Out and about this summer

This summer has been a busy time for us in the Pembroke and Monkton Local History Society. We have been supporting many local organisations with our exhibitions - these include the castle, St. Mary's Church (did you see their beautiful flower festival? It was lovely!), the river rally, the spitfire shop, the Pembroke Show, and local history exhibitions of the Lamphey and District History Society and Stackpole Church. We are always pleased to support other community groups - but I think we will have to try to acquire some more display boards!

I am always happy to hear your stories - this page gives us all an opportunity to share memories and help build up a picture of the past. When Nancy Davies told me she had been jotting down some of her memories, I suggested she might like to have them published here and she agreed.

Nancy is very pleased with the new pavement outside her home on Springfield Terrace, The Green, Pembroke.

She told me: "It set me thinking about all the changes on The Green that have happened since I first moved into my house here following my wedding in 1955."

Remembering the Green

"As I lie awake hour after hour each night trying to get to sleep, thoughts race through my mind as I try to remember how things used to be, so I have tried to write them down. My thoughts have been spurred on by recent changes to our road where recently a new pavement has been laid down right in front of our Terrace. I have now photographed this road before work was started and since its completion; our new pavement making it look very smart and all completed satisfactorily within a month as estimated.

"Seeing all my new pictures makes me realise that I have no old photographs of The Green as it used to be. I would dearly love to know if anyone has any - I want to find out more information, but don't really know where to start. Can anyone help?"

Springfield Terrace

"Springfield Terrace stretches down from Rocky Park to Croft Court, now sheltered housing for the elderly. When we came to live here, there was a children's home here in Croft House which was demolished to make way for that development. A little further down the present Cornstore formed part of Ford's Yard, where Annie the Mill used to work - I still have the wedding gift of a teapot which she gave me.

"I am trying to remember the names of the people who lived in this terrace; we are the eldest and longest living in the street, and have seen many changes. There was an old lady by the name of Mrs. Usher, quite a posh lady who was always smartly dressed in fur coats, hats and lipstick. Then moving in years after us came my dear friend Mrs. Peggy Jackson whose husband Roy collected the council house rents. Peggy's parents owned the butcher's shop on the East End Square known as Prouts the Butcher which brings back memories of my childhood as it was in the East End, the bottom end of town, that I was born and I spent my early years in Station Road.

Characters of the East End

My step-father was Frankie Collings, the father of the scrap merchant on the Lower Lamphey Road. My husband was also a local boy known as Davies the Tanyard. He spent many hours talking to Peggy about the old characters of the East End.

Characters like John the Tinker who lived in one of the now demolished row of houses known as Railway Terrace, where the station car park now is. Everyone would bring their water cans and kettles to him to be mended. Also in that Terrace was Mary Hall, a strange lady who used to come out on the street shouting at anyone who passed! Then there was Mrs. No Nose - I never knew her name, poor lady - only that she was injured in a bombing incident in the war and would always have a handkerchief covering her face. Next door to us in Station Row was Mr. Mount who charmed a wart off my knee when I was a kid and over in East End Square lived Mrs. Weatherall with a large family in one of the little cottages by the Hope (many finding homes on the Green in the new Council Estate) ...of course, there are so many more the list would be endless!"

Back to the Green

"Returning to the top end of town, to the Green, in number was 23 Mr. Reginald Welch who later married my old schoolteacher Miss Nancy James. Next to me in number 17 was Mr. Leslie Williams whose son David was a well-known teacher from Bush School and still lives on the Green. Then there was a really lovely old lady, Mrs. Wise, who used to take in lodgers and Tommy James who kept his steam engine, the Pride of Pembroke, in a shed down Rocky Park, our back lane. On the end of the row a nice old gentleman always stood inside his walled court with a little dog. I wonder what they would think of the changes made today with our pavements each side of the road?

"When we first moved here too there was a row of terraced houses similar to these on the opposite side of the road. Quite opposite my house was a blacksmiths - smells and sounds so easily come to mind even now. Years after we came to live here they were all pulled down to make room for the extension to the Council Estate, calling them the flats on The Green.

"It will probably keep me awake forever now remembering the things I forgot to mention. Hoping no offence will be taken by me naming names as none was meant. I have only fond memories."

Contact

If you have any stories or photographs for this column, please contact me, Linda Asman, on 01646 622428, email [email protected]">[email protected] and visit our website http://www.pembrokeandmonktonhistory.org.uk">www.pembrokeandmonktonhistory.org.uk