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

The Parish

The parish of Pwllcrochan lies in southern Pembrokeshire on the southern banks of Milford Haven. Pwllcrochan is located about 5 miles west of the port of Pembroke. Pwllcrochan sits, in lanes, about 2 miles north of the B4320 road which connects Pembroke through to Angle. There is very little to modern day Pwllcrochan, just a scatter of farms and cottages. Pwllcrochan would have had a predominantly pastoral farming economy albeit supplemented by wildfowling and inshore fishing and shell-fishing on the nearby estuary. The parish is dominated, today, by the extensive oil refinery of Rhoscrowther which stands immediately west of the lane which leads to the coast and which is followed by the Pembrokeshire Coastal Trail. As a coastal parish what little drainage there is runs quickly through to nearby Milford Haven. Pwllcrochan is sited at around 20 metres above the sea in gentle countryside rising to local heights of around 70 metres on the ridge followed by the B4320. Pwllcrochan parish was a relatively small parish for its county, covering around 1,600 acres it would have supported a population of just over 200 parishioners. In common with most of Wales pwllcrochan is not mentioned in Domesday Book which did not cover this area.

The Church

St Mary's church has been deconsecrated and converted to a private house and the grounds are, therefore, private. Despite a stone dating the northern transept to 1342 there is little of that date about the building. All of the rest is either Perpendicular and 15th century or as a result of the frequent restorations of 1865 & 1897. The former church sits on the western side of the lane through the "village" and is passed by the Pembrokeshire Coastal Path from which only a single angle is available to record the building without infringing on the residents privacy.