Greenhill
SN 13000070 Sheet XLI 11 Tenby

1811 Plan of Tenby Corporation Lands by William Couling shows no Greenhill estate. Paxton, who was prominent in the development of Tenby as a resort, later purchased the land and by the 1830s a Georgian house had been built in a plantation. The 1841 Tithe map shows the owner/occupier to be Edmund Morgan whose son-in-law William Learmonth erected a stained glass window in St Mary's church "in memory of Edmund Morgan of Greenhill" who died in 1873.
1849 EB Hughes map shows a mansion called Greenhill Villa. The entrance is on Greenhill: the drive curves round in front of the house where there is a turning circle and then continues past the west side of the house to the stables at the back where there is a small walled garden. There is a building down the slope in front of it and a small cul-de-sac further downhill with several other buildings.

On later maps these buildings and the cul-de-sac have disappeared and the indication "quarry" appears. To the other side of this (ie to the north-west of the mansion) is a small, high-wallled roughly triangular enclosure with an arched entrance near the road. Was this another, later, kitchen garden? It exists today, vastly overgrown, and difficult to see inside. A modern stone wall has been built across the entrance to the cul-de-sac/quarry with a neat iron hand gate. Further exploration is impossible because of the rampant blackberries within. At any rate it now forms part of Greenhill gardens. In front of the gate and the archway soil has been deposited (by the council?) and a nice shrubbery planted. Farther down the slope was a junior school which has become part of a private house with large out-building.
1873 Owner Ezra Roberts, a partner of David Davies of Llandinam. The latter was the owner of the Pembroke and Tenby Railway which was opened in 1863. (The railway had reached Haverfordwest in 1853; travellers for Tenby took a four-in hand-coach from Narberth Road station - Clynderwen).
Wilfred Harrison, in his History of Greenhill School, prints an OS 25" map 1st edition. He interestingly states that surveying for the maps began in 1853 and that about seventy men lived at Belgrave House (now an hotel) on the Esplanade until 1888 when they were eventually published.
The house, and probably four acres, became the property of Mr Henry Goward, a graduate, who extended the building and opened a school. There were at this time many small schools in Tenby but the others did not prepare pupils for university entrance. In 1880 Mr Goward decided to close the school and pursue his radical political and non-conformist religious interests; he eventually emigrated to Canada. Greenhill was on the market for several years and the building deteriorated badly. A notice of sale in 1889 described it as being in four acres with "a large number of well-grown Forest Trees and Shrubs". Moves were afoot by this time, driven partly by Charles Egerton Allen, to establish a council school.
Consideration was given to puchase of Greenhill in 1893-94 but dropped.
1895 William Henry Richards JP CC of Croft Court, another leading character in this movement, and a financial benefactor of the town, died in 1895 at the age of 52.
1889 Clement J Williams, "retired pin manufacturer and lithographic printer bought Penally House and 14 The Norton. He soon became a leading light in the affairs of the borough. He purchased Greenhill in 1894 and announced his intention to develope Greenhill Avenue (through the gardens). He was prepared to sell the house and remaining grounds.
1894 A board was set up to run Tenby County Intermediate School and held its first meeting. The bitter rivalry between the conservative CWR Stokes and the radical CFE Allen continued in this sphere. The board was composed of leading figures of the town and had representatives of various local organisations.