Paterchurch Tower

Paterchurch Tower
Pembroke Dock, Pembrokeshire
Paterchurch Tower and the adjoining storehouse in Pembroke Dockyard
Paterchurch Tower
Coordinates 51°41′36″N 4°57′22″W / 51.6934°N 4.9562°W / 51.6934; -4.9562Coordinates: 51°41′36″N 4°57′22″W / 51.6934°N 4.9562°W / 51.6934; -4.9562
Grid reference grid reference SM95760355
Type Fortified tower
Site information
Open to
the public		 No
Site history
Materials Rubble stone
Listed Building – Grade I

Paterchurch Tower is a Grade I-listed medieval fortified tower in Pembroke Dock, Pembrokeshire, Wales. It received its name from one of the families that owned the land. While its exact function is not known, it probably served as a pele tower for the manorial complex (now demolished) in which it was situated.

History

The tower is the last remaining structure of a manorial complex whose surviving ruins were torn down with the expansion of Pembroke Dockyard in 1844.[1] It received its name from the de Paterchurch family which originally owned the land. It probably served as a pele tower as there is no evidence of a church on site.[2]

The land around the tower was purchased in 1759 by the Board of Ordnance to build an artillery battery to defend the interior of Milford Haven Waterway from attack. It was originally outside the dockyard walls when they were built in the mid-1810s, but expansion of the dockyard in 1844 brought it inside the walls.[3] Bones were discovered around the base of the tower when workshops were built around it.[2]

Description

It is a three-storey building about 35-foot-high (10.7 m) with a crenellated parapet. The tower's rubble stone walls range in thickness from 2.5 to 4 feet (0.8 to 1.2 m).[4] Each floor has a single vaulted chamber with plastered vaults in the upper two storeys.[5]

Status

The building is currently owned by Pembrokeshire County Council, who placed it up for sale in July 2013.[6]

Notes

  1. ↑ Tiffany, p. 34
  2. 1 2 "Paterchurch Tower". Gatehouse. Retrieved 15 April 2016.
  3. ↑ Tiffany, pp. 32–34
  4. ↑ Tiffany, p. 31
  5. ↑ "Paterchurch Tower, the Dockyard, Pembroke Dock". British Listed Buildings. Retrieved 14 April 2016.
  6. ↑ "'Balance needs to be struck' over sale of Pembrokeshire's historic buildings". Western Telegraph. Retrieved 28 April 2016.

Bibliography

  • Tiffany, M. N. E. (1992–1993). "Paterchurch: A Mystery Solved". Journal of the Pembrokeshire Historical Society. 5: 31–50.
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