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NOLTON - from Lewis' Topographical Dictionary of Wales (1833)

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NOLTON, a parish in the hundred of RHÔS, county of PEMBROKE, SOUTH WALES, 6 miles (W. by N.) from Haverfordwest, containing 208 inhabitants. This parish is situated on the eastern shore of St. Bride's bay, and comprises a moderate portion of arable and pasture land, which was enclosed under the provisions of an act of parliament in 1759. The surface is varied and in some parts hilly; the soil is in general productive, and the inhabitants are chiefly employed in agriculture. Stone, of a quality not inferior to that of Portland, abounds in the parish, and some quarries have been opened, which might have been worked to great advantage, had due care been taken to find out the proper stratum. The repairs and alterations of the cathedral church of St. David's were to have been wholly executed with this stone, but the contractor for the buttresses having taken that stratum of the stone which lay nearest the surface, instead of sinking lower for that which was of the best quality, the intention was abandoned. The small haven near the village of Drewson, in this parish, afforded a facility for conveying the produce of the quarries to its destination, and probably, when further trial has been made of the quality of the stone taken from the proper stratum, it may again become a shipping-place for that material. The living is a discharged rectory, in the archdeaconry and diocese of St.David's, rated in the king's books at £4. 2. 11., endowed with £200 royal bounty, and in the patronage of the King, as Prince of Wales. The church is dedicated to St. Madoc: there was formerly a chapel of ease at the village of Drewson, but it has been for some time in ruins. There is a place of worship for Calvinistic Methodists. At Drewson, properly Druidston, were some Druidical remains, from which that small hamlet originally derived its name; the stones which composed the circle were removed in 1740, and have been used for building purposes. The average annual expenditure for the maintenance of the poor is £63. 18.

 

Gareth Hicks, 30 Dec 1999