St Davids / My Town / Maggie Hemming

I have lived in St David’s for twenty two years and it is definitely home for me.

I came here originally for business and I now live in a pretty perfect place. Now I have children, and it would be very difficult to move. Where else could I live in an open field with the beach, the mountain and the city no more than a mile away?

It is not easy to make a living here and people have to be inventive and adaptable in what they do. I have run a shop and a pub, booked boat trips, worked in the local hospital and, for the last twelve years, worked at the Cathedral.

I was immensely lucky to join the staff at the Cathedral at the beginning of the Millennium Appeal and I’ve been involved in the building since the start of the scheme. My favourite parts of the Appeal have been the restoration of Porth y Twr and of course the Cloister Project. The Gatehouse was a picturesque but dank ruin and has been brought back into use as an Exhibition and Lapidarium.

It is easy to think of the Cathedral as having always been the same. But the contrary is true. It’s changed in each generation, growing and contracting through the centuries, and it nearly reached ruin by the end of the eighteenth century. Since then periods of restoration have left us with what we have today and the real pleasure of the last decade has been joining in creating our generation’s contribution to a wonderful building (all credit to the vision and drive of the then Dean and now Bishop Wyn). We had a great team of people driving and executing the scheme - and a long suffering staff trying to keep the building working during the disruption.

The new cloisters buildings are lovely and I feel really proud of them but the arch of the North porch is the epitome of how good the project is. It’s stunningly good and although new, is indistinguishable in skill from the rest of the cathedral arches.

The best view from the town is as you stand at the top of the square and look over the buildings out to the islands. The picture changes all the time, often with the sea crashing on the rocks, and you can’t help but appreciate all of us as part of the landscape.

At Whitsun each year the Cathedral has a music festival. It’s an intense and wonderful programme of music, day and night. People come year after year and it’s an event when all the best attributes of the Cathedral and the town roll into one. It’s not to be missed. In addition to all of these things, what makes St David’s a very lovely place to live in are the people who live here - a great range of characters and attitudes. It’s the friendliness of everyone, everyday, which makes it very special.