Pembrey (Welsh: Pen-bre) is a village in Carmarthenshire, Wales, situated between Burry Port and Kidwelly, overlooking Carmarthen Bay, with a population of about 2,154 in 2011.
[3] The coastline began its retreat from the foot of Pembrey Mountain some 6,000 years ago, revealing land which shows human occupation since the Iron Age, with hill forts dating from around 400 BC.
Pembrey's mountain and beach Cefn Sidan are reputed to have provided some villagers with careers as wreckers, known locally as Gwyr-y-Bwelli Bach (translated as People with Little Hatchets) - attracting sailing ships with fires purporting to be beacons, then raiding them when they foundered.
Nevertheless, a number of vessels were certainly lost around Pembrey, including "La Jeune Emma" bound from the West Indies to France and blown badly off course in 1828.
13 of the 19 on board drowned, including Adeline Coquelin, the 12-year-old niece of Napoleon Bonaparte's divorced wife Josephine de Beauharnais.
Close by, a Royal Ordnance Factory, ROF Pembrey, provided high explosives for Britain's war effort.
An attempt to establish a munitions testing range in Pembrey was made during the 1960s but was resisted by villagers, who mounted a SOS (Save Our Sands) campaign.
Royal Air Force training continues on a bombing range to the west of Pembrey Country Park near Kidwelly.
The RAF Red Arrows aerobatics display team performed over Kidwelly's carnival, with many of their stunts taking place over the village of Pembrey itself.
[5] Today, the village has lost most of its former sources of employment and is largely a dormitory for the nearby urban areas of Llanelli and Carmarthen.
Tourism has been successfully developed at the Country Park, along the Millennium Coastal Path and at nearby Burry Port although accommodation is limited to caravanning,a few bed & breakfasts and the Ashburnham Hotel.