Pembrokeshire 2 - Pembroke Docks and a Martello Tower

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Right - now for a bit of military history. Gabby is parked alongside a wall. A high one at that. We have parked up on an empty bit of road. Plenty of room for a motorhome and no signs to say you cannot stop for the night. It is free as well which is fantastic bonus. What more could we need. Todays visit is not to a castle nor to a stately home but to Pembroke Dock.

So why are we here parked up against the old naval dockyard?. Well there is a reason . Glenns dad served in the Royal Marines and was stationed here at Pembroke Dock. We wanted to see if there was anything left of the old dockyard. Sadly the only thing left was the high wall . The grounds had been turned into an industrial estate. Still the wall was interesting. Four bronze plaques told the history of the town. The one most interesting told the story of the fire caused at the docks by German bombers during the 2nd World War. One was called "One day my ship will come " and depicted the town in 1850. The man with the wooden leg was Captain Sir Owen -Pell who was supervisor for shipping for the British Empire. They were truly fascinating and told the history of the area in bronze.

We spent a while looking at them before walking the short distance to the Martello Tower which protected the harbour entrance. There were originally two towers built between 1848 and 1851 to protect Pembroke Dock. They were in use until 1881 when they were decommissioned. I had seen Martello Towers in the south of England and these looked nothing like those. They were round. These were a bit like a figure of eight with two towers on each side joined by the tower in the middle. The one we were looking at had been used as a gun tower when needed but eventually was used as a museum. This sadly closed in 2017 so we could not see inside. The pathway across to it was blocked off but tantalisingly interesting.

The towers were three stories high with a magazine in the basement. As we stood looking at the tower a man walking his dog stopped to say hello. He pointed us in the direction of a 2017 after water damage. The ground floor is the main gun battery but on the roof are gun positions for three 32 pounder cannon on traversing carriages.

What a shame it had closed . Hopefully it might reopen in the future. We need this military history as much as castles and the stately homes. A guy walking his dog stopped to say hello and pointed us to a display further up the street. It showed the plan of the dockyards and the surrounding landmarks. We would have missed it but for him pointing us in that direction. It is so easy to miss things despite reading up about the place before we arrived.

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Comments

[Jackie]

Hello you two
TV viewing last night was Escape to the Country, guess where it was? Yes Pembrokeshire! You could have saved yourself a journey.! Thank you for your personal touch though!