Fishguard is a town and seaport on the north coast of the county of Pembrokeshire in south-west Wales some 26 miles north of Pembroke which lies on the opposite coast of the Pembrokeshire peninsula. The name Fishguard comes from the Scandinavian words "fiskr" for fish, and "garthr" for 'yard' (a testament to the Viking origin of the town), but as the town lies at the mouth of the river Gwaun, where it flows into Fishguard Bay by way of St Georges Channel, the Welsh call it "Abergwaun".
It was here, or to be more exact at Goodwick a mile across the bay that the Great Western Railway Company and the Irish Great Southern and Western Railway Company decided to construct a breakwater and pier, taking advantage of the sheltered position of Fishguard Bay and in 1906 inaugurated a passenger and goods service to Rosslare on the opposite Irish coast.
Fishguard remains the terminus of the main railway line between London to South Wales, and the Stena shipping line continues to run the Fishguard-Rosslare ferry service, which continues to be one of the main communication routes between Britain and Ireland.
The most exciting thing that ever happened in Fishguard was the French invasion of 1797 - the last occasion on which foreign troops set foot on British soil. On the 22nd February 1797 three French ships landed a body of about 1,400 men under the command of General Tate, (an Irish-American) with a view to inciting the Welsh to revolt. The French were persuaded to surrender by a combination of the local militia and the women of the neighbourhood who marched round a hill wearing their traditional Welsh hats as a ruse to convince the French of the superiority of the army they were facing.
Table of References
- http://www.gazetteer-wales.co.uk/
- http://www.genuki.org.uk/big/wal/
- http://www.abergwaun.com/
- http://www.fls.org.jm/users/worldeng/fishgard/fishgard.html
- http://www.genuki.org.uk/big/wal/PEM/Fishguard/