Tenby, Pembrokeshire - town & Caldey Island from North Cliff - Archway postcard

• Postcard

   

• Picture / Image:  Tenby and Caldey Island from North Cliff [Pembrokeshire]
• Publisher:  Archway, Tenby
• Postally used:  no
• Stamp:  n/a
• Postmark(s): n/a
• Sent to:  n/a
• Notes / condition: 

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Image may be low res for illustrative purposes - if you need a higher definition image then please contact me and I may be able to send one. No cards have been trimmed (unless stated).

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NOTE: All postcards are sent in brand new stiffened envelopes which I have bought for the task. These are specially made to protect postcards and you may be able to re-use them. In addition there are other costs to sending so the above charge is not just for the stamp!

I will give a full refund if you are not fully satisfied with the postcard.

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Text from the free encyclopedia WIKIPEDIA may appear below to give a little background information (internal links may not  work) :

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Tenby (Welsh: Dinbych-y-pysgod, meaning fortlet of the fish) is a walled seaside town in Pembrokeshire, West Wales, on the western side of Carmarthen Bay, and the name for the local government community of Tenby.

Notable features of Tenby include 2.5 miles (4.0 km) of sandy beaches; the 13th century medieval town walls, including the Five Arches barbican gatehouse; the 15th century St. Mary's Church; the Tudor Merchant's House (National Trust); Tenby Museum and Art Gallery; and the Pembrokeshire Coast Path, part of Wales' only coastal National Park. Boats sail from Tenby's harbour to the offshore monastic Caldey Island, while St Catherine's Island is a tidal island. The town is served by Tenby railway station.

With its strategic position on the far west coast of the British Isles, and a natural sheltered harbour from both the Atlantic Ocean and the Irish Sea, Tenby was a natural settlement point.

The earliest reference to a settlement at Tenby is in "Etmic Dinbych", a poem probably of the 9th century, preserved in the 14th century Book of Taliesin.^[2] At this point the settlement was probably a hill fort, the mercantile nature of the settlement possibly developing under Hiberno-Norse influence.

After the Norman conquest, the lands came under the control of the Earls of Pembroke who strengthened the easy to defend but hard to attack hill fort on Castle Hill by building the first stone walled castle. This enabled the town to grow as a seaport but the need for additional defences was shown when it was attacked by Welsh forces in 1187 and again in 1260 by Llewelyn the Great.^[3] The town walls were built by William de Valence, 1st Earl of Pembroke, in the late 13th century, enclosing a large part of the settlement into what is now termed the "old town". Although the actual wooden gates into Tenby no longer exist, the Five Arches at the edge of the old town give an insight into what travellers would have marvelled at as they entered.^[4]

During the Wars of the Roses Henry Tudor, the future King Henry VII of England, sheltered within Tenby before sailing into exile in 1471. Consequently, in the Late Middle Ages, Tenby was awarded various royal grants which financed the maintenance and improvement of the town walls and the enclosure of the harbour. The harbour during this period became a busy and important national port. Originally based on fish trading, traders sailed along the coast to Bristol and Ireland and further afield to France, Spain and Portugal. Exports from Tenby included wool, skins, canvas, coal, iron and oil; while in 1566 Portuguese seamen landed the first oranges to be brought to Wales.^[4]

Two key events caused the town to quickly and permanently decline in importance. Firstly, in the English Civil War, the town declared for Parliament and resisted two attempts by Charles Gerard, 1st Earl of Macclesfield to capture it for the King, Charles I. In 1648, the Royalists captured the castle for ten weeks before surrendering to Colonel Thomas Horton,^[3] who welcomed Oliver Cromwell to the town shortly afterwards.^[4] Secondly, in 1650, a plague epidemic killed half its population.

Resultantly bereft of trade, the town was abandoned by the merchants, and slid inexorably into decay and ruin. By the end of the 18th century, the visiting John Wesley noted how: "Two-thirds of the old town is in ruins or has entirely