England & Wales Hardwicke Marriage Index
Marriages 1754 - 1837
Pembroke St Mary

The Parish

The town of Pembroke, which consists of twin parishes St Mary & St Michael, lies in southern Pembrokeshire roughly 10 miles southeast of the county's administrative capital of Haverfordwest and some 250 miles west of London. Pembroke sits at the eastern head of the secure harbour of Milford Haven and also at the end of the A477 road from Haverfordwest and the A4139 from Tenby. Pembroke was created as a consequence of the Norman conquest of Pembrokeshire in 1093, its site being highly defensive it was chosen as a major port and castle site, the castle was finally partially destroyed during the Civil War and not re-fortified. Besides its military role Pembroke's harbour gave it access to the produce of the Pembrokeshire interior as well as ready trade with Ireland to the west. As a consequence Pembroke became a market town too providing the specialist trades of such a centre and a market for the exchange of goods. The main goods which were handled by the port being wool, grain, fish & coal. With the construction of Pembroke Dock and its dockyard most industry moved from the town itself to that new development. The growth of the town was spurred by the arrival of the railway line connecting to the national network in 1863. Today's Pembroke remains a market town & port and a way station on the county's premier hiking route, The Pembrokeshire Coast Path, now part of the Wales Coastal Trail. Of the town's two parishes St Mary covered the entirety of the market town and the strip of land to its north between the main channel of Milford Haven and the Pembroke River. As a coastal settlement numerous small drains and channels feed into Milford Haven and thus the Irish Sea. Pembroke is sited at between sea level and 30 metres, the limestone headland of Pennar Park, complete with its golf course tops out at almost 60 metres as the local high point. St Mary's parish covered around 2,000 acres and would have been the most populous of the two parishes with a population of around 5,400 parishioners. Domesday Book did not extend its coverage to Pembrokeshire despite the plantation that founded Pembroke it is not therefore mentioned in that book.

The Church

St Mary's church sits on the northern side of Main Street and from that thoroughfare is almost completely masked by fronting properties, turning into Northgate Street the church becomes more obvious. The oldest fabric of the church is the combined nave and chancel which Pevsner dates to the mid-13th century, the Early English Gothic period, on the basis of their having round arches with deep roll mouldings characteristic of that era. The tower, placed in the unusual position to the north of the chancel is slightly later being of the early 14th century and Decorated in style. The church once had both northern & southern transepts but that to the north has been removed but the stubby southern one remains. The aisle, complete with barrel vaulting is an addition of the Perpendicular era, either late 14th century or 15th. An elongated southern porch, stretching between houses to a short frontage on Main Street, completes the medieval. The church received a major restoration over the period from 1876 to 1879 in which geometrical tracery was added to the windows, the chancel arch replaced and all of the roofs similarly replaced. Work continued into the 20th century, in 1926 a western porch was added, in 1937 the porch was lengthened and in 1946 the transept was converted into a Lady Chapel. Given the urban location this is definitely a church to visit after first using one of the town's car parks. Its constrained site removed all of the aspects from the favoured southern side and makes for a challenging subject on a sunny day.