Exploring Tenby: Seaside, History, and Cawl

Saturday March 8, 2025

Today was a day of two halves. We spent the morning walking around the town and the 13^th century town walls, and the afternoon doing faff all.

A bit about Tenby’s history…

Tenby’s history is also one of two halves.

Tenby’s Welsh name Dinbych-y-Pysgod means Little Fortress of the Fish – and long before it was a tourist town, it was a fishing town. With a naturally sheltered harbour and its position on the far west coast, Tenby’s early history was also strategically important – and, as befell most towns with a strategic position in those days – a tumultuous one.

The earliest reference to the town was in a poem from the 9^th century, but it was when it was taken by the Normans when they invaded West Wales in the early 12^th century that things got serious. The first stone wall fortification was built on (the creatively named) Castle Hill, and trade grew as it developed into a major seaport.

An attempt to assassinate Cadell ap Gruffydd, a Welsh prince, and a couple more sackings over the next century resulted in the construction of Tenby’s town walls in the 13^th century. This made the castle on Castle Hill obsolete and by the end of the 14^th century it had been abandoned. (I’ll post some pics of what’s left of this in the next instalment).

These defences were further strengthened in the 15^th century during the War of the Roses, and Henry Tudor (the future King Henry VII) sheltered in Tenby before sailing into exile for a bit.

By this time Tenby was an important trading port with traders sailing along the coast to Bristol, Ireland and further afield to France, Spain and Portugal. The first oranges in Wales came into Tenby from Portugal in 1566. At this time there were also fears of a second Spanish Armada so the stone defences were strengthened even more.

The decline of Tenby’s fortunes in the 17^th century began when the town declared for the wrong side in the English Civil War, and then later when a plague outbreak killed half of Tenby’s remaining population.

With limited resources, infrastructure and people, the economy fell into decline and the merchant class left. By the end of the 18^th century it was reported that two-thirds of the old town was abandoned and in ruins.

Tenby’s reinvention in the early nineteenth century came about as a result of the ongoing Napoleonic wars in Europe. With Europe no longer a preferred destination for the British upper classes, and a growth in saltwater sea-bathing for health purposes, seaside destinations closer to home became more attractive. Tenby was one of those towns where investment centred around attracting rich Victorian tourists. Further, because walkways were built to accommodate Victorian nannies pushing prams, many of the beaches today still have good accessibility.

The railway was extended as far as Pembroke in the 1860s and the rest is, as they say history. Today Tenby’s economy is based around tourism.

Walking Tenby

While it was a mild start this morning, the “feels like” temperature has been just 2C all day. It’s been the sort of cold day that gets into your bones, despite being kitted out in parkas, beanies and scarves.

The end of our little laneway brought us to the harbour, so that’s where we began our walk.

Brekky this morning was a series of shared snacks.

We stopped for a shared toasted buttered teacake and buttered Welsh cake in one cafe, a shared sausage roll (scored 8.5/10) from the bakery on the corner, and a Welsh cake dusted with sugar hot off the griddle somewhere else.

Aside from walking the perimeter of the old town, we spent ages in St Mary’s Church talking to the warden about the church’s history.

She told us how many of the really early churches in Wales were built by women. By early, we’re talking the 6^th to the 12^th century. This was, she said, because of the Celtic influence in early Christianity in Wales.

Many were also built near wells. This was both for practical and spiritual purposes. Practical in that priests and their families needed a source of water, but spiritual because many of these wells had already been venerated or considered sacred before the arrival of Christianity. Hand in hand with this was the concept that the church needed to be near a supply of watercress as that was considered the food of life.

She had a lot more to say and I could have listened for even longer than we did.

Lunch was at On George, where, for the second day in a row, we both ordered the cawl. Today’s came with a wedge of cheese instead of grated cheese.

Today was one of those days where we both decided we needed some proper downtime so after lunch we went back to the apartment and hunkered down – Grant to sleep and me to watch Miss Austen on BBC iPlayer.

Refreshed after a few hours doing faff all, we headed back to On George for dinner. Grant had the gammon and I had monkfish scampi. Both meals were good.

In cyclone-related news from home, Cyclone Alfred finally made it on shore and the Sunny Coast escaped the worst of it. Phew.

Welsh Cawl

Today’s recipe has to be Welsh Cawl.

A homely soup, the stock is made with lamb neck and then root vegetables and leek are added. Sounds simple, but it’s sooo good. In Wales they serve it with a wedge or grating of cheese and some good bread.

The actor, Michael Sheen’s recipe is here, but I used this one. I passed the stock through an old tea towel to capture any scummy bits and most of the fat, and popped it in the fridge overnight so I could skim more of the fat off before making the cawl.

The stats…

Temperature: 9-11

Miles travelled: None! (Unless you count walking…)