Bishop's Palace, Lamphey
Lamphey Palace stands in a shallow valley to the north of the village. For centuries this building, the oldest existing part of which dates to the early thirteenth century, was the favourite residence of successive bishops of St David’s.
Surrounded by orchards, fishponds and with a hunting park to the north-east, it must have been one of the most magnificent and luxurious domestic buildings in the county. During the 1540s, at the time of the suppression of the monasteries, the palace and manor of Lamphey passed into the possession of the Devereux family, Earls of Essex.
At the outbreak of the Civil War in 1642, Lamphey was owned by Robert Devereux, the third earl, who became leader of the Parliamentary army. He had rented the palace and its estates to the Gunter family of Breconshire, and both Thomas Gunter and his brother John fought alongside Devereux during the first Civil War. Thomas had left behind his wife Mary, who now commanded a small garrison of servants, later to be supplemented by a troop of musketeers sent from Pembroke Castle.
Some attempts were made to improve the defences of the ancient palace. Doors and windows along its southern facade were blocked up, using a still visible pink mortar. Also to the south, a wall which bounds the grounds and overlooks the old fishpond may date from this period. It bears traces of what is possibly a firing platform for musketeers, as well as a musket-loop.
These preparations were in vain. At some time in the first winter of the war, most likely in January 1643, the palace was raided by a group of royalist soldiers from Carmarthen, led by Captain Crowe. Details of the action are scarce, but they drove off over 700 head of cattle and may have caused some damage to the fabric of the building. Undaunted, Mary Gunter continued to support the garrison of Pembroke Castle, the only other Parliamentary stronghold in west Wales. Between 10th January 1643 and 16th September 1644, she supplied foodstuffs and other goods to the value of £208-10s to the castle garrison.
In 1645, at a time when it appeared that Pembroke might fall to the royalist army of Charles Gerard and she herself was in considerable danger from marauding bands of enemy soldiers, Mrs Gunter never wavered in her efforts to feed her Parliamentary neighbours. A Public Faith Bill to the value of £720-16s-8d was signed by Laugharne, Poyer and five others on 30th April 1645, showing that they had received further provisions from Lamphey. The Bill could theoretically be redeemed for cash at a later date. The amount specified in the Bill would today be worth over £89,430, but Mrs Gunter was never to recover the full amount of what was owed her, although she did eventually recover a proportion.
Barrack huts to the east of Lamphey Palace and encroaching into the Palace Grounds
Image by kind permission of Roger Thomas
