Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition/Tenby

TENBY, a municipal and parliamentary borough and watering-place of Pembrokeshire, South Wales, is finely situated on a long and narrow promontory of limestone rock, washed on three sides by the sea, on the west side of Carmarthen Bay, and on a branch of the South Wales Railway, 10 miles east of Pembroke and 274 west of London (by rail). Its chief attractions as a watering-place are its picturesque appearance, its antiquarian remains, its equable and salubrious climate, and its wide stretch of firm sands. There are considerable remains of the old fortifications of the town, dating originally from the Norman Conquest, and repaired by Elizabeth, whose initials with the date 1588 are inscribed on a stone near the fine south-west gate, which with the south-west and north-west walls is in very good preservation. The remains of the castle on a lofty rock at the extremity of the promontory include the keep, a circular bastion overhanging the cliffs, and portions of the outer wall. Within the grounds, which are laid out in walks, there is a local museum; and on the summit of the hill is the Welsh memorial to the Prince Consort, a statue of Sicilian marble (1865). Opposite the castle, about 100 yards distant and accessible on foot at low water, is St Catherine s Island, on which is a strong fort begun in 1868, forming one of the land defences of Pembroke dockyard. The parish church of St Mary is a large and beautiful building, showing every variety of style from the Norman of the 12th to the Tudor of the late 16th century; it has a massive tower with a spire rising to a height of 152 feet. In the north aisle are some mediaeval altar tombs and in the south aisle one of the early Tudor period. The fisheries of Tenby, for which the place was noted at a very early period, are still of importance. The trade of the port is inconsiderable. Steamers, however, ply to Bristol, Cardiff, Ilfracombe, and Weston-super-Mare. In the neighbourhood there are extensive limestone quarries. The population of the municipal and parliamentary borough (area 640 acres) in 1871 was 3810, and in 1881 it was 4750. In summer it is augmented by more than a half.

Tenby has the same derivation as Denbigh in North Wales. Anciently it was called Dynbych-y-Pyscod, the “precipice of fishes.” The importance of the town dates from the settlement of the Flemings in the reign of Henry I. In 1150 Cadell, eldest son of Rhys ab Gryffith, was slain by the people of Tenby, in revenge for which the castle was taken and the town devastated by his two brothers Meredith and Rhys. During the Wars of the Roses the fortifications were restored and strengthened by Jaspar, earl of Pembroke. They were again greatly strengthened by Elizabeth in apprehension of the landing of the Spaniards. At the beginning of the Civil-War the town and castle were garrisoned for the king, but in 1644 it surrendered to the Parliamentarians after a siege of three days. Its privileges were extended by Humphrey, duke of Gloucester, who made the mayor an independent justice, and by Henry IV., Henry VI., Elizabeth, and Charles I. It is now governed by the Municipal Act, and the corporation are the sanitary authority. Since the 27th of Henry VIII. it has formed part of the Pembroke district of boroughs for parliamentary representation.

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