Tavernspite

Tavernspite
Pembrokeshire, Carmarthenshire
The Alpha Inn, Tavernspite
Location
Location:	51°46’48"N, 4°37’48"W
Data
Post town:	Whitland
Postcode:	SA34
Dialling code:	01834
Local Government
Council:	Pembrokeshire
Parliamentary constituency:	Carmarthen West and South Pembrokeshire

Tavernspite is a small village on the border of Pembrokeshire and Carmarthenshire, six miles south-east of Narberth. It lies on the B4314 Pendine to Templeton road.

Name

Tavernspite is a corruption of Tafarn Ysbyty (Hospice Tavern), referring to the sole building at the site in the 18th century; it was believed to have been a hospice for pilgrims to St David's built by Whitland Abbey monks.

Description

The village sits on an intersection of several country roads, including the B4328 from Whitland. It has a school, pub, garden centre and holiday park.

History

Cartographer Emanuel Bowen recorded Tavernspite in 1729 as having a building on the site of the Plume of Feathers inn.

From 1787, after the road through the village had been turnpiked (the Tavernspite Turnpike Trust was established in 1771), Tavernspite would have been known to travellers on the Ireland mail coach from London and Bristol which passed through the village on the way to Milford Haven. In 1798 the Tavernspite Roads Bill was passed by Parliament for the repairs of the roads running from the village.

In the early 1800s there were two inns.

Richard Fenton in 1811 mentions Tavernspite having an inn where the Milford mail coach could change horses and where post-chaises were kept. He examined a large tumulus half a mile before he reached the village and uncovered an urn. He describes the village as in a bleak situation on the edge of a large tract of uncultivated ground, which he finds unusual as the turnpike gives good access to markets.

In 1833 there was an establishment called the Ordnance Arms. In Lewis's 1833 Topographical dictionary Tavernspite is included in the parish of Lampeter Velfrey. He describes the settlement as

A posting inn at the entrance of the county from Carmarthen, distinguished by the name Tavern spite, occupies the site of the ancient "Taverne y spitty," an hospitium formerly belonging to Whitland abbey, upon the bank of the river Tâf; and Blaengwyddnoe, now a farm-house, was the grange of that religious establishment. To the south-west of the latter place are some very extensive earthworks, called Castel Meherin... and in a field adjoining the turnpike road, a little to the north-east, are two semicircular embankments, commanding the passage of three several valleys.

In 1840 there was an inn called the Feathers and there were 10 houses in the settlement. A school was opened by the Rev. William Seaton in 1845 and a year later there were 124 children being educated there.

Some of the toll gates on the roads around Tavernspite were caught up in the Rebecca Riots of 1843, leading the Tavernspite Turnpike Trust to publish their accounts.

In the 1870s two fairs were held: 20 July and 5 September.

On the Ordnance Survey maps of 1868-98, the Plume of Feathers is marked, along with a smithy, school and gate house, and there are a number of other buildings shown but not named. The county boundary between Carmarthenshire and Pembrokeshire is shown as running through the centre of the village.

The village hall was built in 1924, but the village did not have access to mains water until after World War II. Prior to that, residents drew water from the village well. Electricity was connected in 1953 and in the 1940s and 1950s council houses were built. The village had expanded to 56 houses by 1988.

Since there is no war memorial in the village, the possibility was raised in 2013 that Tavernspite could be a doubly thankful village, the only other known in Pembrokeshire being Herbrandston.

The Alpha Inn was established in 1963, the building having previously been a bakery and shop, then a garage and petrol station.

School

Tavernspite Community Primary School was built in 1954 and caters for 211 pupils aged 3 to 11 years; it has a number of clubs and extracurricular activities, and in 2013 set up an advanced computer-aided tutoring system to involve pupils in modern technology. In 2011-12 one of the school's teachers, Adam Lopez, was a writer for The Guardian.