Paterchurch Open Day 25 May 2014

There will be an open day at Paterchurch, Pembroke Dock on Sunday 25 May 2014.

The property is being sold by Pembrokeshire County Council (PCC) and a buyer has been found, but their identity is unknown.

This is the last opportunity there will be for people to visit Paterchurch before it passes from the care of PCC.

Anyone is welcome to drop into the site between 10 am and 4 pm. Visitors will be able to look over this interesting building and it is intended to have several information posters and an audio-visual display that will look at the history of Paterchurch Tower, as well as the wider dockyard.

Access to the this small site is through a single door in the dockyard wall, opposite the South Pembrokeshire Hospital on Fort Road, Pembroke Dock, SA72 6SX.

Paterchurch in Pembroke Dockyard - Part 4

Paterchurch Tower - More developments......

Last time I posted about Paterchurch Tower, it was to describe the discoveries that I had made when studying old maps of the place and comparing them with the standing remains of this intriguing and significant site. See the links below:

Pater Church Tower (Part 1)

Pater Church Tower (Part 2)

Pater Church Tower (Part 3)

I have since passed a copy of my findings to CADW, suggesting that the scheduling of the site be reviewed to preserve any remains, that almost certainly lie below the ground, from future unsympathetic development. It will be interesting to see how CADW views the new analysis of the Paterchurch maps.

I have also asked Pembrokeshire County Council (PCC) if it would be possible to have an open day at Paterchurch before it passes into an uncertain future. It has proven to be impossible to learn who has bought the site, but rumours abound in the Pembroke Dock area, with much petty "political" (with a VERY small "p") points-scoring going on.

PCC has kindly agreed, in principle, to the open day, and has offered support in running it. However, the proposed date for the event, Sunday 25 May 2014, is seemingly after the sale has been completed and so permission has to be sought from the buyer for it to go ahead.

The original Paterchurch building must have been a defensive domestic structure of some sort. The tall tower, reminiscent of some of the smaller South Pembrokeshire church towers, is a unique survival in the area. The waters of Milford Haven originally came almost to the foot of the walls of the original building, and the tower offers clear views both up and down the waterway. The pictures below, courtesy of Google Earth and www.heywhatsthat.com/,clearly show the view shed from the top of the tower. The red areas are those that, in theory, are visible from the top of the tower. This does not take into account any vegetation that might obscure the view, but it does seem to take account of some man made large structures that clearly post-date the tower (e.g. jetties in the haven(?)).

Paterchurch in Great Britain

Paterchurch in Pembrokeshire,  SW Wales

Paterchurch on Milford Haven

Paterchurch in Pembroke Dock

Paterchurch in Pembroke Dock with panorama of view (vertical exaggeration x9 appx)

The building's location combines access to the sea with a clear view down The Haven towards Dale and any sea borne threat. 

Hunters from Chivenor

Maps and Manuals



A new acquisition from eBay is a chart used by a pilot who flew the Hawker Hunter from RAF Chivenor in the late 1950s.

The chart, which is a folded copy of  RAF 1:500,000 Aeronautical Chart, Sheet NW 50/5.5, GSGS 4715, Edition 1-GSGS, Published in 1957, is annotated and marked up with the local danger areas and a range circle (in nautical miles) centred on RAF Chivenor in Devon. Green areas were, I suspect, those used by aircraft from Chivenor. Red areas were those not!

A transparent compass rose, pointing to Magnetic North, has also been stuck on the chart, again centred on Chivenor. The chart is folded in such a way that it would fit into the knee pocket of a flying suit and it is also within a protective plastic sleeve. Inserted into the sleeve, on the reverse of the portion of the chart shown in the picture above, is a Flight Planning Data sheet that gives the fuel requirements for returning to Chivenor from various ranges and altitudes, as well as fuel requirements for diversions to other airfields from overhead Chivenor. This is shown below.

The initial models of the Hawker Hunter had limited range compared to later models of this famous British aircraft. The Hunter F Mk. 4 was the first to be endowed with a greater range capability. It was an elegant and classic  design, and pilots loved to fly the Hunter.

Below is the front and rear cover of the official Pilot's Notes for the aircraft.

The Hunter was a very successful design, and served for 50 years with the Royal Air Force and Fleet Air Arm, as well as with numerous air forces around the world.

The diagrams above and to the left, are from: 

Air Publication (AP) 4347D Volume I , Hunter F Mk. 4 Aircraft, General and Technical Information.

The diagram to the left shows the approach plate that pilots of 229 Operational Conversion Unit (OCU), would have carried in the cockpit to guide their approach and landing at Chivenor after a training flight.


For a period in the early 1960s, 229 OCU at Chivenor used the strafing and rocket range at St Govans Head in South Pembrokeshire, and I will describe their use of the range in a future post.