Warren

"WARREN, a parish in the hundred of CASTLEMARTIN, county of PEMBROKE, SOUTH WALES, 5 miles (S.W.) from Pembroke, containing 169 inhabitants. This parish, which is situated in the south-western part of the county, is of considerable extent, reaching to the coast of the Bristol channel, by which it is bounded on the south and south-west. It includes the small village of Lenny, on the western coast, from which a point of land, projecting into the sea, derives its name of Lenny Head. The living is a discharged vicarage, in the archdeaconry and diocese of St. David's, rated in the king's books at £4. 8.1 1/2.,endowed with £400 royal bounty, and £200 parliamentary grant, and in the patronage of the Bishop of St. David's. The church, dedicated to St. Mary, is an ancient building with a square tower, surmounted by a spire of stone, forming a conspicuous object on this part of the coast. In the churchyard is the pedestal of an ancient cross, in which is inserted the head of one of the circular kind. According to tradition, there was an ancient religious house on a farm called Warren; but there are no remains of it, and the only records of its existence are the names of several places in the immediate neighbourhood, which would appear to have been derived from such an establishment. Vestiges of an ancient fortification, of circular form, and still in good preservation, may be seen in a field between this place and the parish church of St. Twinnel: it was defended by a triple rampart, having an entrance on the west side, and appears to have been a place of great strength; the area within the inner rampart, which is the most entire, is about one acre in extent. It appears to have formed a link in a chain of fortifications by which the south-western coasts were protected from the piratical incursions of the Saxons and Danes. The average annual expenditure for the support of the poor amounts to £123. 19. " [From A Topographical Dictionary of Wales (S. Lewis, 1833).]