Battlefields›Siege of Pembroke Castle
English Civil War

Siege of Pembroke Castle

1648
Pembrokeshire, Wales
Era
English Civil War
Battle Type
Siege
Location
Pembrokeshire, Wales
Status
Unregistered
The Combatants

Who Fought

Defeated
Royalist rebels (mutinied Parliamentarian garrison under Poyer and Laugharne)
VS
Victor
Parliamentarians (Oliver Cromwell)
Outcome
After a seven-week siege, Cromwell's forces cut off the castle's water supply by discovering and severing its conduit pipe; the garrison under Colonels John Poyer, Rowland Laugharne and Rice Powell surrendered on 11 July 1648. Cromwell subsequently ordered the castle slighted.
The Battle

History & Significance

Siege of Pembroke Castle was a Civil War siege, the investment of a fortified position, fought at Pembrokeshire, Wales in 1648. Parliamentarians (Oliver Cromwell) prevailed over Royalist rebels (mutinied Parliamentarian garrison under Poyer and Laugharne). After a seven-week siege, Cromwell's forces cut off the castle's water supply by discovering and severing its conduit pipe; the garrison under Colonels John Poyer, Rowland Laugharne and Rice Powell surrendered on 11 July 1648. Cromwell subsequently ordered the castle slighted.

Confirmed battlefield location
The ground

The ground they fought on

The site of Siege of Pembroke Castle lies on Silurian claystone, bedrock that formed in the Devonian. The rock here is claystone.

Questions & Answers

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Overview
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Monuments
The legally protected scheduled monuments around the location, each with its period, type and significance.
Battlefields
The battles and sieges fought on this ground, mapped and set on a timeline of the wider conflict.
Roman Britain
The Roman roads, forts and towns near here, and the Iron Age people who held the land before Rome arrived.
Civil War
The Civil War fighting, garrisons and recorded militaria in this area, woven into the arc of 1642 to 1651.
Geology
The bedrock beneath the site, its age and rock type, reaching back hundreds of millions of years.
Local Names
What the street and field names around here actually mean, and the history buried inside them.
Historical Maps
Ordnance Survey maps from the 1800s, layered over the location as it stands today.
Literature
The books, county histories, charters and archives that mention this place, quoted with their sources.
Legal
The protected sites nearby and the metal-detecting, access and treasure laws that apply to this ground.
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A deep dive into the most remarkable, lesser-known history of the place, traced back to the record.
Target Zones
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Timeline
The whole story of the location told era by era, from prehistory to the present day.
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Protected heritage nearby

Scheduled Monuments near Siege of Pembroke Castle

Pembroke Castle
Pembroke Castle
Scheduled monument · Medieval · ~0 mi

Pembroke Castle is a Norman fortress founded in the late eleventh century by Roger de Montgomery, strategically positioned on a peninsula jutting into the Daugleddau estuary in Pembrokeshire. The castle's most distinctive architectural feature is its massive circular keep, constructed in the earl…

Monkeyrustler at English Wikipedia / Public domain / Wikimedia Commons
Priory Farm Cave
Priory Farm Cave
Scheduled monument · Prehistoric · ~0.2 mi

Priory Farm Cave is a prehistoric rock shelter formed in Silurian claystone bedrock in Wales. The cave's geological setting within the Devonian-era deposits characteristic of this region made it an attractive location for human occupation during the prehistoric period. The shelter provided natura…

N Chadwick / CC BY-SA 2.0 / Wikimedia Commons
Pembroke Town Wall
Pembroke Town Wall
Scheduled monument · Medieval · ~0.5 mi

Pembroke Town Wall is a medieval defensive structure encircling the town of Pembroke in Wales. Built to protect the expanding settlement and its castle, the wall represents the medieval urbanisation of this strategically important location. The wall's construction utilised stone quarried from the…

N Chadwick / CC BY-SA 2.0 / Wikimedia Commons
Bowett Wood Camp
Bowett Wood Camp
Scheduled monument · Prehistoric · ~0.8 mi

Bowett Wood Camp is a prehistoric enclosure situated in Wales on bedrock of Lower Devonian age. The underlying geology comprises sandstone and conglomerate rocks formed during the Early Devonian period, interbedded in alternating layers that would have presented a varied terrain for settlement. T…

Jonathan Billinger / CC BY-SA 2.0 / Wikimedia Commons
Kingston Burial Chamber
Kingston Burial Chamber
Scheduled monument · Prehistoric · ~1.6 mi

Kingston Burial Chamber is a prehistoric chambered tomb located in Wales and protected as a scheduled monument by Cadw under reference PE157. The monument was constructed from stone in the Neolithic or Bronze Age period, taking advantage of the local geology formed from Ludlow Rocks—a sequence of…

Philip Halling / CC BY-SA 2.0 / Wikimedia Commons
Defensible Barracks, Pembroke Dock
Defensible Barracks, Pembroke Dock
Scheduled monument · Post Medieval/Modern · ~1.6 mi

Defensible Barracks is a nineteenth-century military installation located in Pembroke Dock, Pembrokeshire. Constructed during a period of heightened strategic concern over national defence, the barracks exemplify the fortified military architecture developed in response to mid-nineteenth-century…

Gordon Hatton / CC BY-SA 2.0 / Wikimedia Commons
Monkton Priory Dovecot
Scheduled monument · Medieval · ~0.3 miles
Medieval Building at Kingston Farm
Scheduled monument · Medieval · ~1.5 miles
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In the same landscape

Battles near Siege of Pembroke Castle

Siege of Pembroke
1648
~0 miles away
Raids on Pembroke, Welsh Revolt of 1294-95
1295
~0.2 miles away
Gerald of Windsor Defends Pembroke Castle 1096
1096
~0.5 miles away
Siege of Pembroke Castle 1102
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