It's three months since we arrived in Pembrokeshire and we're enjoying our new life immensely. We had our first guests within a week of arriving and have had a steady stream since, though it's now quieter. They've all been very pleased with the service. We have an exciting booking for February when a group of facilitators come to assess out suitability for various forms of retreats.
For me to be living in a home formerly occupied by one of Pembrokeshire's elite families is rich irony but the historian in me will leave no stone unturned in uncovering the story of both the Stokes family and this Grade 2 listed house. Everyone we meet has a story to tell about the house.
Annie the Tranny (she drives a transit) came to deliver a wardrobe from Jonathen, an antique dealer in Haverfordwest, and took away a pine cupboard, recovered from the tip in Midsomer Norton, to strip. She's also known as Annie the Stripper. Her Mum was born in the wonderful 14th century Roch castle (once owned by Ann Boleyn and the birthplace of Lucy Walter, mother of the Duke of Monmouth) , just up the road and the former home of the Stokes'. Her dad first ate caviar in this house when it was a hotel.
One of our first guests was the son of a former Vicar of Camrose and as a boy used to come and play in the house when it had a swimming pool and tennis court, both sadly long gone. Waiting to be removed from the front lawn is the over-elaborate memorial to Dougal, much loved pet of the former patients of the nursing home who met his end as the owner reversed his JCB over him
However, of greater significance in the scheme of things there are two Somerset connections. Who would have thought that there was a Pembrokeshire coal field at one time, with Roch boasting the first ever- recorded mention of coal in the 14th century? Richard Fenton , whose 1811 book, an Historical Tour through Pembrokeshire, records his visit to Cuffern Manor was a close associate of Sir Richard Hoare, archaeologist from Stourhead, and no doubt also knew the Rev. Skinner. Fenton described his night with John Stokes, here, as follows "Kyffern, here under this hospitable roof I lose the fatigues of the day and next morning pursue my route." A nice line for our website.
Japanese Knotweed is more endemic in South Wales than anywhere, except Japan, presumably. When it was imported into Britain they forgot to import the sole little insecty creature that eats it. The result has been chaos. We spent several weeks cutting and burning a large colony, luckily mostly outside the walled garden, in the woods. Inside the walled garden is our young fox which visits us often and gambols around like a spring lamb and shows no fear of us. It is so tempting to encourage him but we may be buying some laying hens shortly.
The walled garden will need some work in time but we've already begun to dig and plant vegetables to harvest as soon as we can, spinach, cabbage, strawberries, raspberries (from Timsbury) and Rhubarb (from Tunley) so far. Gerald White is the voice of gardening on Pembrokeshire Radio and Jayne has been attending his fantastic gardening course at nearby Scolton Manor. He has been offering advice on how use our walls for fruit trees and what local apple varieties to plant in the new orchard.v We have been visiting other walled gardens in the area for inspiration. They were the early versions of supermarkets. Nowadays our food system is global whereas walled kitchen gardens succeeded in growing this food at home, all-year-round.
Jayne and her sister seem to have found a lively community at Broadhaven Baptist Church. In another parallel with the area we left, the church has a strong link with a Rumanian village, giving help for their building of a school and community centre. My first musical booking in Wales is for the St.Andrews night celebrations of the Narbeth Caledonian Society!
And the Aga Khan's horse? It was given emergency accommodation in 'our' stables en route to Ireland for a meeting. Some more in depth research needed? Not until many other jobs are well behind us, I think.
Julian Rutter 20th November 2004