Quay Street Tower House, Haverfordwest (The Gatehouse Record)

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.

Sources of information, references and further reading

The National Monument Record (Coflein) number(s) for this site is/are 30119.
The County Historic Environment Record (formerly Sites and Monuments Record) number(s) for this site is/are 12979.

Websites (Gatehouse is not responsible for the content of external websites.)
- National Museum of Wales
Books
- Davis, Paul, 2000, A Company of Forts. A Guide to the Medieval Castles of West Wales (Gomer Press) p. 124
Other sources: Theses; 'grey' literature; in-house reports; unpublished works; etc.
- Dan Cruickshank and Charlie Luxton (presenters), 20 April 2012, (first broadcast), Brick by Brick: Rebuilding Our Past Episode 3 (Darlow Smithson Productions for BBC Television) Online details

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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.
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This record last updated before 1 February 2016

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