I grew up in Tenby. Water was always important in the lives of children who grew up there, endless days on the beaches and swimming in the water are uppermost in my memory. Hard to believe now, but the same could be said of Pembroke youngsters who grew up here in the '40s and '50s. In recording the memories of our now senior citizens, I have learnt about swimming in the river, diving off the Mill, which no longer stands on the Mill Bridge, boating and fishing.

This picture, of three children in a boat, was given to me my Dilys Jenkins. It was taken in 1942 and she can be seen with her two brothers, Jeofre and Dennis, in one of William Wainwright's boats, William being her father.

The family lived in Paradise Row and owned a number of rowing boats which were beached on their garden on the shores of the Main Millpond, on which is built now a modern bungalow.

Dilys told me: "Father used to let the boats out at 6d for a half hour or one shilling per hour. He used to make most of the boats himself and worked in his boat shed at the bottom of our garden which stretched down to the water.

"He also kept a motor boat," she recalled, "he would often have to retrieve boats which weren't taken back or were rowed out under the railway embankment to the top Pond, where they were not supposed to go, and were then abandoned in the reeds."

Dilys remembers many happy times spent on the river and even travelling down the Pembroke River to Pill Beach, Angle, otherwise known as West Angle Bay.

The council would later take over control of boating on the Pond and eventually boating died out - a long time has passed since boats were rowed on the Main Millpond although canoeing still takes place on Castle Pond.

Returning to the photograph, it is interesting to note how much has changed: a recent photograph taken from the same spot illustrates this well. To the right of the photograph is the former blacksmith's shop then owned by Mr. Dick Williams which is still there, but the white building to the left of St Mary's Church, which would have been at the back of Simons (now the Co op), has gone. It has been replaced by the atrocious corrugated iron extension of the present day supermarket.

Another significant detail is the absence of the walkway which now runs alongside the Main Millpond. Once the waters of the Millpond would lap up to the walls but then, in the early '60s, a bold scheme was hatched to build a walkway along the Millpond for the benefit of the town.

In my efforts to find our more about this, I have been told that it was done through the efforts of Pembroke councillors, headed by Alderman Gwilliam. He was quite a local character, nicknamed 'Billy two sticks' on account of walking with the aid of two arm crutches.

The whole project was hugely expensive, which angered the Pembroke Dock councillors (at this time Pembroke and Pembroke Dock were one council), but he stood up for Pembroke and reportedly commented: "Pembroke was Pembroke when Pembroke Dock was a furze bush."

I should add that this information was given to me by Mel Phillips.

From another source, I was told that the walk was called 'the golden mile' because it cost such a lot - but I cannot verify this and I cannot remember the source. Could anyone enlighten me on this?