys Robert le Longe, Philip de la More, elen, dau. of Philip Brounyng, Suetilde of Castle Martin, Henery Hobbekyn, and Walter Lide;which are extended at
£33 9s 11d yearly. And the perquisites of the courts for
the said tenants free and bond at
30s yearly. Sum Total of the Assignment of the
said Mary dower in the manor of Castle Martin £40 1331- 2 Min. Acc., 1207/1 Account of reeve of Castle
Martin from Michaelmas 4 Edward III to 18th February next following Rents........ rent of the gable tenants and
the cottagers of Castle Martin and Lysseryat All Saints and the Purification
of St Mary £20 5s 01/4d Mill of Ffoyn
3s 4d rent of Fflemygeston
50s Rent of Corston
nothing until Easter of Walter Gibbe, nothing
until Easter for 9 feet of land,
nothing
until Easter Protection Rents Nothing until Michaelmas Farms for 83 (#) acres of the demesne
lands let at will by Thomas de Hompton steward, nothing until Easter 33 acres of pasture do. repair of ironwork of the plough.
21 1/2d; Mills (1) of Castle (2) Stelton
Nil till Easter Pleas and Perquisites
13s 4d
Sum of total receipts £23 13s 5 3/4d Of which expended on boards and nails
for one door;
3d wages of the messor
6s 8d
4s 8d and delivered. to Walter
Seys by order of Robert de Harley
£19 17d
Owing £4 0s 5 3/4 d 1348 September 24 Pembroke Writ of certiorari de feodis etc., to
John de Shol, escheator in Hereford and the adjacent March of Wales, 24
September, 22 Edward III Extent of all fees and
advowsons of churches in the county of Pembroke, made at Pembroke on Thursday
in the feast of St Michael de Monte Tumba, 22 Edward III. Jurors; John Cantrel, William
Adam, William Robelyn, Thomas de Castro, Andrew Wysman, John Beneger..... John
Rou, John Robyn, William Parttrahan, John Hilton and Henry Beneger. Blengilgoyt one tenth and one
twentieth fee and 12a of land, held by Philip de Castro Martini, worth yearly
20s. Kethlihavelot one tenth and one
twentieth fee and 24a of land held by John de Castro Martini, worth yearly 20s The undermentioned fees were assigned
to Mary de Sancto Paulo, countess of Pembroke, after the death of Aymer de
Valencia, late Earl of Pembroke.: Stakepol 5 knights fees worth yearly 100m Fflemingyston, half knights fee worth
yearly 100s. 1348 Dec 10 Westminster Close Roll 22 Edward III, Pt 2 m
5 (Cal., pp579 80) To Thomas Cloptin, keeper of the
wardrobe, to whom the king committed the custody of two parts of the land in
co. Pembroke in Wales, which belonged to Laurence de Hastynges, earl of
Pembroke, tenant in chief in the kings hand by reason of the minority of the
earls heir, to hold until that heir should come of age Order to permit Richard de Cestr[ia]
to hold the office of reaper of Castlemartin and to pay him his wages of 11/2d
a day and the arrears thereof, as the earl granted that office to Richard to
hold for life , receiving 1d a day for his wages, and afterwards the earl
granted him 1/2d a day in augmentation of his wages for damages received
while in the earl service in parts beyond the sea, which grant the king
ratified and pardoned Richard any trespass committed by him in acquiring the
said office without licence. 1386 Tenby Inquisitions Miscellaneous Chancery
File 237 (Old ref IPM, 10 Richard II,
no 131) Castlemartyn
Inquisition taken at Pembroke, etc. Jurors:
Richard Crippyn, William Griffyth of Trewent, Stephen Lucery,
Lawrence Bron, Richard Ffroyn, Stephen Brugge, John Adam,
John Knelhel, Gilbert Lucery, John Lowlyn, Henry Dobyn and John
Werrot, men of the neighbourhood of Stakpole. Who say, much damage has been
done in the manor of Castle Martin, in the neighbourhood of Stakpole
aforesaid, namely, the doors and windows of the Hall of the said
manor destroyed to the value of 40s.; the posts, beams, spars,
and the walls of the said Hall, through defective roofing have rotted,
£8; the doors, glass windows and iron bars (fenestre vitri et vect
ferree) in the rooms annexed to the said hall both at the upper and
lower end of the said hall (tam in superiori quam inferiori fine eiusdem aule)
are damaged 20s; the beams boards (tabule), posts and spars in the said
rooms, through defective roofing, etc. £9.; the doors and windows
in the pantry, buttery, and kitchen of the said manor are decayed
to the extent of 40s; also the walls, posts, beams,
"rastrees", and spars in the said pantry, etc., through
defective roofing, etc. £8.; when the said William was appointed
he received a rabbit warren stocked with rabbits, worth, besides
reprisals, 60s. yearly, now it is worthless, damage £30. all
of which destructions, etc, as above. 1405 April 4th. 1405.
1406 Sir Francis a Court made a
pact with Owain Glyndwr to leave Pembrokeshire alone. The money
paid over being lodged with Stephen Perrot of Jestynton and John of
Castlemartin. 1454 ROT. PARL., if, pp. 260-l. Confirmation to Jasper, Earl of
Pembroke, of divers castles and manors, etc., including the County,
Castle, and Lordship of Pembrolke with its members and appurtenances, to wit: The hundred and lordship of Castle
Martin. The lordsllip of St. Fflorence. The Lordship and Forest of Coydrath. The Castle, Lordship and Town of Tenby. The lordship and bailiwick of West
Pembrok and East Pembroke. The Bailwicks of Dongleddy, Rous, and Kemmeys. Half the Ferry of Burton. With all their appurtenances, viz.,
rents of assize and gabe rent value yearly £196. 3s. 7d. besides reprisals
issues and profits of wind and water mills value yearly £30. 13s. 4d.; profits
of coal at Coydrath, 43s. 4d.; customary tenants in the forrest of Codrath,
52s.; the issues and profits of the towns of Pembroke and Tenby £8. 3s. 7d.;
the profits of half the ferry of Burton, 16s 10d.; profits and
perquisites of the Hundred and County Courts held annually, £13. 14s. 6d.; do.
escheats, reliefs, and divers, other casual receipts, £26. 13s. 6d.; prises of
wines in the ports of Milford and Tenby and elsewhere in the county,£6. 13s
6d; 1489 14 November On 14 November in the year as above at
Lantfey Sir John Baker was admitted to the perpetual vicarage of the parish
church of St Martin otherwise called Castilmartyn and instituted e 1502 22 January On 22 January he (Bishop of St
David's) admitted Master William ap Owen to the perpetual vicarage
of Castlemartin vacant by the resignation of Sir John Baker last vicar there. 1502 1 October On 1 October in the place aforesaid (
Lamphey manor) the bishop admitted Sir Nicholas Percivall to the vicarage of
Castlemartin vacant by the resignation of Master William ap Owen last vicar
saving entirely an annual pension of 40s for the said Master William etc. 1527 25th January
CASTLE MARTIN. - hundred Court, held on Thursday 25th January 1527 Thomas Perrott, Ar., Maurice Butler,
Ar., Thomas Gruffyn, Ar., Henry (Capel) Thomas Thomas (Mercer); John Mody,
John Whitecok, David Harry, Robert Poyer Turnor, Richard Roper, William ap
Owen, clerk, suitors of the said hundred, came in their own persons and asked
to be fined for the remission of their suits of court this year, and they were
allowed each of them to pay 4d. (2 suits.) Total, including the said fines,
4s. 1535 At the dissolution Castlemartin value £26 13
4d Monkton value £26 13
4d Pembroke St Michaels value £10
0 0d Assessed value for temporalities £19 6 3 1/2d - no figure given for
spiritualities. The Vicar at Castlemartin was well off
compared with many of his contemporasries with an annual income of £8 1609 May David
Adams a small farmer of Castlemartin died his estate
was vaued at £9 8s 5d but his debts totalled £11
8s 6d 1613 Lewis Dwnn Deputy Herald of Wales
records that: Henry Dawes whose wife was
Lettice Walters of Roch Castle, was living at Castlemartin probably during the
lifetime of his father Griffith Dawes of Bangeston. 1614
David Howell of Castlemartin died leaving £41 Hearth
Tax 1670 h = hearth , p= pauper Adams
James p
Adams Alice
p Badger John h3 Beavan Thomas p Bidford John p Butler John p Butler Gillian p Carne William h8 Codde Thomas p Cooke
John p Cozen
John h2 David John p Duberlin Joseph p Evans Widdowe p Evans
John h1 Evans David h1 Ferrier Rice h2 Gittoe Peter
h1 Gwither Owen h1 Harford George h1 Hendy John
h1 Hendy Francis h2 Hitching David
p Hitching Roger
h2 Hitching Henry
h3 Hopley Thomas p Howell Thomas p Howell
Thomas h1h2 Hughes Thomas h2 Hughes Henry h2 Husband William p James Deverux p Jermin John p Jermin
John p Jones Morgan p Leach Richard h1 Leach John
h3 Leach John
h5
Will proved Carmarthen 16/11/1675 Llewhelin John
h4 Llewhelin Robert p Llewhelin
George p Lloyd William p Lort John
esq h5 Lovelin Mathew h2 Loveling Richard p Loveling Thomas p Philkin Walter
h1 Phillip
Richard h1 Phillips William
p Poyer
Francis h2 Proute Phillip
h1 Rees David
p Rees Owan p Rice
Morgan p Rice John
h2 Rowland Henry h3 Tasker Phillip
p Thomas
Lewis
h1 Thomas
George
p Thomas
Richard p Thomas Thomas
h1 Tucker
Rowland p Webbe Abell
p William Griffith
h2 Williams Meredith
p Williams John
p Williams Griffith p Holcombe William Brownslade
h 8 1720's Richard Rowe and his son Francis
gentlemen of Linney mortgaged the property for just over £1200 to help
pay of their debts 1769 NLW Grand Session Records
Wales 4 818/3 5 yeomen of Castlemartin parish
appeared before the Pembrokeshire Grand Assizes charged with having stolen on
the 21st of March part of the "Liberty" a sloop home port
Cardigan, which had been wrecked in Freshwater West Bay. 1788
John Campbell of Stackpole obtained an act of Parliament to enclose
Castlemarin Corse. The area of 274 acres was described as "bog" and he
cut a main drain which discharged into the sea through a tunnel. He then
leased the land to John Mirehouse -- does this help to account for the
apparent decline in population. PARISH AND PROPERTY
SURNAME
FORENAMES Castelmartin. Bravos land
Campbell
John (owner) Castelmartin. Brownslade
Campbell
John (owner) Castelmartin. Brownslade
Mirehouse John
(tenant) Castelmartin. Bullibor
Campbell
John (owner) Castelmartin. Bullibor
Loach
Lettice (tenant) Castelmartin. Chapel
Campbell
John (owner) Castelmartin. Chapel
Philp
John (tenant) Castelmartin. Cloyn
Campbell
John (owner) Castelmartin. Cloyn
Dawkins
Nat (tenant) Castelmartin. Court
Campbell
John (owner) Castelmartin. Court
Drinkwater John
(tenant) Castelmartin. Cross
Campbell
John (owner) Castelmartin. Cross
Hitching Geo
(tenant) Castelmartin. Donton
Bargor
Thomas (tenant) Castelmartin. Donton
Campbell
John (owner) Castelmartin. Ernigate
Campbell
John (owner) Castelmartin. Ernigate
Hitching Geo
(tenant) Castelmartin. Flimston
Campbell
John (owner) Castelmartin. Flimston
Jones
Richard (tenant) Castelmartin. Froynes Mill
Campbell
John (owner) Castelmartin. Froynes Mill
Wilkinson Geo
(tenant) Castelmartin. Furzy Close
Campbell
John (owner) Castelmartin. Furzy Close
Mirehouse John
(tenant) Castelmartin. Gupton
Campbell
John (owner) Castelmartin. Gupton
Gwyther
Richard (tenant) Castelmartin. Ham
Campbell
John (owner) Castelmartin. Ham
Mirehouse John
(tenant) Castelmartin. King's Mill
Campbell
John (owner) Castelmartin. King's Mill
Hitchings Henry
(tenant) Castelmartin. Linny
Campbell
John (owner) Castelmartin. Linny
Philp
Geo (tenant) Castelmartin. Linny Row
Campbell
John (owner) Castelmartin. Linny Row
Reynolds
Henry (tenant) Castelmartin. Moor
Campbell
John (owner) Castelmartin. Moor
Mirehouse John
(tenant) Castelmartin. Mountscon
Campbell John
(owner) Castelmartin. Mountscon
Skone
John (tenant) Castelmartin. Oxland
Horsford
Lord (tenant) Castelmartin. Oxland
Thomas
Wm (owner) Castelmartin. Prickaston
Campbell
John (owner) Castelmartin. Prickaston
Davies
Stephen (tenant) Castelmartin. Stone Bridge
Campbell
John (owner) Castelmartin. Stone Bridge
Mirehouse John
(tenant) Castelmartin. Tythos
Campbell
John (owner) Castelmartin. Vicarage
Prichard Rev
M (owner) Castelmartin. Warmans Hill
Campbell
John (owner) Castelmartin. Warmans Hill
Griffiths Geo
(tenant) Castelmartin. West Farm
Campbell
John (owner) Castelmartin. West Farm
Cousins
Phillip (tenant) Castelmartin. town
Butler
widdow (tenant) Castelmartin. town
Campbell
John (owner) Castelmartin. town
Owen
John (tenant) 1794 Shortly
after Captain Campbells elevation to the peerage in 1796, the Castlemartin
Troop was called upon to quell disturbances in market towns in Pembroke
area caused by bread shortage. Jos [EPH]
ADAMS T0 JOHN CAMPBELL ESQ. I
thank you for your kind letter which I received yesterday and perfectly agree
with you in opinion relative to the exportation of corn, the supplying the
markets and also that no language should be held to irritate a mob, but
unhappily great cause was given for alarm by Roch of Paskesiton and Hervey of
Angle buying up wheat to export. The report from the magistrates to the Duke
of Portlands letter was that wheat is the shortest crop and that there is
certainly not enough in the country for its consumption. If then the middling
class are sufferers, will they not complain, and their complaints go a great
way to irritate the lower orders of people who have most intercourse with
them! The
farmers had withheld from supplying the market for a fortnight to enhance the
price (then too great), and notwithstanding every argument of policy and
interest to them they would not be prevailed on until the people became
tumultuous. Now they are justly alarmed, as are the corn factors. The farmers
have promised a constant supply to the markets and the factors will not
export. So far good is come from evil. you seen to think that party jealousies
were the cause, but I do assure you I never saw all ranks, parties and classes
of people so irritated (farmers and factors excepted) and all coming in the
same language. The heat is now, thank God, allayed, and I trust no cause will
be given to revive it, for then no one can pronounce what consequences will
ensue. Your
name has been glanced at as acting in contradiction to the spirit of
resolutions you brought forward at the quarter sessions by letting Banjeston
to Hervey. I told Mr. Mirehouse of it, and afterwards when it was reported he
was concerned with Hervey I desired Mr. Hand to tell him of it that he might
justify himself: enclosed is his letter to me and my answer. Since Hervey has
declared Mirehouse is not concerned, but you"ll see by M"s letter to
me there was a plan which he says you were unacquainted with. I mention this
as I am zealous for your honour and think I should not act right by you in not
acquainting you with it. The
Fencibles with Captain Ackland and the Yeomanry paraded on Saturday last and
will again next market day, so that I hope all will be quiet. But I repeat it
depends on supplying the markets and no exportation. I hope Lady Caroline and
the boys were well when you heard. Miss Adams joins me in every good wish for
you all. Endorsed:
Pray present my best respects to Mr. Greville when you see him.. N.L.W.
MS. 1352 B. ff. 310-14. 1796 March 10 Pembroke On
my return yesterday from Earwaere I was favoured with your very kind letter
and beg to assure you that I shall always be ambitious to merit your
confidence and to be assisting in whatever you may have to propose. I should
have written you an account of the Field Day had our our meeting been
such as I expected it would when I last wrote to you, but the day turned out
exceeding cold and windy and, only 16 attending, we made a very short business
of it and appointed another meeting that day fortnight, which will be next
Tuesday, when I trust we shall do better. I shall wait your orders for
our meetings, weekly or once a fortnight whichever you please. My brothers
account of the conduct of the troop and his own company is highly flattering
to both, and I have no doubt that they would have supported the magistrates
and their officers properly However, I sincerely hope neither the one nor the
other will ever be brought to the disagreeable necessity of firing upon poor
creatures who have certainly great reason to complain, for I am convinced, and
so are all your friends here, that the scarcity at Pembroke is artificial and
not real and that two thirds of the corn remains unthreshed, and that it is
owing to the avarice of the famers that our markets are so high. I
have the mortification to find on my return to Pembroke that mutton is at 5d.
a pound (the same as I paid in London and Bath all the wintcr for the best),
and heree I have had some at nine months old. This is so glaring an imposition
that we have come to a resolution of not buying it till the price falls. Annexed
you have a copy of the resolution which is signed by all the pricipal people
here,and we
mean to send it to Haverfordwest for the same purpose. In this business the
farmers are alone to blame, for the price of the sheep is so high to the
butcher that he cannot get above a shilling or eighteen pence for his trouble. In
short, every order of people here ate dissatisfied with the attempt to impose
upon them and do not allow that the farmers here have a right to charge as
much as in England, where the price of labour is double and the rent of farms
much higher, and, what is remarkable, there never was known any winter to be
more grass in the country than the last. Mr. Painter has just told me that the
price of sheep at Pembroke is £33 a score. I hope I have not tired you by
writing so much on this subject which, as it is a serious one, I could not
help giving my sentiments on it. you are so well I known as the friend of the
poor here that your coming to the county will be impatiently looked for. Mrs.
Ackland unites in best compliments to Lady Caroline Campbell and yourself. 1797 Acc/to
Journal 1885 Vol XLI of the Congress of British Archeological Society 1797 Feb 17th a force sailed from
Brest consisting of a lugger and a corvette escorted by two frigates
containing several hundred released jailbirds and galley slaves under the
command of an American adventurer named Colonel Tate ordered by
the Directory to land and "burn Bristol the second city in England
for riches and commerce" and thereafter to land in Wales, march across
the mountains and do the same to Chester and Liverpool. The raiders sailed into the Bristol
Channel and turned tail when they say what they thought was a warship (
it was the Dublin packet boat) then went to Fishguard where they
anchored on Feb 22nd The force landed in a rocky cove below
Carregwastad Point The Vessels had been sited, and the
alarm raised.. Lord Cawder mustered the Castlemartin Yeomanry, Cardigan
Militia and Fishguard Volunteers (Local militia units) and they marched
seaward from the village of Llanwnda followed, it is said, by the women of the
area wearing their red cloaks.Although the French outnumbered the militia 3 to
1 on seeing the advancing militia Colonel Tate ordered his men to stand firm
then went forward and surrendered himself and his army to Lord Cawder
unconditionally "upon principles of humanity". The main
problem of the volunters was preventing the enraged Welsh villagers from
cutting the throats of the the French prisoners as they were marched of to
jail. Acc/to Roger Worsley. 25 of the imprisoned French captured
after the invasion at Fishguard chatted up some girls in Pembroke and
enlisted their aid in escaping. Fifty
Six years later Queen Victoria awarded the battle honour "Fishguard" to the
Yeomanry, and it remains the only one given to a British Army unit for
opposition to an enemy force within the British Isles. The Pembroke Yeomanry
also has battle honours for:"South Africa, 1901" "Egypt,
1916/17", "Gaza", "Jerusalem, "Jericho", Tel
Asur", "Palestine, 1917-18", Somme, 1918", Bapaume
1918", "Hindenburg Line", "Epehy", "Pursuit to
Mons" and "France and Flanders, 1918". 1814 The average wage for an outdoor
labourer was 5d a day in winter and 7 1/2d a day in summer. During the early part of the century
labourers received a cottage and potato plot at a low rent and their fuel
completely free, but by the end of the century these benefits had almost
disappeared. 1834 A Topgraphical
Dictionary of Wales S Lewis The
rocks on this part of the coast consist of an irregular series of broken
stratifications apparently thrown together by some violent convulsion and
presenting an uncommon grandeur of appearance From March to Augusts these
rocks are the resort of that migratory bird called the eligug, which during
that period deposits its solitary egg on the shelving projections of the
cliffs ,and, supporting it with its foot, which possesses a degree of warmth
sufficient for the purpose of incubation, after having hatched its young and
enabled it to shift for itself, leaves the vacant place to be occupied by
another of the swarm that covers the surface of the water, waiting for
an opportunity to perform the same process This bird cannot take wing from
land: as soon, therefore as the young is able to fly, the parent bird throws
it into the water, from which it rises with remarkable strength of wing over
that element The
average annual expenditure for the support of the poor is £350.15 1847 -PARISH OF
CASTLEMARTIN. I visited this Parish on the 18th of
December. The children generally attend the Earl of Cawdors school in the
parish of Warren, which is not far off. There is however a small dame-school held in part of an old building (occupied
by a labourer and his wife) in the churchyard. The school has been furnished
with cards and Prints by the Vicar and Mrs. Mirehouse of Brownslade. I found
the room clean and comfortable, and the mistress a respectable person of
her class. There were only two little children present owing to the extreme
severity of the weather and the deep snow. 1858 Flimston Brickworks assessed for
rating purposes at £25. 1536 Number of Households 65 1670 Number of Hearth Tax Payers
70 1801 Number of families 61 - This
suggests that there had been a depopulation in the area. 1851 total 404 215m
189f Burials from Wrecks "Passengers
and crew of the "Edinburgh," bound from New Orleans to
Liverpool, wrecked 8 February 1839, On Linney Head." "Owner
and members of the crew of the schooner "Wave of Aberystswyth," wrecked in Freshwater Bay, 26th October, 1859." "21 of the passengers, officers and crew of the "Mars"
from Waterford to Bristo1, wrecked off Linney Head, 1st April, 1862." (including Sgt. Michael M Feeley,
1st Batt. 21st Fusiliers,) "Members of the crew of S. S. "Tormer," wrecked off Linney Head. October 30th 1894" "Members of the crew of H.M. Transport
"Ionian" wrecked off. Linney Head, 20th October, 1917. These men are commemorated by Service Grave Stones, under the care of the Imperial War Graves Commission". Castellan
A Topographical Dictionary of Wales 1849.
The Church consists of a chancel, nave
and double bell-cote above the west gable. It was practically rebuilt on the
old foundations in the year 1875. Some of the steps to the roodloft remain; also a small piscina and aumbry.
Under the name of Castro Pulch, this church was assessed in 1291 at
£6 13s. 4d. - Taxatio.
Castlemartin
915983
RCAM
Brownslade Barrows.
Brownslade Tumulus.
Brownslade Tumulus Finds.
Flimston Bay Camp.
Linney Head.
Bulliber or Warman's Hill Camp.
Castle Martin
King's Mill Earthwork
Lychgate
- cast iron gates 1890 with
texts worked in-by Stephens family, who had an engineering works in East Back
Pembroke, but whose roots were in Castlemartin.
Clergy.
Ermigate Cross.
Frainslake.
Longstone.
Churchways Chapel.
This little edifice stood immediately north of the Brownslade tumulus on one
of two fields called Upper and Lower Church Hill (Tithe Schedule, No 376-7).
The remains of foundations are now practically buried beneath the sand. When
opened up in 1880 the chapel was found to be "very tiny, being
only 16 feet by 12 feet and pitched with water-worn stones".
Apostles Park
.
A
name still locally in use for the field next south of Pricaston farm-house. Of
its origin nothing appears to be known (Tithe Schedule, No. 288).
Kings Land; East Kings Land.
Sten Bridge.
Quern.
Leaden tablet.
Hammer Stones.
Freshwater West.
Frainslake Sands,
Historic Houses.
Pricaston.
Bowood.
Brownslade.
Bulliber.
Flimston.
Linney.
Moor.
Historic Records
Land Tax 1791
Education.
Population.
Cilgerran
191431
A largish village (once a town) in Pembrokeshire situated on the Teify with a station on the Whitland - Cardigan line. The chief industry is quarrying. The place possesses the remains of a castle built on jutting rock overhanging the river which here flows between high banks most beautifully wooded.
The Norman who first fortified the site was Hugh de Montgomery but the builder of the existing fabric was William Marshall. It owes its present ruinous condition to Cromwell and time. It is said to have consisted of an outer and inner bailey, and to have had five gates The remains include little more than two round towers , the walls are of immense thickness and very rude construction . The Castle forms the object of a picture by Turner.
In the Churchyard south of the Church is a bilingual Ogam Stone The Latin inscription has been read TRENEAGUUSSI FILI MACUTRENI HIC IACIT
There was a market held here the first record dates from 1300.
During the reign of Henry I (1100 - 1135) two new Marcher Lordships were established - Cemaes and Cilgarran. Gerald de Windsor held Cilgarren but the area was recaptured by the Welsh. Castle was probably rebuilt in 1223 after the Normans recaptured the area by the son of William Marshall of Pembroke.
Castle built on a rising crag where Teifi is joined by Afon Plysgog at the highest tidal limit for supplies to be brought by sea.
The site was an iron age promontary fort.
Once regarded as a borough although no charter is known.
Parish Church St Llawddog and may be the centre of an early Welsh settlement.
6c Ogam/ latin Stone in the Churchyard commemorating Tregenussus son of Macutrenus.
There is documentary evidence of castle in 1166 and the town in 1204. The castle rebuilt mid 13c under the direction of William Marshall.
Of the original Church only the tower left as the church was rebuilt in 1836 and the 1850s.
There were 22 tax payers in 1292.
Farming and fishing were the chief occupations of the inhabitants - fishing by means of coracles.
Churches of Pembrokeshire - Slater.
Cilgerran - St Llawddog
Only the 13c west tower and three worn 18c memorials survived the rebuilding of the church in 1855. There is an Ogram stone outside to the south.
Acc/to Pembrokeshire Parsons.
This is a rectory which originally appears to have been in the patronage of the Earls of Pembroke. In 1594 the Queen was patroness of the living - Owen's Pem.
On 3 Dec., 1325, the advowson of the church of Cilggerran, of the yearly value of 6 marks, was assigned to Thomas Le Blount and Juliana, his wife, late the wife of John de Hastings, tenant in chief, deceased, as dower for the said Juliana from her late husband. - Close Rolls.
Described as the church of Elygarthen, Cilgerran Church was assessed in 1291 at £4. - Taxatio.
Eylegarran. - Ecclesia ibidem ex presentacione Dozane Regine Anglie Marchionisse Pembr. unde Thomas David clericus est rector valet communibus annis £9. Inde decima 18s. Valor Eccl.
Under the heading "Livings Discharged:" - Kilgarran alias Culgerran alias Cylgerddan R. (St. Llawdog). The Prince of Wales. King's Books, £9. Clear yearly value, £38. £50 - Bacon's Liber Regis.
On 5 Oct., 1877, a faculty was granted for the erection of a reredos in the parish church, and on 27 March, 1879, a faculty was granted for the erection of a Re-Table in the same church. This Re-Table was to be a plain unadorned oak structure to be placed above the Communion Table to fill a vacancy, which had been overlooked when the reredos was erected.
A Topographical Dictionary of Wales 1839 S Lewis.
KILGERRAN (CIL-GARON), a parish, and formerly an incorporated market-town, in the union of Cardigan, hundred of Kilgerran, county of Pembroke, South Wales, 2 miles (S. S. E.) from Cardigan; containing 1149 inhabitants. This place owes its origin to the erection of a castle, of great strength and extent, the original foundation of which is involved in much obscurity: some writers attribute it to Roger de Montgomery, and others to Gilbert, Earl of Clare. In 1164, this important fortress was taken from the English by Rhys ab Grufydd, Prince of South Wales, by whom it was considerably strengthened; and in the following year the Normans and Flemings made an unsuccessful attack upon it. During the civil war between Rhys's two sons, Grufydd and Rhys, the former of whom had succeeded to his father's dominions, it was captured in 1199 by Grufydd, from whom, however, it was wrested by William Marshall, Earl of Pembroke, about the year 1204. Llewelyn ab Iorwerth, in 1215, included the capture of this castle among his numerous conquests in this part of the principality, but ceded it, in the following year, to a native chieftain named Maelgwyn, from whom it was retaken in 1222, by the Earl of Pembroke. This nobleman immediately commenced the erection of a new fortress, which was finished by the garrison, during the earl's absence in London, whither he had been summoned to attend the king. The castle thenceforward continued annexed to the earldom of Pembroke, until the decease of the youngest son of Earl William, when the vast estates of the family descended to coheiresses, and the castle and lordship of Kilgerran were separated from the earldom. The importance of the castle imparted a proportionate degree of consequence to the town, which was endowed with corporate privileges, and continued to flourish until the decay of the former, on which it underwent a like decline.
It is now only a small village, consisting of one street, about half a mile in length, the houses in which are mean, straggling, and irregularly built, with the church at the western extremity.
The river Teivy, which runs on the east and north to its estuary below Cardigan, here winds in majestic reaches along the vale to which it gives name, and which at every bend presents some fresh features of novel and picturesque beauty. In sailing up the Teivy, in one part of its course, the hanging woods that clothe the sides of the environing hills recede from the margin of the stream, and leave room for a narrow strip of meadow land, whilst the varied scenery on the opposite bank is terminated by the august ruins of the castle, on the summit of a projecting rock rising precipitously from the brink of the river.
Upon the Cardiganshire side of the Teivy, the noble woods which give name to the valuable estate and mansion of Coedmore, cover the sides and summit of the rock, partially disclosing at intervals impending masses, which contrast finely with the sylvan beauties of the scene. Pursuing the course of the river, rich groves, alternating with the naked rock, continue to excite the admiration of the traveller, till he arrives within a short distance of Lljchrhyd bridge, where the vale expands on either side, margined by luxuriant meadows, from which the hills recede, beautifully varied with churches, seats, and cottages, embosomed in the foliage of successive plantations.
In the parish are three mansions, namely, Glandovan, the seat of Robert Frederick Gower, Esq., of which family was Admiral Sir Erasmus Gower, who accompanied Earl Macartney in his embassy to China, and greatly distinguished himself in the naval service of his country; Castell Maelgwyn, the property and residence of Abel Lewis Gower, Esq.; and Rhts-yGilwen, the elegant modern mansion of John Humphreys, Esq., who obtained this estate by marriage with Catherine, daughter of the late Thomas Colby, Esq., of Fynnonau, and erected the present house.
There are extensive slate-quarries in the parish, which are actively worked, and enjoy a facility of communication with the sea by means of the Teivy, which is navigable as high as Llechrhyd bridge, about three miles above Cardigan. The market, held on Wednesday, has fallen into disuse; but fairs take place annually on August 21st and November 12th, for the sale of cattle, horses, pigs, &c. The place has long since lost many of its municipal privileges, but still retains a semblance of its former importance in the appointment of a portreeve, who receives the tolls taken at the fairs, a town-clerk, two bailiffs, and an indefinite number of burgesses. Two courts are summoned every year by the bailiffs under warrants from the portreeve, the one soon after Michaelmas-day, and the other at Easter, upon days fixed by the portreeve for the time being; and at the first-named of these courts, the jury, who are burgesses, present one of the burgesses to fill the office of portreeve after remaining three years on the list. The town-clerk and bailiffs are chosen by the portreeve; and the freedom is acquired by presentment of the jury at one of the courts leet, when persons are admitted, who, after the expiration of a year, become entitled to the privileges of burgesses. These privileges consist of exemption from toll, and the use, under certain regulations, of a large tract of unenclosed grazing land, containing from 60 to 100 acres, and some stone and slate quarries.
The living is a discharged rectory, rated in the king's books at £9, and in the patronage of the Lord Chancellor: the tithes have been commuted for a rent-charge of £190, and there is a glebe of nine acres, valued at £9. 10. per annum; also a glebe-house. The church, dedicated to St. Llawddog, was an ancient structure, in the early style of English architecture, with a square tower at the western end, but the body of the edifice was some years ago taken down and rebuilt, with the aid of a grant of £100 from the Church-Building Commissioners, and £60 from the late Abel Anthony Gower, Esq.: it is now in a very respectable condition. In the churchyard is a rude stone, bearing an inscription now illegible, but evidently a Roman monumental stone. There are places of worship for Baptists, Independents, and Calvinistic Methodists.
A National school-house, with a masters house attached, was built in 1845, at a cost of upwards of £500, defrayed by local subscription, and grants of £100 from the National Society, and £90 from the Committee of Council on Education. Four Sunday schools are also held, one of them in connection with the Established Church.
The ruins of the castle rank among the most striking, extensive, and picturesque remains of ancient fortresses in South Wales. They stand on the edge of a rock rising perpendicularly from the southern bank of the Teivy, and consist of several bastions of different forms, with portions of the curtain wall: the castle had two wards, the plan of which, with the position of the integral parts, may be clearly traced. It is at present, together with that of Pembroke, held by grant from the crown (made in the reign of James II), by Pryse Pryse, Esq., of Gogerddan, in the county of Cardigan.
Acc/to The Old Parish Churches of South West Wales - Mike Salter 1994.
Church on ancient foundations but has been completely rebuilt and lack old features
A Topographical Dictionary of Wales S Lewis 1849.
KILGWYN (CIL-GWYN), a chapelry, in the parish of Nevern, union of Cardigan, hundred of Kemmes, county of Pembroke, South Wales, 2 miles (SSE.) from Newport; containing 444 inhabitants. The chapel is dedicated to St. Mary; it is situated at the foot and near the south-eastern declivity of Carn Ingli mountain and common, on the former of which are some ancient carneddau.
This rectory was in early days in the patronage of the parishioners of the parish, but by the year 1594 it had come into the hands of the Crown. - Owens Pem. So far as is known, the only mention of the institution of a vicar to this church was in 1404.
This church was assessed in 1291 at £10 - Taxatio.
Eyleredyn. Ecclesia ibidem ex presentacione diver-sorum patronorum ejusdem parrochie unde Iodowicus ap Griffith clericus est rector et valet cornrnanibus anni's ixH. Inde in sinodalibus et procuracionibus sol" archi-diacono quolibet anno vg ixd. Et in visitacione ordinaria quolibet tercio anno xxd. Et rernanet clare, £8 12s. 7d. Inde decima 17s. 3d. Valor Eccl
Under the heading "Livings remaining in Charge" Kilreddin, Cul Rhyden R. (St. Teilaw). Syn. atld Prox. quolibet anno 5s. gd. Ordinaria Vis. quolibet tertio anno rs. 8d. The Prince of Wales. 01im divers. Person. Paroch. Patr. King's Books, £8 12s. 8d, £90 Yearly tenths, 17s. 3d. Bacon's Liber Regis.
On 16 Dec., 1853, the parlour of Cadwa Hall, in the parish of Cilrhedyn, was licensed for divine service during the rebuilding of the parish church.
Topographical Dictionary of Wales 1849.
Kilrhedyn (Cil-Rhedyn)
KILRHEDYN (CIL-RHEDYN), a parish, in the union of Newcastle-Emlyn, chiefly in the hundred of Elvet, county of Carmarthen, and partly in that of Knlgerran, county of Pembroke, South Wales, 5 miles (S.W.) from Newcastle Emlyn; containing 1108 inhabitants, of whom 857 are in the Carmarthenshire, and 251 in the Pembrokeshire, portion. This place is situated on the Star road leading from Carmarthen to Cardigan, and has the parish of Kenarth on the north, Trelech-ar-Bettws on the south, Penboyr on the east, and Clydey on the west. The parish is intersected by the small river Cych, which here forms the boundary line between the two counties; and comprises 7856 acres, whereof 1296 acres are arable, and the remainder consists of woodland and heath, including a considerable extent of turbary. The river Pedran also winds through the lands, which are in some parts low and flat, and in others hilly, ornamented occasionally with oak and other timber; the chief produce is corn.
In the parish are two neat residences, GlbsBant and Dyfryn.
The living is a rectory, rated in the king's books at £8. 12. 8d, and in the patronage of the Lord Chancellor; net income, £192. The church, situated in Pembrokeshire, and dedicated to St. Teilo, contains 152 sittings. There are places of worship for Independents, Baptists, and Presbyterians; and some Sunday schools.
Return to C Return to Gazetteer
1230 Clarenbaldi. "Valor" Clarebodeston: From a Germanic personal name "Clarenbald".
Acc/to Topographical Dictionary Of Wales 1834.
CLARBESTON, a parish, in the union of Narberth, hundred of Dungleddy, county of Pembroke, South Wales, 8 miles (N. E.) from Haverfordwest; containing 244 inhabitants. The parish is detached from any high road, and situated near the East Cleddy river. The living is a perpetual curacy, endowed with £800 royal bounty, and £400 parliamentary grant; net income, £60; patron, the Rev. Thomas Thomas; impropriator, W. H. Scourfield, of the Mote, Esq., whose tithes have been commuted for a rent-charge of £44. 10., with a glebe of 48acres. 2rod. 25perch., valued at £24. 7. per annum. The church, dedicated to St. Martin, has been rebuilt, and is a very neat edifice. The Baptist denomination have a place of worship here, and two Sunday schools are held, one of them in connexion with the Established Church, and the other supported by the Baptists.
In the parish is an artificial mount, which is surrounded by a hedge, about fifty yards in diameter, and is supposed to have been formed for defence at some early period.
Acc/to Pembrokeshire Parsons.
This benefice is a perpetual curacy, which formed part of the possessions of the Knights of St. John, of Jerusalem at Slebech, and was given to that Preceptory by Wizo, the Flemish lord of Wiston, Walter his son and Walter, the grandson of Wizo, as is shown by the confirmatory charter of Bishop Anselm, which describes the church as "eclesiam Sancti Martini de Villa Clarenbaldi." The church was still appropriated to the Preceptory of Slebech in 1533, and was valued in the Valor Eccl at £6.
31 May, 1649, the inhabitants of Clarbeston applied to the Committee for Compounding, appointed by the Commonwealth, for an augmentation for their minister, who had only £10 a year, while the tithes which were held by Sir John Stepney of Prendergast, Bart., amounted to £21. On 1 Oct,, 1649, Sir John Stepney's fine of £1230 was ordered to be reduced to £530 on his settling £70 a year on the rectories of Clarbeston, Llanycefn, Egremont, and Little Newcastle. Papers.
It would appear from the records in the Diocesan Registry that considerable difficulty had always been experienced in filling this living, long vacancies having occurred at different times.
On 4 Dec., 1840, the schoolroom near the church was licensed for divine service during the rebuilding of the church.
On 2 Dec., 1891, Clarbeston Voluntary School was licenced for divine service during the restoration of the church, the faculty for the restoration being issued on 7th June 1892.
Acc/to The Old Parish Churches of South West Wales - Mike Salter 1994.
Church on ancient foundations but has been completely rebuilt and lack old features.
John Marius Wilson, Imperial Gazetteer of England and Wales 1870-72.
CLARBESTON, a parish in Narberth district, Pembroke; 2 miles NNE of Clarbeston Road r. station, and 5 miles NW of Narberth. Post town, Haverfordwest. Acres, 1, 588. Real property, £1, 127. Pop., 191. Houses, 33. The property is divided among a few. The living is a vicarage in the diocese of St. Davids. Value, £60. Patrons, the Executors of J. Phillips, Esq. The church is very good.
John Bartholomew, Gazetteer of the British Isles 1887.
Clarbeston, parish. and village with railway station. (Clarbeston Road), in mid Pembrokeshire, 6 miles NE. of Haverfordwest, area 1588 acres., pop. 153; P.O., called Clarbeston Road. The village is 2 miles NW. of station.
In 1801, Clarbeston, total population was 180. In 1901 it was 158. By 1971 the population was 75.
A hamlet in the parish of St David's hundred of Dewisland county of Pembroke 1 1/2 miles E from St David's containing 359 inhabitants. It forms one of the four cylchs or hamlets into which the parish is divided.
1834 Acc/to Topographical Dictionary of Wales S Lewis.
A hamlet in the parish of St David's hundred of Dewisland county of Pembroke 1 mile W from St David's containing 512 inhabitants The name denotes that it consists of the lower or coast portion of the parish which is divided into four cylchs or hamlets this one forming its western division and extending along the sea coast being the most westerly part of the principality. The island of Ramsey on which there is a single farm is included in this hamlet. Return to Gazetteer
Isolated Church; St Clydai 13c in raised circular churchyard partly rebuilt.
To the SE is an earthwork called Castell Crychydd (the Herons castle), surrounding a mound.
A large church approaching a state of ruin. It consists of a nave and chancel with south aisle extending along both, a western tower, all of the rude Perpendicular period. The chancel arch is rude pointed. There is a rood door set high up, and on the north side id the projection for the staircase. The outer walls are whitewashed everything is decayed and out of repair.
The church has several times been restored and few features remain. In the north wall of the nave are the entrance and three stairs leading to the former rood loft.
Acc/to The Old Parish Churches of South West Wales by Mike Salter (1994).
The west tower with a low pointed arch and the stoup inside the north doorway are 13c. The rood loft staircase and the south aisle (the Capel Mair) may be 15c. The porch and the chancel are Victorian, as are all the windows. There are two Ogram/latin grave stones and one Latin stone, one has ring cross on as well.
1] Latin SOLINI FILIUS VENDONI (Solini son of Vendoni)
2] Latin/Ogham ETTERNI FILI VICTOR (Etternus son of Victor)
Ogham Ettern...V....tor
3] Latin/Ogham DOBUNI FILI EVOLENGI
Ogham ufot Maqui.s.......
Carved head in the interior of North doorway
Clydey (Clydai), a parish in the hundred if Kilgerran, county of Pembroke,6 miles (SW) from Newcastle Emlyn, containing 1385 inhabitants. This parish constitutes the endowment of a prebend in the cathedral church of St Davids, which is rated in the king's books at £12 and is the gift of the Bishop. The living is a discharged vicarage, in the archdeaconary of Cardigan and diocese of St David
's rated in the kings books at £6, endowed with £600 parliamentary grant and in the patronage of the bishop of St Davids. The church dedicated to St Clydai, is a plain substantial structure, with a massive square tower.There are places of worship for Independents and Calvinistic Methodists. Fairs are held at Henveddau in this parish on May 13th September 17th and October 30th. The average annual expenditure for the support of the poor amounts to £290 8s
.Acc/to Pembrokeshire Parsons.
This benefice is a vicarage, but although the Prebend
ary of Clydey is the rector, the presentation to the living belongs to the Bishop of St. Davids.This church was assessed in 1291 at £10. - Taxatio.
Cledey - Ecclesia ibidem ex collacione Episcopi Menevensis unde Johannes Spendlove clericus est inde preb-endarius in Ecclesia Cathedrali Menevensi valet cor-munibus annis £12. Inde decima 24s - Valor Eccl.
Cleydey.
- Ecclesia Vicaria ibidem ex collacione Episcopi Menevensis unde Morganus Thomas est vicarius valet communibus annis £6. Inde decima 12s. - Valor Eccl.Under the heading, "Livings Discharged" - Clydey alias Clydai V. (St. Cristiolus). bishop of St. Davids. Rector or Preb. is Propr. of the Great Tithes. King's Books, £6. Clear yearly value, £25. - Bacon's Liber Reg.
On 27 Nov., 1899, a faculty was granted for the removal of a cottage on Velindre Farm, in the parish of Llanfyrnach, Pems., belonging to this living.
Vicars
1275. Henry de Bray.
1535-6. Morgan Thomas.
1560. Jun. 5. Maurice Williams.
1563. John Gwyn.
1564. Jan. 13. David Llewellin, vice John Gwyn.
Coedcanlas
Acc/to Daugleddau Estuary published by the Pembrokeshire Coast National Park Authority.
St Marys Church (remains of)
: From the records in the archives of St Davids Cathedral it is known that St Marys Church dates from 1401 and was rebuilt in 1725. The poverty in the area is reflected in the very small headstones (inscribed only with the persons initials) in a tiny cemetary. The four external walls of the Church are virtually intact.The Paryshe of Coydkenles in the sayd County of Pembroke
.1] Oure Lady Fre Chappell of Coydkenlas
2] Founded to Fynde one prest for euer And he to haue for his Salary by yere certeyn Tithes & oblicions which is worth one yere with an other by estimacon xlix.s with xx.ti Acres of glebe land being parcell of the same xlix.s
3] hath cure of soole to the nomber of xlvij.
to howseling people & doth mynyster sacramentses and sacramentalles being distant from any oyer Paryshe Churche one myle & half.4] xlix.s wherof
For the prest stipend xliiijs j.d obolus (halfpenny)
for the tenthes iiij.s x.d obolus
xlix.s
And so Remaynythe nil
5] xxxj.s
COEDCANLASS (COED-CANLAIS), a parish, in the union and hundred of Narberth, county of Pembroke, South Wales, 8 miles (S. E. by S.) from Haverfordwest; containing 245 inhabitants. This small parish is situated on the eastern bank of Milford Haven, from which there is a ferry to Llangwm, on the opposite shore; and is five miles distant from Pembroke, across the ferry at Lawrenny. The substratum of the soil is a fine limestone rock, which is quarried to a considerable extent. The living is a donative, with a stipend of
£20 per annum, paid by Sir John Owen, Bart., the impropriator. The church is a small picturesque building of great antiquity, repaired some years since, at the expense of Sir John Owen: divine service is only occasionally performed in it, but burials generally, the remaining ecclesiastical rites being celebrated at Martletwy. Here are the ruins of an ancient mansion, which bore the same name as the parish, and belonged to the family of Percival.The average annual expenditure for the support of the poor is £9 15s.RCAM
196. The Parish Church (6 in. Ord. Surv. sheet, Pem. 34 S.W.)
The church of this parish exists no longer except as a shapeless and indescribable ruin. It was once a free chapel, to which the Episcopal Registers of St. Davids under the year 1401 record the admission of John Diane, clerk, "to the free chapel of the Blessed Mary of Coed Kenlace," who, "touching the most holy gospels, took a corporal oath of canonical obedience, and that he would faithfully cause divine services to be conducted in the said chapel as had been accustomed of ancient times
".About the year 1600 George Owen describes it as being "in decay" (Pem., ed. Henry Owen, i, 309). According to Browne Willis the chapel was rebuilt by Sir Arthur Owen of Orielton (d. 1753); but this probablv means merely that it was so far repaired as to permit of services being held therein. The last nomination to the curacy took place in 1830.
Acc/to Pembrokeshire Parsons.
This benefice was originally a free chapelry. Whether it ever belonged to the Knights of St. John at Slebech is uncertain. It does not figure in the list of the possessions of that house, but as will be seen from the extract from the Valor Ecd. given below, an annual pension of 2s. a year was payable to the Preceptor of Slebech. However this may have been, the chapel belonged in 1535/4 to John Butler of Coedeenlas. By 1594 it had been acquired by purchase by Benston, and the edifice was then in decay. - Owen Pem.
The chapel afterwards came into the possession of the Owens of Orielton.
Coadcanlass Chap., having laid 60 years in ruins, was neatly built on the Old Foundation, and endowed by Sir Arthur Owen, Bart., anno 17I8. - M.S. Browne Willis.
At the present time the chapel is again in Ruins.Libera Capella de Coidekinles.
- Libera capella ibidem ad donacionem Johannis Butler patroni ibidem unde Philippus Lloid est inde custom Et valet per annum liijs iiijd. Inde sol in sinodalibus et procuracionibus quolibet anno iis ix&. Et in quadam pensione sol pre-eeptori de Slebeehe quolibet anno ij.- Et valet dare 48s. 7d. Inde deeima 4s. Ioid. - Valor Eccl.Under the heading "Not in Charge"
- Coadcanlass Chap. in Martletwy Parish. John Butler, Patr., 1535; Sir Hugh Owen, Bart. - Bacon's Liber Regis.Village Pub
- Victorian Front, concealing earlier building (there was until recently another Public House called the Carpenters Arms kept by Mrs Martin where my father used every dinner time buy his tobacco.)Cosheston -- St Michael & all Angels.
This church consists of chancel, nave, north aisle, south transept known as the Paskeston chapel, south porch and small turret at the west end. Under a facultv obtained in August 1885. "for rebuilding portions of the church," much of the former structure disappeared, the present building being practically a new one on the old foundations. Remains of the rood stairs, and of a tomb recess in the Paskeston chapel, have been retained. All the windows are modern as is the vestry The pier between the north aisle and the nave was removed and an arcade substituted. It was refloored and tiled. In the north-west angle of the chancel a squint-passage to the north aisle was retained and is now used for the organ; as was also the turret with its small octagonal stone spire, the vane on which is dated C.H. 1781. The spire was removed in 1980 and the vane replaced. The rood screen to the Paskeston Chapel, the rood beam, the woodern crucifix and the Bishop's Chair were carved by Mr John Mathias.
The entrance to the tower is by a flight of external stone steps. Under the nave wall between the Paskeston chapel and the south doorway is a well , now covered, which is said to have been used formerly as an adult baptistry. The font is modern; the basin of an earlier font was for some times at the rectory but is now in the Church.
1115 believed to be well established stone built Christian Church on the site already
.In the "taxatio
" records of 1291 the church is entered as Ecclesia Costyn The name of the parish being Costyn or Costonston.This benefice is a rectory, the patronage of which has continued in lay hands from the earliest known date. In 1594 the patron was Henry Wyrriott of Orielton, the last male of his name, whose daughter and heiress married Hugh Owen of Bodeon Anglesey the founder of the family of Owen of Orielton. The patronage continued in the Owen family till 1789, yet curiously enough it was not appendant to any manor.
- Owens Pem.Under the name of Ecclesia de Villa Costyn, this church was assessed in 1291 at £14 13s. 4d., the tenths thereon payable to the King being £1 9s. 4d.
Costenston Rectoria.
- Ecclesia ibidem ex presenta-cione Henrici Wyriott armigeri, unde Johannes Lowys clericus est rector habens rectoriam et glebam et valent fructus et emolimenta ejusdem per annum xiji. Inde sol in oIdinaria visitacione quolibet tercio anno xvjd. Et in visitacione archidiaconi quolibet anno pro sinodali-bus et procuracionibus vR ixd. Et remanet clare £11 12s 11d. Inde decima 23s. 3d.Under the heading "Livings Discharged - Cocheston alias Cosheston R. (St. Michael). Ordinario quolibet tertio anno, 1s 4d. Archidiac quolibet arulo 5s. 9d. Sir Arthur Owen, Bart., 1740. 1751; Sir Willum Owen, Bart., 1774, 1780. Clear yearly value £32. King's Books; £11 12s 11d. - Bacon's Liber Regis.
On 10 August, 1885, a faculty was obtained for taking down and rebuilding portions of the parish church.
1325 William Dryhull
1500 William Harris
1535-6 John Lowys
1554 Lewis Lloyd
1572 Francis Laugharne
1616 Lewis Lewys
1663 William Jones
1663 Morgan Davies
1695 Owen Jones
1772 Rice Evans
1740 George Stokes, M.A.
1751 Lewis Evans
1780 William Holcombe, M.A.
1789 John Holcombe, B.A.
1842 William Bowling, B.A.
1879 Thomas George Cree, M.A.
1895 William George Spurrell, M.A.
1911 Jeremiah John Woolsey
1935 Hugh Thomas
1942 Vernon Johns
1943 Earnest Jones
- C.I.C.during war.1946 Vernon Johns
1953 Gwynne T. Jones
1975 Colin W. Bowen
1985 Alan Thomas
- P.I.C.The earliest registers survive from 1723 but there is a gap around 1740 to 1754
.The average congregation in 1851 was in the morning 94 and 97 in the evening - compare this with the number of Easter Communicants of 41 in 1996
.There was originally a non-conformist Chapel called Nebo situated near Mount Pleasant Cosheston. This appears to have begun through the efforts of home mission and a place of worship was erected in 1832. It was linked with the Tabanacle Pembroke. In 1851 the average congregation was 20 in the morning and 55 in the evening.
Under the jurisdiction of the Independent Chapel at Pembroke
.In 1851 it is recorded that John Lewis was the Deacon and that meetings were held for prayer exclusively every Sunday evening The average congregation was 45
Only the base stone (26 inches by 24 inches), with square socket-hole, remains, apparently in its original position on the south side of the church.
This has been rebuilt; parts of an earlier house having plain vaulted basement chambers are incorporated in the modern house
. Visited, 3rd May, 1920.The Original Church rectory
-- one of the two oldest rectories in Britain 1535 Church Rectory described as "a house, stables and outbuildings of 2 acres valued at £10" - W. Glynne, Notes, Arch. Camb., 1886,-V, iii, 55.It is now in private hands having been sold by the church about 1975.
(6 in. Ord. Surv. sheet, Pem. 10 N.E.; lat. 510 42" 12 " long. 40 51" 20 ").
A spring in the east side of a field of the same name on Paskeston Farm to which pilgrimages are said to have been customary. A few stones, now much overgrown may be the foundations of a masonry well-head. Tithe Schedule, No. 283 - Visited, 3rd May, 1922. Castles, Upper-, West-, Middle-
(6 in. Ord. Surv. sheet, Pem. 40 N.+ lat. 510 41 52 ", long. 40 54 l2 ").
Six fields, doubtless formerly one, abutting on Point Lane, half a mile West of the parish church; they have long been under cultivation, and no trace now remains of any earthwork which may have stood upon them.
Acc to Mjr Francis Jones
.On 26 August 1556 Gelly Barret, gentlemen, of Gellyswick and his wife Mary sold "a tenement called the Hall of Cosheston" to John Rossant of Nash, husbandman, and Isabel his wife, and it remained in the ownership of the Rossant family for several generations. In 1659 the will of John Rossant of Cosheston, yeoman, mentions the "house called the Hall of Cosheston". His son, Francis, was assessed at two hearths in 1670. In 1786 the Hall was owned and occupied by. Abraham Leach.
Just north of Cosheston village there was a farm called Snailton owned and occupied by Reverend William Holcombe. For a time the Allen family were in occupation including Seymour Phillips Allen (High Sheriff 1850) and his wife Lady Catherine, daughter of the 4th Earl of Portsmouth. Later, the name was changed to Woodfield and in 1894 it was occupied by George Stepney Gulston, and shortly afterwards bought by Major Ivor, afterwards Major-General Sir lvor Philipps, K.C.B., D.S.O., who enlarged the house and gave it the name Cosheston Hall. The General died in 1940, and afterwards it was the seat of his daughter, Mrs. Basil Rarnsden, and her son, Major Ivor Ramsden, M.B.E. High Sheriff l967 now one of H.M. Gentlemen at Arms who is the present owner-occupier, and is a Deputy Lieutenant.
The Hall was entirely rebuilt in the mid 19th century.
Paskeston Hall, the earliest part of which is a three-storey traditional style house dating from c. 1730. The hall itself was added some 120 years later. The family name associated with the building of the original house is that of Nicholas Roche, a High Sheriff of Pembroke-shire.
The house is about a mile north-west of Milton village, and built in the Georgian style, with a modern extension to one gable end. The first-known family at Paskeston were yeomen, probably tenants, namely David Scurlock, yeoman (1559), George Ellys, gent. (1617) and William Jermin, gent. (1626) son of Rees Jermin, yeoman, after which came John Rossant, (1659) son and heir of James Rossant of Cosheston, yeoman The Rossants belonged to the minor gentry and lived at Paskeston during the period 1659-1780, and acquired a small estate, the last of whom we find at Paskeston, being John Lewes Rossant, gent., and Mary his wife and John Rossant and John Lewes Rossant, gent., all of whom were living there in 1780.
It is likely that there was a farm as well as the mansion there, as early as 1724; Nicholas Rock of Paskeston, was High Sheriff in 1729, and in his will, proved in 1759, he mentions his sons, Nicholas, Mark, and George, and "my kinsman "Thomas Roch of Butterhill. He was succeeded by his son Nicholas Roch of Cosheston, who succeeded his uncle (who was still there in 1815). Nicholas Roch of Paskeston died there in 1866, and was followed by his son, also named Nicholas Roch who is included in the Landowners Return of 1873 as owning 944 acres.
The next gentry family there was that of Allen (kinsman of the Cresselly stock), who were mentioned at Paskeston in 1894. Newton Seymour Allen DSO of Paskeston was High Sheriff in 1919 and died in 1934.
Vaughan John 1670 Cosheaton Pembrokeshire Hearths
PAllen Elizabeth 1670 Cosheston Pembrokeshire Hearths 1h
Arnold Mathew 1670 Cosheston Pembrokeshire Hearth P
Bathoe Dorothie 1670 Cosheston Pembrokeshire Hearth P
Beede Thomas 1670 Cosheston Pembrokeshire Hearths 2h
Brookes Jane 1670 Cosheston Pembroeshire Hearths 1h
Browne Griffith 1670 Cosheston Pembrokeshire Hearth P
Bryn Mary 1670 Cosheston Pembrokeshire Hearth P
Brynne Henry 1670 Cosheston Pembrokeshire Haearth P
Collin Griffith 1670 Cosheston Pembrokeshire Hearth P
David Morgan Rev 1670 Cosheston Pembrokeshire Hearths Rector of Cosheston.
David Rowland 1670 Cosheston Pembrokeshire Hearth P
David John 1670 Cosheston Pembrokeshire Hearths 1h
David George 1670 Cosheston Pembrokeshire Hearths 1h
David Richard 1670 Cosheston Pembrokeshire Hearth P
Evans Widdowe 1670 Cosheston Pembrokeshire Hearth P
Evans John 1670 Cosheston Pembrokeshire Hearths 1h
Fowler John 1670 Cosheston Pembrokeshire Hearth P
Fowler Hugh 1670 Cosheston Pembrokeshire Hearth P
Froyne Richard 1670 Cosheston Pembrokeshire Hearths 1h
Griffith Henry 1670 Cosheston Pembrokeshire Hearth P
Hancocke John 1670 Cosheston Pembrokeshire Hearths P
Jermine Joan 1670 Cosheston Pembrokeshire Hearths 2h
Jones Richard 1670 Cosheston Pembroeshire Hearths 2h
Jones Jnr Richard 1670 Cosheston Pembrokeshire Hearth P
Long Phillip 1670 Cosheston Pembrokeshire Hearth P
Long Peter 1670 Cosheston Pembrokeshire Hearth P
Long Hugh 1670 Cosheston Pembrokeshire Hearth P
Marchent Phillip 1670 Cosheston Pembrokeshire Hearths
Morgan William 1670 Cosheston Pembrkeshire Hearth P
Oliver Francis 1670 Cosheston Pembrokeshire Hearth P
Palmer Francis 1670 Cosheston Pembrokeshire Hearth P
Peirce Thomas 1670 Cosheston Pembrokeshire Hearths P
Penry Morris 1670 Cosheston Pembrokeshire Hearths 1h
Powell Mary 1670 Cosheston Pembrokeshire Hearths 3h
Pritchard Richard 1670 Cosheston Pembrokeshire Hearth P
Proute Phillip 1670 Cosheston Pembrokeshire Hearth P
Reynold Charles 1670 Cosheston Pembrokeshire Hearth P
Reynold Roger 1670 Cosheston Pembrokeshire Hearth P
Rossant John 1670 Cosheston Pembrokeshire Hearths 1h
Rossant Francis 1670 Cosheston Pembrokeshire Hearths 2h
Sanders Henry 1670 Cosheston Pembrokeshire Hearth P
Sayse Rice 1670 Cosheston Pembrokeshire Hearths 1h
Sayse Miles 1670 Cosheston Pembrokeshire Hearths 1h
Stiffbrow John 1670 Cosheston Pembrokeshire Hearths 1h
Teague Widdowe 1670 Cosheston Pembrokeshire Hearth P
Thomas Griffith 1670 Cosheston Pembrokeshire Hearth P
Waughan Widdowe 1670 Cosheston Pembrokeshire Hearth P
Wills Griffith 1670 Cosheston Pembrokeshire Hearths 1h
Wills John 1670 Cosheston Pembroeshire Hearths 1h
PARISH AND PROPERTY SURNAME FORENAMES
Cosheston Back Tenement Lowless John (tenant)
Cosheston Back Tenement Mears John (owner)
Cosheston Back Tenement Owen Lady (owner)
Cosheston Back Tenement Phillips Benj. (tenant)
Cosheston Back Tenement Rickson William (tenant)
Cosheston Back Tenement Wright Richard (owner)
Cosheston Brother Hill Gwyther Thos (tenant)
Cosheston Brother Hill Mears John (owner)
Cosheston Cross Tenement Evans John (tenant)
Cosheston Cross Tenement Mears John (owner)
Cosheston East Tenement Hancock Rev Thos (tenant)
Cosheston East Tenement Mathias Joseph (tenant)
Cosheston East Tenement Mears John (owner)
Cosheston East Tenement Scott Elizabeth (tenant)
Cosheston Glebe Holcombe Rev J (owner)
Cosheston Hall Leach Abram (owner)
Cosheston Lawrenny Ferry Barger John (tenant)
Cosheston Lawrenny Ferry Canton John (tenant)
Cosheston Lawrenny Ferry Cousins John (tenant)
Cosheston Lawrenny Ferry Owen Lady (owner)
Cosheston Lawrenny Ferry Tasker John (owner)
Cosheston Lawrreny Ferry Campbell John (owner)
Cosheston Lawrreny Ferry Hancock Elizabeth (tenant)
Cosheston Little Mayeston Bargor John (tenant)
Cosheston Little Mayeston Phillips William (owner)
Cosheston Little Mountain Leach Abram (owner)
Cosheston Little Mountain Purser William (tenant)
Cosheston Lower Tenement Hancock Hugh (tenant)
Cosheston Lower Tenement Mears John (owner)
Cosheston Lower Tenement Phillips Henry (tenant)
Cosheston Lowey Garrot John (tenant)
Cosheston Lowey Tasker John (owner)
Cosheston Mayeston Hancock Rev Thos (tenant)
Cosheston Mayeston John William (tenant)
Cosheston Mayeston Phillips William (owner)
Cosheston Mayeston Williams Mrs (tenant)
Cosheston Middle Tenement Dally John (tenant)
Cosheston Middle Tenement Mears John (owner)
Cosheston Middle Tenement Owen Lady (owner)
Cosheston Middle Tenement Williams Margaret (owner)
Cosheston Paskeston Butler Peter (owner)
Cosheston Paskeston Roch Nicholas (owner)
Cosheston Prudence Meadow Barlow Hugh (owner)
Cosheston Prudence Meadow Lowless Henry (tenant)
Cosheston Snailston Holcombe Rev J (owner)
Cosheston Sullan Tasker John (owner)
Cosheston Towns End Morgan David (owner)
Cosheston Warreston Mathias John (tenant)
Cosheston Warreston Mears John (owner)
Cosheston West Tenement Barlow Hugh (owner)
Cosheston West Tenement Brinn John (tenant)
Cosheston West Tenement Campbell John (owner)
Cosheston West Tenement Hicks Rev James (tenant)
Cosheston West Tenement John David (tenant)
Cosheston West Tenement Mears John (owner)
Cosheston the Mill Mears John (owner)
Cosheston the Mill Thomas Thos (tenant)
1307 September 20
Inq. Post Mortem, C Edward II File 4(1) (Cal p 21a)
.Lands etc of Joan de Valencia, Countess of Pembroke.
m.1 Writ 20 Sept 1307
m.4 The Marches of Wales. Inq., Thursday after St Luke, 1 Edward
II. Pembroke. Jurors; Richard de Stakepol,kt, David de la Roche, Stephen Perrot, Alexander Robelin, Robert Vacchan, William de Cripping, Walter berth, David de Villa Pattricii, Benedict de Horston, John Longe, John Coci, Ralph Benger.
Extent ; The castle of Pembroke which is worth nothing yearly (quia custuosum); 2 carucates of land, each carucate worth yearly 66s 8d; 200 burgages worth
£10 yearly, half payable at Easter, and the other half at Michaelmas; 3 water mills paying £13 6s 8d yearly at the aforesaid times; the pleas and perquisites together with the tolls are worth 6s 8d yearly; the piscaries (legal right to fish)are worth 6s 8d yearly; the prise of beer 60s. do.; 7a. of meadow worth 14s yearly; the rent of Karreu for the ward of the castle of Pembroke, 28s at Michaelmas; rent of Stackpole 18s payable in equal sums at the aforementioned times; do Kylvegy, 4s; Costeyniston 8s; Gilcop 4s; Gonedon 4s; Opeton 4s; Seynt Syrone, 5s; Manynerbir, 17s; Mynwere 4s; Esse 1d. all payable at the aforesaid two terms; the pleas and perquisites of the "County" of Pembroke are worth yearly £6 13s 4d; pleas and perquisites of the pleas of Castle Gate (Cur Porte Castri), 100s yearly; perquisites of the pleas of obligation, 13s 4d yearly.Aymer, etc., is next heir.
1324 August 20 Pembroke
.C Edward II File 85
.Extent made before John de Hamptona, Kings escheator, at Pembroke 20 August 1324 Jurors Walter Maeleufaut, Walter de Castro, John Keiez (Kneghey) John Melin, Walter Harald; Stephen Perot, Walter Eliot; Wioti de Laureny, John Cradok ( John de Luny) William de Crippynes, Thomas Martin, and John Scorlags.
[as per C Edward II file 84 plus following]
Aymer had in the county of Pembroch 25 1/2 knights fees and one tenth knights fee, whereof :
Costyneston 2 knights fees held by John Wogan, John Beneger and William Robelyn, worth yearly 40m (mark = 13s 8d).
1348 September 24 Pembroke
Writ of certiorari de feodis etc., to John de Shol, escheator in Hereford and the adjacent March of Wales, 24 September, 22
Edward III Extent of all fees and advowsons of churches in the county of Pembroke, made at Pembroke on Thursday in the feast of St Michael de Monte Tumba, 22 Edward III.
Jurors; John Cantrel, William Adam, William Robelyn, Thomas de Castro, Andrew Wysman, John Beneger..... John Rou, John Robyn, William Parttrahan, John Hilton and Henry Beneger.
Laurence de Hastings, Earl of Pembroke, had in the county of Pembroke 251/2 knights fees and three carucates of land, viz;
Costenyston, two fees held by Thomas Morgan. William Robelyn and Ralph Benger's heirs, worth yearly 40m
1353 June 6
Chancery Misc. Inquisition No 168.
Writ dated 6 June Edward III, touching the knight
's fees held by the late Laurence de Hastings, Earl of Pembroke.Inquisition at Pembroke 6 April 27 Edward III, before Thomas de Aston.
Jurors: John Melyn, William Parthcorn, Thomas Castel, Richard ..rchard, John Wydelok, John Suteri, John Coke, David ap Llewelyn Vaughan, John Castel de fflemyneston, John..... Edward Castel, John Bisschop.
William Robelyn, on his death (Thursday n.a. St Trinity 23 Edward III) held of the demesne of Pembroke 2 1/2 carucates of land in Costeyniston by military service and doing suit to the Court of the gate of the castle of Pembroke, and worth 40s yearly; also the free tenants of the said William pay a yearly rent of 4s 4d. Also he held of John de Carrewe kt., three bovates of land in le thorne, worth yearly 6s.,; and Robert, son of the said William, is his heir and was 13 years and more at the time of his fathers death; his marriage is worth
£20.1376 20 November
I.P.M., Edward III, 248, f. 105
Writ of certiorari de feodis, d. 20 November, 49 Edward III. Edward de Brigg. Extent. .. 49 Edward III.
Jurors: Richard de Houton, Roger Creytol, Henry Brace, Richard de Brompton, John de Mulle, Hugh Wrembrugge, Walter Keveryk, Walter Bisshewall, John Kawerose, Walter Rouse, Henry ap Ieuan, Walter Heynes.
John de Hastinges late Earl of Pembroke, deceased, held the undermentioned fees and advowsons of the king in chief, two knights fees in Costyneston, which William Robelyn, Thomas Wogan and Ralph Beneger formerly held, worth in gross £21 yearly
.1377
Richard II seized the priory of Pembroke at which time an extent of its possessions was taken.
Extenta Prioratus de Pembrochia 1 Ric II
.Portiones pertin ad dictum Prioratum
.Ecclesia de Costynton val per annum xs
.1488 12 February.
Henry etc. to H. bishop of St. Davids, greeting
: we command you that you do not for any liberty omit to enter and cause to be levied for us of goods, benefices, and ecclesiastical possessions, of the underwritten churches in your diocese the sums written by parcels below, namely of the church of the town of Cosheston 44s.1513.
Henry king of England etc.,. to Edward etc., bishop of St David's greeting. Whereas you and the rest of the prelates and clergy of the province of Canterbury assembled in the last convocation or holy synod of such prelates and clergy in the church of the divine Paul, London, begun and celebrated on 6 February in the year 1511-12 according to the course and computation of the English Church and continued day by day unto and on 17 December then next following granted unto us for the defence and protection of the Anglican Church and this our famous realm of England as well as to allay and extirpate heresies and schisms in the church universal which in these days flourish more than usually, under the manners, forms, conditions, and exceptions written below , not otherwise not in any other manner , four tenths of all ecclesiastical benefices and possessions whatsoever , also of all benefices and possessions of alien priories whatsoever , being in the hands of whatsoever ecclesiastics or secular men of the said province, the specific exceptions within written only excepted, to be levied, collected and paid in the manner, form and terms following, namely one and the first tenth on the feast of St Martin in the winter next to come which will be in the year 1513, the second truely on the feast of St Peter ad Vincula then next to come which will be in the year 1514, and the third on the feast of the Holy apostles Phillip and James which will be in the year 1515, the fourth and last tenth truly on the feast of the said Apostles which will be in the year 1516 saving from the grant, levy, and payment of the said tenth etc., as it more fully appears in the said writ of the king hanging on the file of the year 1513.
The goods, church possessions and benefices, in the diocese of St David's which have been diminished, impoverished, and other destroyed by wars, fires, ruins, inundations of rivers and other misfortunes and chances deservedly to be excused from payment of the same four tenths according to the force etc., of the grant of the same by the authority of the said convocation follow and are these as appears on the other part of the folio here following etc.
In the archdeaconry of St Davids are excepted the churches here underwritten:-
In the deanery of Pembroke the underwritten churches are excepted:
Cosheston.
1534.
The Rector's annual income at Cosheston was calculated as being £10.1650.
Steven Love a Londoner was appointed to the living of Cosheston as a result of the work of the Propagation Committee. He became a member of the Green Meeting in Haverfordwest. He later became minister St Thomas and St Mary's (1652) in Haverfordwest. X ref this to the Haverfordwest plague history where he and his wife did so much work1690 Thomas Bowen of Cosheston refused to take the oath of allegiance.
1794. circa [St Petrox]
extract from a Letter from Cha[rle]s Pigott Pritchett, rural dean of Pembroke, to William Stuart Bishzp of St Davids.
..... The state of the churches in my district is now become so decent and in tolerable order that it is unnecessary for me to trouble your lordship with particulars. I wish I had as good an account to give of many of the vicarage houses. That of Nangle stands in most deplorable condition, next to it Mannerbier, St Twinnels and the vicarage at Stackpole want thorough repairs.
List of subscribers to the fund for the sons of the clergy.
Revd. J. Holcombe Cosheston £1 1s 0d
Church in Wales MS AD/AET 1209 Pembrokeshire life 1572 1843.
Elyet Mathias 1543 Cossheston PRO 223/423 Churchwarden
Mendous Thomas 1543 Cossheston PRO223/423 Churchwarden
Education1811 Acc /to t