A new book by John Roobol, Pembrokeshire’s Past, vividly and unforgettably brings to life the county’s boisterous and turbulent history: the rising sea levels that produced sunken forests around the coast, the Bronze Age people who left stone circles and burial mounds and the Iron Age Celtic visitors who left many hill forts. 

The book recounts the legends of King Arthur’s visits to Pembrokeshire and looks at South Pembrokeshire’s role as a fortified Norman stronghold.

Colourful characters abound: Welsh princesses Nest and Gwenllian; two notorious citizens of Pembrokeshire, Sir John Perrot and the pirate Black Bart Roberts are described; Admiral Lord Nelson and the Hamiltons, and the Nantuckett whalers who came from America to settle in Milford Haven.

The book covers the county’s part in the Civil War, the Palmerston forts and the great Naval shipyard at Pembroke Dock that later became the world’s biggest flying boat base. It closes with a chapter on the Gulf Stream that carries exotic fauna and objects from the Caribbean to Pembrokeshire beaches.

Dr John Roobol was raised in Pembrokeshire but left in 1962 to go to London University where he became a geologist. He worked around the world before retiring back to Pembrokeshire in 2007 and has been writing books ever since. He has a small business renting to summer visitors who arrive knowing little about Pembrokeshire’s history. This book is the result and is also for his local friends who like him went to school here but were taught no local history.

Comprising 287 pages, 27 colour photographs and 11 figures, Pembrokeshire’s Past (ISBN 978-1-915494-52-8) can be purchased at Tenby Bookshop, Carew Castle, The Victoria Bookshop in Haverfordwest and further outlets in North Pembrokeshire.