Pembroke (Welsh: Penfro) is an historic settlement and former county town of Pembrokeshire in West Wales. The town features a number of historic buildings and complexes and is one of the major population centres in the county. It was the birthplace of Henry Tudor, later Henry VII of England, founder of the Tudor dynasty.
Pembroke Castle, the remains of a stone mediæval castle was the birthplace of King Henry VII of England. Gerald de Windsor was Constable of Pembroke. Pembroke town and castle and its surroundings are linked with the early Christian church. Later this was the site of the Knights of St John in the UK.
On both banks of the Pembroke River to the west of the castle are many remains of early activities. The buildings of Catshole Quarry and the rare vegetation with the irreplaceable foreshore have recently been buried by dumped materials. The North Shore Quarries are relatively complete as are the remains of medieval and Elizabethan slipways where wooden vessels were built before the industrial dockyard and admiralty town was built on the grid pattern of Pembroke Dock.
Pembroke is on the south Pembrokeshire peninsula, by the estuary of the River Cleddau. Pembroke town is at the bottom of a small valley, flanked on all sides by woodland and arable farmland. The town is 8 miles (13 km) south of the county town of Haverfordwest, and 75 miles (121 km) west of the capital of Wales, Cardiff. The town is centred on Main Street, which is the only street that is inside the original town walls. Outside of the walls, residential estates have been built to the north towards Pembroke Dock, to the east towards the village of Lamphey and to the south. To the west of the town lies the village of Monkton, which is included as part of the community of Pembroke. The community has a population of 7,500. The conurbation of Pembroke Dock and Pembroke has a combined population of 16,000 and as such is one of the major population centres of West Wales.
