Events

Markets and Fairs
The town was granted a market and a fair by a charter of King John in 1207. The market was first held on a Sunday between St. Martins Church and the castle gate where Queens Square is now. By the 16th century it had moved to St. Mary's churchyard and Pillory Street, the lower end of Dew Street. In 1563 tolls of the fish market in that street amounted to £4, and those of the beef shambles were more than £7.

In Elizabethan times, Haverfordwest was established as a most important market town. George Owen, the historian, observed in 1603, that,

This market of Haverfordwest is thought to be one of the greatest and plentifullest markettes (all things compared) that is within the Marches of Wales.

The market was held on a Saturday at that time, but in 1694 it was changed to Thursday. A Market house was built in Market Street by the Corporation in 1825 at a cost of £5,000.

In the time of George Owen, 'the great fair' was held on the feast of St. Thomas, 7th July. Two additional fairs were established by charter in 1610. May Fair and St. Bartholomew's Fair. Another three were granted under a charter of 1694.

A hiring fair held on Portfield Common in October was said to have 'absorbed the ancient Vanity Fair held there around St. Caradoc's Well'. When the common was enclosed by the Portfield Enclosure Act of 1838, the fair was transferred to St. Thomas' Green, where it is still held annually, as the May Fair.