Milford Haven Waterway
As one of the deepest natural harbours in the world, it is a busy shipping channel, trafficked by ferries from Pembroke Dock to Ireland, oil tankers and pleasure craft.
Admiral Horatio Nelson, visiting the haven with the Hamiltons, described it as the next best natural harbour to Trincomalee in Ceylon (today's Sri Lanka) and "the finest port in Christendom".
Built on virgin land, it stood alongside the priory on Caldey Island as part of the Tironian Order in West Wales, and was dedicated to St Budoc.
An army of 400 warships, 500 knights and 4,000 men-at-arms gathered in the haven before sailing to Waterford, and on to Dublin,[8] which marked the first time an English king had stood on Irish soil, and the beginning of Henry's invasion of Ireland.
[13] In 1405, the French landed in force having left Brest in July with more than twenty-eight hundred knights and men-at-arms led by Jean II de Rieux, the Marshal of France, to support Owain Glyndŵr's rebellion.
[14] The land comprising the site of Milford, the Manor of Hubberston and Pill, was acquired by the Barlow family following the dissolution of the monasteries in the mid-16th century.
Carew did not develop into a borough, but excavations have shown that a Dark Age stronghold and possible Romano-British site preceded the Norman castle.
[1] Around the start of the 19th century, two new towns were constructed: Milford in 1790 by Sir William Hamilton, and Pembroke Dock in 1802 as the site for a new Royal Naval Dockyard.
Both towns have regular planned layouts, both have experienced a history of boom and slump in shipbuilding, fishing and as railheads and ocean terminals.
[1] These two towns, which could handle the larger vessels then entering service, concentrated trade that had previously been dispersed at quays, jetties and landing places and small settlements such as Pennar, Lawrenny, Landshipping and Cosheston further up river.
[1] These small ports served the coal mines of the Pembrokeshire Coalfield located on both shores of the Daugleddau, and also the large limestone quarries at West Williamston.
[1] In the late 19th century, concerns about the potential threat posed by the French Navy prompted the construction of a number of Palmerston Forts at various strategically important coastal sites, including Milford Haven.
This industry reached its zenith in the 1970s when Middle Eastern supply difficulties forced oil transport to use ocean routes and Very Large Crude Carriers for which the Haven, with its deep waters and westerly position, was particularly suited.
The comparable Torrey Canyon spill in 1968, a ship which had been heading to Milford Haven, affected shores further south around southern Cornwall and northern France, was actually far more damaging.
[30] Organic and heavy metal chemical pollutants accumulating in variety of species including seaweed mussels, bivalves and worms have been measured in Milford Haven Waterway.
