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The 'Spec' seems to have opened in about 1840, and James Morris, a carter from Penally, was landlord from 1846 to 1861 before moving to open the nearby Elms pub just outside Hundleton. At Pembroke Petty Sessions in 1865 Thomas Lewis was granted a full licence for the Speculation, indicating that it must have been a beer-house before this date - not licensed to sell spirits.
Between 1872 and 1876, Thomas Sayse was the landlord, while from 1880 to 1891 Levi and Esther Williams were the licensees. At this time the 'Spec' was very popular with any-one desperate for a drink on a Sunday, being handily placed just outside the 'three-mile limit' from Pembroke, so that anyone who journeyed there from town qualified as a bona fide traveller and could be served more or less legally.
William Henry Rogers, who also farmed at Summerton, was the landlord from 1901 to 1910; he was followed by Mrs Sarah Rogers, When she left 1915, the prospective new tenant received a letter of warning from the Orielton estate agent stating that the squire. Col. Saurin, had received a 'very influential petition' urging him to close the pub.
This the squire declined to do, but the agent warned the new tenant that there were three things he must avoid:
'Allowing farm servants to leave horses waiting outside or to waste their time in working hours.'
'All owing young men to frequent the house in the evening.'
'Allowing the house to be used directly or indirectly with rabbit-catching or poaching.'
The new tenant was Laurence Nelson. A landscape gardener from the Shetlands, he had worked at large houses all over Britain and in 1906 he became head gardener at Orielton where he laid out the Japanese garden. He married the head cook, who was from Castlemartin, and in 1915 they took over the tenancy of the pub. When the Orielton estate sold the 'Spec' in 1921 they paid £550 for it.
Despite the warning about rabbit-catching, the 'Spec' was a regular haunt of the dozens of men who made their living out of trapping rabbits on the Castlemartin peninsula. Each of these trappers had a 'collector' - a man with a van who would pick up the catch at a fixed point and transport it to the 'rabbit factory' in Pembroke. And what better place to arrange this rendezvous than outside the 'Spec'?
The Nelsons' daughter Lucy and her husband Jack Hunter took over as licensees In 1952, when the pub was popular with soldiers from the newly-established Castlemartin Camp. It is said that the squaddies would be marched from the camp to the inn by the RSM and allowed in one at a time. They had to drink their pint of beer, and were then marched out again to make way for the next man.
Peter and Margaret Thain, cousins of the Nelsons, took over the pub in 1967 and remained in charge for 20 years. By this time the oil industry was in full swing and refinery workers were regular customers at the 'Spec', together with staff and students from the Field Studies Centre in the old Orielton House. The pub built up close links with the Angle lifeboat - which remain to this day - and was always regarded as the 'local' by the villagers of Rhoscrowther.
When the Thains retired, Richard Nelson - Laurence Nelson's grandson - and his wife Ann took over and ran the pub until 2002 when their departure ended the long-standing family connection.
Under new owners, Jim and Miranda Doyle, the 'Spec' has been spruced up and given an Irish flavour, becoming noted for its live music nights and summer festival.
As published in the Historic inns of Pembrokeshire in the informative 'Pembrokeshire LIFE' publication
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