HISTORY OF THE COMMUNITY Background


Robeston Wathen is situated on the main A40 trunk road, between Camarthen (20 miles) and Haverfordwest (10 miles). It is a small community comprising 68 houses, a garage/shop, two public houses and various other local businesses.


History


A hill fort called Castle Rath, whose remains stand on the bank of the Eastern Cleddau is probably the earliest occupation of the area. It consists of an outward curving rampart some 320ft in length. The southern half of the bank is well preserved. The entrance is 12ft wide.


The earliest recorded date of the village is 1282, when Robert Viii paid a yearly rent assize of £4.6s, the services of the men of the village was worth 4s 8d per year, the collected rents 12d, and tolls 6d per year. The addition of ‘Wathen’ to the village title was first recorded in 1364 in the accounts of the Slebech Estate, when William Smyth and Thomas Brian Robeston were named as Reeves.


The oldest building in the village is the Church, which dates back to the 12th Century, although only the tower now belongs to that earlier church. The present building was most probably built on the old foundations. In 1875 a faculty was granted to restore the church. The tower was vaulted with chambers, where in troubled times the women and children could be hidden together with any treasure while the men fought with crossbows from the battlements above. It was also one of a chain of signal posts from which flares and bonfires could be lit to spread the alarm.


The date the Manor House was originally built is unknown although it is known that the Wathen family lived there prior to 1485 (the Battle of Bosworth). They had originally come over with the Plantagenants from Flanders and were engaged in the woollen industry. Mr Bateman, a Haverfordwest businessman, extensively rebuilt the house in the late 18th and early 19th centuries. In 1866 the Rev George Clark, the Archdeacon of St. Davids, bought the house for his private use for which he paid £3,200. He also carried out some major alterations to the building. His eldest daughter,


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