Puncheston Community

Puncheston / Casmael is a village, parish and community in Pembrokeshire, southwest Wales. It sits below the mountain known as Castlebythe, one of the peaks in the Preseli Mountains, just outside the Pembrokeshire Coast National Park.

The Community of Puncheston consists of the villages of Puncheston, Henry's Moat, Little Newcastle, Castlebythe, Morvil and Tufton. Henry's Moat Electoral Ward returns two councillors to Pembrokeshire County Council, and Puncheston Ward four.

A map of 1578 shows the parish as Castle Male, presumably a phonetic spelling of the Welsh name by the English mapmaker. Lewis's Topographical Dictionary of 1844 gives 326 inhabitants (the 1849 edition gives 255) for the parish, which includes the village and a number of outlying residences and farms. Lewis surmises that the original name was Castell Mael, deriving from an ancient encampment of which there are remains. A railway passed through the parish in the 19th and 20th centuries, with a halt at the village.

The Welsh poet Waldo Williams was headmaster of the school during the second world war and one of his best known poems, ‘Ar Weun Casmael’ was written about the open common land surrounding the village. A memorial to another poet, local boy Evan Rees, stands on the village square.

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