Site Record

1. St. Mary's Hill;Rose Villa
SN12750081 Sheet XLI.11 Tenby

The site (enclosure 220) is roughly rectangular with the long axis running approximately WNW to ESE. The house, which faces Tenby , stands on a more or less level rectangle in front of which is a very steep wooded slope down to the level rectangle which held the walled kitchen garden. The property originally contained the plantation to the ESE (No 22)
There is believed to have been a convent on the site: St Mary Magdalen. It appears that the present Georgian mansion was built over the front half. On EB Hughes map of 1849 it is called Rose Villa. A long building on the north side, now a house, is/was known as the chapel. The stables were built to the north side lower down the hill, reputedly on the site of a hospice; Mr Duffy recalls a Flemish chimney next to them.
For whom was the mansion probably built?
The occupier in 1901 was Mr Sackville Herbert Owen whose son became agent for the Picton Estate and who lived at Hill, Narberth. When Mr Duffy puchased the property in 1938 the occupier had been Mrs Hore daughter of the above S.H.Owen and widow of a solicitor(?). At this point the property was in great need of repair. Mr Duffy's parents lived there during the war when it was requisitioned by the army. Mr Duffy recalls the cultivated gardens which reputedly contained a large range of plants and the walled kitchen garden wth its two large glasshouses but the army treated the whole place as a camp. The gardens never recovered.
When Mr Duffy and his brother returned from the war they set up a vehicle repair place at the north end of the kitchen garden using the stable buildings . At some point Mr Duffy was able to purchase the freehold from Tenby council and the triangular area (No 22) was taken for road improvements; a filling station was later built there.
Later again Mr Duffy sold the repairwork site to the Post Office which demolished the Flemish chimney and cleared much of the site. Is the stone building there the stables? The brothers then occupied the southern two-thirds of the kitchen garden area where they have built a number of structures. The business thrive under the management of Mr Duffy's nephew. Some of the original wall can be discerned behind the filling station, at the south end and a little way up the west side from the south end. There probably never was a wall along most of the west side which is set against the steep bank.
The site is entered by a short sloping drive from Heywood Lane at the top of which are stone gate jambs with a smart modern nameplate on the left-hand side.Two paths remain on the steep wooded slope in front of the house - one at each end of the site - linking with a path along the contour about half way down. Some steps remain down the steepest (lower) part. There are some mature trees especially to the northern end (i.e. the most sheltered). These include a lime, some evergreen oaks and some conifers (GH thinks the largest is a C. macrocarpa). There are also many younger trees.
No other garden features were observed. The part-time gardener is not really managing to keep the garden tidy but has managed so far to cut the grass on the level (lawn) areas.

1840-55 Lt Col (retired) Thomas Josiah Wedgwood. Son of John Wedgwood, married to Anne Tyler (see Allen family pedigrees)
1901 Mr Sackville Herbert Owen
1920 Mrs Hore (Kelly's Directory)

G.Hudson for WHGT
August 2001
entered CSB

2. The walled garden and its glasshouses are visible on the OS 25 inch First and Second Edition Maps.
C.S.Briggs 23.10.05

3. This garden is depicted on the Second Edition Ordnance Survey 25-inch map of Pembrokeshire XLI, sheet 11 (1907). C.H. Nicholas, RCAHMW, 24th August 2006.