Little Haven () is a village at the south-east corner of

St Bride's Bay St Brides Bay () is a bay in western Pembrokeshire, West Wales. Either Skomer Island or the mainland extremity of Wooltack Point at the western end of the Marloes Peninsula marks the southern limit of the bay whilst its northern limit is ...

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 ...

. It is in the

Pembrokeshire Coast National Park Pembrokeshire Coast National Park () is a National Parks of England and Wales, national park along the Pembrokeshire coast in west Wales. It was established as a National Park in 1952. It is one of the three National parks of Wales, the others ...

. Together with Broad Haven to the north, Little Haven forms The Havens

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 ...

for which the 2001 census recorded a population of 1,328. Little Haven

The

Pembrokeshire Coast Path The Pembrokeshire Coast Path (), often called the Pembrokeshire Coastal Path, is a designated National Trail in Pembrokeshire, southwest Wales. Established in 1970, it is a long-distance walking route, mostly at cliff-top level, with a total ...

runs through the village. Since May 2012, this route has also formed a part of the

Wales Coast Path The Wales Coast Path () is a designated long-distance trail which follows, or runs close to, the coastline of Wales. Launched in 2012, the footpath is long and was heralded as the first dedicated coast path in the world to cover the entire len ...

. At low tide it is possible to walk north along the sandy shore from Little Haven via a larger bay known as the Settlands, past a second point ('The Rain') to the wider bay at Broad Haven. There is an

Anglican Anglicanism, also known as Episcopalianism in some countries, is a Western Christianity, Western Christian tradition which developed from the practices, liturgy, and identity of the Church of England following the English Reformation, in the ...

church in Little Haven.

Geology

Little Haven lies at the westernmost edge of the

Pembrokeshire Coalfield The Pembrokeshire Coalfield in West Wales is one of the smallest Great Britain, British coalfields, but continuously worked from the 14th to 20th centuries. The main coalfield extends across south Pembrokeshire from Saundersfoot on Carmarthen Bay w ...

. The local rocks are assigned to the South Wales Lower and Middle Coal Measures formations. They largely comprise faulted

mudstone Mudstone, a type of mudrock, is a fine-grained sedimentary rock whose original constituents were clays or muds. Mudstone is distinguished from ''shale'' by its lack of fissility.Blatt, H., and R.J. Tracy, 1996, ''Petrology.'' New York, New York, ...

s with thin and contorted

coal Coal is a combustible black or brownish-black sedimentary rock, formed as rock strata called coal seams. Coal is mostly carbon with variable amounts of other Chemical element, elements, chiefly hydrogen, sulfur, oxygen, and nitrogen. Coal i ...

seams though the cliffs to the north and the south of the bay are formed in

sandstone Sandstone is a Clastic rock#Sedimentary clastic rocks, clastic sedimentary rock composed mainly of grain size, sand-sized (0.0625 to 2 mm) silicate mineral, silicate grains, Cementation (geology), cemented together by another mineral. Sand ...

s. Woodlands Colliery once worked seams such as the Crane Vein inland of the village. The Howelston Level was driven into the ground south of the village. The east–west aligned fault runs inland from the bay whilst a series of north–south aligned faults affect the rocks of the Point to its south. The floor of the valley stretching southwestwards from the village is filled by more recent

alluvial deposits Alluvium (, ) is loose clay, silt, sand, or gravel that has been deposited by running water in a stream bed, on a floodplain, in an alluvial fan or beach, or in similar settings. Alluvium is also sometimes called alluvial deposit. Alluvium is ...

History

Little Haven has been an agricultural, fishing and coal-mining area for some centuries; coal was loaded on to coasters from the beach. Since the early 19th century. with the decline of industry in the 20th century, its primary focus has been development as a seaside resort. There are many holiday lets in the village along with three public houses. Little Haven, including the ''Swan Inn'', is the filming location for the

S4C S4C (, ''Sianel Pedwar Cymru'', meaning ''Channel Four Wales'') is a Welsh language free-to-air public broadcast television channel. Launched on 1 November 1982, it was the first television channel to be aimed specifically at a Welsh-speakin ...

romantic comedy series ''Cara Fi'' (English: ''Love Me''), starring

Steffan Rhodri Steffan Rhodri (born 1967, in Morriston, Swansea) is a Welsh film and television actor, best known for portraying bus driver Dave Coaches in the BBC comedy series '' Gavin & Stacey''. Early and personal life Steffan Rhodri was born in 1967, i ...

, first aired on 9 November 2014.

Lifeboat

In response to the rise in visitors to the beaches and waters of the Havens.

RNLI The Royal National Lifeboat Institution (RNLI) is the largest of the lifeboat services operating around the coasts of the United Kingdom, Ireland, the Channel Islands, and the Isle of Man, as well as on some inland waterways. Founded in 1824 ...

lifeboat was stationed at Little Haven from 1882 to 1921. In 1967, the lifeboat station was reopened with an inshore lifeboat and the station name was changed to Little and Broad Haven Lifeboat Station.

References

External links

Photographs of Little Haven and surrounding area on Geograph
{{authority control Beaches of Pembrokeshire Coast of Pembrokeshire Villages in Pembrokeshire