The Coming of the Railway

The opening of the South Wales Railway (as it was then called) on the 28th of December 1853, marked a new era in the business life and habits of the town, and the County of Pembroke generally.

In the making of the railway, a large number of English and other `navvies' were imported into the town, most of them being in `diggings' in Prendergast. They were thought generally to be a rough lot.

The Shoal's Hook cutting was the scene of several accidents as the lie of the strata was treacherous. Phillips remembers one incident two o'clock one morning (the gang worked by night as well as by day shifts). He heard a lot of women wailing and a great commotion in the village. Jumping out of bed he ran to the window, and by the dim street gas light saw a crowd of people and four men carrying the dead body of a navvy on a plank, covered with a white sheet, who had been killed in the cutting. He was taken into the house of `Johnny three ha'pence' nearly opposite the Bull Inn, where he lodged.

The `Gaffer' of the Shoal's Hook section was a `jolly old chap' and when he took it into his head to have a `bout', the whole gang followed suit and `things hummed in the village of Prndergast'. The language was sultry and several fights were a daily occurrence, but afterwards they would all adjourn to the Bull Inn, sit together call for their quarts, and every man drunk out of the same `tot' as if nothing had happened. At around this time, Phillips had been given a young cuckoo which he was rearing in a wicker cage. He was a noisy little chap, so much so that the `gaffer' threw a quart of beer over him on day. He died a few days later. The gaffer and Phillips were not good friends for some time afterwards.

Preparations for the opening were extensive. A fir tree was planted in Castle Square to commemorate the event. In Prendergast, every house was beflagged, and at the Bull Inn a fine arch was suspended from the third storey window of the Inn and Mr David Lloyd (the blacksmith's) chimney opposite, but the arch had to be removed to enable the Fishguard Lifeboat and crew, with her fixed mast, to pass down the town to take part in the day's events.

The day began with a sharp frost and occasional snow. People from all parts of the county made for Haverfordwest. Crowds everywhere. To warn the people of the approaching train, one of Cromwell's old cannons, which had been unearthed in cutting through the Rath (where his army encamped before marching on Haverfordwest) was fired. Soon afterwards, a single pilot engine ran into the station. Also present at the opening were a dozen or so white-robed men, with long white beards, who were Druids. Possibly the last occasion when the remnant of the old Druid Club appeared in public.