WYN Evans, former Bishop of St Davids, will tell the story of how St David’s Cathedral was rescued from ruin during the 19th century at the next monthly meeting of the Pembrokeshire Historical Society.

By the early 1800s, the medieval cathedral was in a sorry state, having suffered a long period of neglect and near-abandonment, with the tower in danger of collapse. An urgent programme of restoration and refurbishment was begun in the 1840s, carried on by the noted architect George Gilbert Scott and culminating in the re-roofing of the Lady Chapel in 1901.

Without these efforts, it is quite possible that the magnificent cathedral we see today would have become little more than a picturesque ruin.

It has been written of Bishop Wyn that ‘his knowledge of his own cathedral must be unsurpassed within the Anglican world’, and he has previously shared that knowledge with the Society in lectures about the cathedral’s early history and during the Civil Wars.

He will be bringing that history more or less up to date with an illustrated talk to be held in the Pembrokeshire Archives building in Prendergast, Haverfordwest on Friday, December 5 at 2.30pm. All are welcome.