The road from Port Gaverne which joins the Delabole road was quarried out in the early 1800s by the Delabole Slate company and known as "The Great Slate Road". Around 100 ships a year came to Port Gaverne to collect slate, each capable of carrying 50-80 tonnes. It would take thirty wagons, pulled by over a hundred horses, to load a sixty ton ship. The slates were loaded by women, who then packed them in straw to protect them on the voyage. The incoming ships also brought coal from Wales and limestone, for the local limekiln, which was used to whitewash the cottages.
All along the North Cornish coast, the use of shell-rich sand to fertilise the acidic soils was a major part of the local economy until the end of the 19th Century. At Port Gaverne in Victorian times, the local women and children could earn as much as their seafaring men-folk by digging the sand at low tides and placing it above high water for the farmers to collect.
There were 4 large pilchard cellars built in Port Gaverne at the start of the 1800s which can still be seen at the bottom of the hill leading up to Port Isaac. In their heyday, in the early 1800s, it is suggested that they could have processed 1,000 tons of pilchards in a week.
The Port Gaverne Hotel was originally the Union Inn frequented by crews of the slate vessels. It was built by shoemaker and fisherman James Stroat who "kept it and then spent all he had". His brother William was a Master Mariner and apparently "a good merry old toper". On the walls of the pub, there are lots of photos and paintings of Port Gaverne and Port Isaac from the 1800s and early 1900s.
Despite being called red campion, its flowers are most definitely pink - varying quite widely in shade from vibrant deep pinks to very pale. The colour is produced by red anthrocyanin compounds which are also responsible for red autumn leaves and red tinges on new growth in some plants as well as flower colours. In red campion, the intensity of the colour is controlled by a pair of genes and several other genes control the exact balance of anthrocyanin compounds within the petals. These are passed down the generations and so pale pink parents are likely to produce pale pink offspring.
Researchers think that hemlock produces alkaloid compounds to attract pollinating insects. The compounds are volatile so they evaporate in the warm weather and carry in the air. Although the plants are poisonous to mammals, they are the main food plant of some butterfly species.
Wetlands act as sponges, storing and gradually releasing water which helps to prevent floods and buffer river levels during dry periods. Sediment and nutrients washed off the land by rainwater are absorbed by the wetland plants, feeding the wetland ecosystem but also filtering and cleaning the water before it enters rivers.
Fern fronds form in a coil (known as a crozier or fiddlehead) with the delicate tip protected in the centre. As the outer parts begin to photosynthesise, the sugars they produce cause more water to be drawn into the leaf, causing it to expand and gradually unfurl.
Meadowsweet grows on damp ground and is particularly noticeable in July from its froth of cream-coloured flowers. As the name suggests, the flowers have a pleasant scent reminiscent of almond.
Other names include "bridewort" as it was used in wedding garlands. It was also used for potpourri and as a "strewing" herb for floors in the 16th Century to reduce smells and infections.
The flowers of meadowsweet are sometimes used in wine, beer and vinegar, or to give jams a subtle almond flavour. One of its names - "mead wort" - likely arose as a result of it being used to flavour mead.
Meadowsweet contains salicylic acid and has been used in anti-inflammatory herbal remedies. However when extracted into a concentrated form to make into a drug, salicylic acid was found to cause stomach upsets. It was therefore synthetically altered to reduce the level of digestive upset and then marketed as "aspirin" based on the old Latin name for meadowsweet - Spiraea.
Water pepper, as the name implies, grows on wet ground such as on the margins of lakes (it's also known as marsh pepper). It's relatively late to appear, not really getting going until June.
The plant is unpalatable to livestock but is eaten by some insects which has given rise to a Japanese saying which transliterates to "Some insects eat water pepper and like it" but is used more like "There's no accounting for taste".
Black fungi that resemble lumps of coal are known as coal fungus but also King Alfred cakes due to a legendary baking disaster by the regent. The dried fungus can be used with a flint as a fire starter - a spark will ignite the inside which glows like a piece of charcoal and can be used to light dry grass. There is evidence that prehistoric nomadic tribes used glowing pieces of fungus to transport fire to a new camp.
The first documented use of an electric fence is by a woman in Cincinnati who invented it to protect a museum display from the public. This appears in her 1832 book "Domestic Manners of the Americans".
The application to livestock came roughly a century later. In New Zealand, an electric fence initially invented to stop a horse rubbing against the horse owner's car was being marketed commercially in the 1930s. The capacitor discharge approach to create pulses of electricity was also invented in New Zealand in the 1960s.
Nettles obtain soluble silicate compounds in the soil and use these to create silicon dioxide (quartz) from which their 1.5 mm long hollow stinging spikes (known by scientists as "trichomes" and most other people as "glass needles") are made. These spikes are located on the stems of the plant as well as the leaves and break off in the skin of a herbivore or walker that brushes against the plant. Because the spikes are so brittle, they also gradually break off during the lifetime of the nettle as other leaves rub against them on windy days, so older nettles are "less stingy" than fresh growth.
Black and white Fresian-Holstein cattle were not common until the second half of the 20th Century, following a post-war programme to replenish cattle stocks. This included importing a couple of hundred cattle from areas of northern Germany and Holland which are on a similar latitude to northern England. Due to their high dairy yields, these breeds exploded in popularity in the 1970s and now make up over 90% of the dairy cattle in Britain.
In mediaeval times, blackthorn was associated with evil. This may also tie in with the English word "strife" which has Celtic origins. Straif was the name of a letter used in Celtic Ogham script and was originally the word for "sulphur". Some of the other letters in the script corresponded to tree names. In late mediaeval times, a retrospective assignment of trees to the letters in the alphabet used for Ogham that weren't already tree names became popular (sometimes known as the "tree alphabet") and blackthorn was chosen for Straif.
The buzzard family is quite closely related to hawks and consists of a number of different species which occupy different habitat niches (e.g. colder countries further north). The buzzard species we see in the UK is the common buzzard. This is one of the largest birds of prey in Britain with a wingspan of over 4 feet.
The first record of the settlement of Pendoggett is from 1297, spelt Pendeugod. The name is Cornish for "top of two woods" (pen-dew-gos).
During early Victorian times, a windmill was located beside the pub. The pub itself dates back beyond the 1880s. One of the cottages opposite was a blacksmiths' workshop during the 1880s and still operating in the early 1900s.
The name "daisy" is thought to be a corruption of "day's eye" (or "eye of the day", as Chaucer called it). The name comes about because the flower head closes at night and opens each morning. In mediaeval times, it was known as "Mary's Rose".
Despite the pungent smell, the leaves of wild garlic are quite delicate in flavour so can be used quite large quantities in cooking or more sparingly within salads. They are at their most fiery early in the season. As well as a garlic flavour, the leaves have a slight (though not excessive) bitter note which can be balanced against sweet flavours (e.g. tomato or roasted pepper) or salty flavours like bacon to cut through a rich sauce.
Over 160,000 species of butterfly and moth have been described and nearly 19,000 of these have been found in the UK. Butterflies are effectively a sub-group of moths that fly during the day. They have adaptations for this such as wings that fold flat against each other with a camouflaged underside to help them hide from predators when landed but a patterned upper surface to attract mates during flight. Whilst moths' feathery antennae are highly optimised for an incredibly sensitive sense of smell, butterflies can make use of vision so their antennae are more streamlined and are also used to measure air temperature.
Since its reintroduction, sycamore has spread widely as the seeds are extremely fertile and able to grow just about anywhere where the ground is sufficiently wet. In particular they can grow within the shade of the parent tree, creating dense cover that crowds-out other species. In some areas it is regarded as an invasive weed.
The settlement of Penquite included a mill that was supplied via a wooden aqueduct. This is recorded as operational in 1862. The header pond still exists.
During the mesolithic (middle stone age) period, hazelnuts are thought to have been carried as portable food and this is thought to have led to the rapid spread of hazel to new areas seen in archaeological pollen analysis.
Two butterflies commonly found in fields and on the coast are the Meadow Brown and Gatekeeper (also known as the "Hedge Brown"). These are both orange and brown and have a black-and-white spot on each wingtip. Gatekeepers normally have a double white dot on each black spot whereas meadow brown usually just have the one.
Another common brown butterfly found in both woodland and along hedgerows is the Speckled Wood. It also has a black-and-white spot on the wingtips but the wings are also patterned with lighter dots (as in the photo) and there are more spots on the rear of the wings.
The spots are there to confuse predators such as birds who at a quick glance might see them as a pair of eyes. The location of the rings at the wingtips give the impression that a creature with eyes that far apart must be quite big and may eat birds!
The vetches are a family of wildflowers that is a sub-group within the pea and bean family. Their pretty purple flowers are quite like mini sweetpea flowers. The leaves are also very distinctive, organised in a neat row either side of the stem. Common vetch is a wildflower but is also sown by farmers in some grazing fields to improve the nutrition for ruminants and to introduce more nitrogen into the soil.
The close grazing from rabbits in wilderness environments is valuable for biodiversity, allowing rare wildflowers to compete with grass and insect species to thrive. The crash in the rabbit population due to myxomatosis is thought to have been a contributing factor to the large blue butterfly going extinct in Britain in the 1970s. The recent decline from RHDV2 is therefore worrying conservationists. Consequently, some landowners are now giving rabbits a helping hand by creating "rabbit hotels" - areas of brushwood above warrens that provide extra cover and safety for rabbits.
If there are sheep in the field and you have a dog, make sure it's securely on its lead (sheep are prone to panic and injuring themselves even if a dog is just being inquisitive). If the sheep start bleating, this means they are scared and they are liable to panic.
If there are pregnant sheep in the field, be particularly sensitive as a scare can cause a miscarriage. If there are sheep in the field with lambs, avoid approaching them closely, making loud noises or walking between a lamb and its mother, as you may provoke the mother to defend her young.
Sheep may look cute but if provoked they can cause serious injury (hence the verb "to ram"). Generally, the best plan is to walk quietly along the hedges and they will move away or ignore you.
Ivy is unusual in that it flowers particularly late in the year - from September to November - and therefore provides vital nectar for insects such as bees and moths. Ivy berries are an important winter food source for birds and will remain on the plant all the way through the winter until spring. The berries also have a high fat content so provide a dense source of energy at a time when animals need lots to keep warm.
Although nearly all foxgloves are purple, a fairly rare white form does occur and an even more rare pink form sometimes occurs along with this.
Lanow Farm lies on land which is thought to be another possible location of the Dark Age monastery which was destroyed during the 10th century Saxon invasion of Cornwall. St Kew is referred to as Lanow in the Domesday book, but was known in Cornish as Lanndogho, which derives from lann (church site) and the name of the saint Docco St Dawe), who founded the monastery. Docco was the original patron of the church, after which her sister St Cywa (St Kew) was also added. Later it was re-dedicated to St James.
Blackbirds are one of the most common birds in the UK with a population of somewhere between 10 and 15 million. However, blackbirds were in steady decline from the 1970s through to the mid-1990s. The population has only relatively recently recovered.
The word cattle is from the same origins as "capital" and was originally a word for any portable wealth. Later it came to mean specifically (any) livestock which was still the understood meaning in Tudor times. It is only in relatively recent times that the scope has been limited further to just cows.
In pre-industrial times, cattle were allowed to roam over quite large areas and could therefore find a suitable tree to relieve an itch. In the Victorian period, farming became more intensive and cattle were moved into enclosed fields. It was quickly discovered that an itchy cow could wreak havoc with walls and fences so dedicated rubbing stones were positioned in the centre of some fields to minimise cow damage. In some cases, new stones were quarried specifically for the purpose and others, existing prehistoric standing stones or even Celtic crosses were unceremoniously re-used.
St Kew is mentioned earlier in history than any other place in Cornwall since it appears in the 6th century work: "The Life of St Samson". The parish is named after the sister of the Welsh saint who founded a monastery in or near the village.
St Kew Inn is thought to date back to the 15th century, built by the skilled masons who constructed the Church of St James the Great, next door. The Inn retains many of its original features including a large open fireplace.
The 15th century church of St James the Great in St Kew is built on the site of a chapel belonging to a 6th Century Celtic monastery that was destroyed in the Saxon invasion of Cornwall in the 10th Century. Inside the church is a particularly fine roof, and a beautifully restored mediaeval stained glass window depicting the Passion of Christ, amongst other notable stained glass. There is also a stone inscribed with the old Celtic Ogham script (possibly 5th century) with Latin translation, a rare 15th century Lantern cross, and look out for a figure carved on the pulpit, thought to be King Charles hiding in an oak tree. By the entrance to the churchyard is a large specimen of one of Cornwall's iconic Celtic wayside crosses.
The inscribed stone in the church at St Kew was used as a "pillow", placed at the head of a grave. The name of the deceased was written on the stone, in this case "Justus" in Latin on the centre of the stone. The translation in Ogham could easily be mistaken for a few notches from wear and tear along the edge if you haven't come across the language before.
Sorrel is native to the UK and common in fields and hedgerows. It's salt tolerant so it can often be found on the coast in Cornwall. The leaves resemble small, narrow dock leaves. In summer the plant is often evident in abundance in fields by its red seeds at the top of a tall stalk.
Sorrel is used as a culinary herb in many cuisines and in Cornwall during Victorian times, sorrel was known as "green sauce". Some of the most well-known uses are in soups or as a salad vegetable. In French cuisine it is sometimes used when cooking fish as - similarly to lemon - the acidic juice can soften thin fish bones during cooking.
Lackey Moths are so named due to the brightly coloured caterpillars resembling a footman's livery. They are part of a family of "tent caterpillars" who spin their own silk greenhouse to keep them warm during the early spring. These have several compartments separated by insulating air gaps so the caterpillars can move between compartments to reach a comfortable temperature depending on the outside temperature and amount of sunshine. On sunny days in May, keep a look out for the caterpillars emerging from their tents.
There are a few different species of buttercup. One of most common is meadow buttercup (unsurprisingly found in meadows!) which is the tallest member of the family. Another common one is creeping buttercup which as the name suggests spreads through rhizomes so is more likely to be found in dense clumps in damp places. Its leaves are also more golden and glossy.
Since the 1960s, consumption of milk in the UK has fallen from around 5 pints per person per week to around 3. The recent rise in popularity of veganism has also contributed to a drop in demand for dairy products. However, these downward trends have been partly offset by milk solids used in processed foods including chocolate and also a growth in cheese consumption in recent years.
The settlement of Tregellist dates from mediaeval times and was recorded in 1302 as Tregellest, and the "gellest" part is thought to be based on a personal name rather than any words describing the location.
Crows have a vocabulary of different calls with specific meanings and these can be varied to convey emotion like a human tone of voice.
The sounds that crows make have also been found to vary with location rather like regional accents in humans. When a crow moves into a new area, it mimics the calls of the most dominant flock members to fit in with its peer group.
Male damselflies have two sets of genitalia. At the start of mating a packet of sperm (spermatophore) is transferred outside of the male's body between the two and then passed on to the female who uses it to fertilise her eggs as she lays them. Female damselflies lay their eggs inside vegetation. For some species this is in water plants and the female can swim underwater for half an hour before returning to the surface to breathe. Males often guard the egg laying female to prevent a rival male from sneaking in and replacing the spermatophore with his own.
Thistle flowers are rich in nectar and provide an important food source for bees and butterflies. The common thistle was ranked in the top 10 nectar producing plants in two different UK plant surveys. The seeds also provide an important food source for small birds such as goldfinches. The plants themselves are eaten by the caterpillars of the Painted Lady butterfly.
Tannins are natural preservatives. The reason why red wine keeps much longer than white is that the grape skins that give the red colour also contain tannins. Oak leaves, wood and acorns all contain a high level of tannins. When wine is aged in oak, the wooden barrels release more preservative tannins into their contents.
The streamers on swallows tails serve an aerodynamic function, assisting tight turns to catch insects. Experiments with sand martins found that they could be "pimped-up" by adding artificial streamers to their tails which afforded them increased manoeuvrability in a flight maze. The suggestion for why swallows have evolved streamers and not sand martins is partly the speedier insects that swallows need to catch and also that sand martins live in burrows and this would risk breaking off one streamer, leading to unbalanced flight.
Once you reach the road, you are back in the National Landscape Area (formerly AONB).
There are 33 designated National Landscape regions in England many of which were created at the same time as the National Parks. In fact the AONB status is very similar to that of National Parks.
A single Cornwall Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONB) was established in 1959 and is itself subdivided into 12 sections. 11 of these are stretches of the coastline and the 12th is Bodmin Moor. In 2023, the AONBs in England and Wales were renamed National Landscapes to better reflect the similarity in their status to National Parks.
As with many of the main roads in Cornwall, the B3314 follows the ridge line with the sources of streams starting either side of the watershed. The road (formerly track) is along the driest ground on which to ride horses.
The first record of the settlement of Tresungers is from 1201 as Roswingor. The first part of the name is from the Cornish word for hill-spur which fits with the location. By 1482, the name had settled to Tresunger and a family with the same name were the landowners up to Elizabethan times. In the 17th Century, it was owned by the Matthew family who altered and then rebuilt the house. Some architectural elements remain from the 1660 rebuild.
Hawthorn berries have traditionally been used to make fruit jellies as they contain pectin and have an apple-like flavour. A reason for making seedless jellies is that the seeds in hawthorn berries contain a compound called amygdalin, which is cyanide bonded with sugar. In the gut this is converted to hydrogen cyanide.
A broad-leaved dock produces around 60,000 seeds each year and the seeds can survive a long time in the soil, thus accumulating over time. Docks are also able to regenerate from small root fragments and survive a range of challenging conditions from arid ground to being submerged in floodwater. The combination of these factors makes them very hard to remove from farmland.
The Ramblers Association and National Farmers Union suggest some "dos and don'ts" for walkers which we've collated with some info from the local Countryside Access Team.
Do
Don't
Fungi are often most noticeable when fruiting, either as mushrooms or as moulds but their main part is a network made up of thin branching threads that can run through soil, leaf litter, wood and even living plant tissue.
Tresungers Mine was located up the valley to the right.
An antimony mine at Tresungers began as Wheal Arthur and was later renamed to Rose Tresungers. The mineral lode was said to have been discovered when digging out badger setts. The mine is recorded as working in 1822 but this and a shaft near Trewetha were derelict by the 1880s. There was another small mine recorded a few fields away near Bodannon which operated in 1884. The mines were reopened in 1906-7 for assessment but abandoned when it became clear there wasn't much left to mine.
Gorse seeds each contain a small body of ant food. The seeds also release a chemical which attracts ants from some distance away. The ants carry the seeds to their nests, eat the ant food and then discard the seeds, helping them to disperse.
Mosses are close relatives of the first plants to colonise the land 500 million years ago. They descended originally from freshwater algae but evolved an outer coating that protected them from the temperature changes and UV radiation that made life on the land more of a challenge than in the water. There are now estimated to be over 10,000 species of moss.
There is no biological distinction between "pigeon" and "dove" although "dove" seems to now be used for the more elegant species and "pigeon" for the more unexciting ones. Due to the Norman ruling classes, it's relatively unusual in the English language for the French/Latin word to be the vulgar form and the Norse/Germanic word to be the "posh" form. It's is likely that the reverse was true in mediaeval times: pigeon meat was considered super-posh and the French word was used for the young, tender birds of the species that were eaten.
According to folklore, you should not pick blackberries after Michaelmas Day (now known as Old Michaelmas Day, roughly corresponding to 11th October) as this is when the devil claims them. The basis for this is thought to be the potentially toxic moulds which can develop on the blackberries in the cooler, wetter weather.
A mill on the Port Isaac stream was recorded on maps from 1840 and mentioned as still operating in 1923. It was a grain mill with two pairs of grinding stones. A coin dated 1793 was found in the masonry but this could have been in circulation for some time by the time the mill was built.
Gunnera looks like giant rhubarb but the leaves stems are spiky. It tends to favour damp places as quite a lot of water is needed to supply its huge leaves.
The plant has a symbiotic relationship with cyanobacteria which live between its cells. The cyanobacteria, also known as "blue-green algae", are photosynthetic and also supply the host plant with nitrogen which allows it to colonise poor soils.
Port Isaac is a pretty fishing village with narrow winding alleys running down the steep hillside to the harbour. Particularly noteworthy is the number of 18th and 19th century white-washed cottages and granite, slate-fronted houses, many officially listed as of architectural or historic importance. Port Isaac was a busy coastal port from the Middle Ages to the mid 19th century, where cargoes like slate, coal and timber were shipped in and out. The stone pier was built in Tudor times, and the rest of the harbour in the 19th century. The economy was also heavily based around the pilchard trade.
The pier at Port Isaac was built during the reign of Henry VIII, probably as an investment by the Roscarrock family. At the lowest point of the tide, large stones stacked on their edges can be seen along the left side of the harbour which remain from the Tudor pier. In around 1536, the village was described as: "Porthissek, a pretty fisher village, lyeth about a three miles from the mouth of the aforesaid brook lower bywest on Severne shore. There resorteth a brook to Porthissek: and there is a pier and some succour for fisher boats.". By the reign of Elizabeth I, as well as a busy fishing port, Port Isaac had become an important centre of export, shipping slate from the local quarries to France and Belgium.
Following the construction of the pier, a busy period of development began within Port Isaac which lasted until the beginning of the seventeenth century, though by the end of the Tudor period, most of the present day streets were already laid out.
The village of Port Isaac was originally centred around a flat open space at the southern end of the harbour known as The Platt. This was used as a workplace by the fishermen, a venue for the weekly markets, and as a safe place to draw up the boats during spring tides.
Cornish pilchard fisheries existed in mediaeval times, and in this period, the fish were smoked to preserve them before export to Spain and Italy. From Tudor times until the early 20th Century, Cornwall's pilchard fisheries were of national importance, with the bulk of the catch being exported almost exclusively to Italian Catholics for religious fasting. Cornish pilchards were the favoured ingredient for the brazenly-flavoured spaghetti alla puttanesca ("puttanesca" transliterates to "like a whore").
By 1500, Port Isaac had a flourishing pilchard industry and was considered one of the most important fishing harbours on the north coast. Salted pilchards and pilchard oil were exported to Italy. A number of fish cellars were built in Tudor times and their remnants were uncovered when the foundations were dug in the 1820s for the Victorian fish cellars which now occupy the same sites. The sheds where the women cleaned and salted the pilchards now house the fish merchant and tiny aquarium. It's still an active fishing port with locally landed fish available for sale at the fish merchants.
Port Gaverne, the tiny settlement and inlet neighbouring Port Isaac, was more prominent than Port Isaac in the past. In fact, the settlement at Port Gaverne dates back to mediaeval times, being recorded in the 1300s. The sheltered inlet made it a good place to launch boats and it is still a popular place to launch small craft today.
The name was previously recorded as Port Kerne and on maps from the 1800s as Port Keverne. One of the quirks of the Cornish language is that "k" often transforms into "g" when placed after another word, which might have resulted in "Porthgeverne" (which is not far from how some of the locals still pronounce it).
At high tide, the beach at Port Gaverne is a shingle which is mostly flint - unusual in North Cornwall where most beaches are a golden sand composed of slate and fragments of shell. The reason is that the flint was used as ballast for incoming ships collecting Delabole slate which was brought to the coast by horse and cart. As the tide goes out, a sandy beach is revealed.
Being one of the few sheltered ports on the North Cornwall coast, the beach is used by local fishermen to launch boats and preserving it for this purpose this was a condition of the beach being given to the National Trust by the family that previously owned the beach. Consequently the central area of the beach is not the ideal place for swimming as the rock platforms either side of the inlet give boats very little room for manoeuvre and once a boat coming ashore raises its outboard motor to prevent it grounding on the seabed, it is unable to steer.
The Mote (now a restaurant) was the first Inn in Port Isaac, built in 1542 and originally called the Mote Inn. It later became the Bristol Inn and then The Commercial.
The Golden Lion, at the foot of Fore Street in Port Isaac, was built in the 18th Century, along with two other inns. The larger stones at the base of the inn could indicate it stands on the site of a former quay. It is thought that contraband was stored in the cellars during the 18th Century. It features as "The Crab and Lobster" in the ITV comedy drama series, Doc Martin.
The Old School in Port Isaac was built in the mid 1870s, designed by Cornwall's most famous architect Silvanus Trevail who also designed Tintagel's Castle Hotel. The old school closed in the mid 1970s when it was replaced by a new primary school on Mayfield Road, and is now Old School Hotel and Restaurant. It has been returned to its former purpose, as the Portwenn primary school where the character Louisa Glasson (played by Caroline Catz) teaches in the ITV Comedy Drama, Doc Martin.
John Wesley, the founder of the Methodist church, is reported to have visited Port Isaac 14 times in the mid to late 18th century. It's thought that Wesley House acquired its name because this is where he stayed on at least one of those visits. John Wesley described Port Isaac as "the liveliest place in the [Methodist] circuit". Given that the lifestyle advocated by Wesley wasn't exactly hedonistic, we can assume his meaning of "lively" probably didn't involve the large amounts of ale and sea shanties that were likely to have featured in Port Isaac in earlier times! It's possible that the formidable Church Hill from Port Isaac to the parish church in St Endellion may have fuelled the locals enthusiasm for attending Methodist services in Port Isaac and thus foregoing the Sunday trek.
Until the 20th century, Port Isaac had always been part of the St Endellion parish, with the parish church located there. In Victorian times, Port Isaac was heavily Methodist and St Peter's was built initially as a C of E chapel in 1884 to compete with the convenience of the Methodist chapels in the town, compared with the walk of over over a mile up the formidable Church Hill to St Endellion. Around twenty five years after St Peter's was built, reinforcement works had to be carried out as the building was suffering from subsidence, possibly caused by old mine workings beneath it.
In 1913, Port Isaac gained its first Vicar and St Peter's became a parish church. For the harvest festival celebrations, fish, nets, oars and lobster pots took the place of the more conventional flowers and fruit. After that interlude of around 100 years, Port Isaac has once again rejoined St Endellion parish.
The first Methodist chapel was built in Port Isaac in 1750, during the time when John Wesley was visiting the town. The building no longer exists, though a shed on Middle Street contains a window which may well have been re-purposed from it. A new Weslyan Methodist Chapel was built in the mid-1800s, at the eastern end of Middle Street, which is now a private house.
John Watts Trevan was the village doctor and writer who lived in Port Isaac in the early nineteenth century, which he described as: "Port Isaac a small fishing town but the longest and most thickly inhabited place in this parish it contains about one hundred and forty dwelling houses inhabited mainly by seafaring people being as mean dirty and tumultuous place as can well be conceived." The house where he lived (now named Trevan House), was built a decade before, in the early 18th century.
Victoria House in Port Isaac is a 17th century merchant's house that John Wesley is reputed to have preached from. The house was the victim of a serious fire in the late 1990s but has since been repaired, retaining the 18th century Venetian window from which Wesley may well have addressed the crowd. The façade is quite eye-catching, with the nineteenth century shop front surmounted by the late eighteenth century Palladian window.
Although Delabole State was an exception, the transport in bulk of building materials such as bricks over long distances was rare before the age of canals, railways, roads and heavy goods vehicles. Before this time, bricks were generally made close to their point of intended use. It has been estimated that in 18th century England, carrying bricks by horse and cart for ten miles over the (then) poor roads could more than double their price.
Consequently in many Cornish villages, brick was not available as a building material until the railway into Cornwall was built in the mid-19th century, and extended into North Cornwall at the end of the 19th century.
However in Port Isaac, brick was available in small quantities much earlier as it was used as the ballast in some of the incoming ships. On Rose Hill, there are a number of slate cottages with brick chimneys. An example is Cosy Cott (1 Rose Hill) which is late 18th or early 19th century.
Temple Bar off Dolphin Street in Port Isaac, also known as "Squeeze-ee-Belly Alley", is just 55cm wide at its narrowest point. It was at one time listed in the Guinness Book of Records as the narrowest public thoroughfare in the world. The more humorous form of the name was coined in the 1950s and is sometimes written as Squeezy Belly or Squeeze Belly but the "-ee-" is actually Cornish dialect for "you/your" (e.g. "I'll tell 'ee").
Tregeare Rounds is a pair of circular ramparts dating from the Iron Age, enclosing an area approximately 500ft across. The location doesn't seem to be strategically useful for a fort (it is overlooked by higher ground nearby) so it's thought that it might have been a cattle enclosure built beside a track (now the road).
Symbols on the front of ships arose both out of superstition for good luck and symbols of power. The general practice of putting a carved figure on the bowsprit became common practice from the 16th Century. Figureheads often depicted either the role of the ship (e.g. warship) or the name of the ship allowing it to be recognised by sailors who couldn't read. During the 18th Century, a figurehead of a woman (preferably showing some breast) was thought to bring calm to a stormy sea.
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