The small Pembrokeshire village of Manorbier with its ruined castle was the birthplace of Gerald of Wales, a prolific writer and author of what must have been some of the earliest known travelogues. Gerald, whose father was the Anglo-Norman knight William of Barri, was born in 1146 in Manorbier Castle. He travelled extensively in Ireland and Britain and his first book, about his Irish travels, was written during an expedition accompanying Prince John in 1184, but it was a later tour during which he accompanied the Archbishop of Canterbury, Baldwin of Exeter, to gather recruits for the Third Crusade, which gave rise to his best known works, the Itinerarium Cambriae (1191) and Descriptio Cambriae (1194) – he always wrote in Latin.
The Welsh expedition gave Gerald the chance to wax lyrical about his place of birth, in his day known as Maenor Pyrr (“the mansion of Pyrrus”). He describes the castle as “excellently well defended by turrets and bulwarks”, and as having a fish-pond “as conspicuous for its grand appearance as for the depth of its waters”. This was complemented by an orchard “inclosed on one part by a vineyard, and on the other by a wood”. The adjacent valley had “a rivulet of never-failing water”. The body of water offshore, which today is regarded as the mouth of the Bristol Channel, is referred to by Gerald as the Severn Sea, where the passing ships can be seen to “daringly brave the inconstant waves and raging sea” on their way towards Ireland. The area in those days benefitted from supplies of corn, sea-fish and imported wines. Gerald declares his home village “the pleasantest spot in Wales” and begs the reader’s pardon for “having thus extolled his native soil, his genial territory, with a profusion of praise and admiration”.
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Manorbier Castle. Photo by Paul Allison, via Wikimedia Commons
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Map of the village.
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