The Pembroke and Monkton Local History Society works with other heritage organisations in the area, and has close links with the West Wales Maritime Heritage Society. This society is one of our partners in Pembroke Museum, a community venture working in conjunction with Pembroke Town Council.

Historic shipyard

The WWMHS is based in Hancock's shipyard on Front Street, Pembroke Dock, an historic shipyard where ships have been built for over 200 years. It lies within the footprint of the new marina, which is to be developed by Conygar, and the society is actively pursuing negotiations with the developer, PCC and the port authority with a view to remaining on the site to develop a maritime heritage centre.

It is ideally suited for this. Boasting a long history of shipbuilding, Peter Hancock & Sons took over the yard in 1921 from former owners J. & W. Francis. Many ships have been constructed here. Francis' built two and three masted ships such as the Verbena pictured here. Hancocks began by building fishing smacks, Brixham trawler type, but larger, and more recently the Hobb's Point ferries - the Cleddau Queen in 1956 and the Cleddau King in 1962. The last ship to be built there was the Fastnet Rock, coal carrier, in 1979.

The yard is still popularly known as Hancock's yard and many Pembroke Dock people served apprenticeships there.

AM Angela Burns visit

There is much interest in the aspirations and plans of the WWMHS and last Friday, March 28, members of the society welcomed a visit from our AM Mrs. Angela Burns who came to view the yard and find out more about the work being carried out by the society. It turned out that Angela's husband is a boat enthusiast and she appeared really interested as the society officers showed her around the yard and the sheds which house the collection of vintage boats.

David James, secretary of the society, was pleased with the outcome of her visit.

He said: "Mrs. Burns took great interest in our operations and assured us that if we need help she will do all she can to help us. She understood that the society engages with all the other heritage groups in Pembrokeshire and also our proposals for bringing the dry dock back into fully operational condition so that boat owners with boats too large to lift out of the water by crane would be able to enter and carry out work below the waterline on their boats."

He added: "We have also spoken to Mr. Simon Hart MP and he too is enthusiastic about the ideas the society has for regeneration, the continued restoration of vintage vessels to sailing condition and proposed projects such as restoring the Tenby Lugger in one of our sheds."

The Tenby Lugger project

One of the vintage ships in the possession of the WWMHS is the last of the large Tenby Luggers. The National Museum Wales has entrusted the boat to the society to restore and to organise her future use. What is the Tenby Lugger? You may ask, so I quote here from the society's leaflet:'The Tenby Lugger was a unique example of an inshore fishing boat developed over the latter half of the 19th century to meet local needs. Those needs initially were fishing with long lines for cod and other bottom living varieties, fishing with nets for herring and mackerel, and dredging for oysters. Towards the end of the century there was an increasing need to provide boats for hire to the summer visitors flocking to Tenby to 'take the waters'. The boats were built locally and the Tenby Lugger has been adopted as the logo of the WWMHS.'

A project has now been put forward to the Heritage Lottery to fund its restoration.

Sea Fair Haven and the Pembroke

River Rally

The society welcomes new members and if you like mucking about in boats you could turn up at Hancock's Yard on a Monday when the band of volunteers get together to work on the boats. David tells me that enthusiasm is the most important attribute - if you haven't any particular skills they can be acquired on the job. There are no qualifications needed. Volunteers also have the opportunity to sail the boats and participate in the set piece events for which the Society is well know in both Pembroke and Pembroke Dock. The two big events this year will be the Sea Fair Haven in June and the Pembroke River Rally which takes place each year to exercise the right of navigation up the Pembroke River. This year, it will take place on July 26.

For more information, look up their website http://www.westwalesmaritimeheritage.org.uk">www.westwalesmaritimeheritage.org.uk or contact David James, secretary, on 01646 683764.

Pembroke and Monkton Local History Society events

Back to the history society - we will be holding two events this month:

Tomorrow (Saturday, April 5), we will be holding a local history coffee morning at Monkton Church Hall 10.30 am to 12.30 pm. There will be a presentation - A Journey Around Pembrokeshire in Old Picture Postcards. This will begin at 10.45 am. Also we will be giving an update on our WW1 Project and we would welcome any contributions towards this.

On Friday, April 11, Richard Davies will be giving an evening talk on 'The French Invasion of Fishguard ... and Pembroke's Part in the Story', 7.30 pm. Richard, an excellent speaker, is coming all the way from Fishguard to speak to us so I hope we have a good attendance. We are bringing forward the talk this month because of Easter.

Contact

If you have any stories, photographs or feedback 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