Upton, Pembrokeshire is a small, rural
parish
A parish is a territorial entity in many Christianity, Christian denominations, constituting a division within a diocese. A parish is under the pastoral care and clerical jurisdiction of a priest#Christianity, priest, often termed a parish pries ...
in
Pembrokeshire
Pembrokeshire ( ; ) is a Principal areas of Wales, county in the South West Wales, south-west of Wales. It is bordered by Carmarthenshire to the east, Ceredigion to the northeast, and otherwise by the sea. Haverfordwest is the largest town and ...
, Wales, in which
Upton Castle and
Upton Chapel are significant buildings dating back to Norman times.
History
An early mention of the parish was about 1200, when
Gerald of Wales
Gerald of Wales (; ; ; ) was a Cambro-Norman priest and historian. As a royal clerk to the king and two archbishops, he travelled widely and wrote extensively. He studied and taught in France and visited Rome several times, meeting the Pope. He ...
recorded a chapel there, subordinate to Nash parish. The Manor of Upton merged with that of Nash under the 14th century Malefants, who had built the castle probably in the 13th century.
By the 16th century, the Bowen family owned the manor. The parish is marked on a 1578 parish map of the county.
In the second half of the 18th century, Captain John Tasker of the
East India Company
The East India Company (EIC) was an English, and later British, joint-stock company that was founded in 1600 and dissolved in 1874. It was formed to Indian Ocean trade, trade in the Indian Ocean region, initially with the East Indies (South A ...
purchased Upton Castle; among the eventual beneficiaries after his death were members of the Evans family. In 1833,
Lewis
Lewis may refer to:
Names
* Lewis (given name), including a list of people with the given name
* Lewis (surname), including a list of people with the surname
Music
* Lewis (musician), Canadian singer
* " Lewis (Mistreated)", a song by Radiohe ...
, in his ''Topographical Dictionary of Wales'', recorded that the parish was occupied by a single family of six inhabitants. At that time Nash-cum-Upton was a rectory in the non-adjoining
Nash parish, to the south. Lewis described the former inhabitants of the castle and its dependencies as Maliphant (sic), then Bowen, then Evans.
In 1872, Upton was described as a hamlet in Nash parish, with a population of 24 in three houses. It covered an area of , of which were water.
Tasker Evans sold to Stanley Neale in 1927. The asking price was £9,100.
In 2004, Pembrokeshire Coast National Park said they would discontinue the upkeep of the gardens. In 2006 the estate was sold.
In 2012, Channel 4's
Time Team
''Time Team'' is a British television programme that originally aired on Channel 4, Channel 4 from 16 January 1994 to 7 September 2014. It returned in 2022 on online platforms YouTube and Patreon. Created by television produce ...
carried out an archaeological evaluation of the castle and chapel. Their evidence suggested the chapel was 11th or 12th century, subsequently altered.
Modern maps show only Upton Farm, Upton Castle Gardens and the ruins of Upton Castle and Chapel.
Upton Castle
Upton Castle was the home of the Malefant family, and later of
John Tasker (1742–1800), a Welsh sea captain and from 1867 of Sir
Henry Halford Vaughan, (1811–1885), an English historian. It is still a private home.
Its gardens are open to the public.
Upton Chapel
The chapel is dedicated to St. Giles, and is open to the public. It contains several important features including effigies of the Anglo-Norman Malefant family dating from the 13th to 15th centuries.
References
Further reading
*
External links
Further historical information and sources on GENUKI
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Villages in Pembrokeshire