Descriptive Gazetteer Entry for TENBY

TENBY, a small town, a parish, and a sub-district, in the district and county of Pembroke. The town stands on the W side of Carmarthen bay, and on the Pembroke and Tenby railway, 9½ miles E by S of Pembroke; was anciently called Dynbech-y-Pyscoed, signifying "Den-bigh the Fishy,'' to characterize it as a fishing town, and to distinguish it from Denbigh in North Wales; acquired also a castle soon after the Norman conquest; was afterwards surrounded with walls; made considerable figure in the conflicts between the Welsh and the Anglo-Normans; became a seat of the woollen trade by a settling of Flemings in the time of Henry I.: declined gradually after the time of Elizabeth, till almost threatened with extinction; underwent modern revival as a fashionable watering-place, and as a subport to Milford; has undergone, of late years, extensive reconstruction and great improvement; is a seat of sessions, a polling place, and a coastguard station; was made a borough by W. de Valence; unites with Pembroke, Milford, and Wiston in sending a member to parliament; is governed, under the new municipal act, by a mayor, 4 aldermen, and 12 councillors; consists, as a borough, of the portion of T. parish called the in-liberty; occupies the summit and sides of a peninsula, bounded by steep rocks; retains considerable portions of its old walls; includes some fine terrace-lines of buildings; enjoys rich facilities for sea-bathing, and remarkably attractive environs; is noted particularly for pure air and water, and for command of scenery and objects interesting to tourists and to naturalists; publishes a weekly newspaper; exports oysters, fish, butter, and coal; communicates regularly, by steamer, with Bristol; is a valued resort of Devon and Somerset trawlers and oyster-smacks; and has a head post-office,‡ a r. station, three chief inns, a tolerably good harbour, an assembly-room, a small theatre, a library and reading room, a literary and scientific institution, a statue of the late Prince Consort, put up in 1865, a church of the 13th century with a tower and spire 152 feet high, three dissenting chapels, slight remains of an ancient Carmelite friary, public schools, a dispensary, alms houses with £15 a year, apprenticing charities £63, other charities £151, markets on Wednesdays and Saturdays, and fairs on 4 May, Whit-Tuesday, 4,July, 2 Oct., and 4 Dec. The castle was taken by the Welsh in 1151; was taken by them again, and partly destroyed, in 1186; was restored, as a defence against the expected Armada, in 1588; was taken for Charles I. in 1644, and retaken by Cromwell in 1647; and is now represented mainly by the entrance-gateway, the keep, and some parts of the walls. Real property of the town in 1860, £14,751. Pop. in 1861, 2,982. Houses, 545.—The parish includes also the out-liberty; and comprises 1,982 acres of land , and 260 of water. Real property of the out-liberty, £1,038. Pop. of the whole, 3,197. Houses, 589. The living is a rectory and a vicarage in the diocese of St. Davids. Value, £317.* Patron, the Crown.—The sub-district contains 13 parishes and an extra-parochial tract. Acres, 29,740. Pop., 9,219. Houses, 1,738.


(John Marius Wilson, Imperial Gazetteer of England and Wales (1870-72))

Linked entities:
Feature Description: "a small town, a parish, and a sub-district"   (ADL Feature Type: "cities")
Administrative units: St Mary in Liberty CP/AP       Tenby SubD       Pembrokeshire AncC
Place names: DYNBECH Y PYSCOED     |     TENBY
Place: Tenby

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