GATEHOUSE
The comprehensive gazetteer and bibliography of the medieval castles, fortifications and palaces of England, Wales, the Islands.
 
 
Home
The listings
Other Info
Books
Links
Downloads
Contact
 
Print Page 
 
Next Record 
Previous Record 
Back to list 

Quay Street Tower House, Haverfordwest

In the community of Haverfordwest.
In the historic county of Pembrokeshire.
Modern authority of Pembrokeshire.
Preserved county of Dyfed.

OS Map Grid Reference: SM95461557
Latitude 51.80137° Longitude -4.96790°

Quay Street Tower House, Haverfordwest has been described as a Pele Tower although is doubtful that it was such, and also as a Bastle although is doubtful that it was such, and also as a probable Uncertain.

There are major building remains.

Description

A small medieval house from Haverfordwest. Its original location near the old quay suggests that it may have been the home of a merchant. Its construction, with a vaulted undercroft, harks back to the castle-building techniques found in domestic structures in many parts of Pembrokeshire, ranging in scale from the Bishop's palaces at St Davids and Lamphey, to more diminutive examples at West Tarr (St Florence) and Carswell (Penally). (National Museum of Wales)

A medieval vaulted tower house, with walls of random rubble and seventeenth century roof trusses. It was relocated to St Fagan's in 1983. (RCAHMW, 29 January 2008)
Comments

Tower House, similar to Carswell, dismantled and removed to Museum of Welsh Life in 1983. The recent (2011) rebuilding of the house was televised by the BBC. The remarkable resemblance to C16/C17 bastles of the northern borders appears to be coincidental rather an transfer of an architectural tradition, or rather an example of convergent architectural style arising from defensive needs and a basic stone and mortar building material. The building is suggested as a secure warehouse, with a watch keepers chamber above, rather than a merchants house.
Generally medieval warehouses were built as undercrofts to merchants houses (The notable examples are at Winchelsea, East Sussex). However, the narrow space of the quay at Haverfordwest seems to have limited large quay side buildings so the merchants house was built higher up in the town with a vaulted stronghouse with watchman's chamber above. This appears to be a solitary surviving example although it maybe that other example of such relatively low status buildings has not be recognised. Additionaly quaysides tend to be areas of active continual redevelopment so most buildings of this type will have long been demolished or altered out of recognition.
The given location is the original location of the house not the current location of the house within the St Fagans site of the National Museum of Wales.
Links to archaeological and architectural databases, mapping and other online resources

Data >
Coflein   County HER            
Maps >
Streetmap   NLS maps   Where's the path   Old-Maps      
Data/Maps > 
Magic   Historic Wales   V. O. B.   Geology   LIDAR  
Air Photos > 
Bing Maps   Google Maps   Getmapping   ZoomEarth      
Photos >
CastleFacts   Geograph   Flickr   Panoramio      

Sources of information, references and further reading
Most of the sites or buildings recorded in this web site are NOT open to the public and permission to visit a site must always be sought from the landowner or tenant.
It is an offence to disturb a Scheduled Monument without consent. It is a destruction of everyone's heritage to remove archaeological evidence from ANY site without proper recording and reporting.
Don't use metal detectors on historic sites without authorisation.
The information on this web page may be derived from information compiled by and/or copyright of the Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historic Monuments of Wales, the four welsh archaeological trusts and other individuals and organisations. It may also contain Designated Historic Asset Descriptive Information from The Welsh Historic Environment Service (Cadw), licensed under the Open Government Licence. All the sources given should be consulted to identify the original copyright holder and permission obtained from them before use of the information on this site for commercial purposes.
The author and compiler of Gatehouse does not receive any income from the site and funds it himself. The information within this site is provided freely for educational purposes only.
The bibliography owes much to various bibliographies produced by John Kenyon for the Council for British Archaeology, the Castle Studies Group and others.
Suggestions for finding online and/or hard copies of bibliographical sources can be seen at this link.
Minor archaeological investigations, such as watching brief reports, and some other 'grey' literature is most likely to be held by H.E.R.s but is often poorly referenced and is unlikely to be recorded here, or elsewhere, but some suggestions can be found here.
The possible site or monument is represented on maps as a point location. This is a guide only. It should be noted that OS grid references defines an area, not a point location. In practice this means the actual center of the site or monument may often, but not always, be to the North East of the point shown.
Locations derived from OS grid references and from latitude longitiude may differ by a small distance.
Further information on mapping and location can be seen at this link.
Lidar coverage in the UK is not complete. The button above will give an idea of the area of coverage. Higher resolution lidar images in both DSM and DTM form may be available from Lle A geo-Portal for Wales (click the preview tag to bring up a map and then select format byclicking on the small blue diamond in the top right corner of the map.)
Please help to make this as useful a resource as possible by contacting Gatehouse if you see errors, can add information or have suggestions for improvements in functality and design.
Help is acknowledged.

This record last updated before 1 February 2016


¤¤¤¤¤