Day 298 Pembroke Dock & Home

Tuesday 25 October


It was wonderful to wake to blue skies and sunshine! As we weren't going home till mid afternoon we decided to drive over to Pembroke Dock in the morning to see the Flying Boat Centre.  During the war Pembroke Dock was the largest operational flying boat centre in the world with up to 99 flying boats, mainly Sunderlands and Catalinas based there. Today there's a small museum and workshop which tells the stories of some of the pilots and is also restoring a Sunderland which was sunk in the Haven.  So far they are working on the two engines they have retrieved, most of the plane is still underwater.   Ian was particularly interested as his Dad flew Catalinas in the war but not from Wales.


The first photo is of reflections in the pickling pond adjacent to the centre.  The centre itself was of no photographic interest.  This pond was apparently used to soak masts and spars in the 19th century but I can't find out much more about it

By the pond -not sure what it was used for

We also called by the Gun Tower Museum but that was closed.  It is here in this Martello Tower just satnding in the Haven.  It was a very low tide but it is usually surrounded by water.  There's some interesting information on Martello towers and how they got their name here in Wikipedia though, annoyingly although they describe such towers in the rest of the UK and the world they don't mention the Welsh ones!

Anyway, after that we packed up the van & headed home picking up the boat en route. Huw met us at home to help us push it up our drive and then we had a pleasant evening meal at The Barn near Miskin with Mel, her cousins and Huw