Flemish settlers landed at Sandy Haven Pill
The Normans invaded from Normandy. They were European descendants of Vikings or Northmen – Normanni in Latin. Their Dutchy was formed in 911 under the strong Norman leadership of Rollo....
The Normans invaded from Normandy. They were European descendants of Vikings or Northmen – Normanni in Latin. Their Dutchy was formed in 911 under the strong Norman leadership of Rollo....
15th February 1996 is an infamous day in Pembrokeshire and one still remembered with deep sadness. It was the day the super tanker Sea Empress went onto the rocks in the...
Today the hamlet of Sandy Haven, with its 6 houses, is a sleepy quiet hollow on the tidal creek, best suited for summer holidays where small boats are moored, children...
After The Anchorage was built, the garden in front of the house proved very wet and muddy with a thick red clay soil. Roses, lavender and flowers put into...
Pembrokeshire, with its three peninsulas (St. David’s, Dale and Castlemartin) jutting out into the Irish Sea, is at the receiving end of anything floating across the Atlantic Ocean drive by...
It took a long time to solve the puzzle of the aluminium wreckage recovered over a number of years of family summer holidays on Lindsway Bay (See story “The Aluminium...
In the winter of 2013-14 there was a great gale in Pembrokeshire with very strong winds from the west. A lot of big old trees were blown down all lying...
By John (this story based on fact was modified for submission to a Bloomsbury book company short story competition with the theme of “Ageing” to be judged in February 2016)....
My name is Joop and I am a retired geologist living in Haarlem, Netherlands. On the occasion of my 69th birthday I decided to give a party for some Dutch...
After four years of summer renting of The Anchorage (sleeping 10 persons in 5 bedrooms), it is emerging as a popular place for family reunions. In September 2014, we had...
When the balmy days of summer arrive in Pembrokeshire, the world is a warm friendly place and winter gales and rain are but a memory. The sea beckons and sail...
This is my first story for The Anchorage website. I am Matt, second son in the Roobol family, and I have spent much of my childhood and time as an...
The Anchorage site when purchased was full of rock and it took several summers of activity to get it all cleared up. The numerous vast sandstone boulders (shed by a...
As a teenager in Milford Haven, my old grannie Newman worried about my roaming about looking at rocks in strange places as this was regarded as rather bizarre behaviour. She...
One summer when our oldest son Peter was 12 years old, we took one of his school friends (Matthew) with us to Pembrokeshire for our annual summer holiday. Our group...
During a lifetime of summer holidays in Pembrokeshire, mainly spent on the beaches with a family that grew to include what became four children, we all enjoyed beachcombing. For the...
In 1982 I bought a plot of land at Sandy Haven and started work on a house and gardens (now The Anchorage). Work had to start immediately as it was...
When our children were young, August spent in Pembrokeshire was very sunny and the winds blew from the south west. Lately for some years August has become the monsoon season...
One very hot sunny summers day on our annual Pembrokeshire holiday when our first child was about 8 years old, we all went to West Dale Bay. It was a...
One summer when our fourth child was still a baby we spent the day on Musselwick sands beyond Marloes village. This involved parking alongside the road and walking across a...
Its nice to visit Pembrokeshire at different seasons to see the changes. One time when we had three young children we decided to have a holiday in Pembrokeshire in October...
It was one of those rare summer days in Wales when everything is perfect. Overhead the blue sky had some fluffy white cumulus clouds and it was a time when a...
It was another summer holiday in Pembrokeshire and our family had now grown to four children. Lindsway Bay by the village of St. Ishmaels had became our favourite. We would...
The soils and rocks of the Sandy Haven area are a distinct pink/red colour. These rocks are called the Old Red Sandstone by geologists and they belong to the Devonian...
Before asphalt roads, motor cars and electricity and piped water mains came to Sandy Haven, the few inhabitants of this tiny hamlet obtained their drinking water from a spring on...
Up until the mid 1980s and to a lesser extent today, cliff path walkers heading east for a night at Herbrandston or Milford Haven would appear around high tide in...
The interior of The Anchorage is decorated with a nautical decor old-world sailing ship theme, including prints and models. This is because the owner feels that the tiny hamlet of...
Leaning against the house wall at the side entrance to The Anchorage is a large black piece of wood. This is the largest remaining fragment of the sailing schooner –...
Across the road from the main entrance to The Anchorage, the ivy grown stone walls of the first Baptist chapel at Sandy Haven can be seen. This was built in...
On the opposite side of the road to The Anchorage is a large stone built lime kiln with an iron weigh bridge and stone firemans hut. They are in a...
The 200mile long coastal path of the Pembrokeshire Coast National Park comes along the clifftop at the public sandy beach at Sandy Haven on the opposite side to the Anchorage....
A popular and memorable activity for small children at Sandy Haven is The Crabbing Bridge. This is the footbridge exposed at low tide across the stream running down Sandy Haven...
Perhaps the major attraction of the Anchorage is as a dinghy, canoe or kayak launching site for the 1.4 mile long tidal creek of Sandy Haven. The high tide line...
Ten menhirs or standing stones have been erected on one of the terraces. While walking the local beaches during the making of The Anchorage gardens (mainly by collecting and arranging...
The Anchorage occupies the side of a small valley. Behind the house, the wooded valley side rises to a raised marine platform that covers the Dale Peninsula and provides the...
The stories and photographs on this website record the history of the Roobol family of John and Anne and their four children, Peter, Joanne, Matthew and Alice over a lifetime...
In summer the social center of The Anchorage is the large patio garden in front of the house onto which two front doors open. This is known as The Monks Garden....
Between the side entrance and the garage is a picturesque water well studded and roofed with seashells. This originated because the original cottages had a considerable problem of damp and...
The design of the Anchorage and its two acres of gardens resulted from the owners experience as a geologist working in the Arabian deserts in summer. With daytime temperatures of...
When purchased in 1982 there was a ruined double stone cottage on the site. Although grants were available to restore it, as the doors were only five feet tall and...
The owner of The Anchorage is a geologist originating in Milford Haven but working around the world. The Anchorage is where he would have liked to live with his family...