Heritage vision for Wales’ unique Garrison Chapel

 

The challenge of creating a world class heritage centre using one of Wales’ most historic military buildings - Pembroke Dock’s Garrison Chapel - has been taken up by a top team of consultants.A study into the proposal for a heritage centre, which will be unique to Wales, is being undertaken by Warwickshire-based consultants Attract Marketing. 

The study has been commissioned by the Pembroke Dock Sunderland Trust with the support of Pembrokeshire County Council and the Pembroke Dock Townscape Heritage Initiative’s Steering Group.Over the coming weeks the consultants will be exploring and researching what the Trust members and many others believe is the great potential to establish a heritage centre focusing on the community’s long and important connections with the Royal Navy, the Army and the Royal Air Force. 

The Georgian-era chapel is owned by the County Council and has, in recent years, been completely restored under the Townscape Heritage Initiative with funding from the Heritage Lottery, Cadw, Welsh Assembly Government and the County Council. 

William McNamara, Chairman of the Sunderland Trust, said: “Pembroke Dock is unique in Britain in having long and successful associations with all three Armed Services, and has made an enormous contribution to British history over nearly two centuries. There are some tremendous stories to tell here.” 

Nick Booker, a director of Attract Marketing, added: “We are very excited about this project and recognise there is huge expectation about it. During the coming weeks we will be consulting widely with organisations and individuals, both locally and in a wider context.” Chairman of the THI Steering Group, Councillor Brian Hall, said: “The Garrison Chapel dates from the 1830s and is the only one of its kind in Wales. I believe, like so many others, that the chapel has great potential as a military heritage centre telling a remarkable story in Wales.” 

The vision of a heritage centre at the Garrison Chapel links closely with the Sunderland Trust’s plans to recover a wartime Sunderland flying boat - which sank off Pembroke Dock in 1940.

 Points in history: 

1,  Pembroke Dock had the only Royal Dockyard in Wales, from 1814 to 1926, building over 260 ships for the Royal Navy, including five Royal Yachts.
2,  Pembroke Dock was a Garrison Town for over 150 years, and many of the famous regiments in the British Army were stationed there.
3,  Pembroke Dock was Wales’ only flying boat station and home base for the famous Sunderland. In wartime it became the largest flying boat station in the world. 

 
Picture: County Councillor Brian Hall (left), William McNamara, Chairman of the Pembroke Dock Sunderland Trust, and Nick Booker (right), of Attract Marketing, at the Garrison Chapel, Pembroke Dock.PICTURE: Martin Cavaney Photography.