The Pele Tower in

Angle, Pembrokeshire Angle () is a village, parish and community on the southern side of the entrance to the Milford Haven Waterway in Pembrokeshire, Wales. The village school has closed, as has the village shop (with a post office). There is a bus link to Pembr ...

, in southwest

Wales Wales ( ) is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is bordered by the Irish Sea to the north and west, England to the England–Wales border, east, the Bristol Channel to the south, and the Celtic ...

is a Grade I-listed stone fortified tower dating back to the 14th century and is the only remaining example of a

pele tower Peel towers (also spelt pele) are small fortified keeps or tower houses, built along the English and Scottish borders in the Scottish Marches and North of England, mainly between the mid-14th century and about 1600. They were free-standing ...

in Wales.

History

The tower has been dated to about the 14th century and appears to have been part of a moated medieval mansion. Until about 1930 the remains of another building of similar dimensions were visible where the northern arm of the moat used to be and where Castle Farm is today. The tower has traditionally been known as the "Old Rectory" and lies within the rectorial

glebe A glebe (, also known as church furlong, rectory manor or parson's close(s)) is an area of land within an ecclesiastical parish used to support a parish priest. The land may be owned by the church, or its profits may be reserved to the church. ...

of the Parish of Angle. One source suggests that the tower was originally constructed and occupied by the Sherbornes, then Lords of Angle, but this has not been confirmed by other sources. The building was listed with Grade I status on 14 May 1970, as it represented a "very important specimen of mediaeval defensive domestic architecture".

Description

The tower is about square. It stands on the northern bank of a tidal creek which runs down to the bay; a moat formerly surrounded the site on the other three sides. The upper floors and roof are missing, but the

sandstone Sandstone is a Clastic rock#Sedimentary clastic rocks, clastic sedimentary rock composed mainly of grain size, sand-sized (0.0625 to 2 mm) silicate mineral, silicate grains, Cementation (geology), cemented together by another mineral. Sand ...

rubble walls of the tower are nearly complete. On the north side of the tower, the masonry is random rubble, but the other three sides are built in regular courses with a few small stones to align them. The stair turret protrudes about on the north and east sides. At the top of the building are two-course

corbel In architecture, a corbel is a structural piece of stone, wood or metal keyed into and projecting from a wall to carry a wikt:superincumbent, bearing weight, a type of bracket (architecture), bracket. A corbel is a solid piece of material in t ...

s on all sides except the turret which suggest a

parapet A parapet is a barrier that is an upward extension of a wall at the edge of a roof, terrace, balcony, walkway or other structure. The word comes ultimately from the Italian ''parapetto'' (''parare'' 'to cover/defend' and ''petto'' 'chest/brea ...

walk with

Machicolation In architecture, a machicolation () is an opening between the supporting corbels of a battlement through which defenders could target attackers who had reached the base of the defensive wall. A smaller related structure that only protects key ...

s. The doorway is on the east side of the first floor and has a late-medieval segmented

arch An arch is a curved vertical structure spanning an open space underneath it. Arches may support the load above them, or they may perform a purely decorative role. As a decorative element, the arch dates back to the 4th millennium BC, but stru ...

. Above it in the second storey are two slits that were most likely for the

drawbridge A drawbridge or draw-bridge is a type of moveable bridge typically at the entrance to a castle or tower surrounded by a moat. In some forms of English, including American English, the word ''drawbridge'' commonly refers to all types of moveable b ...

chains. Corbels are placed above them to support a hood. Each storey consists of a single room about square. The tower has a slightly pointed vaulted basement, which was likely used as a cellar or for storage, a first floor approached by a stair, partly external and partly inside, and a second and third storey accessed through a newel staircase. There are small square windows on the south side facing the creek; all of the other openings are

arrow slit An arrowslit (often also referred to as an arrow loop, loophole or loop hole, and sometimes a balistraria) is a narrow vertical aperture in a fortification through which an archer can launch arrows or a crossbowman can launch bolts. The interi ...

s. All the floors have fireplaces installed; on the north facing wall for the first and second stories, sharing the same chimney flue inside the wall that ends in a nearly complete chimney. The fireplace for the third storey is on the east wall; all three have stone

bressummer A bressummer, breastsummer, summer beam (somier, sommier, sommer, somer, cross-somer, summer, summier, summer-tree, or dorman, dormant tree) is a load-bearing beam in a timber-framed building. The word ''summer'' derived from sumpter or French ...

s. The garderobe is in the east wall of the first storey.

References

{{reflist, 30em Buildings and structures in Pembrokeshire Grade I listed buildings in Pembrokeshire Scheduled monuments in Pembrokeshire