Paterchurch Tower

Paterchurch Tower is a Grade I-listed medieval fortified tower in Pembroke Dock, Pembrokeshire, Wales. It received its name from one of the families that owned the land. While its exact function is not known, it probably served as a pele tower for the manorial complex (now demolished) in which it was situated.

Paterchurch Tower
Pembroke Dock, Pembrokeshire
Paterchurch Tower and the adjoining storehouse in Pembroke Dockyard
Site information
Type	Fortified tower
Open to the public	No
Location
Paterchurch Tower Shown within Wales
Coordinates	51.6934°N 4.9562°W / 51.6934; -4.9562
Grid reference	grid reference SM95760355
Site history
Materials	Rubble stone
Listed Building – Grade I

History

The tower is the last remaining structure of a manorial complex whose surviving ruins were torn down with the expansion of Pembroke Dockyard in 1844.^[1] It received its name from the de Paterchurch family which originally owned the land. It probably served as a pele tower as there is no evidence of a church on site.^[2]

The land around the tower was purchased in 1759 by the Board of Ordnance to build an artillery battery to defend the interior of Milford Haven Waterway from attack. It was originally outside the dockyard walls when they were built in the mid-1810s, but expansion of the dockyard in 1844 brought it inside the walls.^[3] Bones were discovered around the base of the tower when workshops were built around it.^[2]

Description

It is a three-storey building about 35-foot-high (10.7 m) with a crenellated parapet. The tower's rubble stone walls range in thickness from 2.5 to 4 feet (0.8 to 1.2 m).^[4] Each floor has a single vaulted chamber with plastered vaults in the upper two storeys.^[5]

Status

The then owners Pembrokeshire County Council, placed it up for sale in July 2013.^[6]