Friday 28 March 2014

Paterchurch Tower - Pembroke Dock's Last Link with a Lost Era: Part I

Paterchurch in Pembroke Dockyard - Part 1


Paterchurch Tower is a Listed Building (Grade 1) and a Scheduled Ancient Monument. It is located within the grounds of the former Royal Dockyard Pembroke, Pembroke Dock at (SM9576303558).

Introduction

As part of a response to Pembrokeshire County Council’s sale of the above property, I decided to study the relationship between the standing remains of the tower and early mapping of the Pembroke Dock area. 

The standing structure of the tower had been researched as part of an HLF funded project to celebrate the bicentenary of the founding of Pembroke Dock. This project, involving the construction of a 3D-digital model of the former dockyard as it appeared in 1860, was supported by the Digital Building heritage Group at De Montfort University, Leicester. I was involved in the collection and collation of plans, maps and photographs to facilitate the digital reconstruction. See details of the launch of the model via the link below:


I have also commented on this in earlier posts.

Pembroke Dock will be 200 Next Year


Pembroke Dock Virtually As It Was


The history of PaterchurchTower is subject to much discussion. The name of the site and the standing remains seeming similarity to a typical Pembrokeshire church tower, has often led to the conclusion that the building was essentially ecclesiastical in origin. It is also clear that the tower once formed part of the remains of an extensive large house, which was derelict by the start of the nineteenth century. Records suggest that there was a building here from at least the fourteenth century.

For more detail on history of Paterchurch see:


Next time we will look at the maps and attempt to draw some conclusions.

See later posts: