page_title: Tenby
section_title: History
hierarchical_section_title: Tenby / History
caption_attribution_description: English: Tenby Life Boat Stations Tenby Life Boat Stations, The Old one and the New One,
context_page_description: Tenby is both a walled, seaside town in Pembrokeshire, Wales, on the western side of Carmarthen Bay, and a local government community.
  Notable features include 2 ¹⁄₂ miles of sandy beaches and the Pembrokeshire Coast Path, the 13th century medieval town walls, including the Five Arches barbican gatehouse, Tenby Museum and Art Gallery, the 15th century St. Mary's Church, and the National Trust's Tudor Merchant's House.
  Boats sail from Tenby's harbour to the offshore monastic Caldey Island. St Catherine's Island is tidal and has a 19th century Palmerston Fort.
  The town has an operating railway station.
  The A478 road from Cardigan, Ceredigion, connects Tenby with the M4 via the A477, the A40 and the A48 in approximately 40 miles.
context_section_description: With its strategic position on the far west coast of Britain, and a natural sheltered harbour from both the Atlantic Ocean and the Irish Sea, Tenby was a natural settlement point, probably a hill fort with the mercantile nature of the settlement possibly developing under Hiberno-Norse influence. The earliest reference to a settlement at Tenby is in "Etmic Dinbych", a poem probably from the 9th century, preserved in the 14th century Book of Taliesin.
  Tenby was taken by the Normans, when they invaded West Wales in the early 12th century. The town's first stone-wall fortification was on Castle Hill. Tenby's mercantile trade grew as it developed as a major seaport in Norman controlled Little England beyond Wales. However, the need for additional defences became paramount after the settlement and castle were successfully attacked and sacked by Welsh forces of Maredudd ap Gruffydd and Rhys ap Gruffydd in 1153. Sacking of the town was repeated in 1187 and again by Llywelyn ap Gruffudd in 1260. After the final attack, William de Valence, 1st Earl of Pembroke ordered the construction of the Tenby town walls in the late 13th century. The stone curtain wall, towers and gates enclosed a large part of the settlement—now known as the "old town". With the construction of the town walls, Tenby Castle was made obsolete and had been abandoned by the end of the 14th century.
  In 1457, Jasper Tudor, the uncle of Henry Tudor, agreed to share with the town's merchants the costs of refurbishing and improving Tenby's defences because of its economic importance to this part of Wales. Work included heightening the wall to include a second tier of higher arrow slits behind a new parapet walk. Additional turret towers were added to the ends of the walls where they abutted the cliff edges, and the dry ditch outside walls was widened to 30 feet (9.1 m).
  Consequently, in the Late Middle Ages, Tenby was awarded royal grants to finance the maintenance and improvement of its defences and the enclosure of its harbour. Traders sailed along the coast to Bristol and Ireland and further afield to France, Spain and Portugal. Exports included wool, skins, canvas, coal, iron and oil; while in 1566 Portuguese seamen landed the first oranges in Wales. It was during this period that the town was so busy and important, it was considered to be a national port. During the Wars of the Roses Henry Tudor, the future King Henry VII of England, sheltered at Tenby before sailing into exile in 1471.
  In the mid 16th century, the large D-shaped tower known as the "Five Arches" was built following fears of a second Spanish Armada.
  Two key events caused the town to undergo rapid and permanent decline in importance. First, Tenby declared for Parliament in the English Civil War. After resisting two attempts by the Royalists forces of Charles Gerard, 1st Earl of Macclesfield, it was finally taken in 1648. Ten weeks later the shattered town was surrendered to Colonel Thomas Horton, who welcomed Oliver Cromwell shortly afterwards. Second, a plague outbreak killed half of the town's remaining population in 1650.
  With limited infrastructure, resources and people, the town's economy fell into decline. Most of the merchant and business class left, resulting in the town's decay and ruin. By the end of the 18th century, John Wesley noted during his visit how: "Two-thirds of the old town is in ruins or has entirely vanished. Pigs roam among the abandoned houses and Tenby presents a dismal spectacle."
  Another war led to a resurgence in Tenby's fortunes. Since 1798, the French General Napoleon Bonaparte had begun conquering Europe restricting the rich British upper classes from making their Grand Tours to continental spa towns. In 1802 local resident, merchant banker and politician, Sir William Paxton, bought his first property in the old town. From this point onwards he invested heavily in the area with the full approval of the town council.
  With the growth in saltwater sea-bathing for health purposes, Paxton engaged engineer James Grier and architect Samuel Pepys Cockerell (the same team who
caption: The old 1905 (cream & red) and new 2008 (silver) RNLI Tenby Lifeboat Station
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