Absolutely perfect autumn evening down on the Cleddau a couple of days ago. The air was cold and still and the river was a mirror under a lovely sunset. The moon was silently rising to the East as I made my way along the beach. Anyone familiar with the banks of the river near Picton will know about the huge branches that hang over the water there; at one point the silence was ripped apart by the sound of a limb tearing from its trunk and crashing to the ground. Curious how it dropped on such a still day. In the past, before the river was spanned by road bridges, there were a number of crossings across the river and the remains of a jetty can be seen here. The boat would have gone across to Landshipping and back. Other routes went from Lawrenny to Roose Ferry, Burton Ferry to Pembroke Ferry and Hazelbeach to Pembroke Dock. In 1926 the dockyard closed at Pembroke Dock and brought to an end an era when many people would have used the river to travel to work or to the weekly markets there. At one point a steamer used to come every Monday, picking people up from villages along the river to be dropped off at Pembroke Dock before picking them back up to go home later in the day. Presumably some of the stops were dependent on the tide being right. At one time, 5000 people were employed at the dockyard and lots of local people would have travelled down to Burton Ferry to get a boat across the river to go to work. Along with the mining, fishing and mussel picking that went on, the estuary was an industrious and busy place. Not so now, but a peaceful place to enjoy the silence.
