The group of buildings making up the Crumplehorn Inn originally consisted of Killigarth Mill and Crumplehorn Farm (which is thought to have originally been Tremelhorn).
The mill dates back to at least the 13th Century where documents regarding a mill were witnessed by Richard de Kylgat (hence Killigarth). Much later the mill was home to Zephaniah Job, known as the Smugglers Banker. He issued his own banknotes and one of these is displayed in the Truro Museum.
The Inn was formerly a Counting House, used in Elizabethan times for dividing up goods with The Crown that had been legally plundered from French and Spanish ships by Privateers.
The Warren is said to take its name from the rabbit farming that took place for meat here in mediaeval times although it is an equally fitting description of the narrow street.
As you ascend The Warren, the blue plaque on Warren Cottage commemorates the birthplace of Jonathan Couch.
Dr. Jonathan Couch was born in Polperro in 1789 and educated in Cornwall. After working in the London hospitals of Guy's and Thomas', he returned to Polperro and lived in the 16th Century house on Lansallos Street, appropriately named Couch's House. As well as a physician, Couch was a leading Victorian naturalist. He specialised in the study of fish, and trained local fishermen to assist in his observations. This culminated in him publishing a 4 volume masterpiece on the subject: "A History of the Fishes of the British Islands". He also contributed heavily to a number of books on this and wider areas of British wildlife. He had three sons, who also took their mother's maiden name - Quiller - to form a double-barrelled surname. One of these was the father of the celebrated writer Sir Arthur Quiller-Couch.
Polperro is first recorded in a Royal document in 1303. Early records use names such as Polpyrre or Porthpyra. In Cornish both pol and porth were used to mean "harbour" or "cove" so it's not that surprising to see them used interchangeably. The origin of the latter part of the name is unknown although various theories have been put forward. Ours is that if at all possible, a Cornish place name will have Perran in it somewhere: the Cornish word for St Piran is Pyran, so the "n" may have simply been lost.
The museum was formerly a pilchard processing factory, thought to be built in the late 19th Century, when the pilchard industry was just starting to decline. The building now contains a collection relating to the smuggling and fishing in the village from the 18th Century and includes a photographic record dating from 1860.
In December 1708, the East India Company ship Albermarle was driven ashore near Polperro in a violent storm. The ship was laden with cargo which included silks, wool, pepper, coffee, indigo and diamonds. The ship was wrecked and sank and little of the cargo was recovered, but even the small fraction that was recovered (likely to be mainly textiles which floated) was immensely profitable to the residents of Polperro as the total value of the ship was estimated at around £40,000, which today would be many millions of pounds. For weeks afterwards, the seas were turned blue by the sunken indigo dissolving into the water. Attempts were made to locate the wreck and salvage the sunken cargo but these were all unsuccessful. It is thought the location was somewhere to the east of Polperro, towards Talland Bay and the diamonds are likely to be buried in the sands on the seabed.
Although the current lighthouse was built in 1911, this replaced another built in 1904. The lighthouse was decommissioned in 1958 when three new lights were established. When it was operational, the light was visible for 12 miles. In place of the railings was a whitewashed stone rubble wall.
The path below the coast path, leading to the lighthouse, is known as Reuben's Walk after Reuben Oliver - a local magistrate who, even when he became old and blind, regularly walked along here to the lighthouse. A coastguard lookout was also situated alongside the lighthouse but this was demolished in 1989.
Despite the name, the Roman Bridge was built in the latter half of the 19th Century replacing an earlier version with a flat timber lintel that was photographed in 1854. Given Polperro's history of flooding and the proximity of the bridge to the sea, it's more than likely that the bridge, like Boscastle's, has been rebuilt a number of times over its history after damage from floods or storms.
Records show that by the 14th Century, Polperro was already a busy port and that the main occupation of the men and boys was fishing. The pilchard fishing boom came much later, with the first export of pilchards from Polperro reported as being made in 1783. During Victorian Times, Polperro had three pilchard factories, two of which were owned by Italians, reflecting one of the main export markets.
Polperro harbour is unusual because it is a private harbour owned by the Council Tax payers of the village. This came about because in 1894, an Act of Parliament sanctioned by Queen Victoria formed the Trustees of Polperro Harbour - originally fifteen prominent men of Polperro - who bought the harbour rights. The Trust has continued down the generations to the current residents and the deeds for the harbour are on display in the museum.
The path to the left at the signpost before the shelter leads to the Net Loft on Peak Rock, from which there are nice views of the harbour, and Chapel Pool at the base of Chapel Cliff.
The Net Loft on Peak Rock is thought to be on the site of Polperro's 19th Century chapel. The lower part of the building was used for boat building and the upper floor was used to store sails and nets - hence the name. It fell into disuse during the late 20th Century and was restored in 2015-16 by the National Trust.
Chapel Pool is a tidal bathing pool built in the 1940s. Its south-facing aspect means that the sun warms it up beyond the temperature of the sea once waves stop flooding it. By the 21st Century, the steps cut into the cliff leading down to the pool had deteriorated to the point of being impassable due to the constant battering of the sea. In 2001 they were restored by the National Trust with help from The Royal Engineers. The pool is accessible from about half tide, but note that it is a steep climb down the steps (with no handrails) to reach it.
If the tide is low enough to expose them, the flat rocks a short distance out from where the path rejoins the coast path are known as the Bridges.
On 11th December 1849, the cargo ship Shepherdess was close to the end of a 6 month voyage from Penang to Plymouth with a cargo of Teak logs. Battered from her long journey, the ship was leaking badly and the crew had to constantly pump out the water. As she approached Falmouth, the pilots there offered assistance but there was a fair wind so the captain decided to continue the short distance to Plymouth. She arrived that evening at Rame Head but no pilots were available to bring her into Plymouth. Whilst she waited off Rame Head, the wind strengthened to a gale force southeasterly and she was unable to make headway to enter Plymouth Sound and instead was driven towards Polperro. She struck the "Bridges" rocks to the west of Polperro and broke in two. The ship was carrying so much timber that passengers and most of the crew were able to walk ashore across the timber, although the two crew who instead attempted to swim to the shore both drowned. The harbour and surrounding coves were filled with timber and consequently many farm buildings were built from this, a surviving block of which is in Polperro Museum. Also on Talland Hill, the appropriately named Teak House has rafters, floor joists, stairs and doors all built from the cargo of the wreck.
In November 1926, a small Swedish schooner called the IM Nielsen was on its way from Sligo in Ireland to Fowey with a cargo of ballast. Due to bad weather, it was unable to enter the harbour at Fowey so it anchored off Polperro overnight. In the early hours, it broke free from its mooring and was driven onto the shore off Chapel Cliffs. The six crew were all rescued but the ship was a total wreck.
The paths along the south-facing slope seem to be a particularly good habitat for butterflies.
The Red Admiral, Peacock, Painted Lady and Tortoiseshell butterflies are all quite closely related and specialised for overwinter hibernation. Their wings, when closed, have a jagged outline and camouflaged colours that allows them to blend in with dead leaves. Their feet contain chemoreceptors (taste buds) which allows them to detect nectar-bearing flowers when they land.
The harbour walls and first pier (on the south side of the harbour) dates from the late 17th Century. They were damaged by storms in the 18th and early 19th Century and subsequently rebuilt. Then in 1824, a particularly violent storm nearly entirely destroyed the pier. After this, the two piers enclosing the harbour were rebuilt in their current configuration. The third pier as added in 1861 and some further improvements were made to the harbour and piers in the late 19th Century.
For many generations, Cornish fishermen wore hand-knitted wool jumpers known locally as "knit-frocks". These are similar to Guernsey jumpers and were made from wool dyed navy blue with indigo. If well-made, they could last for more than twenty years. Young boys were therefore given oversized jerseys that reached to their knees to grow into. Each fishing family wore their their own distinct pattern which meant that if a jumper was lost, its wearer could be identified.
A total of ten individual patterns from Polperro have been recorded, but the knitters never worked from written patterns. They were passed on within families by practical demonstration.
As well as knitting for their family, many women earned money as contract knitters; a skilled knitter could make a knit-frock in a week often whilst looking after children at the same time. In the 1851 census, 28 women and girls in Polperro were listed as "knitters". At the beginning of the 20th century, women could earn between 2s. 6d. and 2s. 9d. for a knit-frock and up to 3s. 6d. for a "fancy" one, whereas at this time, a full-time domestic servant earned only an average of 9d. each week.
The first trees evolved about 360 million years ago which were a bit like tree versions of mosses. Seeds hadn't evolved at this point and so they reproduced via spores. After the arrival of the seed came conifers which were the dominant form of trees for nearly 200 million years. The flower evolved around 100 million years ago and following this, broadleaf trees appeared and eventually out-competed conifers in many habitats.
When you reach the road, the holy well of St Peter is located a short distance up the road to the left.
The chapel of "St. Peter of Porthpyre" was documented in 1392 and was located on Chapel Point, in a field on the Landaviddy Estate above the holy well. In the 19th Century, the chapel was moved onto Peak Rock.
The holy well still exists as a small wet hole on the edge of Landaviddy Lane in the vicinity of Elm Cottage, although its water supply has likely been diminished by the road building immediately next to it. The well contains a carved slate inside it which confirms that you have found it but doesn't make it any easier to distinguish from any potholes along the edge of the road.
By the time John Wesley died, the majority of Methodists were not attending Anglican church regularly, and following his death a Methodist church was formed, separate from the Anglican church. In the first half of the 19th Century, the Methodist movement fragmented into several different factions, often each with its own chapel in the same town. The Bible Christian movement was one of these, founded in North Cornwall in 1815 by William O'Bryan from Luxulyan. His followers are also known as the Bryonites, although after falling out with most of his ministers, O'Bryan emigrated to America. In 1907, the Bible Christian movement amalgamated with other Methodist groups to form the United Methodist Church.
In September 1760, John Wesley stayed in Old Market House on Big Green while preaching in Cornwall. Perhaps in part due to the very steep hills from Polperro to the churches of Lansallos or Talland, there was great enthusiasm for Methodism in Polperro. This was so much the case that each Methodist faction had its own chapel: one for The Wesleyan Methodists, another for the Wesleyan Association, one for the Independents, and a final one for the Bible Christians! Perhaps in response to the competition, an Anglican chapel of ease to Talland Parish Church was built in the 19th Century and dedicated to St John.
The building with an 1877 date above the door originally opened as a Bible Christian Chapel. The Bible Christians were a denomination of the Methodist church that began in North Cornwall in 1815 and grew quickly in popularity in the southwest. They were sometimes known as Bryanites after their founder William O'Bryan. They were eventually amalgamated with other Methodist groups into the United Methodist Church in 1907.
The building is now home to the East Cornwall Society of Artists. The society was formed in 1946 and managed to buy the old chapel in 1972.
The road leading down the hill into Polperro is known as The Coombe from one of the Cornish words for "valley".
Cornwall has at least 8 different words for "valley".
Throughout the year, bright yellow and grey birds can be seen bobbing along the edges of the river from The Crumplehorn down into the village.
Wagtails are easily recognised from the tail pumping behaviour that their name suggests. Despite being very conspicuous, the function of this curious behaviour is not well understood. It is possibly a signal to predators that the wagtail has seen them, so there's no point trying anything.
Two of the wagtail species are easy to confuse as they are both grey and yellow.
Grey wagtails nest close to fast-running streams as they feed on aquatic invertebrates. They have pink (skin-coloured) legs.
Yellow wagtails are more often found in open fields and have black legs.
The third kind of wagtail more often seen in urban environments - the pied wagtail - is easy to distinguish due to the lack of yellow: it's entirely black-and-white.
Small trout can sometimes be seen in the river during the summer.
Trout are members of the Salmon family who all have an extra tiny (adipose) fin on their back towards their tail, that most other fish don't have. No-one is quite sure what the purpose is of this fin but a neural network in the fin indicates that it has some kind of sensory function.
The trout that supermarkets and trout farms stock is the Rainbow Trout (which has a red flush along its side) and is native to North America not to the UK. Our native trout is the Brown Trout which has well-defined dark red spots along its sides. You can often make out the spots when you see them lying in pools. Rainbow Trout are often stocked in fishing lakes so do sometimes escape into the wild.
Small trout typically feed on invertebrates whereas larger trout generally feed on other fish but have been known to eat anything of a suitable size unlucky enough to fall into a river. In fact in New Zealand, mouse-shaped lures are sold for trout fishing!
The river in Polperro is known as the Pol which is a somewhat utilitarian name from the Cornish word for a pool or anchorage (i.e. most probably the harbour). It's also known as the Polperro River. The source of the river is near Pelynt and there are also tributary streams near Barcelona.
The Rowett War memorial in the centre of the village was created in memory of the men from the village who gate their lives in the First and Second World wars, also listed on the cross beside the coast path to Talland Bay. J Joliff was initially missed from the First World War list and squeezed in at the end.
R NUNN was later added in the space between the decorative borders in memory of helicopter pilot Richard Nunn who was shot down by two aircraft and killed whilst attempting to evacuate casualties from the battle of Goose Green in the Falklands. He was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross for his bravery.
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.
The jazz musician Ian Wheeler, who played alongside stars including Louis Armstrong and Muddy Waters, lived in Polperro from 1969 until 2011. He took a short break from his music career to run The Plough Boy Inn in Saltash and in his latter years ran a boutique shop in Polperro with his wife and daughter.
In the early 19th Century, a Wesleyan Chapel was built beside Big Green. In the late 19th Century, a larger chapel was built alongside (the one visible today) and the original chapel was converted into a Sunday school.
Kirk House at the bottom of Talland Hill was still in use as the Sion Central Church until the 1950s. It was built as an overflow for the main Methodist Central Church on Fore Street. At the end of the 20th Century it was purchased as a holiday home by actor Kris Marshall (who appeared in "Love Actually" and "Death in Paradise"). He allowed the band Republica to use it as a recording studio to create their single "Christiana Obey".
The name of the building is said to have come from when the building was used as a bakery and the old lady who ran it recorded her sales with a small "o" for selling small loaf and large "O" for a large loaf. When she received payment she marked her ledger with an "x" or "X".
Known locally as "The Noughts", the building was a pub for many years and was used in the filming of The Tale of Little Pig Robinson.
The Shell House was originally a 19th-century fisherman's cottage where the only seashells would have contained dinner. In the 20th Century, the building owned by a seaman who brought back seashells from his travels all over the world and decorated the cottage with these between 1937 and 1942.
Around the period of the First World War, The Cobbles was rented by author Hugh Walpole. This was used by his friends who included fellow writer Vita Sackville-West who left her sons in care whilst she visited Polperro to rekindle a relationship with her lesbian lover. The two women eloped to France after the war until Vita was tracked-down retrieved by her husband in 1921.
At the start of the Second World War (1939-1940), Cliff End was home to Austrian painter Oskar Kokoschka (1886-1980) who had been deemed a "degenerate" by the Nazis and fled from Czechoslovakia to the UK. He painted a number of anti-fascist works during the war. His painting The Crab is based on the view from his house in Polperro and combines a the immediately recognisable landscape with a political allegory about how much help Britain (the crab) was giving to Czechoslovakia (swimmer fleeing a shipwreck) at the time.
East Moorings was used as a filming location for the 1958 film "Another Time, Another Place" starring Sean Connery, Lana Turner and Glynis Johns.
Whilst the film was being made, Lara Turner's real-life jealous boyfriend Johnny Stompanato (who turned out to be a gangster from LA) threatened Sean Connery with a gun. This proved an error of judgement as Connery was a karate black belt and twisted Stompanato's wrist forcing him to drop the gun, and the gangster fled off set. Several months later, Johnny Stompanato was stabbed to death by Lara Turner's daughter for abusing her mother but the mob held Connery responsible and he had to go into hiding for a short period.
After her starring roles in "A Taste of Honey", "Girl with the Green Eyes", "The Knack….and How to Get It" and "Dr Zhivago" during the 1960s, the actress Rita Tushingham lived in Seaways during the 1970s and her husband became landlord of the Blue Peter Inn.
The memorial was created to commemorate the local men who died in the First World War. It has been added to for the Second World War, and the Falklands War.
Rowland Emett was an inventor of eccentric mechanical devices that featured in the film Chitty Chitty Bang Bang. He was also worked as an illustrator for Punch magazine. Many of his illustrations were drawn in his harbour-side studio in Polperro.
From the mid 1940s, his family spent summers in Polperro and after the war they moved permanently to a cottage in the village.
More about his work is available from the Rowland Emett Society.
Lansallos Street and The Quay were used as the filming location for the 1990 TV adaption of the Beatrix Potter book "The Tale of Little Pig Robinson" - part of the Peter Rabbit series. The cast included Timothy Spall, Dawn French and Jennifer Saunders. The book is thought to have been inspired by a holiday to Falmouth and other coastal towns. Polperro was chosen to depict the nautical theme.
Polperro Arts Foundation was set up by a group of local artists in 2001. All the artists live and work in Polperro.
The Three Pilchards was built in the early 16th Century, making it the oldest pub in Polperro. As you might guess, the name alludes to the pilchard catch which was predominantly exported to Italy where Catholic restrictions on eating meat resulted in demand for fish as an alternative. The name of the pub is rumoured to have arisen when two Italian brothers settled in the village and sampled one pilchard from each of the three rival processing factories to determine which to trade with.
It is said that in the 19th Century, the presence of a saddled mare outside the pub was a sign to locals in-the-know that smuggled goods were available over the bar.
The Blue Peter Inn is thought to have been in the early 19th Century when Polperro's pilchard industry was thriving. The name of Polperro's most seaward pub is appropriately based on a nautical flag. The Blue Peter (a blue rectangle with a white rectangle in the centre) was flown when a ship was getting ready to leave port to alert the crew that they should return to the ship. It still conveys this meaning in the system of international maritime signal flags and can also be used in phonetic signalling for the letter "P".
The cave and cottage above it are both associated with 18th Century Smuggler Willy Wilcox. According to local legend: Willy Wilcox lived in the cottage, had a secret passageway into the cave to retrieve contraband, and drowned in the cave when hiding from Customs officials which his ghost now haunts.
There are similar legends about secret tunnels in many Cornish fishing villages which have likely been found to help along the tourist trade. However, some tunnels do genuinely exist - there is a good example leading into the Halzephron Inn on the Lizard.
The Pisky was a figure of folklore associated with mischief. Piskies were also known under the name "Jack-o-lantern" and this is thought to have similar origins as will-o'-the-wisp - the mythical marsh gas flares that were mistaken for the lights of settlements. Consequently the local dialect for becoming lost was "pisky-led".
It was believed that milk was turned sour by piskies dancing on the roofs of barns. As a preventative measure, farmers would nail lumps of lead known as "piskie paws" to trip up the pesky piskies.
Grey mullet are related to the perch family (which includes bass) and are surprisingly unrelated to the "red mullet" (which is in fact a type of goatfish). Mullet caught in the open sea are excellent eating fish and can be used in similar dishes to bass. However, those living in muddy water (such as the harbour) generally taste of mud. This can apparently be diminished by soaking them in acidic, salty water but the flavour is still described as "earthy".
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