The Professor of Cornwall is back !! (Porthleven in General)

Member Name: ANDREWSJK

Product:	Porthleven in General
Date:	30/10/01 (166 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Spectacular, Alright if you like fish., Nice pubs round the harbour.

Disadvantages: Don't go in a gale., All the jobs gone., Don't expect Blackpool

Continuing my desire to become a Cornish resident, whilst staying on the Lizard peninsula I decided to visit the seaside harbour town of Porthleven to seek a job as a boatbuilder. In this I was again unsuccessful, and the reason for this you will shortly find out, but the town was indeed very nice so I'll tell you of it. Could the fact be that it has two pubs ??

If one heads towards Lands End from Helston on the A394, a left turn after about a mile will bring you to Porthleven. Now always one to feed you Very Useful information, this is the most southerly port in Britain and both a working village and a holiday centre. To also continue with my education of the Cornish language, porth means harbour and leven means level or smooth .. So we have a smooth harbour ?? No really the harbour was once a flat marshland on the banks of a stream flowing into the sea at a small cove. The stream still flows through the valley and divides the village into the parish of Breage to the west and Sithney to the east..

A hamlet of fisherman's dwellings had grown around this cove by the 14th century, and this was separated from the sea by a bar of shingle, and this was where the boats were kept. From this time on, the community grew, and by 1700 had been joined by miners and farmworkers, who for the benefit of Sue26 do have sheep. In 1811 to meet the growing demand for coal and supplies for the nearby mines, and also to provide safe keeping for the fishing fleet, work began on the harbour as it is today. This took 14 years, aided and abetted by many prisoners from the Napoleonic wars. I have it on good authority, as I wasn't there myself, that the harbour opened in August 1825 with a feast of roast beef and plum pudding for the whole village. Probably a good job I missed that particular day then, as those two items on one plate don't sound too appealing !!

In 1855 the harbour was leased by Harvey & Co, of Hayle, who created a deeper inner basin
which was protected by the massive timber baulk gates which are still in use today. I mention this because on the day I was there the sea was extremely rough so being a caring, sharing type of person I thought I'd rush round and see how many boats had been destroyed !! Well, lo and behold, gates in place, sea rough one side of the harbour, inner basin completely calm !! Bother, I couldn't buy a cheap damaged boat, but it was in fact quite an incredible scene. From 1855 trade did increase dramatically with imports of timber, coal and limestone and exports of tin, china clay and copper. From the 1850's, the Portleven boatbuilding industry became a major employer, hence my interest in a job there. The large slipway saw the launch of clippers, schooners and yachts which were headed for ports all round the globe. Two Porthleven built trawlers still work from Brixham in Devon, but the last boat was launched here in the late 1970's. Well there you go, I was only 25 years late in applying for the job !!

Walking round the harbour you'll find reminiscences of older times, when the quayside was a hive of activity, though there was a spectacular winter storm in 1989 so it didn't then !! From the harbour, if you turn into Breageside there is a three-storey building on the right which was built in 1889 as fish-curing cellars which turned out thousands of hogsheads of pilchards for export. Nearby, ther old china clay store started in 1893 and up to 7,000 tons of china clay from the Tregonning Hill quarries were kept here before being exported. As we walk along, and don't worry dear reader because we are headed in the general direction of pubs, there is also a ruined turret-like building which was once a limekiln built in 1814 to produce lime for the construction of the harbour (surprise, surprise !!) and the building boom which followed. The two cannon either side of the harbour wouldn't be much use today, but were once fired in anger at
Napoleon's navy during the battle of Brest and come from the frigate HMS Anson, wrecked on Loe Bar (more of that later) in 1807 with the loss of 120 sailors.

At last, by the clock tower, we come to our first pub, the Ship Inn. This has excellent home-made food, good ales, views of the sea and harbour, and a friendly atmosphere created by our hosts Chris and Colin. From here we can contemplate the old lifeboat house, built in 1894. Porthleven retains strong links with the RNLI, and each August holds a colourful Lifeboat Day. It ran it's own lifeboat service from 1863 to 1929, which ran 28 missions and saved 50 lives. The Bickford-Smith Institute, with it's 70 ft clock tower, was built in 1883 as a Literary Institute by William Bickford-Smith of Trevarno. The buildings main claim to fame is that it was featured in the national press in 1989, when pictures showed the tower engulfed by enormous waves. Amazing what you find out over a pint of beer !!

Now, the building of the harbour started Porthleven's golden days of fishing, crab, lobster and crayfish still being caught here. Every summer, great pilchard shoals- some as much as 15 miles square - swam into Mount's Bay !! Hope you all like fish ?? Large catches were regularly recorded:; 2,000 hogsheads on my birthday 8 November 1834 (little before my time though !!) A hogshead is a 54-gallon barrel, great when it's full of beer. At times the men were so keen to fish that they would tow the boats to the end of the pier, and row from there, hoping for a following wind !! The attraction of Cornwall is that these mad things did, and still do, happen !!

A keen fisherman in 1880 could have counted 144 boats, and up to 583 men and boys crewed the fleet, women and children were paid threepence per hour to salt and pack the pilchards; hundreds more were employed in making sails, nets, ropes and barrels. Fishing, as well as boatbuilding, mining and agriculture, created such pros
perity for the area that many new homes were built. Fish is still a very important part of Porthleven life, and finds it's way to the local fishmonger and excellent restaurants, though most of it goes to nearby Newlyn. Perhaps I should have come for a job as a fisherman ??

A walk to nearby Helston would take you along Loe Bar which is a huge shingle bank separating the sea, and it is not safe to bathe here, from the waters of Loe Pool. After our seaside stroll the lakeside and woodland paths will take us through the National Trust's Penrose Estate and along the Cober Valley. Alternatively we can take the South West Coast Path onto the wild Lizard Peninsula or west to the spectacular cliff-edge tin mines of Rinsey. Well you lot can do that, because I'm going back to the Harbour Hotel which is managed by the St. Austell Brewery, for a pint of HSD. The food and drink is excellent, and very well priced here, and I'm on the St. Austell Ale Trail, if I visit 50 of their pubs I will get an embroidered sweatshirt, but if I can manage to visit 100 I will get a lambswool sweater. However, if I manage to visit all 151 in Devon and Cornwall, apart from being drunk and broke, I will also get an engraved 2 pint tankard, and a certificate. See you when I've finished !!

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