Rounding up the Frenchies!

Here's a bit of Fishguard history, or rather, herstory, for this is Jemima Nicholas, cobbler of this town, who is reputed to have played a crucial part in defeating the last invasion of the British mainland.

In February 1797 a fleet of four French warships hove into view off the Pembrokeshire coast, part of an expeditionary force aimed at raising the Irish republicans against the British and maybe gathering support in this country too.

1400 men landed at an isolated bay and made their way towards Fishguard town, killing farm animals and raiding houses as they went. While the local militia was being raised, Jemima is said to have gathered together her cronies to walk around and around a small hill in plain view of the enemy. Seeing the women from afar in their black hats and red shawls, the French took them for an endless stream of British troops. Imagining themselves outnumbered they readily surrendered to a smaller force of Fishguard Fencibles while Jemima herself captured a dozen bedraggled French soldiers, tipsy on local home brew and lost in the Pembrokeshire lanes. The peace treaty was signed in this pub, The Royal Oak, in Fishguard Square, and the feisty cobbler has been celebrated ever since, despite there being no hard evidence for her feat.

While the French invaders are popularly depicted as bilious buffoons on an ill-planned excursion, conspiracy theorists point out that they did comprise a heavily-armed attacking force who could not have got ashore in such numbers without insider assistance and, but for unforeseen circumstances, the invasion might have succeeded in gathering local support: there was no great love for English landlords and English lawmakers in Wales.

If that had happened could this pub have been a 'Bar Tabac' even now?