The Story of the Milford Haven Waterway
by Sybil Edwards

224 pages with over 140 black and white illustrations
ISBN: 978 1906663 10 0     Price: £12.95

This book, a major revision of that first published in 2001, focuses on how the Milford Haven waterway has shaped and developed the fortunes of the settlements along its shores, from the arrival of early man through to the present day.
    Trade developed with the arrival of the Romans and from the Dark Ages that followed emerged the multitude of Welsh Kingdoms that often fought with one another. Into this feuding mix arrived the Normans, Flemings and English. The Landsker, a line of castles across the peninsula, soon created ‘Little England beyond Wales’. The relative calm and peace that this secured, coupled with trade with Ireland led initially Pembroke and then Haverfordwest (as well as Tenby) to develop into thriving ports, safeguarded by their own castles. Along the shores a multitude of small sailing craft were built.
    Yet not all was calm. The waterway with all its creeks and inlets was also a haven for smugglers, often aided and abetted by those with some responsibility to control their activity, for they too could make good financial gain from the illicit trade. Some went further than smuggling, leading to piracy, often conducted in distant waters, but at times close to hand. Of all nationalities, the pirates occasionally raided the offshore islands, sometimes brazenly sold stolen goods on the quaysides, even stayed in the homes of their friends.
    Sea-borne trade in agricultural produce, initially corn, wood, salt, wine and ale, quickened when local mines started producing quality anthracite, and when lime kilns established along the waterway required a constant supply of lime with which to make fertiliser. Ships grew in size and battle waged between various settlements to become the main dockyard, a contest won, eventually, by Pembroke Dock, though Milford became the main fishing port, supported by Neyland. Various schemes for the fortification of the waterway to protect what became a main naval dockyard saw a flurry of forts, towers and barracks, their design often rapidly overtaken by changes in military technology. Pembroke Dock thrived for over 100 years before it fell from grace, becoming at first a graveyard for boats being scrapped, then a flying boat base around the time of the Second World war. Since then the waters have served the need of oil supply, and most recently Liquified Natural Gas, and shared the associated dangers of such activity, and now also looks to more leisure use.
    Throughout the book the story is interspersed with personal recollections and views to create a feeling of a living waterway that has seen both good times and bad times.

The Pubs of Haverfordwest, Milford Haven and Mid-West Pembrokeshire
by Keith Johnson
304 pages, over 200 photographs and other illustrations  ISBN 978 1 904396 63 5  £9.95

As ever, the history of the local hostelries of an area provides the background to a host of great characters, strange events, amusing incidents and some intriguing buildings, and to the changing nature of drinking dens and pubs themselves. The tales are many: a dentist in the mid-1800s who sought customers in the pubs, carrying out his operations on the spot; bodies found walled up in one pub, believed to be those of sailors who died of fever; a fox that sought refuge on the roof of a pub used by the local hunt; and police raids that went wrong.

Castles and Bishops Palaces of Pembrokeshire
by Lise Hull
Paperback, 240 pages, over 100 b/w photos and plans  ISBN 978 1 904396 31 4  £7.95

Within 50 years of their arrival, the Norman invaders had built a line of earth and timber castles on the southern side of the Preseli hills, with a second clutch of castles to the north of the Preselis. In time, stone castles were integrated into the line of defences. This guide covers all the castles, from mighty Pembroke and enriched Carew to the lowliest motte or ringwork, together with bishops palaces. A series of chapters detail the county’s military history from 905 to the Civil War, after which each site is given its own entry detailing its construction and history, together with a note about location and access arrangements.

Fishguard Fiasco
by John S. Kinross
Paperback, 128 pages with 40 b/w photographs  ISBN 978 1904396 68 0  £9.95

Why land an invading force at Fishguard and then surrender with hardly a shot being fired on either side? The options open to the commander of this force from Revolutionary France in 1797, the American William Tate, suggest that it was seen more as a chance to offload a prison population on the English. Once landed, the ill-fed French troops scoffed all the food they could find and washed it down with copious amounts of alcohol. This left them in no fit state to face the hastily assembled bands of Yeomanry and Militia, backed up, at least in the popular imagination, by scythe-wielding Welsh women in their national costume, whom the inebriated French supposedly took for additional army units.

The Pubs of Narberth, Saundersfoot and South-East Pembrokeshire
by Keith Johnson
Paperback, 208 pages, many illustrations  ISBN 1 904396 21 6  £9.95

This covers all existing hostelries in Narberth, Saundersfoot and South-East Pembrokeshire (almost, but not quite, the old Narberth Hundred licensing district), along with many that have come and gone. It also includes details of the use of south Pembrokeshire coal in the wider brewing industry and information on the Narberth wine merchants James Williams.

The Civil War in Pembrokeshire
by Terry John
Paperback, 192 pages, 35 b/w illustrations  ISBN 978 1904396 90 1  £12.95

This book explores the background to the Civil War in Wales, the lives and characters of the three main protagonists, Major-General Rowland Laugharne and Colonels John Poyer and Rice Powell and the events of both the First and Second Civil Wars with all the ebb and flow of march and counter-march, siege and battle — at Carew, Pembroke, Tenby, Haverfordwest, Pill fort, along the Milford Haven waterway, Newcastle Emlyn, Cardigan, Colby Moor, St Fagans, Cardiff, Laugharne Castle, Carmarthen, Roch, Picton Castle and elsewhere. Using many personal letters and records of the time, Terry John provides a very readable account of complex and intense times full of men and women of principle and many a (male) rogue.