In the beginning:-

The locality is of outstanding importance in the study of early man.  During Mesolithic times (between 10,000 and 6,000 years ago - Middle Stone Age) and early Neolithic times which followed, the Welsh shoreline gradually advanced landwards - perhaps from the 20 fathom submarine contour to the present coastline.  Sometimes evidence of former forest is laid bare; for example 20 yards seaward of the high tide mark (in the bed of the beach stream at Manorbier) may be seen the remains of trees which are already starting to convert to soft coal.  The earliest human activity for which evidence has been found locally was tool making in the Mesolithic and early Neolithic periods.  Flint microliths from Manorbier can be seen in local museums.  It seems likely that the flint-working floors were around Manorbier Bay and near the coast to west and east.

The most dramatic survival from the Neolithic period is the burial chamber, dolmen or cromlech shown on OS Maps as the Kings Quoit, alongside the cliff

footpath to the east side of Manorbier Bay.  It is possible indeed that there were other chambers in the same complex. There is no other such site in the district and the importance of Manorbier in the Neolithic period as a ritual centre is thus attested .

There is evidence for the presence of man during the Bronze and Iron Ages which followed.  A stone perforated mace head of the Bronze Age was found near The Dak and other artifacts at Swanlake, and there are Bronze Age burial mounds (tumuli)

particularly along the higher ground of the Ridgeway.  Crop Marks and aerial photography have shown a defended Iron Age enclosure near Manorbier Station, and within the area of modern Manorbier Camp on Old Castle Head promontory there is a multivate fort.  This may have continued into the early Christian period.

Prehistoric cooking places have been identified by archeologists along the coast near The Dak and at Swanlake.  At such sites there was an ingenious system of heating water and cooking meat in a clay-lined pit, by introducing heated stones ('pot boilers').

Welsh, Norse and Normans

The builders of Iron Age Camps like Old Castle Head were Celts and it was from the Celts that the Welsh evolved.

In early historic times they were Christianized and built their first church, probably on or near the location of the present church.  The churchyard is circular - a characteristic of early ecclesiastical sites.  There is no evidence as yet about the centre of secular power in 'Mainaur Pir', but it is possibly the site of the later castle.

Their field system may underlie later systems.

That there were Norse (Viking Raiders) is suggested by such local names as Lydstep  and Skomer (not to be confused with the island further west).

The arrival of the Normans and the establishment of the Earldom of Pembroke of which Manorbier was part, had a fundamental influence.  Anglo-Normans settled here, though the continuation of Welsh stock is evidenced by surnames like Cadwallader, which survived to the twentieth century.  The castle was built, and a stone church, and the manorial system introduced.

From the twelfth to the late fourteenth century the manor of Manorbier was held, with other lands, by the de Barri family.  Amongst later holders were Lady Margaret Beaufort, mother of King Henry VIII (period 1487 - 1509), the Bowen family of Trefloyne, Penally (1601 - 70) and from 1670 the Philipps family of Picton Castle.  The name Park Farm recalls the medieval deer park.

Manorbier Castle

Gerald de Barri's  childhood home was much smaller and simpler than The Castle which evolved over time.   DJ. Cathcart King and J. Clifford Perks (in Archaeologia Cambrensis Vol. CXIX, 1970) show that the earliest masonry could date from the 1140's, but that the greater part of the castle was built in stages during the thirteenth century.  It seems to have been captured as the result of a battle on two occasions, namely: in a dispute between lords in 1327 and in the Civil War by the Parliamentary Commander in Pembrokeshire in September 1656.

Gerald de Barri - Giraldus Cambrensis - Gerald of Wales

One of the most interesting personalities of Wales was born (c1146) in Manorbier Castle.  A younger son of the de Barri family, descended from the Prices of Wales

through his grandmother The Princess Nest, and the Barons of the March, This distinguished churchman, scholar and commentator has left for us a description of Manorbier which includes references to its fishpond, orchard, vineyard, mill and dovecote and concludes with the statement that Manorbier is "the most pleasant spot in Wales".

The Dovecote

This circular building with 260 boxes, is a fascinating example of medieval building techniques.  Like the fishpond, which probably occupied part of the ground between the dovecote and the castle, it made an important contribution to the diet of the household particularly during the winter.  It has been calculated that it could have provided pigeon pie twice a week for 40 people.

The Mill

The ruins can be seen near the dovecote.  During the seventeenth to the late nineteenth century, it was powered by the stream draining from Park Farm, between the castle and the dovecote.  This does not exactly agree with Gerald's description of the system in the twelfth century: "At the east end of the fortified promontory, between the castle, if I may call it such, a stream of water which never fails winds its way along a valley, which is strewn with sand by the strong sea-winds.  It runs down from a large lake, and there is a water-mill on its bank".

Limekilns and Windmills

Disused Limekilns in the area are usually in close proximity to quarries.  There are several in the parish; a restored kiln can be seen in Mud Lane.

Wind-power was harnessed for agricultural purposes.  The "Middle Windemill" is named in 1618 and Windmill Hill in 1701.  The field name Windmill Park occurs in Slade Farm in the 1840 Tithe Schedule, and a windmill is shown on Tarr Farm at the outskirts of Manorbier Village on early editions of the OS map.  The Tarr mill was a straight sided tower.

Open Fields

The open field system of farming with intermixed strips would have been practiced in the Middle Ages.  The great blocks of hedged strips surrounding the village of Manorbier and Jameston represent the three old township fields.

The Village

Many of the early inhabitants held land.  Therefore, many of the properties would have been farmhouses with yards and buildings.

A tourist guide (published in 1872) noting 'fragments of old edifices strewn around' speculated whether the village might once have been bigger.  About that time Manorbier village was attracting an increasing number of visitors.  The same tourist guide noted '....recently a few excellent houses have been erected in a delightful situation facing the bay.  Visitors therefore may now rely on procuring all they require, and at a very moderate cost'.  The Pembroke and Tenby Railway

was opened as far as Pembroke in 1863 with a station at Manorbier 1 mile north of Manorbier Village with halts serving Lydstep, Beavers Hill and Manorbier Newton.

From 1 July 1897, it became part of the Great Western Railway.  The Station was linked with the village by horsedrawn vehicles, and later by hired cars.  The incomers were summer visitors or people who became residents for a time.  For a long period one of the charms of Manorbier was that its capacity was not large, and so it was a rather exclusive seaside village.  It attracted literary persons including members of the Bloomsbury Set,  politicians, scholars, people of wealth and high birth, some of whom stayed in the residential portion of the castle.

Manorbier remained essentially rural.  A resident recalled: "Almost within living memory, parties on Sunday School outings came by horse and cart, the farm carts harness glistening.  Water from the stream was heated up in large boilers on stick and driftwood fires.  There were large sand dunes there and the open green made a marvelous games pitch.  There was no harbour or quay, but small boats could be beached and there was fishing and crabbing.

Manorbier - the Name

Manorbier has been identified by Dr. B.G. Charles in his recent study of Pembrokeshire place names as a combination of the Old Welsh 'mainaur' or ''maenawr' which was an administrative division, and the personal name 'Pir' or ''Pyr'.  It is not known who Pyr may have been, but the same element occurs in the pre-Norse name of Caldey - 'Ynys Byr' (Pyr's Island).  Another explanation sometimes suggested for the same element is that it is derived from an Old English word, either 'bere' meaning corn or barley, or 'baer pasture.  The tithe map of 1840 shows lands called 'Beer'.

Historic Houses

The Hearth Tax of 1670 reveals that there were 2 houses of considerable size in the parish at that time.  They were Norchard (inhabited by William Marichurch) and East Moor (Thomas Lort) both of which had 7 hearths.  Parts of the medieval residence are said to be incorporated in modern Norchard (where there was also a grist mill with pond and sluice).

Manorbier Mansion was a fortified dwelling near Middle Hill.

Public Houses

The information is fragmentary, but in 1795 Simon Hughes and David Morris were named as innkeepers in the parish.  In 1822 Simon Hughes was licensee of the ''Boot and Shoe', appropriately named since he was a shoemaker.

'The Lion' of which John Hughes, also a shoemaker, was licensee in 1851, was on the

site occupied formerly by the 'Boot and Shoe'.  The building was razed c.1890. This site is now occupied by 'Lion Flats'.

During the second half of the nineteenth century there was an Old Castle INN on or near the site of the present day Cross House and a Castle Inn.

Schools

In 1846 Commissioners enquiring into the state of education in Wales founded a schoolroom near the Church, built in 1841 partly from money raised at a bazaar and partly from donations by the Vicar and landowners of the parish.  This continued in use until the opening of the new National School.  There is now a cottage on the site known as Church Hill.

The National School, with a house for the master, opened on 13 January 1873 with 48 children.  Numbers increased during the year and on 23 May,  113 attended.  This is still the village school.  A new classroom was provided in 1956 and electricity was installed in 1957.  Further improvements were carried out and a kitchen added, and the re-modelled school was opened in January 1966.

The Parish Church of St. James the Great.

This was the only place of worship in the village, but there were Nonconformist Chapels elsewhere in the parish one of which Penuel, is still in regular use.  In the Middle Ages the benefice was part of the possessions of Monkton Benedictine Priory.

The War Department

At the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries, the War Department already occupied 31 acres on the cliff, a foretaste of the importance of "the camp" in the twentieth century economy of the area, and of the part played by the locality as a defensive and training ground during World War II.

Natural History

Within the Area there is a variety of wildlife habitats - seashore,  sand dunes, woodland and farm land .

The rocky part of the shore at Manorbier teems with plants and animals.  The best time to look in the rock pools is at low tide - Shore crabs, Edible crabs, Blennies [small rock-pool fish which can change colour to match their background], prawns, sea anemones and the many types of seaweed.  Along the shore, look out for Oystercatchers, feeding on the shellfish on the rocks.  Seals can sometimes be seen basking on the rocks further along the coast between the Dak and SwanLake Bay.

Above the beach is an area of sand dunes, fenced off to prevent erosion by trampling feet,  the sand is held together by the long roots of Marram Grass, the tall spiky grasses which causes the dunes to form.  Also on the dunes grows Vipers Bugloss, with its tough leaves and stalks of dark blue flowers.

Walking along the lanes and footpaths you will see many hedgerow birds such as Bluetits, Great Tits and Hedge sparrows.  You may see a Sparrow Hawk skimming fast and low over the hedges, or a Buzzard circling and mewing above the fields. The hedgebanks in summer support a profusion of wildflowers - Cow Parsley, Red Campion, Herb Robert and Foxgloves.  In the Spring you will see Snowdrops, Primroses and Violets.  In places, the banks are covered with the large heart shaped leaves of Winter Heliotrope, which flowers in January.  In wooded areas, you will notice the smell of garlic as you walk on the leaves of the Wild Garlic or Ramsons.