Template:FP-Milford Haven

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Sunset over Milford Haven, Pembrokeshire

Milford Haven

Milford Haven is the name of a deep and sheltered natural harbour in Pembrokeshire used as a port since the Middle Ages and of the port town on its north shore.

The town was founded in 1790 on the north side of the waterway, from which it takes its name. Designed to a grid pattern, it was originally intended by the founder, Sir William Hamilton, to be a whaling centre, though by 1797 it was developing as a Royal Navy dockyard which it remained until the dockyard was transferred to Pembroke in 1814. It then became a commercial dock, with the focus moving in the 1960s, after the construction of an oil refinery, to logistics for fuel oil and liquid gas. By 2010 the town's port has become the fourth largest in the United Kingdom and plays an important role in the United Kingdom's energy sector with several oil refineries and one of the biggest LNG terminals in the world.

The water of Milford Haven has long been known as a safe port and this quality was the foundation of the town, for while the town itself is an eighteenth century creation, the name of Milford Haven has been famed for a thousand years as a commercial and military harbour which played its part in campaigns from the days of Henry II to modernity. (Read more)