Уэльстің Милфорд Хейвен қаласы және қауымдастығы

Town and community in Wales
the town

Milford Haven (Aberdaugleddau ) is both a town and a community in Pembrokeshire, Wales. It is situated on the north side of the Milford Haven Waterway, an estuary forming a natural harbour that has been used as a port since the Middle Ages. The town was founded in 1790 by Sir William Hamilton, who designed a grid pattern. It was originally intended to be a whaling centre, though by 1800 it was developing as a Royal Navy dockyard which it remained until the dockyard was transferred to Pembroke in 1814. It then became a commercial dock, with the focus moving in the 1960s, after the construction of an oil refinery built by Esso, to logistics for fuel oil and liquid gas. By 2010, the town's port had become the fourth largest in the United Kingdom in terms of tonnage, and continues its important role in the United Kingdom's energy sector with several oil refineries and one of the biggest LNG terminals in the world. Milford Haven is the most populous community in the county, with a population of 13,907 within the community boundary at the 2011 census. The natural harbour of the Haven was known as a safe port and was exploited for several historical military operations throughout the second millennium. Campaigns conducted from the Haven included part of the invasion of Ireland in 1171 by Henry II and by Cromwell in 1649. Forces which have disembarked at the point include Jean II de Rieux's 1405 reinforcement of the Glyndŵr Rising. In 1485, the future Henry VII landed close to his birthplace in Mill Bay before marching on to England.

The town of Milford was founded in 1793, after Sir William Hamilton obtained an Act of Parliament in 1790 to establish the port at Milford, and takes its name from the natural harbour of Milford Haven, which was used for several hundred years as a staging point on sea journeys to Ireland and as a shelter by Vikings. It was known as a safe port and is mentioned in Shakespeare's Cymbeline as "blessed Milford". Henry II's Invasion of Ireland in 1171, John's continued subjugation of the Irish in 1185 and 1210 and Oliver Cromwell's 1649 invasion of Ireland; while forces which have disembarked at the point include Jean II de Rieux's 1405 reinforcement of the Glyndŵr Rising and Henry VII's 1485 landing at the waterway before marching on England. By the late 18th century the two local creeks were being used to load and unload goods, and surrounding settlements were established, including the medieval chapel, and Summer Hill Farm, the only man made structures on the future site of Milford. His nephew, the Hon. Charles Francis Greville, invited seven Quaker families from Nantucket and Martha's Vineyard to settle in the new town and develop a whaling fleet. They began by building a shipyard, and leased it to a Messrs. Harry and Joseph Jacob. In December 1796, in an unusual arrangement, the Admiralty (Navy operations) directed the Navy Board (administration and supplies) to contract Jacobs shipyard to build a frigate and later a 74 gun ship of the line. However, due to a combined lack of local standing oak, access to supplies of timber from the Baltic, and local skills in volume, the Jacob operation soon went bankrupt. In 1800, following the bankruptcy of the Jacobs & Sons, the Navy Board's overseer, Jean Louis Barralier, was persuaded to lease the site for the Navy Board and develop a dockyard for building warships. Seven royal vessels were eventually launched from the dockyard, including HMS Surprise and HMS Milford. The town was built on a grid pattern, thought to have been to the design of Jean Louis Barrallier, who remained in charge of shipbuilding there for the Navy Board. Between 1801 and 1803, the town and waterway were protected by temporary batteries at Hakin Point and south of St Katherine's Church, in response to the perceived threat following the Fishguard Invasion. A church was consecrated in October 1808 and dedicated to St Catherine of Alexandria in the underdeveloped eastern side of the town, it remained a chapel of ease until 1891 when Milford became a parish, until that time competing with St Peter and St Cewydd in Steynton. and in 1800 the short lived Milford and Pembrokeshire Bank was established by Thomas Phillips, operating from a branch in the town. It collapsed in 1810. On 11 October 1809, a naval commission recommended purchase of the Milford Haven facility and formal establishment of a Royal Navy dockyard. This was, according to the report, due to the fact that Millford built ships had proved to be cheaper due to the cheap cost of supplies and abundant labour supply. though, when Robert Fulke Greville inherited the estate in 1824, a commercial dock was started which became the home of a successful fishing industry. By 1849, the district of Hakin was described as a considerable centre of boat building, and by 1906, Milford had become the sixth largest fishing port in the UK, and its population rose. The Pembrokeshire Herald claimed in 1912 that "the fish trade is Milford's sole industry the population of the town has doubled by means of it". Between 1875 and 1886 The Great Eastern was a permanent fixture at Milford Docks, remaining there for lengthy repairs. Her arrival into the docks was heralded as an example of the scale of vessel which the town could expect to attract. During the First World War, the Haven was an assembly point for convoys to Gibraltar, and a base, under the command of R. N. R. Captain (and retired Admiral) Charles Holcombe Dare, to counter the activity of German U boats off the coast of Pembrokeshire. Despite its strategic importance as the home of a large fish market, a mines depot, a flax factory, and housing numerous military personnel, Milford escaped serious damage from German bombings during the Second World War. In the summer of 1941 a bomb fell in fields near Priory Road, and later that year, a bomb damaged a house in Brooke Avenue. In neither instance were there casualties. In 1960, the Esso Company completed work on an oil refinery near the town, which opened despite environmental objections. This was followed by similar developments by many other chief oil companies in a 10 year period, including Texaco, Amoco, Gulf and BP. In 1974, Milford could boast an oil trade of 58,554,000 tons, which was three times the combined trade of all the other ports of Wales. In 1996 the area hit the headlines internationally when the oil tanker Sea Empress ran aground, causing a substantial oil spill. By the early 1980s, the Esso refinery was the second largest in the UK.

Milford Haven is an Anglicization of an old Scandinavian name "Melrfjordr" that was first applied to the waterway – the Old Norse Melr, meaning sandbank, and fjordr, meaning fjord or inlet, developing into "Milford"; then later the term "Haven" from the Germanic word Haven for port or harbour was added. The town was named Milford after the waterway, and Haven was added later in around 1868 when the railway terminus was built. The Welsh for Milford Haven, "Aberdaugleddau", refers to the estuary which is the meeting point of the "White River Cleddau" (Afon Cleddau Wen) and the "Black River Cleddau" (Afon Cleddau Ddu). In Welsh, the term Aber is the "pouring out" of a river, hence the description of the confluence of the two rivers and their forming an estuary. Also, Cleddau may make reference to the action of a weapon or tool cutting through the land. This is a landscape of low lying wooded shorelines, creeks and mudflats. There has been a great deal of loss and degradation of local mudflat habitat as a result of industrial and commercial development – one study indicated a 45 per cent loss in Hubberston Pill. The town itself has a historic late 18th and 19th centuries core based on a grid pattern, located between Hubberston Pill and Castle Pill and extending inland for Milford Haven's 20th century expansion took in several other settlements. Hakin and Hubberston are older, and situated to the west of the main town. Steynton is a medieval village to the north, no longer separated due to the expansion of houses. Lower Priory, with the remains of a very early religious Priory, is located in a natural valley near the village of Thornton. Milford Haven enjoys a mild climate. Its proximity to the coast contributes to wet winters, but it enjoys more sunshine than most of the UK with around 1,600 hours of sunshine a year. This is comparable to much of Southern England. The nearest official Met Office weather station is at Milford Haven Conservancy Board.

There are two tiers of local government covering Milford Haven, at community (town) and county level: Milford Haven Town Council and Pembrokeshire County Council. Milford Haven Town Council is based at Cemetery Lodge on Thornton Road, Milford Haven. The community of Milford Haven covers an area of and includes the Milford Central, East, Hakin, Hubberston, North and West wards. The community has its own town council. The Mayor is Councillor Mrs Carol Stevens, appointed on 15 May 2023 for the 2023–2024 municipal year, and the Deputy Mayor is Councillor William Elliott BA QTS. The six wards comprising Milford Haven community each elect one councillor to Pembrokeshire County Council.

Milford Haven is part of the Preseli Pembrokeshire Senedd constituency and UK Parliamentary constituency. The local Member of the Senedd is Paul Davies of the Conservative Party and the local Member of Parliament is Stephen Crabb, also a Conservative.

When development of the modern town began in the 1790s the area straddled the parishes of Steynton and Hubberston. In 1857 the Milford Improvement Act was passed, appointing improvement commissioners to run the town. Under the Local Government Act 1894 the improvement commissioners' district became an urban district in December 1894, with an elected council. The act also specified that parishes could not straddle district boundaries, and so the part of the urban district in Steynton parish became a parish called Milford, and the part in Hubberston parish became a parish called Hakin. Milford and Hakin were urban parishes and so did not have parish councils of their own; the lowest level representative body was the Milford Haven Urban District Council. The urban district council built the Town Hall on Hamilton Terrace in 1939 to serve as its headquarters. Milford Haven Urban District was abolished in 1974, becoming part of Preseli (renamed Preseli Pembrokeshire in 1987) within the county of Dyfed. A community covering the former urban district was established at the same time, with its council taking the name Milford Haven Town Council. Preseli Pembrokeshire was abolished in 1996 and the area became part of a re established Pembrokeshire.

Milford Haven is located within the geographical and historic area known as Little England Beyond Wales, which has predominately used English for many centuries. Although it is the most westerly point of the country and the part of the county furthest from the English border, a relatively small proportion of the community knows the Welsh language. In the 2011 census, only 7.5 per cent of residents in the Milford Central ward claimed that they could speak, read and write the language, in contrast to the Pembrokeshire county as a whole where roughly 18 per cent of the population are able to read, write and speak Welsh, while in the neighbouring county of Carmarthenshire around 40 per cent of people express a similar level of fluency in Welsh. Local disconnection from the Welsh language was highlighted in November 2008, when Milford Haven Town Council unsuccessfully demanded the right to opt out of a scheme in which official documents had to be translated into Welsh if requested; the council was allegedly one of about 10 that opposed having to make such translations.

Architecture in Milford Haven can be divided into roughly three broad periods of building. The number of buildings which pre date the town's official foundation in 1790 are scarce. These include the medieval priory, and a 12th century 'beacon chapel'. The initial phase of construction from the late 18th century is located in the area central to the town, the three parallel streets of Hamilton Terrace, Charles Street And Robert Street. They transformed previously rural areas into an urban landscape, and considerably increased Milford's area of housing. Council estates were built throughout the 20th century, one of the most recent and largest examples being The Mount Estate, which has been the scene of a number of anti social incidents.

The attractions in the town include Fort Hubberstone, built in 1863 to defend the Haven as part of the recommendations of the Royal Commission on the Defence of the United Kingdom. Located in Gelliswick bay, it occupies a prominent position to the west of the town overlooking the Haven. Previously owned by Milford Haven Port Authority, the site is not currently open to the public, and has been the scene of non fatal injuries to trespassers. In 2011 it was named as the fifth most endangered archaeological site in the UK by British Archaeology magazine. The ruins of an observatory, originally intended to be part of "The College of King George the Third founded at Milford", can be found in Hakin. Construction of the building was abandoned in 1809. Milford Haven Museum, located centrally in the docks area, is housed in the town's oldest building, the Custom House which dates back to 1797. Designed by Swansea architect, Jernigan, it was built for the storage of whale oil awaiting shipment for sale in London. The Rath is a landscaped street on high ground, with panoramic views of the Haven. The land was used in the 18th century as a gun battery, and its eastern edge was the site of the Royalist fort constructed by Charles I known as Pill Fort. In the 1930s it became the home of an outdoor swimming pool, which was converted into a water gardens in 1990. Milford Haven Waterway forms a large natural harbour.

The Torch Theatre, opened in 1977 and designed by local architect Monty Minter, is one of only three repertory theatres in Wales, and possesses its own independent theatre company. The Pill Social Centre, operating since the 1950s, is a community hall and events venue, having hosted The Who and Gerry and the Pacemakers. Annual events in the town include the Milford Haven Music Festival in May, Founders Week in June and the carnival in July. Pembrokeshire Fish Week is held biannually in June. Milford Haven library, recently relocated to Havens Head Retail Park offers a full lending service and internet access. Milford Haven Museum, located in the marina, houses a collection which focusses on the maritime history of the town. The Milford & West Wales Mercury weekly newspaper covered the Milford Haven and West Pembrokeshire area. It was founded in 1992 and following a merger of its editorial team with that of the Western Telegraph, its local office was closed in 2008. A second newspaper, The Pembrokeshire Herald, covers the Milford Haven and surrounding areas. The town is also home to several charities, including PATCH and Gwalia. Milford Haven is twinned with Romilly sur Seine, France, and Uman, Ukraine.

Milford Haven appears in a number of literary works, including Shakespeare's Cymbeline as "blessed Milford", and the location where King Arthur landed from Ireland in pursuit of the Twrch Trwyth boar as part of the medieval Welsh prose romance Culhwch and Olwen. Drayton described the area in his Poly Olbion as "So highly Milford is in every mouth renowned / Noe haven hath aught good, in her that is not found". Lewis Morris made Milford and Hakin the subject of his poem "The Fishing Lass of Hakin", and the gothic novel The Horrors of Oakendale Abbey used Milford as a key location. The town lends its name to the fictional Californian location featured in the novelisations and radio plays by author Mara Purl. Robert Watson uses the town as the principal setting in his novel Slipping Away From Milford, as did Taprell Dorling writing as Taffrail, whose thriller Mystery at Milford Haven explored the 1930s criminal underworld in the area. The town was used as a filming location for the BBC drama The Onedin Line, the 1968 film The Lion in Winter and the 1984 short cult film "Vengeance". The town's Mount Estate provided the location for a BBC documentary entitled The Mount: A Welsh Estate, which received criticism locally for its portrayal of residents. Locations in the town, including Hakin Point and Gelliswick, were used in filming for The Pembrokeshire Murders in 2020.

The town possesses a number of venues for sport and leisure. Milford Haven Leisure Centre offers various facilities, including a 25 metre indoor swimming pool, squash and tennis courts, a bowls hall and a dance studio. The Thornton Hall, located at Milford Haven School, has an indoor sports hall and artificial turf pitch. There are rugby union and association football clubs. Nautical activities are centered around the marina and Pembrokeshire Yacht Club in Gelliswick, which dates to 1923. There is a golf club on the outskirts, which was founded in 1913. Milford Marina, the site of the former working docks, was re branded in 1991 and offers retail facilities, the town museum and entertainment. The Marina itself houses 360 berths for private boats. A greyhound racing track existed in the Hakin area of the town during the 1940s. It was located west of Picton Street on the Observatory ground (Rugby ground today). The regularity of the racing in unknown but it is known that the racing was independent, which means unaffiliated to the sports governing body at the time (the National Greyhound Racing Club).

Primary and pre school education in Milford Haven is served by six state infant and primary schools and St Francis, a Roman Catholic primary school. Milford Haven town is served by junior, Infant, and nursery schools. Hakin pupils can attend Hakin Community School, an amalgamation of the former Hakin Junior School and Hakin Infants and Nursery Schools and the voluntarily controlled Hubberston Church in Wales VC Nursery and Primary. Secondary education is provided by Milford Haven School, a large comprehensive school with an enrolment of around 1200 pupils including the 6th form. The MITEC School of Boatbuilding & Marine Engineering, a branch of Pembrokeshire College located in Milford Docks, offers courses in boatbuilding and marine engineering.

At the 2011 census, 8,408 of the 13,907 residents (60.5%) of the parish of Milford Haven identified themselves as Christian. Other Anglican buildings include St. David's in Hubberston, St. Mary's (1927) and the Church of the Holy Spirit (1971) in Hakin and St. Peter's and St. Cewydd's in Steynton. St. David's is a Norman church and is believed to be the oldest building in Milford still in regular use. In 2011, when it closed the congregation moved to their new home in Christ Church. The Tabernacle URC was purchased by the local Islamic community and is now a fully functioning mosque.