Morfan in its former life as The Queen's Hotel, Parrog

I've just been reading Keith Johnson's book "The Pubs of St David's. Fishguard & North Pembrokeshire" which includes a very useful chapter on the pubs of Newport and the Parrog. There were quite a number of them in the area and a thriving Temperance movement too.

Some of the pubs are hard to tie to existing buildings but the former Queen's is easier to trace as it occupied the large house which is now Morfan, the right hand of the pretty row of cottages lining the Parrog Road in the picture below.





















The Edwardian postcard at the top of this blog shows the building when it was the Queen's Hotel and enlarging the card shows what may well be holiday makers outside decked out in their finery.


















I suspect that people in these postcards must have known the photographer was coming and dressed accordingly or did young boys always wear suits for the beach?

The pub was sometimes simply called the Queen's but by the 1891 census, it was listed as the Queen's Hotel and was run by Margaret Williams, a mariner's wife. It was quite common for the pubs in the area to be run by retired sea captains or the wives of serving mariners. Sea captains often spent several months or even whole years ashore when they were not in command of a vessel so an alternative source of income must have been useful. It is interesting that the census does not list anyone except immediate family members in residence on census night (5th April) so there do not seem to have been any paying guests present, perhaps indicating that it was still more of a pub than a guest house. It was certainly listed as a pub in the 1895 Kellys Directory.

A bit of digging around on Reg Davies' Welsh Mariners' website shows that Margaret William's husband, David Williams took his mate's certificate in 1869, moving on to become 1st Mate. He was a Captain by 1874, commanding ships such as the Asiana and the Anglo American and survived a shipwreck in the Azores on the barque Keewaydin (not connected to the trawler Keewaydin which can sometimes be seen moored at the quay in Cardigan). Seafaring was David Williams' blood. His father was Captain Thomas Williams of the Parrog, who held shares in the barque Ondara and named his large sea front house after his vessel.

Before taking on the Queen's Hotel, David Williams and his family were living in St Mary Street in Newport. The pub seems to have been a retirement venture but he died shortly afterwards in 1891. His widow was still running it in 1895 but after that it had a succession of landlords before closing in the 1920's.

From warehouse to Newport Boat Club: the relics of the Parrog's past

This postcard was posted in 1939 and shows the Parrog at the tail end of its sea-trading days. The building to the middle left of the photograph is what is now the Boat Club. During the Parrog's heyday as a working port, this was one of five warehouses on the quay.

The remains of one of the other storehouses is still visible between Camelot and Gorwel. A third is little more than a heap of rubble covered in brambles. A fourth was demolished as trade dwindled after the First World War and the stones were used to build the Memorial Hall. As for the fifth, that became the holiday cottage of Camelot which still has two foot thick walls. Follow this link to find out more of its history.

Camelot is in the foreground here with the converted warehouse which is now the Boat Club shown behind. Vessels came in at high tide to unload here and the area of Parrog Bach behind the seawall gained the nickname Rat Island because of the rats which escaped from these boats.

A closer look at the 1930's post card included at the beginning of this post, shows the final warehouse in a sorry state of decline at this time. The main roof has slates missing, the lean to at the side is falling down. The seawall is also in a poor state of repair and would have left the whole of this area prone to flooding at spring tides.















To the right of the warehouse, in this photo, are the remains of a second limekiln which has since been demolished. In "The Ancient Borough of Newport Pembrokeshire", Dillwyn Miles mentions that it was "wantonly destroyed in the second half of the twentieth century". One double limekiln still remains on the harbour wall and has been restored by the National Park along with the lime burner's cottage alongside it which is lime-washed a cheerful shade of pink which changes colour when it gets wet.













The fate of the one remaining warehouse is interesting. When I was a child I remember someone making a half-hearted attempt to convert it into a dwelling. I think this was Mr Collings who owned the Newsagents in Cambria Terrace. The roof arrived first then, gradually, a window here and there but I don't think work ever got further than the ground floor. It can be seen here in that semi-renovated state, which at least kept the building from any further decay.

















In 1976 the building was purchased by a group of founder members of Newport Boat Club and has been extended and adapted over the years.




















It's a wonderful place to watch the sunset whatever the time of year.