Chapel ‘Open Doors’ pulls in the crowds

 

 

 

Wales’ only Georgian military chapel - in the former Royal Dockyard at Pembroke Dock - proved to be a big crowd puller during a two-day ‘Open Doors’ event.
The beautifully restored Dockyard Chapel was open to the public on Friday and Saturday as part of the Civic Trust of Wales’ ‘Open Doors’ scheme.
Hundreds of people, residents and visitors, took up the invitation of the Pembroke Dock Sunderland Trust, which organised the event. It not only showcased the iconic building but featured many of the Trust’s heritage initiatives and its plans for a major heritage centre at the Chapel. The Trust has already established two visitor attractions which focus upon the community’s 200 years of history.
Items from Sunderland flying boat T9044, which sank locally in 1940, were on display and members of the Sunderland Trust Dive Group explained about the challenges of diving on the wartime wreck.
Volunteers who work on the Trust’s education programme and in the archive section were on hand and film recordings were made by the oral history team.
Penfro Model Group members - several of whom are Sunderland Trust volunteers - staged impressive displays while a diorama of Lawrenny Seaplane Station in wartime, made by Carmarthen Modellers Club, also attracted much interest.
The Dockyard Chapel event was generously sponsored by Valero Pembroke Refinery. Among visitors on Friday were the Chairman of Pembrokeshire County Council, Councillor Arwyn Williams, and Mrs Liz Williams.
On Friday two guided walks were well supported - the Navy Trail led by naval historian Ted Goddard and the RAF Trail by the Sunderland Trust’s John Evans. The latter walk included access to the flying boat hangars area in the Port of Pembroke, by kind permission of Milford Haven Port Authority.
 

 

 

Top Left: The Chairman of Pembrokeshire County Council, Councillor Arwyn Williams, and Mrs Liz Williams discussed modelling projects with Penfro Model Group members Peter Mitchell and Martin Blow (right).

Top Right: During the Open Doors event great interest was again shown in the ‘Mansell Collection’ photographs which are part of the Sunderland Trust’s Archive.
Archive team volunteer Stella Donovan has digitally copied over 650 photographs found in a cellar in the town’s Commercial Row. They were taken by former RAF photographer Stanley Mansell who set up in business in the town following RAF service.
Many local residents have helped Stella identify faces and places in the photographs.
Stella Donovan and the Mayor of Pembroke Dock, Councillor Jane Phillips, look through one of the Mansell Collection photo albums at the Open Doors event at the Dockyard Chapel on Saturday.

Bottom Right: A young visitor tries out an old fashioned - and heavy - diving helmet, helped by Sunderland Trust Dive Group members Julie and Dai Mayor views photo collection

Bottom Left: Some of the displays in the restored Dockyard Chapel for the ‘Open Doors’ event.
Humphreys.
PICTURE: Martin Cavaney Photography.