CROSSING AND DRAINING THE MARSH AREAS NORTH AND EAST OF PENALLY Tony Galvin 19th century view of the School Lane track over Penally Marsh CopyriGht Penally History Group TG 2012 INTRODUCTION With the melting of the ice after the last Ice Age sea levels rose flooding large areas of the lands surface and forming a new coastline. This process took many tens of thousands of years and here in Penally in historical times the new coastline formed a significant barrier to the movement of people and goods. The parish was surrounded on three sides by sea. To the south was the Bristol Channel but surrounding the village on the east and north was a network of drowned valleys of the rivers Alun and Ritec. Knightson Brook Scotsborough Lake GUMFRESTON River Ritec SAINT FLORENCE TENBY The Ridgeway THE EXTENT OF TIDAL ESTUARIES AROUND PENALLY PENALLY IN THE MIDDLE AGES River Alun Before the 16th century the extent of the blown sand east of Penally is conjecture These tidal estuaries formed a natural obstacle to travel in the direction of Tenby (the nearest town) and to points further north and east. Crossing could only be achieved by boat or by fording the rivers a low tide. From a navigational perspective the estuaries were not ideal as the rivers feeding the drowned valley system were small with small catchment areas. This only provided sufficient water flow to keep quite narrow river channels open. The remainder of the estuary areas were susceptible to silting and depending on the state of the tide either wide stretches of shallow water, mud or sand cut off the channels from the surrounding land. This limitation only permitted the use of sea going vessels at one or two points within the estuary system. However, small boats would have had access to the shoreline at high tide. Another natural barrier that altered the estuary system quite early on in historical times was the accumulation of blown sand forming a line of dunes to the east of Penally from Giltar towards Tenby. These dunes turned the river Alun northward to join the river Ritec before reaching the sea under the cliffs of Tenby. The history of crossing and draining the marsh can be addressed in the following phases. 1. A Natural Barrier Before the 15th Century 2. Gumfreston Quay and Trefloyne Bank 15th to 18th Century 3. Civil War – Attack on Trefloyne 1644 4. Penally Marsh 17th Century 5. Tenby Marsh Bridge circa 1720 6. Sea Embankment and Holloway Bridge 1800-1850 7. Railway Embankments and Culverts 1860-1900 8. Modern Times 20th Century A NATURAL BARRIER Before the settlement of the area by the Normans and Flemings in the 12th Century the isolated communities were self-contained and had little need to travel far. The small population of Penally, centred on minor religious houses, may have crossed the estuary occasionally to trade with agricultural surplus at the small commercial centre of Tenby. Equally, it may have been easier to take that trade west to Manorbier. At this time the estuary of the Ritec and its tributaries were in their natural state and could be navigated from Penally’s northern shoreline using small boats at high tide. In the mid 19th century, probably whilst extracting silt for brick making near Hoyles Mouth, an ancient dugout was found. The vestiges of what could be quay walls have been identified as far up as Saint Florence but the size of vessels using them must have been small. In fact, it is unlikely that there was sufficient volume of goods to justify the use of sea going vessels at farm or mill quays further up the estuary. By the 13th and 14th centuries it was much more likely that seagoing loads were consolidated by merchants at Tenby. Without a boat, travellers had to cross by fording the rivers at low tide. The two principle crossings were probably from Holloway along the route now taken by Marsh Road, or over the river Alun to the beach and across the Ritec as it entered the sea. Both of these routes remained the only options for carts or coaches until the dawn of the 19th Century. Later, as Norman settlement developed and trade increased, routes between the settlements became important. One such route linked the administrative centre of Pembroke, via the Bishops Palace at Lamphey and the castle at Manorbier, to the port of Tenby. Much of this route followed the ancient Ridgeway into the parish of Penally, but here it confronted the obstacle of the estuary or Holloway Water as it came to be known. The direct route into Tenby could only be achieved twice per day at low water. The alternative was to pass north of the estuary. Right up to the coming of the Tudors and the rise in the importance of Tenby, it is quite likely that Penally’s focus was westward towards the manorial headquarters of Manorbier and the regional headquarters of Pembroke. If this was the case, local crossing of the Ritec was not a major issue. Villagers could still cross the Alun easily enough to reach the sea for fishing and shellfish gathering. GUMFRESTON QUAY AND TREFLOYNE BANK The first instances of man made improvements to the estuary were embankments, causeways and bridges centred on the quay and mill situated at the bottom of Gumfreston Hill. It is not clear when individual elements were built but the range of dates must run from the 15th to 17th Centuries. Most historians say that ‘they could be medieval’. Knightson Scotsborough Brook Lake Causeway Mill GUMFRESTON Heywood Lane Gumfreston Quay Marsh Road Trefloyne Tidal ‘Great Marsh’ Bank Ford reclaimed land GUMFRESTON CAUSEWAY AND QUAY AND TREFLOYNE BANK Trefloyne Developments from the 15th to 18th Centuries The causeway and bridge which carries the Gumfreston road over Knightson Brook and Scotsborough Lake was referred to by George Owen in a 1598 in a list of Pembrokeshire bridges. He described it as having ‘one arch and very long’. (ref.1) The quay is the only one in the estuary system, apart from the Pill at Tenby, which would have been capable of taking small sea-going vessels. It comprises a substantial quay wall crossing the Knightson Brook with a low bridge arch. The masonry of the bridge arch shows evidence that it may have contained a sluice gate. This quay may have been contemporary with the building of 15th century Scotsborough House nearby. GUMFRESTON QUAY IN 2012 An embankment runs from this quay directly to the Tenby shoreline. Whilst this provides a direct route from Tenby to the Gumfreston quay it also forms a reservoir in which the waters of Knightson Brook and Scotsborough Lake could be collected behind the sluice gate and released at low tide to flush the silt from the navigable channel. These developments were all to do with transport or trade and nothing to do with land drainage and reclamation. However, Trefloyne Bank (now the Nabbs footpath) seems to have been roughly contemporary with the Gumfreston developments but its original purpose was land drainage. It runs from the bottom of Holloway Hill, Penally northward over the Ritec to Upper Nabbs Meadow, Gumfreston close to the Quay. As such this provided the first ‘dry’ crossing from Penally to Tenby for pedestrians and horses. It was built and maintained by the Trefloyne estate. At the beginning of the 18th Century the tenancy of Trefloyne was demonstrated as being uneconomic due, in part, to the fact that the maintenance of the bank and bridge was the tenants’ responsibility. In 1714 Phelps the tenant renegotiated his lease with the owner Sir John Philips of Picton Castle. One change was the provision that his landlord should ‘repair the Sea Bank about the Great Marsh and so much of the New Bridge as belongs to him.’ Phelps helping with carts when necessary. (ref. 2) After 1714, work on the bank was done on the landlords behalf by Evan Williams, bailiff of the manor, who in 1715 was allowed 3s 6d for mending ‘the frith about Trefloyne Bank’. ‘Frith’ or ‘freeth’ is a Pembrokeshire dialect word, derived from Middle English, meaning a wattle or brushwood fence. This was perhaps used to stabilise the bank margins or perhaps to keep cattle off the bank. Then in 1717 Williams was allowed 11s 8d for ‘a new floodgate at the bridge on Trefloyne bank’ and another 10s for repairing the bank itself. THE NABBS BRIDGE IN 2012 The floodgate at the bridge when closed would prevent the sea from coming up into the Great Marsh at high tide keeping the newly drained fields dry and when open would permit the waters of the marsh to flow out. We have here early 18th Century references to ‘new’ bridge and ‘new’ floodgate which may imply that the original construction was 17th Century or earlier. It is probable that the ‘New Bridge’ was the one that was extensively renovated in recent years. This renovation replaced the masonry arch with a modern concrete slab. The original lower masonry still has what appears to be the slot for the floodgate. The bank and bridge construction restricted navigation in the upper Ritec valley to small boats capable of passing the floodgate and small bridge arch. As the land was consolidated on both the Penally and the Gumfreston banks of the Ritec it was possible to construct footbridges across the much narrowed river channel. A 19th century map shows a footpath with footbridge crossed from Gumfreston to Penhoyle farm, Penally. A ford was in use opposite Hoyle’s Mouth and two further footbridges were in use further up river near East Tarr farm.