Christmas quiz

Christmas is hurtling towards us and last Friday we held our Christmas quiz in Monkton Church Hall which was decorated for the festive season. It was good that so many joined us in what is our last event this year. Twelve tables in all which made winning all the more commendable for the winning team: Michael Howlett, Abby John, Wendy George, Michelle Carter and Graham George. Many thanks to Pauline Waters, our questionmaster; Liz Jenkins and Ann Lankshear for organising the lovely buffet and to all who contributed food and raffle prizes; Rachel Norman for organising the raffle and not forgetting Des Sinclair for supplying the questions. It was a really lovely evening. Our next quiz will be in the New Year, on Friday, January 18.

St. Anne's

A few weeks ago, Dorcas Thoburn contributed some of her stories to this page. She, for a short time, lived at St. Anne's - a former smallholding to the far west of Pembroke. I later received a 'phone call from Mrs. Jean Braybon who told me that her mother was born at St. Anne's so I went to see her to find out more.

The lost chapel

Originally, St. Anne's was a chapel and I must admit to not knowing very much about it. St. Anne was the mother of the Virgin Mary and grandmother of Jesus; she is the patron saint, so I have been informed, of seafarers and chapels dedicated to St. Anne are often to be found located by the sea. Here, the chapel would have overlooked the Pembroke River once a busy waterway. However, on a quick internet search, I find out that she is also claimed as patron saint of equestrians, housewives, grandmothers, cabinet makers, unmarried women, women in labour and miners!

There is a map drawn by John Speed in 1611 which clearly shows the chapel, but what happened to it is a mystery - only the name survives. Fenton in his 'Historical Tour Through Pembrokeshire' written at the beginning of the 1800s does mention it, but only to say that "scarce a memorial remains". He described it as a chapel of ease belonging to St. Mary's, but it was directly opposite the Priory and could therefore have had some connection with the monastery?

The small holding

However, the name survived. St. Anne's is named on later maps and was adopted by the house which was built possibly on the site of the chapel, or very close to it. It is also remembered in St. Anne's Bastion in the Castle and more recently in St Anne's Crescent on The Green.

It was in St. Anne's, at the beginning of the 20th century, that the Griffiths family lived and where Jean's mother was born in 1910. "My mum was called Lucy," Jean told me "and there were eight children altogether - David, Sidney, William and Peter, Lilla and Florence (twins) and Lucy and Nancy (also twins) - another set of twins died at birth. Mum grew up at St. Anne's and I remember some of the stories she used to tell me about it. Stories about there being a secret passage under the river from St. Anne's to Pembroke Castle and that St. Anne's had been a monastery: there was an old settle in the cottage which family folklore claimed to have been left by the monks. Of course I don't know if there was any truth in any of this."

Childhood Adventures

"As children, they would swim across the river to Monkton. This was Priory land - my mother used to tell me how Mr. Jenkins would shout 'get off my land' and chase them away. One day, mum was up a tree and when she saw him coming waving his stick, she jumped down and landed badly on her ankle. She always had a bit of a limp after that.

Lucy was by all accounts a bit of a tomboy. Grandfather used to go down to the Waterman's for a drink as he was very friendly with people who ran it. One day, he made a bet that my mother would be able skull a coracle from their house at St. Anne's down to the bridge by the Waterman's - and she did!"

At The Elms

"At the age of 16, mum went into service with Colonel and Mrs. Po'e at The Elms on The Green, Pembroke. (This is now owned by PCC social services). The Po'es were said to be descendants of the writer Edgar Allan Poe, famous author of 'Tales of Mystery and Imagination'. She worked there for many years until she married my father who was in the Royal Air Force in Pembroke Dock. They presented her with a lovely silver plated tea set upon her marriage which took place in St. Mary's Church in 1937.

Prior to that, the whole family left St. Anne's to live in Carlisle, apart from mum who stayed with the Po'es and her twin Nancy, who married Stanley Anstee from Neyland. My grandfather had a job with the railway there. My mother joined them after her marriage as my father was posted to Singapore and it was because of that that I happened to be born in Carlisle."

On The Green

"Some of my relatives, however, continued to live on The Green, which in those days really was a Green; one big field surrounded by iron railings with three cottages near the edge of the road by the present St. Anne's Crescent. My great-aunt and uncle 'Boyo' Williams in one, my cousin Norma McDonna and family in another and Mr. and Mrs. Smith with daughter Coral. My family were great friends with Mrs. Hayes who had the shop which is now the home of her granddaughter Marcia James. They all got together at Christmas with the landlord of the Waterman's Arms Billy Neal. The cottages were later knocked down to build the council houses."

Back to St. Anne's

The cottage and small holding, which was owned by the Bush Estate, continued to be occupied until the late '50s. Dorcas Thoburn lived at St. Anne's with her mother during the war and it must have been shortly afterwards that Lyn Davies's mother and stepfather, Mary and Clifford Brighty lived there. Lyn told me he had lived there with them for about four years following army service in about 1950. He remembers St. Anne's with its outside wash house, pig cot and outhouse. "It was very much lacking in modern facilities" he recalled "no electricity, oil lamps, no flush toilet or water supply. There was a path to it but no road - returning home after a night out was pretty horrendous. Pitch black ahead, no lights anywhere near, and the path would often flood back in those days before the barrage."

The Brightys were the last people to live in the house. Lyn told me: "In around 1957, my stepfather moved to the Lodge, Bush Hill, which belonged to the estate, for which he was head gardener. Many Pembroke people will remember my mother, Mary Blighty as she was caretaker of the castle in the '60s and they lived for a time in the cottage which is now the castle shop."

He also told me that St. Anne's was haunted. "My mother used to reckon that a ghost haunted the place - she never saw it, but felt it and she would never stay in the house on her own. She always said that the ghost moved to Bush house where sightings a woman in white have been reported ...." Another story!!

Demolished

About three years ago, as I discovered that the derelict house had been demolished. Luckily, I had taken photographs of it some time before. Nothing now remains of the house and buildings: like the chapel before it "scarce a memorial remains."

Next event

Tomorrow (Saturday) - Friday, December 7: we will be supporting and participating in the Christmas Tree Festival at Monkton Priory Church. We will not be holding a coffee morning as such but come along and see the trees decorated by local schoolchildren using recycled materials. We will have an exhibition in the Priory Church and there will also be various afternoon events. Refreshments will be served all day. The event is free and all money raised will go to church funds.

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.pembrokeandmonkonhistory.org.uk">www.pembrokeandmonkonhistory.org.uk