The Lord Nelson Hotel, Milford Haven

link_to_french_translationThe Lord Nelson Hotel, Hamilton Terrace, Milford Haven

This three-storey hotel was built c.1800 as the New Inn. The architect is thought to be William Jernigan. It is in neo-Classical stucco style, with unusual semi-circular windows on the top floor on either side of the frontage.

The building was renamed the Lord Nelson Hotel after Lord Nelson visited the town and gave a speech at the hotel in August 1802. He had been promoted to vice-admiral the previous year, and was a major celebrity after leading the Royal Navy’s defeat of the French fleet in the Battle of the Nile in 1798. 

hawarden_emma_hamiltonNelson had been invited to view the new docks at Milford Haven by Charles Francis Greville, agent to major local landowner Sir William Hamilton and mastermind of Milford Haven’s development from 1790 to 1809. Nelson heaped praise on the facilities but Greville’s hope that the Royal Navy would establish a large base there never materialised. Instead a site at Paterchurch, on the opposite side of the waterway, was developed as Pembroke Dock from 1814.

Nelson stayed in Milford Haven for more than three days, visiting Tenby. In Haverfordwest the freedom of the town and county was conferred on him. Sir William gave the New Inn a portrait of Nelson by Leonardo Guzzardi which was later moved to Admiralty House in London.

Sir William’s wife Emma is pictured on the right. She grew up in a thatched cottage in Flintshire and had a long and public affair with Nelson. For a while Sir William and his wife lived in the same house as Nelson in Palermo, Sicily, while newspapers gossiped about the relationship between Nelson and Lady Hamilton. She gave birth to Nelson’s daughter Horatia in 1801.

Here in 1879 members of the town’s “elite” became some of the first in Wales to dance under electric light. A grand ball was organised by engineers from the dock company. The British Electric Light Company, which was illuminating construction works in the harbour, lit the hotel’s ballroom for the event. Many of the “young ladies” were nervous about the lights’ intensity but soon everyone agreed that the beautiful, steady lighting enhanced the evening’s pleasures.

Postcode: SA73 3AW    View Location Map

Website of the Lord Nelson Hotel

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