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

The Parish

The parish of Tenby (Dibych-y-Pysgoed in Welsh) lies in the extreme southeast of Pembrokeshire forming a stretch of the county's coastline with the outer Bristol Channel. Tenby is located roughly 10 miles east of the town of Pembroke and sits at the southern end of the A478 which connects it with Narberth and with the main artery of the region, the A40 from Swansea. Tenby is a port, market town and seaside resort combined into a triangular compact site formed around a harbour on the northern side of a low & rocky headland. From that focus the town expands inland, constrained southwards by the marshes flanking The Ritec and inland by rising land. Tenby has ancient roots, a site for Vikings and eventually Norman settlement it was soon fortified by the latter by placement of a castle and, in the 13th century, building of the town walls. These developments placed Tenby third amongst the walled towns of Wales behind Conway & Caernarvon. Throughout the medieval period Tenby flourished as a fishing & trading port and market town, its fish market was noted for the variety & quality of its produce, the port saw frequent trade with the northern coast of Devon & Cornwall across the narrow straights. The parish hinterland was fertile providing a mixture of grazing around The Ritec as well as arable farming whilst anthracite was worked from surface mines to its east. It was the arrival of the railway line linking Tenby not only with the industrial towns of South Wales but also with London that saw spectacular growth as a resort expanding the town considerably. Today Tenby is rightly viewed as one of the most attractive coastal towns in the UK, as Pevsner rightly states " a perfect picturesque addition to the landscape", with something for everyone, an attractive town full of nooks & crannies with quirky shops, a bathing resort with a splendid beach and, for the more energetic, a welcome stop on the arduous but highly scenic Pembrokeshire Coastal National Trail. As a coastal site numerous outfalls drain away water, mainly into The Ritec and the nearby sea. Tenby is sited at between sea level and 80 metres above it, the more northern suburbs, land continues rising inland in gently rolling countryside to local high spots to the west, along The Ridgeway, a geologically raised ridge of vertically standing hard strata, at 110 metres. At just over 2,000 acres Tenby parish was fairly typically sized for its area, within that acreage it would have supported a population of around 2,800 parishioners. Like most of Wales Tenby is not mentioned in Domesday Book which did not cover this area.

The Church

St Mary's church sits within the walls of the old town on the western side of the High Street, it is one of the largest medieval parish churches in Wales, it is also one which has undergone a series of changes over the centuries to arrive at today's complex building. Pevsner identifies the earliest portions of the church as 13th century albeit little remains documenting that early period, the core of a nave, chancel and southern aisle seems to have formed that 13th century building, a single lancet of Early English Gothic styling graces the wall above the south porch marking that period. It was the late 14th or early 15th century that saw the major campaign of expansion which led to the current church, dating from that period one finds the northern aisle and the curiously placed tower standing southwest of the chancel, it is tall and a landmark for many miles above the townscape. A late Perpendicular style campaign begun in the 1460s had a major impact, rebuilding & enlarging of the chancel was accompanied raising a clerestory and a sanctuary as well as adding a new roof in a waggon style. Further work followed sporadically through the 17th & 18th centuries before the typical Victorian restoration, here it fell in a prolonged campaign running from 1855 to 1863, it was followed by a smaller affair in 1884 to complete the church. Sadly for the photographer the church has a rather constrained site, one must be grateful as it was yet more constrained before cottages, backing onto the church from the north and east, were removed in the 1830s. Given the presence of neighbouring commercial buildings and the town's narrow streets there is little room to get sufficiently far away to adequately record this fascinating building.