St Anne’s Church, New Hedges, Tenby

St Anne’s Church, New Hedges, Tenby

This small church, clad in corrugated metal sheets, is one of many 'Tin Tabernacles' which were built in Wales. Only a few survive.

Services in New Hedges were previously held in the village school, from 1854 onwards. That building was the first purpose-built school in the Tenby area. It continued as a school until 1961.

A concert at Tenby’s Assembly Rooms in 1874 in aid of New Hedges School Church took almost £12 in ticket sales. Expenses included hire of the venue, advertising, moving the piano and harmonium “to and fro”, and the services of a piano tuner. The net proceeds for the church came to almost £9 (over £700 today).

St Anne’s Church was dedicated in July 1928 by the Bishop of St Davids. He and other clergy who took part in the ceremony had donned their robes at nearby Well Park Farm, as the church was too small to give them the appropriate privacy! The church has room for a congregation of about 50 people.

The building and bell were refurbished in 2000. A re-dedication ceremony was held in 2001.

About the place-name:

New Hedges is recorded on a map from c.1773. The name denotes an area enclosed by relatively recent hedges, probably planted as part of the process of enclosing land for private use. Most hedges in Wales are many centuries old, so the new ones here would have stood out from the rest initially.

With thanks to Richard Morgan of the Welsh Place-Name Society for place-name information

Postcode: SA70 8TR    View Location Map

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