Schools competition

About the competition

PHBT has been running a successful schools competition for more than ten years with students from many of Pembrokeshire’s secondary schools taking part. The competition has involved the students preparing written projects on local historic buildings of their choice. This has culminated in the presentation of cash prizes to the winning entries at an awards ceremony in County Hall. Following the hiatus during the Covid years, we are now pleased to announce that we will be re-starting the competition in Autumn 2025. This has been facilitated in no small part by the generosity of the Ethel & Gwynne Morgan Trust.  

The new competition will aim to raise awareness of the heritage and buildings in our area, some of which are currently under threat. We are proposing that entrants will select a local building, more than 100 years old (pre-1920), and prepare a creative project on that building using a variety of techniques which could include painting, photography, poetry, prose, film or digital media, encouraging the study of less obvious, perhaps favourite buildings. This will also require the students to search into the history of the building and explore its past and the people who used it.

The organiser will meet with the art teachers from the local schools to finalise the scope of the competition and make arrangements. 

The judging of the competition and exhibition of work will take place at the end of the summer term in 2026. Hopefully, the display of the students’ submissions will be held at the PCC Archives or County Hall in Haverfordwest. Local artists will judge the competition with prizes awarded to students in the following categories;

• Year 7 (age range 11 –12) – cash prize total of £100;
• Years 8 & 9 (age range 12 – 14) – cash prize total of £150;
• Years 10 & 11 (age range 14 – 16) – cash prize total of £250.

We are sure this competition will generate a lot of interest with the teachers as well as with the students, and we hope to continue the competition as an annual event.