DESPITE the inclement weather, more than 90 people came to the Museums Morning at Pembroke Town Hall on February 6, an event organised jointly between Pembroke & Monkton Local History Society and West Wales Maritime Heritage Society (WWMHS).

WWMHS Secretary David James led the proceedings with a talk about Hancock’s Shipyard, where the Society is based and where they restore vintage boats.

Often called the Cinderella Yard, overshadowed as it was by the Royal Dockyard, it survived a lot longer and continued shipbuilding until 1979.

Peter Hancock & Sons took over the yard in 1921 from former owners J & W Francis, and among the many ships built there were the Hobb’s Point ferries – the Cleddau Queen and the Cleddau King.

The yard is still popularly known as Hancock’s Yard.

Last summer the WWMHS opened a maritime museum in the yard, which has proved very successful.

The museum will reopen on March 16–April 9, then May 25-September 10 on Wednesdays- Saturdays from 12-4pm. Anyone interested in volunteering, please contact Brian King on 01646 680554.

In the audience was Peter Hancock, who was surprised to be presented with a model of Isabella, the first ship that the Hancock shipbuilding dynasty built in Milford in 1896.

David, a talented model maker, had been secretly commissioned to build it by Peter’s wife Margaret Hancock.

Following David’s talk, chair of the Pembroke & Monkton (P&M) Local History Society Linda Asman gave an update on Pembroke Museum, situated in the old courtroom of Pembroke Town Hall, courtesy of Pembroke Town Council.

From half term, the museum will be open during weekday mornings from 10am-12.30pm, extending to afternoons during the summer season.

Thanks were given to the hard-working P&M committee for organising the coffee morning and raffle, which raised £240, to be split between the two museums.