History, Wonder Tales, Fairy Tales, Myths and Legends The Flemish | Page 103

enough to fit a chair and table inside. Many chimneys remained long after the original
building had been demolished. This chimney in St Florence was once part of a tiny
cottage, and the line of the gable end of the original building can still be seen above
the fireplace. Although these chimneys bare the name of the Flemish, there is no proof
they built them, and no examples have ever been found in the Lowlands, however
many examples have been found in Devon and Cornwall, so their origin remains a
mystery
Two thirds of the fortifications were earthworks, with stone castles on or near
navigable waters. The castle at Haverfordwest was built by the Flemish leader
Tancred, soon after the Flemish arrived in 1108. Under its protection a settlement
developed and the foundations were laid for a modern market town and commercial
centre. The village of Wiston, five miles north-east of Haverfordwest, derived its name
from another Fleming, Lord Wizo, who established a castle there, while Letterston was
the settlement of the suitably nicknamed Letard Litelking ('Little King').
Tenby, on the south east coast of Pembrokeshire, grew in the 12th Century, when
surrounding walls, a castle and a church were erected for the convenience of the
Flemish colonists. The Flemish were experts in the woollen trade, and soon flourished
in the area.
The Flemish occupied the more productive farming land in Pembrokeshire, south of
the Landsker line, in the lowland areas. Here the land was fertile and warmed by the
Gulf Stream, enjoying Indian summers, mild winters and early springs. Crops were
ready two weeks before those in the north of the county, where the terrain was more
mountainous.
The Landsker line

Before the Norman Conquest, the
majority
of
what
is
now
Pembrokeshire would have been
Welsh speaking. The Landsker line
became a cultural and linguistic
boundary
which
divided
Pembrokeshire into two.
The influx of Flemings into south
Pembrokeshire was so great that
the
Welsh
language
was
eradicated and Flemish gradually
gave way to English as the
dominant language. However, it
was a dialect spoken with a strong
and distinctive accent and with a
large vocabulary of words not
commonly found elsewhere.

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