PEMBROKESHIRE hosted a royal visit in July as the Prince of Wales and Duchess of Cornwall came to the county as part of their summer tour of Wales.

The royal pair started off at Llangwm where they visited the local Methodist chapel, meeting local artists, makers and gardeners. They then visited the village green and the talking tapestry at St Jerome’s Church.

The couple enjoyed music from the Jumping Fleas as well as a performance of a requiem from the village opera and the Cleddau Reach school choir who sang on the banks of Black Tar.

Camilla then went on to the Dyfed Shire Horse Farm in Eglwyswrw, where she was briefly joined by Charles. She named the farm’s new foal, Dyfed Merlin, took the reins during a carriage ride round the farm and fed the horses Polos.

At the same time Pembroke Castle hosted a far from regal visit from a killer swan, dubbed Mr Nasty. The bothersome bird claimed the lives of ten other swans from the nearby Mill Pond in order to protect the scarce food supply in the castle pond. Several more of Mr Nasty’s victims were rescued by Maria Evans from Tinkers Hill bird sanctuary.

Later this month emergency services were called to the castle on more than one occasion to investigate suspicious containers found in the grounds.

In the same month that the NHS celebrated its 70th birthday, a 40,000 strong petition protesting against planned cuts to Withybush Hospital was handed over on the steps of the Senedd during a demonstration by around a hundred healthcare campaigners from Pembrokeshire.

An inquest into the deaths of two soldiers at Castlemartin range, Corporals Darren Neilson and Matthew Hatfield, heard that an airtight seal which would have stopped high explosive gasses escaping into a tank crew’s turret was not in place.

The inquest also hear that “other issues” also contributed to the incident including a lack of written procedures for soldiers to follow and the incorrect stowage of four of the tank’s high explosive ammunition bags.

Former mayor of Pembroke and serving county councillor, Dai Boswell, was jailed for 18 years for child sex offences.

Boswell was also made the subject of a Sexual Harm Prevention Order, banning him from having contact with children in the future.