Pembroke Town Walls 2001

A photographic survey, accompanied by a research programme and analytical description, has been carried out on the town wall at Pembroke. The project is a partnership between Dyfed Archaeological Trust and the architects Pembroke Design, undertaken for Pembrokeshire County Council. It will inform future management strategies, hopefully resulting in a successful HLF bid for a programme of enhancement and interpretation.

There are substantial remains of the town wall, which runs around the perimeter of the narrow peninsula along which the town lies, with the castle at its tip. The remains include four of the original six flanking towers and part of one of the three gatehouses. The wall dates from the first two decades of the 14th century, but is the latest in a possible sequence of three lines of defence. The first may date to the 12th century and encircle a small area between the castle and the parish church of St Mary.

The second appears to have been established midway along the peninsula, probably in the early 13th century, beyond which an extra-mural suburb was established around St Michael's parish church and marketplace. Both these defences were probably of earthwork and timber. The final masonry phase enclosed all elements of the town, and both parish churches. The wall was repaired, and partly rebuilt during the 15th century, but was damaged, and finally slighted as a result of the Civil Wars of the 1640s.

Project contact: Ken Murphy