Early history From the 790s until the
Norman Invasion in 1066, the waterway was used occasionally by Vikings looking for shelter. During one visit in 854, the Viking Chieftain
Hubba wintered in the Haven with 23 ships, eventually lending his name to the district of
Hubberston. Evidence of metal working in the area was recently excavated, suggesting a level of industrialisation in the period 750–1100. A Benedictine priory (
Pill Priory) was established at the head of Hubberston Pill in 1170, as a daughter house of
St Dogmaels Abbey. Built on virgin land, it stood alongside the priory on
Caldey Island as part of the
Tironian Order in
West Wales, and was dedicated to
St Budoc. Founded by Adam de Rupe, it stood until the Dissolution under
Henry VIII. In 1171
Henry II designated the area the rendezvous for his Irish expedition. An army of 400 warships, 500 knights and 4,000 men-at-arms gathered in the haven before sailing to
Waterford, and on to
Dublin, which marked the first time an English king had stood on Irish soil, and the beginning of
Henry's invasion of Ireland.
St Thomas a Becket chapel was dedicated in 1180, a structure which looked out over the Haven from the north shore of the town. In later years it was used as a beacon for sailors in foul weather, and ultimately as a pig sty, until it was reconsecrated in the 20th century. In his play,
Cymbeline Act 3, Scene 2 (1611),
Shakespeare remarks: By 1590, two forts had been constructed to defend the entrance to the haven.
George Owen of Henllys, in his
Description of Penbrokshire, claimed in 1603 that Milford Haven was the most famous port of Christendom. The area however was a source of anxiety for the Tudor monarchy. Its location exposed it to attacks from Ireland, potentially leading to an invasion of England via Wales. In 1405, the French landed in force having left
Brest in July with more than twenty-eight hundred knights and men-at-arms led by
Jean II de Rieux, the
Marshal of France, to support
Owain Glyndŵr's rebellion. In April 1603,
Martin Pring used the Haven as his departure point for his exploratory voyage to
Virginia. The land comprising the site of Milford, the Manor of Hubberston and Pill, was acquired by the Barlow family following the
dissolution of the monasteries in the mid-16th century. It acquired an additional strategic importance in the 17th century as a
Royalist military base.
Charles I ordered a fort to be built at
Pill by Royalist forces and completed in 1643 to prevent Parliamentarian forces from landing at
Pembroke Castle and to protect Royalist forces landing from Ireland. On 23 February 1644, a Parliamentarian force led by
Rowland Laugharne crossed the Haven and landed at Pill. The fort was gunned from both land and water, and a garrison was placed in
Steynton church to prevent a
Royalist attack from the garrison at
Haverfordwest. The fort was eventually surrendered, and quickly taken, along with St Thomas a Becket chapel. Just five years later in 1649 Milford Haven was again the site of Parliamentarian interest when it was chosen as the disembarkation site for
Oliver Cromwell's
Invasion of Ireland. Cromwell arrived in the Haven on 4 August, meeting
George Monck, before Cromwell and over a hundred crafts left for Dublin on 15 August. By the late 18th century, the two creeks which would delimit the future town of Milford's boundaries to the east and west, namely
Hakin and Castle Pill, were being used as ports for ships to load and unload coal, corn and limestone., A ferry service to Ireland operated from Hakin around the start of the 19th century, although this ceased in the early 19th century. Although surrounding settlements at
Steynton,
Thornton, Priory, Liddeston and
Hubberston/Hakin were established, they were little more than hamlets. The only man-made structures on the future site of Milford were the medieval chapel, and Summer Hill Farm, and its accompanying cottages.
Landscape and history Parts of the Haven are within the
Pembrokeshire Coast National Park. The northern side is within the Preseli Environmentally Sensitive Area. The area includes: Angle Bay, Carew and Cresswell Rivers, Cosheston Pill,
Daugleddau, Gann Estuary,
Pembroke River, Pwllcrochan Flats and West Williamston Quarries (
Sites of Special Scientific Interest); and the towns of
Carew,
Haverfordwest,
Llangwm,
Milford Haven,
Neyland and
Pembroke, and the
Pembroke Dock (Royal Dockyard) Conservation Areas. The
littoral landscape of Milford Haven shows evidence of maritime conquest, settlement, commerce, fishing and defence from the 11th century to the 20th century.
Iron Age promontory forts are sited on several of the headlands at the entrance and along the course of the Haven and the Daugleddau.
Early medieval, Christian and
Viking sites are evidenced by place-names, documentary and
epigraphic evidence, such as Early Christian Inscribed Stone monuments. The
Norman conquest, achieved by coastally sited castle boroughs, is still obvious at Pembroke, at Haverfordwest, and at Carew. Carew did not develop into a borough, but excavations have shown that a
Dark Age stronghold and possible
Romano-British site preceded the Norman castle. Around the start of the 19th century, two new towns were constructed: Milford in 1790 by
Sir William Hamilton, and Pembroke Dock in 1802 as the site for a new
Royal Naval Dockyard. Both towns have regular planned layouts, both have experienced a history of boom and slump in shipbuilding, fishing and as railheads and ocean terminals. These two towns, which could handle the larger vessels then entering service, concentrated trade that had previously been dispersed at quays, jetties and landing places and small settlements such as
Pennar,
Lawrenny,
Landshipping and
Cosheston further up river. These small ports served the coal mines of the
Pembrokeshire Coalfield located on both shores of the Daugleddau, and also the large limestone quarries at West Williamston. The Daugleddau ports flourished in the 16th, 17th and 18th centuries, but continued to work through the 19th century by changing to using barges to tranship cargoes down river to bigger vessels at the mid-Haven ports. In the late 19th century, concerns about the potential threat posed by the French Navy prompted the construction of a number of
Palmerston Forts at various strategically important coastal sites, including Milford Haven. Most of the forts are now disused. The late 20th century brought the jetties, oil terminals and shore processing facilities of the oil and power industries. This industry reached its zenith in the 1970s when Middle Eastern supply difficulties forced oil transport to use ocean routes and
Very Large Crude Carriers for which the Haven, with its deep waters and westerly position, was particularly suited. ==Port==