Rhoscrowther () was a village, ecclesiastical
parish
A parish is a territorial entity in many Christianity, Christian denominations, constituting a division within a diocese. A parish is under the pastoral care and clerical jurisdiction of a priest#Christianity, priest, often termed a parish pries ...
and
civil parish
In England, a civil parish is a type of administrative parish used for local government. It is a territorial designation which is the lowest tier of local government. Civil parishes can trace their origin to the ancient system of parishes, w ...
in
Pembrokeshire
Pembrokeshire ( ; ) is a Principal areas of Wales, county in the South West Wales, south-west of Wales. It is bordered by Carmarthenshire to the east, Ceredigion to the northeast, and otherwise by the sea. Haverfordwest is the largest town and ...
,
Wales
Wales ( ) is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is bordered by the Irish Sea to the north and west, England to the England–Wales border, east, the Bristol Channel to the south, and the Celtic ...
on the south shore of the
Milford Haven Waterway
Milford Haven Waterway () is a natural harbour in Pembrokeshire, Wales. It is a ria or drowned valley which was flooded at the end of the last ice age. The Daugleddau estuary winds west to the sea. As one of the deepest natural harbours in ...
. The
placename
Toponymy, toponymics, or toponomastics is the study of '' toponyms'' (proper names of places, also known as place names and geographic names), including their origins, meanings, usage, and types. ''Toponym'' is the general term for a proper nam ...
is
Welsh
Welsh may refer to:
Related to Wales
* Welsh, of or about Wales
* Welsh language, spoken in Wales
* Welsh people, an ethnic group native to Wales
Places
* Welsh, Arkansas, U.S.
* Welsh, Louisiana, U.S.
* Welsh, Ohio, U.S.
* Welsh Basin, during t ...
and perhaps means "
crwth
:''See Rotte (psaltery), Rotte for the psaltery, or Rotte (lyre), Rotte for the plucked lyre.''
The crwth ( , ), also called a crowd or rote or crotta, is a bowed lyre, a type of string instrument, stringed instrument, associated particularly w ...
-player's moor". It is part of the
community
A community is a social unit (a group of people) with a shared socially-significant characteristic, such as place, set of norms, culture, religion, values, customs, or identity. Communities may share a sense of place situated in a given g ...
of
Angle
In Euclidean geometry, an angle can refer to a number of concepts relating to the intersection of two straight Line (geometry), lines at a Point (geometry), point. Formally, an angle is a figure lying in a Euclidean plane, plane formed by two R ...
.
History
In 1833, the parish population was 231, mostly employed in agriculture.
Much of the parish and almost all the medieval village except the church was cleared during the establishment of the
BP oil terminal southwest of the village in 1961 and during the construction of the
Texaco
Texaco, Inc. ("The Texas Company") is an American Petroleum, oil brand owned and operated by Chevron Corporation. Its flagship product is its Gasoline, fuel "Texaco with Techron". It also owned the Havoline motor oil brand. Texaco was an Independ ...
Pembroke Refinery
The Pembroke Refinery is an oil refinery situated on the Pembrokeshire coast in Wales at Rhoscrowther in the community of Angle. It first came on stream in 1964 and was Regent/Texaco's only British refinery. The refinery occupies a prominent p ...
immediately to the north in 1964.
At 18:20 on 2 June 2011, a 730 cubic metre storage tank exploded killing four refinery workers and seriously injuring a fifth. Ten fire and rescue appliances attended the scene, along with many other emergency services. The fire was extinguished within 90 minutes.
On 1 August 2011
Valero Energy
Valero Energy Corporation is an American-based fuels producer mostly involved in manufacturing and marketing transportation fuels and other related products. It is headquartered in San Antonio, Texas, United States. Throughout the United Sta ...
acquired the Pembroke Refinery from Chevron, as well as the marketing and logistics assets, for $730 million, excluding working capital, which was valued at approximately $1 billion.
The Pembroke plant is one of the largest and most complex refineries in
Western Europe
Western Europe is the western region of Europe. The region's extent varies depending on context.
The concept of "the West" appeared in Europe in juxtaposition to "the East" and originally applied to the Western half of the ancient Mediterranean ...
with a total throughput capacity of per day and a
Nelson complexity index
The Nelson complexity index (NCI) is a measure to compare the secondary conversion capacity of a petroleum refinery with the primary distillation capacity. The index provides an easy metric for quantifying and ranking the complexity of various ...
rating of 11.8.
This puts Valero at a total of 15 refineries and per day of throughput capacity overall, solidifying the company's standing as the world's largest independent refinery.
[
Valero also purchased ownership interest in four major pipelines and eleven fuel terminals, a -per-day aviation fuel business, and a network of more than 1,000 Texaco-branded wholesale sites, which is the largest branded dealer network in the ]United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Northwestern Europe, off the coast of European mainland, the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotlan ...
and the second-largest in Ireland
Ireland (, ; ; Ulster Scots dialect, Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the North Atlantic Ocean, in Northwestern Europe. Geopolitically, the island is divided between the Republic of Ireland (officially Names of the Irish state, named Irelan ...
. Valero has continued with the Texaco brand in these markets.[
]
Church
The church is on a very early Christian site and was dedicated to Saint Decuman
Decuman (; ; died ) was one of the Celtic saints who came to Somerset from Pembrokeshire, South Wales, in the seventh century, arriving on a raft (or his cloak) with a cow for a companion. There he was a pastor and physician to the local inhabi ...
, whence the settlement's original name Llandegeman or Llandegman. It was the "bishop-house" of the cantref
A cantref ( ; ; plural cantrefi or cantrefs; also rendered as ''cantred'') was a Wales in the Early Middle Ages, medieval Welsh land division, particularly important in the administration of Welsh law.
Description
Land in medieval Wales was divid ...
of Penfro and one of the seven principal churches in Dyfed
Dyfed () is a preserved county in southwestern Wales, covering the modern counties Carmarthenshire, Ceredigion and Pembrokeshire. It is mostly rural area with a coastline on the Irish Sea and the Bristol Channel. Between 1974 and 1996, Dyfed w ...
under medieval Welsh law. The church, which is a Grade I Listed building
In the United Kingdom, a listed building is a structure of particular architectural or historic interest deserving of special protection. Such buildings are placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, Hi ...
, is in the care of Friends of Friendless Churches
Friends of Friendless Churches (FoFC) is a registered charity formed in 1957, active in England and Wales, which campaigns for and rescues redundant historic places of worship threatened by demolition, decay, or inappropriate conversion. As ...
.
Past census
The Census
A census (from Latin ''censere'', 'to assess') is the procedure of systematically acquiring, recording, and calculating population information about the members of a given Statistical population, population, usually displayed in the form of stati ...
records for the parish are 219 (1801): 201 (1851): 113 (1901): 131 (1951): 176 (1981)
References
Further reading
*
External links
Rhoscrowther on Genuki
Photos of Rhoscrowther and surrounding area on Geograph
{{authority control
Villages in Pembrokeshire