The Dry Dock and Timber Pond in Pembroke Dockyard (Part 3)

How the Pembroke Dockyard is Used  - with Plans for Its Future Too!

The diagram below shows what I believe to be the current usage and proposed usage of Pembroke Dockyard.

I would be delighted to receive more information that might correct or add to the diagram.

Dockyard Buildings under Threat - These are structures that I believe are to be filled in or destroyed by Milford Haven Port Authority (MHPA)and replaced by concrete slab.

Dockyard Wall - The line of the present existing dockyard wall. Parts of this are due to be demolished by MHPA.

Ferry Terminal - Land used by the Irish Ferry operation. This includes customs, parking etc. The area may be more extensive.

Listed Building - The grades of listing vary from Grade II through Grade II* to Grade I, Grade I being the most important.

Mainstay Marine - Land used by this company. This company is largely owned by MHPA.

Land owned by Pembrokeshire County Council (PCC) - Currently empty and derelict.

PCC Waste Recycling Site - Leased by PCC from MHPA. It is believed that there are about two years left to run on the lease.

Preserved Dockyard Buildings - Many owned by MHPA, some under private ownership.

Super Slip - Surviving slipways 1 and 2 will be converted into one large super slip under current proposals by MHPA.

The Commodore - Privately owned but in a derelict and parlous state.

The Paddock - Former grounds attached to Admiralty House (The Commodore). Owned by MHPA who intend to build on it.

Through Route - MHPA propose to run a route for the movement of large structures through the site.

Waste Transfer Area - Area subject to development as a waste transfer facility, subject to a recent successful application for a license from Natural Resources Wales. A strange one this - perhaps it enables the acquisition of extra funding to carry out works on the western part of the yard? Just a hypothesis.

Unshaded areas on the map are those for which I have no information as yet.

I have yet to see MHPA's latest version of the plans they have for Pembroke Dockyard, so I have not include sheds and other buildings that they propose to build.

If you have anything to add to this post that will improve its veracity, or any other comments, please let me know.

[Edit on 11 March 2020:I have been told that this is a terrible map. Perhaps done in haste - It was quite easy to do on Google Earth. I will see If I can improve on it. Might take a few days! ]

Pembrokeshire County Council - Review of Local Development Plan - Episode 3

Looking at a Housing Allocation and its Planning History

The Pembrokeshire County Council (PCC) Local Development Plan Review (LDP2) has now reached the consultation period for the DRAFT plan that will be submitted to the Welsh Assembly for ratification.

This plan can be downloaded and  viewed at: https://www.pembrokeshire.gov.uk/local-development-plan-review/deposit

Two plots for housing allocation on the new draft plan are on either side of the Pembroke Road (aka Long Wall aka Top Road), just east of the Pembroke Dock Cricket Club. These are illustrated in the map extract below.

The very pale green areas have been designated as Green Wedge land - intended to maintain a separation between Pembroke Dock and the next settlement, Pembroke. The grey stippled areas is land where the extraction of below ground minerals should be considered before any development can take place. The Green Wedge designated land has, apparently, greater protection from development than the land allocated for potential mineral extraction. I was told this by a member of the LDP team over the telephone.

I will now look at the planning history of the housing allocation HSG/096/00272.

An outline planning application was made on 8 August 2012, (Planning Reference 12/0405/PA) and this was passed, with conditions on 19 August 2014.

The application was made by Mr & Mrs Scourfield of THE FARM HOUSE, Hill Farm, Hill Farm Park, Pembroke Dock, SA72 6QZ.

The case officer at PCC was Peter Sedgwick and the agent acting for Mr and Mrs Scourfield was Pembroke Design Ltd (H/West) of 5-7, Picton Place, Haverfordwest, Pembrokeshire.

In August 2017 Mr P Scoufield applied for the approval of the reserved matters set out in the outline planning permission above  (ref.12/0405/PA residential development), referring to appearance, landscaping, layout and scale of the development. This application was approved with further conditions and items of information on 22 February 2018. This application can be viewed here: 17/0446/PA. It is (perhaps) interesting to note that the agant and the case officer for the application had changed.

By later in the year, the property, with the planning permission as outlined above, had been sold to Ateb (A housing association) - [It has been pointed out to me by Marcel Lavel that Ateb is NOT a housing association per se. See https://www.atebgroup.co.uk/ ; Ed. 20 March 2020]. They put in an application for a non-material amendment to the planning permission on 30 October 2018 (Planning Reference: 18/0772/NM ). This altered many areas of the planning for the site, which were in summary,

• Non-Material Amendment to reserved matters approval ref. 17/0446/PA (residential development in conjunction with outline planning permission ref. 12/0405/PA) to allow for changes to house type layout and siting, reduced footprints, changes to materials and finishes, porch re-design, addition of photovoltaics, change to turning head road No.3 and adjustments at end of road No.5, changes to gardens of flats, garden shed size and location and removal of water butts 

This was unconditionally passed on 14 December 2018. The previous day another condition of the original outline permission was met (Planning Reference 18/0801/DC ):

• Discharge of condition 15 (hydraulic modelling assessment) of outline planning permission ref. 12/0405/PA (residential development).

However, the time remaining for commencing work within the conditions of the original planning application was by now beginning to run short. In early October 2019 permission was sought to amend the condition relating to the way in which the Landscape and Ecological Management Plan (LEMP) for the site would be implemented. Ateb sought to have the the plan implemented in a phased way, which would allow them to commence meaningful work on the site before the 22 February 2020 - after which all permissions would lapse. (Planning Reference: 19/0654/NM)

PCC seemingly reluctantly agreed and unconditional permission to phase the LEMP was granted by the end of October 2019.

Ateb was also struggling to get all the reserved matters from the original application cleared before the planning permission ran out on on 22 February 2020. The made an application (Planning Reference :19/0805/DC) to resolve these reserved matters on 11 November 2019, but these were only partially accepted by PCC on 11 February 2020. The most visible requirement was the moving of the 30 m.p.h. limit signs further east along the Pembroke Road.

The full list of conditions and whether they had been met on 11 February 2020 is:

Condition 8: The submitted information is acceptable and sufficient to partially discharge this condition. This condition cannot be fully discharged as the condition requires that the development be implemented in accordance with the approved details before the first occupation of any dwelling or in accordance with a programme to be first agreed in writing by the local planning authority. 

Condition 13: The submitted information is acceptable and sufficient to partially discharge this condition. This condition cannot be fully discharged as the condition requires the road signs to be relocated in accordance with the approved details before any works are started on the site. 

Condition 16: The submitted information is acceptable and sufficient to partially discharge this condition. This condition cannot be fully discharged as the condition requires that the development be carried out in accordance with the approved details

I can confirm that the following planning condition has been fully discharged: 

Condition 22: The submitted information is acceptable and sufficient to fully discharge this condition. 

I can confirm that the following planning condition has not been discharged:

Condition 17: No information has been provided in relation to this condition. It would be premature to discharge this condition at this time as it requires the foul sewerage infrastructure works required by the hydraulic modelling assessment to have been completed and approved by Dwr Cymru Welsh Water and the Local Planning Authority to be informed in writing of its completion. Therefore this condition is not discharged.

Were the signs moved? Perhaps you can tell me?

Anyway, by 22 February, in a rather rushed manner, traffic lights were erected and the "Long Wall" had an entrance to the site knocked through it and machinery stood on the site awaiting further instructions...... Did they make the deadline of 22 February? I haven't enquired.

A Note About Green Wedge:

The notion of maintaining a Green Wedge between two settlements is intended to ensure that the settlements do not coalesce, but maintain some countryside between them. PCC have produced a useful guide to the Green Wedge that can be downloaded here. A key to the shading and colours used on the plan can be downloaded here.

The LDP2 map for Pembroke Dock (here) shows Green Wedge land mostly to the south of the cricket club and along the northern banks of the Pembroke River as far as Jacob's Pill, but not further west towards Pennar Point

The grey mottled area denotes land that has buried hard rock mineral deposits - in this case probably limestone. The significance of this is that the option of exploring and extracting these deposits has to be studied and possibly exploited BEFORE development of the land for other purposes can be considered. Of course the council and any prospective developer of this land could quickly come to an agreement that the deposits are not worth exploiting and so development could be the next option. There is a great deal of land so marked either side of Pembroke Road and also at Pennar Point. Background information about mineral extraction and reserves can be down loaded here.

It is my belief that this land should be marked as Green Wedge in order to maintain the historical separation of Pembroke and Pembroke Dock as well as preserving the northern banks of the Pembroke River from further development. 

The designation of Green Wedge land seems to offer greater protection to a site than designation as a site of hard rock deposit that might be exploited. 

The Dry Dock and Timber Pond PD (Part 2)

The Timber Pond in Pembroke Dockyard

In the age of wooden ships, naval dockyards (and civilian shipbuilders) used copious amounts of timber. The seasoning of timbers was an important aspect of ship construction if the constructor did not want the vessel to warp and bend unpredictably. Also, there was a need to intentionally bend and shape timbers and it was found that soaking in water made the bending of timbers easier.

By the middle of the nineteenth century it had been found that soaking timbers in salt water before working them allowed suppling or bending to be more easily performed. Also, the salt that impregnated the timber helped in its preservation, particularly if the timber was "in the log".

Originally the timber was stored in a timber pond that was on the foreshore at the the western end of the dockyard, on the beach at the end of what is now Fort Road. Indeed, the stumps of some of the timber piles that penned in the timbers can sometimes be seen during spring tides.

Notice the poles of the old timber pond on the beach at the end of Fort Road c1890

 This end of the dockyard also had a tidal inlet that almost ran, on spring tides, up to the site of the present main entrance of the yard, with Paterchurch on its southern bank. On the northern bank of this inlet the Admiralty dug (or extended) a large limestone quarry for building the eastern end of the yard. This quarry, the source of much of the building stone used in the early years of "The Yard", was later to become an obstacle to extending the works to the west and filling in and levelling the land for further building was to be a major expense. For more information about Paterchurch see my post here.

The diagrams below shows the basic design of the timber pond (Listed Grade II), taken from a the plan of the design held at The National Archives at Kew, London.(TNA Ref: WO 140/486).

Timber Pond with Google Earth Imagery

As above but with some transparency

The Timber Pond

The timber pond at Pembroke Dockyard, (also called the mast pond or pickling pond), is one of the few (perhaps the only?) masonry built example surviving in the British Isles. The quality of the stone work is of its time, crafted in individually cut, carboniferous limestone blocks. Fairly recent inspection reports reveal that the pond is in good condition. It has two large, brick lined, tunnel conduits running into it from the outside world. One of these, in the western wall of the pond, runs to an outfall on the beach at the end of Fort Road. This has a system of sluices and flap seals that can be used to drain and seal the pond as required. The other conduit runs from the north wall of the pond to the southern end of the graving dock, and was (probably?) used to fill the pond with water from the dock.

The diagram below shows this general arrangement of the Western Part of the dockyard. The numbers against some of the older buildings were allocated as part of a separate project to commemorate the Bicentennial of Pembroke Dock in 2014. They were for project identification purposes only.

Some people reading this post may not even be aware of the existing of the Timber Pond, which is hardly surprising, as unless you have access to the western part of the dockyard, it is hidden behind the impressive dockyard wall. Its relative anonymity does not make it any less important in its significance to the heritage of ship building at Pembroke Dock, and indeed Wales and probably the wider UK.

The timber pond c1890

It has been claimed that the timber pond was made redundant in about 1860, with technological advancement in naval architecture that began to introduce the use of iron (and later steel) in the construction of ships. This is not true, as the wood was still an important part of ship construction, not least for the building and fitting of robust masts and rigging for these early iron ships - hence the alternative name for the timber pond - The Mast Pond.  See some examples of such in the picture below.

HMS Penelope. Launched Pembroke Dock 1867

HMS Shannon. Launched Pembroke Dock 1875.

The Milford Haven Port Authority (MHPA) proposes to fill in the pond and cover it with a concrete slab as part of a speculative plan to make Pembroke (Dock) Marine a home for marine energy development. MHPA proposes to the fill the pond in so that damage to the structure is minimal, however, removing the concrete slab and extracting the fill would be a massively expensively task for anyone wishing to uncover the pond in the future. The pond is being effectively destroyed.

View across the drained timber pond from the southern edge looking north-west. 2014

Looking across the pond form the southern edge looking north-east. Not the conduit that leads to the dry dock. This is the block oval near the ramp in the northern wall. 2014

The timber pond in an old photograph, taken for the east. The other buildings visible have been demolished. c1970?

The timber pond appears under the wing tip of this photograph taken from a Pembroke Dock based flying boat in the 1930's.

In my next post I will explain the other dramatic changes that MHPA are planning to make to the western end of the dockyard. I will, in the future, discuss the notion of access for the general public to this, and other areas of the historic dockyard and the reasons why this is restricted at present.

Thanks for taking the trouble to read this post.

Have a good Christmas and very best wishes for 2020.

The Dry Dock and Timber Pond, PD (Part 1)

The Graving Dock in Pembroke Dockyard

The Milford Haven Port Authority (MHPA) is unique. [An apology and a correction! There are 50+ trust ports in the UK. Milford Haven Port Authority is one of the bigger ones. It might have been one of the first. Would be glad to hear comment about this.] The Port of Milford Haven is a Trust Port, a statutory entity that was brought into existence by a specific Act of Parliament – The Milford Haven Conservancy Act 1958. It is the only trust port in the United Kingdom] [See note above and link here.]

If you want to read further into the background legislation that governs the operation of the authority, then there is no better place to do this that at their own website here.

One of MHPA's activities that are focused on the south side of Milford Haven is Pembroke Dock Marine. This main base of operations is located within the former Royal Dockyard and, as the information on MHPA's website explains, this "will deliver a world-class marine energy and engineering hub on the deep water Milford Haven Waterway."

The progress of this project is closely tied in with the Swansea Bay Region City Deal project, which you can learn more about by following the link.

Further insight into the wider economic activities carried out by MHPA can be found here. Other downloadable publications are available here.

However, much of the work of MHPA's work is in direct conflict with the preservation of the heritage assets that exist around the waterway. The prime case of this are the authority's plans to develop Pembroke Dockyard. 

Pembroke Dockyard opened in 1814 and was closed in 1926. Prior to 1814, there were just a couple of farms and a derelict mansion that occupied the area. It really was a green field site. The raison d'etre of Pembroke Dock was the dockyard and when it closed the local deprivation was intense.

The Royal Dockyard was the only such facility in Wales and, in an ideal world, perhaps it should have been used to encourage visitors to the county and developed into a heritage based leisure facility. However, the need for jobs, the Second World War and the all powerful financial might of the oil industry were more than minor obstructions to this being possible.

The dockyard, despite the burying and demolition of many of its original buildings, most notably by the Royal Air Force and latterly by the deep water berthing quay at the eastern end of the yard, still has some notable buildings, many of which are listed.

However, two of the surviving structures from the original dockyard, both listed, are now under threat by proposals put forward by the Milford Haven Port Authority. Why bury and destroy these features, unique in their character? It would seem that one possibility is to provide extra parking for lorries. That would seem to be a tragic, banal waste of some unique features of local heritage.

In this post I will give a brief introduction to the first of these features - the old graving dock or dry dock

The former dry dock (Listed Grade II* - see here), Was an important part of the role of the dockyard. This is in part of the dockyard that is rarely seen by the general public, but is easy of access, just beyond the ferry terminal. The image from Google Maps below shows its location.

Location of the Dry Dock

The blue rectangle, in the inset, marks out the dry dock.

The dry dock is of the caisson type. That means that the method of closing the dock before the water was pumped out was to float a steel or iron blocking door into the mouth of the dock and sink it, within tight fitting guiding rails, so that it made a good seal between the interior of the dock and the outside. The water was then pumped out by powerful pumps, until the dock was dry within.

The picture below shows the Ocean Layer, a cable laying ship, in this graving dock in the early 1950s.

Cable Ship(CS) Ocean Layer in Dry Dock

The dry dock today, apart from having tidal silt within and some dumped soil tipped into it in the south east corner, is a testament to the craftsmanship of the engineers who built it in the middle of the nineteenth century. The bollards and capstans, although quite decayed, are still around the edges and the old caisson used to keep the waters of the haven out, altough very rusted and damaged, is lodged at the southern end of the dock.

The dry dock was built in the very early days of the dockyard, c1820. It was lengthened in about 1853 to its present size. It was used for the repair of warships and, later in its career, as a place to dismantle old ships. The photograph above of the CS Ocean Layer shows the dock when it was used (under lease) by the local company R S Hayes to refit this vessel (Ex Empire Frome) for the laying of undersea cables. Follow this link for more information about CS Ocean Layer.

If you want to view this remaining feature of the dockyard, it is quite straightforward. If you enter the dockyard through the old main gate on Fort Road, take a left turn at the first mini-roundabout and then follow this road. It will take you right and then left past some large sheds and the old, grey limestone Oakum House. On your right hand side, behind a chain link fence, is the dry dock. Be careful in this area as there can be much works traffic at some of the businesses that have accommodationin this part of the yard. Wearing a reflective waistcoat might be helpful!

This is the drydock from near the entrance. Notice how silted up it is. The caisson can be seen at the far end of the dock. The object in the foreground looks like it might be an old pontoon.

This is the view from the other end of the dock showing a close-up of the old caisson. This would have been floated into position at the open end of the dock and sunk into position, the wooden strake fitting into a slot in the dock wall. Powerful pumps would then have pumped the water out of the dock.

In my next post, I will introduce the second heritage building under threat in the dockyard...the timber pond.

Pembrokeshire County Council - Review of Local Development Plan - Episode 2

In Episode 1 I gave a brief outline of how you can look up the details of proposed Candidate Sites for the Local Development Plan Review (LDP2).

We looked at Site 324 on the Barrack Hill in Pembroke Dock. To read this article again see:

Pembrokeshire County Council - Review of Local Development Plan - Episode 1

Since publishing this post, I looked up the owners of this land at the Land Registry. The owners are Pembrokeshire County Council (PCC), who own the freehold title to this former Ordnance Board land. For the sum of £3 you can download the title of the property, along any restrictive covenants. Another £3 gives you a map of the area covered by the title, but unfortunately none is available for this property, it not having been provided when the title was transferred to PCC many moons ago.


In this post We will look at some other properties around The Barrack Hill.


Initially, I will look at Candidate Site 323.

This site, on the western edge of The Barrack Hill, near the car park and bus stop, is near where there was in WW II a barrage balloon site. I remember some of the old mooring blocks and rings being there in the 1960s. (Sorry - a diversion! - Oops!)

The description of the site goes as follows: (Information taken form the Candidate Site Register)

• Name of Site: SGPC Site 3 - Adjacent to carpark and Chapel Road
• Nearest Settlement: Pembroke Dock
• Proposer Name: John Parsons
• Proposer Organisation:  South Pembrokeshire Golf Club
• Current Use: Leisure - Golf Course
• Proposed Use: Housing
• Site Area (Ha): 0.25
• Preferred Strategic Compatibility Category: Green

Up until now, I have not mentioned the red boundary line on the maps of Pembroke Dock. This line demarks the present settlement boundary. Planners like to keep development within the settlement boundary, (as I do!) and I expect that you would be able to find many planning applications that were turned down because they were outside the settlement boundary of a particular....settlement. Search at PCC Planning if motivated enough.

If you are not able to pin down where Candidate Site 323 is, this larger area map might help.

The eagle-eyed reader will have noticed the line of the present public right of way that crosses the proposed site diagonally. This follows one of the original tracks laid out when the barracks were built.

Who owns this site?

This is land that comes under the Land Registry title CYM281495. It is owned by Pembrokeshire County Council.

The difficulty with this is the notion of precedent.  Some of you will have remembered the planning application for a house at the other end of the Barrack Hill. That is:

• Land Register title: CYM676847, land on the north side of 10 Presely View, Pembroke Dock, SA72 6NP (£40,000, title transferred to present owner of 5 May 2016 from Pembrokeshire County Council).

This piece of land, which from recollection took a while to sell, was part of the former Ordnance Land  described for Candidate Site 242 and Candidate Site 344 that I have mentioned above and in my last post.

This sale set a precedent, a very useful thing in planning matters, that it is reasonable to sell off plots of land that lie outside the settlement boundary of Pembroke Dock (the red line) and are on what was The Barrack Hill.

This is worth bearing in mind when thinking about the motives that may lie behind lands sales and subsequent planning applications. One needs to think long term - what are the consequences of an application being granted?

Another precedent that was set by the above grant of planning consent is that the site was within (and still is within) the Pembroke Dock Conservation Area (PDCA). In fact, the whole of the original Barrack Hill Area is within the PDCA, but outside the settlement boundary. See my effort at mapping below:

The pink area with the green border is the Conservation Area and the red border marks the settlement boundary. The Barrack Hill is within the Conservation Area and outside the settlement boundary.

I must point out here that I have no particular issue with anyone who gets permission to build on The Barrack Hill as long as the correct procedures are followed and the intention is made plain from the outset.  I would, of course, hope that the planning authority would  refuse such an application because of the special nature of the place and its justifiable location within the Conservation Area. It is important that everyone takes notice of the way in which their surroundings can change. If you disagree with a plan, then object as early as you can.

I have made no strong comment so far about any of the proposals so far discussed. Opinions will follow later I would imagine....

Again, please feel free to comment if you wish. I will moderate the comments, but will publish all, but will redact swear words or insulting material. Be polite - it is the best way to be - politely assertive.

To be continued......

Pembrokeshire County Council - Review of Local Development Plan - Episode 1

This series (?!) of  posts will focus on the Local Development Plan Review (LDP2) for Pembrokeshire County Council.

Throughout the post(s) I will be using information from a variety of sources, but mostly from Pembrokeshire County Council's own website. I believe that my use of this is allowable under the terms of their copyright. If this is not correct, then I would be grateful if someone from the council would get in touch.

I will add in a few photographs that will add interest to what might be a lot of text!!

I cannot possibly cope with looking at the entire county so will focus, initially, on my own town of Pembroke Dock.

OK, let's start! If you want to read about the history of  LDP2, then the best place to go is here. This link is the overview page for LDP2. I would suggest that you have a look at this first as it explains the reasoning for the review...…..

There are lots of links from the above page, but perhaps you might leave exploring those until a little later.

PCC has kindly produced many maps to illustrate the suggestions for LDP2. The map for Pembroke Dock is here. This link will allow you to download maps of the Pembroke Dock area. These maps show the locations of Candidate Sites that have been suggested by a variety of contributors.  These are numbered. The numbering refers to a table of the sites (Sites Table is here). The candidate sites are grouped by Parish/Town Council.

More on Candidate Sites a bit later!

What I suggest you do now is download the maps and the table from the links above and have a quick read! At the start of the Table booklet (110 pages!) there is an explanation of the colours and content of the tables that follow. There is also mention of the "Preferred Strategy" that tries to explain the criteria for the coloured categorisation of sites in the table. Despite being a council tax payer who has a passionate interest in Pembrokeshire, I missed the initial "informal" consultations for LDP2. 

One important rule in these matters is ALWAYS take an active interest in local plans. Also, remember that "informal" means that discussions have taken place that might possibly be binding, but no minutes etc have been taken. It never means "nothing has been decided".


To start with we will look at the Barrack Hill in Pembroke Dock. The Barrack Hill was named after the Defensible Barracks that were built on this dominating high point overlooking the old Royal Dockyard, Pembroke.


This was open land with very few trees or bushes whilst the dockyard was in operation. There could be no hiding places for attacking troops to sneak up on the Barracks - indeed, when the Barracks were built, many of the houses in Cross Park were cleared to provide an open field of fire from the fort.

Anyway, I am digressing wildly... on to business!

If you look at the maps for Pembroke Dock from the PCC web pages mentioned above, pages 6 and 7 cover the area of the Barrack Hill and the former Oil Tanks Depot above Llanreath. Page 7 shows a greyed out area on the lower northern slopes of "The Hill", allocated the number 324.




The description of this site can be found on page 71(of 110) of the Candidate Site Register. See the cutting below.

So let's see what they say about Site 324.

Working from left to right, we see that this is "SPGC site 5 - Between the 10th fairway of the golf" - this entry leaves us hanging. Hopefully it will be finshed off at some point, but the map shows us where it is. Next, the nearest settlement is given as "Pembroke Dock/Doc Penfro". Fair enough.

Then we are given the name of the person who has proposed this site (Site 324) - "John Parsons" - I know not who this is.

No agent or agent organisation is mentioned, but the Current Use is "Leisure - Golf Course and scrubland".

The proposed use is proposed as "Holiday Accommodation" - (Tents? Caravans? Houses? - who knows), has an area of 1.48 acres and is coloured Grey - the colour of fog, I suppose. If you refer back to the top of the Candidate Site Register there is a key to the colours used in the table. In their words...

and

So that is your starter. Please feel free to comment if you wish. I will moderate the comments, but will publish all, but will redact swear words or insulting material. Be polite - it is the best way to be - politely assertive.

In the next instalment, I will look at some of the other Candidate Sites and mention other sources that can be used to find out a little more about the LDP2.

Thomas Evans Rees and his lease from the Bush Estate

As I mentioned at the end of the last posting, Thomas Rees Evans was a shipwright, which meant he was very skilled in the use and working of wood, so when he took on the lease of one of the first building plots on the eastern extension of North Street, he had access to the materials, the connections and skills to undertake his own home build.

The lease (number 247 in the estate rental book), was dated 8th August 1864 and was to run from Lady Day 1864, for 60 years, expiring on Lady Day 1924. Lady Day was one of the rental quarter days and was also known as the feast of the Annunciation. It is the 25 March.

The plot that he had leased was one of the first sites let on an extension to North Street. It was on the south side of the road, immediately east of the point where the road kinked slightly towards the north. The plot was 30 feet wide (east to west) and 120 feet long (north to south). The tenant had to build a house on the north end of the plot, facing the road, to a plan provided by the lessor (the Bush Estate). The annual rent was to be £1/10/-, payable quarterly.

The cottage had to be built to a single storey, four room design, with the front door only slightly recessed from the pavement.

Fig.1

There was a gap between No. 30 and the house next west on the south side of the street, No. 28. This was to provide space for a road - to be known as Water Street - that would have linked North Street to Albany Street, to the south. 

In Fig.1, the gap between No. 28 and No. 30 was intended to be this road. This land was later divided between the two properties and, as if giving a nod to the origins of the vacant plots, a public footpath was established on the land between, running down to Albany Terrace.

Thomas Evans Rees built his house according to the Bush Estate's recommended plan. This was four roughly equal, squarish rooms, with a corridor or passage running from the front door, through the single-storey cottage, to the door leading to the long garden with its stone built privy at the bottom. An approximate plan of the house is shown in Fig. 2

Fig. 2

During the same year, 1864, Thomas's neighbours were George Cundi, a rigger, who was granted a similar lease for No. 28, to the west of Water Street and to the east of Thomas,  Robert Chittock, a messenger in the dockyard, had a lease for No. 32.

The house at No. 30 benefited from a high standard of workmanship and this is likely to have been the work of Thomas and his work colleagues. Much of the timber within the house came from the dockyard and good use was made of it!

The lease that Thomas had taken on was very specific in what the landlord required of the tenant.

• The lease was for a term of sixty years and at the end of this period, the tenant would be responsible for leaving the premise in good repair.
• A house, to a specific design and of good quality had to be built on the plot within six months of the lease being signed. The landlord's agent would check that the building was built to a good standard.
• If the lessee wished to alter or add to the buildings on the plot, then he first had to seek the approval, in writing, of the agent.
• Once every three years the lessee had to paint, in oil paint,  and with two coats, all the exterior woodwork and metal work to a good standard and at his own cost.
• Likewise, every seven years, internal walls etc had to be painted (with two coats of oil paint) or papered, to a good standard.
• The agent would check on the condition and maintenance of the house by visiting the premises twice each year. The agent could ask for works to be carried out to rectify any deficiencies in maintenance at the lessee's expense.
• The landlord or his workers had a right of access over the property to make repairs to a neighbouring property.
• Any soil or gravel dug up at the premises had to be removed to a location of the landlord's choice.
• The tenant had to make sure that the property was insured against fire each year.
• The lessee was not allowed to engage in any noisy or disturbing activity on the premises.
• The lessee could not assign the tenancy within five years of the end of the term of the tenancy. Any assignment that was made prior to this had to be documented to the landlord within three months of the assignment.

Many of the above conditions were standard terms but nowadays some seem rather heavy-handed, particularly those relating to the building of the house on the plot leased.

When a lessee assigned a tenancy to another person this meant that he  passed the property to the ownership of the new person under the same terms as agreed when the tenancy was first taken out. This meant that the tenancy could be "sold" on to another party or left as part of the lessees estate in a will, provided that the terms of the tenancy were met and that the landlord received all documentation showing what had occurred. This information was then written into the landlord's book of leases.

Thomas built his house, and in one of those rare serendipitous occasions a later buyer, peeling flaking paint from just inside the front door noticed a signature beneath what seemed to be old wallpaper paste. It seemed to be Thomas Evans Rees's signature. As was the custom among painters and decorators, he had signed the plastered wall before papering it. A tangible link to the man who first built the house in about 1864/5, over a century and a half ago.

Fig. 3 - Thomas's signature from the lease.

Fig. 4 - Signature on wall inside front door - with and without enhancement

In the next installment, I will reveal what became of Thomas and his family, but right now I must give thank the archivists at Pembrokeshire Archives who care for the wonderful Bush Estate documents and manuscripts. A true gem of a collection that has been little explored by the public.

Thomas Evans Rees and the The Little Place in PD

In the context of the parish of St. Mary’s, Pembroke, in West Wales, 30 North Street, Bufferland, Pembroke Dock is not a particularly old house. Nonetheless it encapsulates part of the story of the new town of Pater, or Pembroke Dock as it soon became known, from the middle of the 19th Century until today.

On 8 August 1864, Thomas Evans Rees, shipwright, of Pembroke Dock took out a 60 year lease on a plot of land on the south side of North Street, Bufferland, a new suburb of the burgeoning town.

Ordnance Survey map for Bufferland, Pembroke Dock laid over an extract from  Bush Estate Map book c1830now in Pembrokeshire Archives.

A closer view of Bufferland, Pembroke Dock, in about 1850

The western end of North Street had been laid out across some of the fields of Hill Farm from about 1840, and from 1864 The Bush Estate leased out further plots of land in what had formally been  a field on the land of  Hill Farm overlooking the Pembroke River.

Who was Thomas Evans Rees? First, let us look at his father.

His father was Daniel Rees, a master watchmaker, born in about 1806 in Narberth. Daniel’s wife was Jane Evans, of Haverfordwest, and it is likely that Thomas gained his middle name of Evans from his mother’s maiden name – a tradition that persisted amongst many families at this time.

In 1841 Daniel Rees and his family lived in a house at the southern end of Pembroke Street, number 22. He appears in the Pigot and Co. directory for 1844 as a watchmaker. In 1851, Daniel is still in Pembroke Street, but by 1861 he seems to have moved his home to the street parallel and next west to Pembroke Street  – Market Street. In the directory he is referred to as David Rees, but the 1861 census for the town shows him occupying premises next to the Farmers Arms in Market Street, living with his wife, daughter and grand-daughter. In 1868 Daniel (aka Daniel M Rees) was still practising his trade as a watchmaker,  but, according to Slater’s directory for that year, he had returned to Pembroke Street. He died in the summer of 1870 and was buried on 20 June. His grave is recorded as that of David Morgan Rees, watchmaker.

Daniel, as a clock and watchmaker,  was involved in the installation of the Clock in the tower of St John’s Church in Pembroke Dock in March 1865. The local press announced the plans in October 1864 saying that the clock “when completed will be a very great boon to the inhabitants of the town.”

St John's Church, Pembroke Dock showing the clock installed in 1865 by Daniel Rees.

The installation of the clock was reported in the Pembrokeshire Herald and General Advertiser for 17 March 1865.

Thomas Evans Rees was Daniel and Jane’s second child. The oldest child was William Humphreys Rees, born in Narberth in 1829, who disappears from the family home after 1841, probably joining the Royal Engineers in 1850. Another brother of Thomas Evans was James Valentine Rees, born in Milford in 1833. The youngest of his siblings was a sister, Arabella Esther Rees, born in Pembroke Dock in about 1836.  Thomas Evans Rees was baptised in Tenby on 23 March 1831.

By 1851, still living in the family home, Thomas Evans was an apprentice shipwright, working in The Royal Dockyard Pembroke. On the 13 March 1858 he married Bridget Day. Bridget had been born in Ireland in about 1833. They were married in St John’s Church, Pembroke Dock. When the census enumerator called,  for the census of 1861, they were visiting their friends, George and Jane Sutton in Laws Street, Pembroke Dock. George, like Thomas Evans, was a shipwright, but much older than both his Irish wife Jane and her friend Bridget. Thomas George Rees - Thomas Evans’ and Bridget’s first child - was 1 year of age and Bridget and Thomas Evans may well have been showing him off to their friends for the first time. 

It seems as though the relationship between these two families developed further as one of Thomas Evans' later children’s mother seems to have had the surname Sutton, not Day.

The dockyard at Pembroke Dock, in the 1860’s, had for a while, an uncertain future. The era of the wooden sailing ship as a vessel of war was ending, and as Pembroke was distant from other centres of production, some in high office wished to see the place closed. However, in the end, it was decided to modernise the dockyard to build the new iron, steam powered ships. 

Consequently, new steam mills and forges had to be built and working techniques adapted to metal. A by-product of this was that large stocks of timber, intended for wooden ships, lay surplus to requirements over most of the area of the yard. There were concerns at government level that all the dockyards were being run inefficiently with much wastage of materials, and indeed in some places the stockpiles of wood were just left to rot in the open.

One way of reducing the stockpile of timber was for the dockyards to sell it off at auction. This happened on a regular basis at Pembroke, starting from about 1870.

However, there must have been “unofficial” sales or disposal of timber before this date, as was witnessed by the quality of timber used in the building of the houses of Pembroke Dock. Local lore has it that timber was dropped surreptitiously into the waters of the haven and then collected later from wherever the tide (or a rowing boat!) might take it. It is highly likely that much use was made of dockyard facilities for the making of wooden (and metal) items for the households of local craftsmen.

What does this have to do with a little end of terrace cottage in North Street, Pembroke Dock? The answer is, of course, plenty! The men who worked in the dockyard included many with highly developed and – in modern parlance – “transferable” skills. These were applied to the building of houses, particularly the flooring and “fitting out” of these houses.

Thomas Rees Evans was a shipwright, which meant he was very skilled in the use and working of wood, so when he took on the lease of one of the first building plots on the eastern extension of North Street, he had access to the materials, the connections and skills to undertake his own home build.

In the next post I will talk about the terms of the lease that Thomas Evans....and many like him ... took on in the summer of 1864.

An abstract of the lease for Thomas Evans Rees' building plot in North Street, Pembroke Dock, from a Bush Estate lease book held by Pembrokeshire Archives.