HLW (D) 13

Manobier  

2001  

Special  

Designated  

Though sparse, the evidence for pre-Norman land organization in South West Wales suggests that Manorbier was ‘clearly the caput of an ancient territorial division’ — Maenor Pyˆ r. Among the most striking features of the landscape today are the long narrow enclosed strip fields which extend southwards from The Ridgeway, an ancient east-west route running along the crest of the ridge that neatly divides the south Pembrokeshire peninsula into two halves. The area described here includes the surviving extent of strip fields which were laid out on the central southern flanks of the ridge, in an area extending from the western environs of the village of Lydstep in the south east to as far as the village of Manorbier Newtown in the north west. Topographically, the flanks of the ridge gently fall from about 100m above OD along the crest which forms the northern limit of the area, to a shallow basin about 35m above OD which traverses the area parallel to the coast. South of this basin, the slopes gently rise up again by about 40m to the tops of a series of spectacular limestone and Old Red Sandstone coastal cliffs and headlands, interspersed with small bays and inlets which form the southern limits of the area. It has been argued that the strip fields are the remains of a large co-axial field system of pre-Norman date, adapted and perpetuated in medieval open-field cultivation systems. The Manor of Manorbier, centred on its coastally located castle, consisted of the parishes of Manorbier and Penally and was held of the Earl of Pembroke by the de Barri family from the 12th to the 14th centuries. Their most famous scion, Gerald of Wales, provides the earliest, if somewhat idealized description, of the medieval landscape of Manorbier, features of which can be retraced today. The expansion of population by the 13th century accounts for the foundation of the secondary settlement, of simple row plan, of Manorbier Newton. The medieval settlement of Jameston, it has been argued, was also secondary to, and inserted into, an existing co-axial field system. A series of very full 17th-century surveys gives a detailed picture of early modern land use and organization, and of the individual farms across the parish. A long history of arable cultivation in a cleared, almost treeless, landscape, broken by areas of moor and furze, seems to have persisted through the Middle Ages into modern times. Enclosure of open fields took place, and Welsh gentry families built up small estates centred on prosperous individual farms within the parish. Norchard Farm, recorded as having seven hearths in the 17th century, contains medieval elements and was always separate from communal cultivation régimes. East Moor and West Moor farms were similar, the former with traces of medieval buildings. Whilst the present day landscape is one almost wholly shaped by medieval territorial organization, settlements and land use, there are, nevertheless, significant concentrations of prehistoric monuments surviving in the landscape and surface finds indicative of sub-surface traces. The Norchard Beacon, Bier Hill Bronze Age barrow cemetery, sited on The Ridgeway crest, and the Carew Beacon group similarly sited and also at a possible early boundary, are quite rightly taken as evidence for the antiquity of The Ridgeway route itself. Along the southern coast, sand incursions have masked the prehistoric topography of Manorbier Bay and to a lesser extent Swanlake Bay and, therefore, the traces of any Mesolithic settlement to be associated with the numerous finds of microliths from the cliff tops south east and west of both bays. Besanding may also have obscured any low-lying traces of Neolithic settlement associated with the King’s Quoit chambered tomb on Priest’s Nose, south west of Manorbier. Promontory forts of Iron Age date are sited along these South Pembrokeshire cliffs; Old Castle Head, now within a Ministry of Defence range, has traces of huts inside the main multivallate enclosure and a less well-preserved annex. The cliff tops and areas inland may always have been used for grazing and even today are characterized by areas of moor and furze. In summary, this area displays strong historical continuity, with fossilized elements still in active use. It ranks highly in integrity and coherence, its defining elements being readily appreciated from a number of vantage points, and it also has associated historic cultural value as the home of Gerald of Wales.