Jon's guide for this historical journey was Dr Geraint Jenkins, a local historian and former curator of the Museum of Welsh Life at St. Fagans.
It was Sir William Hamilton who inherited the properties of Huberston and Pill in 1782 that came up with the idea of building a harbour and a town on this land. As Hamilton was tied to commitments in Naples he appointed his nephew Charles Greville as his agent to promote the project at Milford, who was at the time an MP in England.
Hamilton obtained an Act of Parliament in 1790 to establish the port at Milford on the land of Hubberston and Pill. Greville attracted Quaker whalers from Nantucket to settle in Milford in 1793 and also persuaded the Navy Board in 1797 to establish a dockyard to build warships. Milfords rapid success as a port was evident by the summer of 1802 when public celebrations were organised and Milford Haven was proclaimed by Lord Nelson as one of the finest harbours ever seen. Hamilton died the following April.
In 1810 the Quaker whalers returned to America and in 1814 the Navy Board transferred the dockyard to Paterchurch, renamed Pembroke Dock. During this period Milford sat in an unspectacular style.
In 1874 the port was given a belated boost with the formation of the Milford Docks company (the docks were not completed for another 14 years). The docks were adapted to the requirements of the fishing industry; ice factories, fish market and smoke-houses were built, and Milford grew to be one of the chief fishing ports of Britain. The landing of sixty thousand tons of fish in 1946 was the highest recorded, however, from there onward the industry has steadily declined. Today there stands a Fisherman Statue on the promenade reminding the public of the significance of the fishing industry.
The development of the giant oil tankers following the Suez crisis in the 1950's led to Milford being developed as a major oil port, because of its deep water channel. In 1960 the Esso oil refinery opened and by the 1970s Milford had become the leading oil port in Britain and the second largest in Europe. However, within 20 years of being opened, the Esso oil refinery was closed. The more recent Sea Empress disaster raised questions about the desirability of having such an industry in an environmentally sensitive area like Pembrokeshire, surrounded by the unique coastal Pembrokeshire Coast National Park.
A keen ornithologist, journalist and broadcaster, Jon Gower is a BBC Wales arts and media correspondent. His series include Homeland, for which this article was originally written.
Click here to find out more about the region's past in our
Local History section.
your comments
We're making some changes to the sites shortly and although this form will be closing, you will have other opportunities to contribute on our new-look site.
Evans Wm. R of Port Alberni BC Canada
Does anyone in Milford remember the Corvette No. K127 HMCS Algoma being docked in the basin during WW11 she was a a real slow ship, to slow to chase German subs around the cape at Lands End when on patrol and we pick up a sonar signal of a sub or a group of them. We were very lucky that they didn't torpedo us while on patrol off of Lands End.
Wolf packs hung out there just about every time we escorted a convoy to Southend on Sea. It never failed that we would lose a freighter that got torpedoed at that particular corner of the world.
It ! was bad that we could not stop and pick up personnel that were in the water after being torpedoed, often I have thought about them and wondered if they managed to survive or not, you must understand we couldn't stop for them and endanger the ship and the ship's company for a few survivors.
Wed Jun 17 17:33:34 2009
Add your comments to this page here:
