4.1  Mining heritage
4.2  The Cornwall and West Devon Mining Landscape was Inscribed as a World Heritage Site by UNESCO in July 2006

4.2.1 Pollution and the Wheal Jane incedent
4.3  Restronguet Passage and the Pandora Inn and the Ferry

4.3.1 The Brass Ferry Bell, the Point to the Pandora.

4.3.2 From ANNE MARTIN , PRINCE GEORGE, British Columbia, Canada

4.3.3 Reprinted from the St Feock Parish Magazine. PANDORA INN
4.3.4 The Brass Ferry Bell, the Point to the Pandora.

4.3.5 The Ferry and the bell.
4.4 Pandora Ferry. Tim Light, MD.,King Harry Ferries, Pandora Ferry.

4.5  Marble Head Quay
4.6  Truro oyster fishery
4.7  Shipbuilding
4.8  Barges
4.9  Rowing Races
4.10  Dredgemen past and present
4.11  A Typical Working Boat
4.12  Agriculture
4.13  Market Gardening

 

4. Former and Present Industry

4.1 Mining heritage

The huge opencast tin mining in the creek began in 1785 and closed around 1812. The submarine mining started (in Perran Creek) probably in the late 1700s. The first in Restronguet Creek was the Carnon Mine (off the Tram Road) in 1824. It is true that the bed of the Carnon River (and many others) was surface-worked for hundreds of years, since Roman times in fact It was of course only copper ore that was shipped to S. Wales; this was because it took 18 tons of coal to smelt I ton of Copper. The vessels then brought cargoes of coal to Cornwall. A profitable two way trade. Tin, on the other hand, had to be smelted and assayed locally. (Barry Simpson, August 2007).

Restronguet Creek lies along the western side of The Point. This extensive but intimate waterway, with its tree-lined shores and backdrop of fresh green fields, communicates a sense of tranquillity and adds much to the quality of the environment. However, this sense belies the industrial history of the creek, which in former centuries was greatly involved in the pursuit of mineral wealth.

The minerals most abundant in Cornwall are tin and copper. In Restronguet Creek there is a large resource of alluvial (water‑deposited) tin which was surface-worked for centuries. When in the early eighteenth century the technology of the Industrial Revolution became available, it was also mined under the creek.

The same technology was used in the hinterland beyond the creek to extract huge deposits of copper ore by deep rock mining in the Gwennap/St Day area. As Restronguet Creek was the nearest access point for shipping the ore to South Wales to be smelted, a new railway was built in 1826 from near Redruth to Restronguet and a new port, Devoran, was created. Upstream from Devoran there was already a busy wharf at Perran Foundry, where all kinds of mining equipment was produced and transported, including powerful steam engines. Explosives for use in the mines were manufactured in the nearby Kennall Woods and smelters for lead and tin were constructed at Point.

In the 1840s the West Briton recorded the arrival in the creek of as many as ten ships a day, bringing coal from Wales and timber from Scandinavia. These ships would then take away cargoes of ore to Wales for smelting. Extra quays were built and dredgers were employed to keep the channels clear from silt brought down from the mines by the Carnon River. When this proved to be ineffectual, goods were brought downstream by shallow boats and loaded at a special quay extension constructed at Restronguet Passage for ocean-going schooners.

Restronguet Creek was then a noisy and vibrant place at the forefront of the Industrial Revolution in Cornwall. All this came to an end, however, when cheaper mineral sources were found elsewhere in the world and the Cornish mines closed. Underground in Cornwall there still remains a great resource of valuable minerals.

As for the residents of The Point, most would wish to keep the creek as it is. As recently as 1982 only the falling price of tin dissuaded an international firm from pressing their application to Carrick District Council for permission to dredge for tin in the creek.

(Tom Rouncefield, June 2005)

 

4.2 The Cornwall and West Devon Mining Landscape was Inscribed as a World Heritage Site by UNESCO in July 2006

The Cornwall and West Devon Mining Landscape (popular name Cornish Mining) was Inscribed as a World Heritage Site by UNESCO in July 2006. The Site is made up of 10 separate areas and comprises historic mining sites, associated industrial complexes, mining settlements, associated great houses and gardens as well as miner’s smallholdings, mineral tramways and railways, and mineral ports and quays. Area A6 - Gwennap Mining District with Devoran, Perran and Kennall Vale -  includes Restronguet Creek from the A.39 at Devoran down to Point Quay and finishes more or less at a boundary drawn from the small streamlet on the south side by Tregunwith Quay across to Carnon Yard and back to Point Quay. This designated area deliberately encloses the operations of the 18th century Carnon Streamworks and Old Carnon Mine, Lower Carnon Mine and Restronguet Creek Mine with engine houses at Carnon Mine and Point Quay and on the artificial island off Point Quay, all with workings extending under the creek. Whilst not within the World Heritage Site, Restronguet Point is important nonetheless, not least because of the ferry on the Point and some significant historic buildings at Porthgwidden and Harcourt. The narrow peninsula overlooks Restronguet Pool where ships waited for the tide before proceeding upriver to Perran Foundry and Devoran Quays. In the mid 19th century it must have been a bustling place - the Pool full of ships loaded with engine parts bound for mining fields across the world and ships from Swansea waiting  to load copper for the smelters there; timber for the mines pickling in the timber ponds on either side of  Strangeweke Quay close to the Pandora Inn; copper loading at Marble Head Quay and a ship being built at Carnon Yard just visible against the backdrop of noxious smoke from the Lead and Tin smelting works at Penpol.

Nicholas Johnson MBE, MA. Bsc. FSA. MIFA., Historic Environment Manager, Environment and Heritage, Cornwall County Council, 17/02/2007

 

4.2.1 Pollution: the Wheal Jane incident

The Wheal Jane incident was a very visual minewater pollution event which affected the Fal Estuary including Restronguet Creek in January 1992 and resulted in the establishment of an ongoing water treatment system ... The discharge of minewater from Wheal Jane resulted in the establishment of a long‑term management system involving a passive reed-bed storage system developed to treat the mine water discharge. This has now been replaced with an active treatment plant, comprising a high-density sludge alkali-dosing plant, which during its first full winter of operation treated 4,400 million litres of water. To date the engineering treatment of the minewater discharge from Wheal Jane has cost in excess of £20 million.

(From http://www.projects.ex.ac.uk/geomincentre/estuary/main/jane.htm)

A photograph of the polluted water, looking across from Bellevue (almost at the southwestern tip of The Point) to Restronguet Weir. (Photograph, JC)

 

4.3 Restronguet Passage and the Pandora Inn,

and the Ferry.

The Pandeora Inn.

 

23.03.2011. Fire destroyed the public house overnight. The following day, three fire stations on site.

There was a ferry crossing at the mouth of Restronguet Creek from at least the early 15th century. Part of the medieval route between Truro and Penryn markets; it operated until the late 1960s.

The Restronguet Creek resembles an inland tidal lake, where twice every day the tide draws sea water from the Carrick Roads through a narrow gap known as the gut’. The Creek itself covers the area of water from Restronguet Point and Weir Point up to the road bridges at Penpol, Devoran and Perran Wharf. The Creek is fed from the Carnon and the Kennal rivers which flow down from the ‘spine’ of mid Cornwall, through an area of extensive tin and copper mining. During the 18th and 19th centuries the Restronguet Creek was an important industrial waterway, navigable by ships of considerable size, which brought pit props from Norway and Wales for the tin mines of mid Cornwall; coal from Wales for the smelting works at Point, for the railway and mine engines and for people’s homes; lime to slake the acid soil on surrounding farmland; and transported copper ore, which had been brought down the Carnon Valley by the Redruth and Chasewater railway.

Over the 19th and 20th centuries the Creek has silted up with debris from extensive mining activity in the Carnon Valley and beyond. The County adit system, which drains the vast area of mineral mining in Cornwall, also flows into the Carnon river at Twelveheads.

Today the Creek is recognised for its beauty, its wildlife and its industrial heritage.

The Restronguet Creek Society was formed in 1972 in order to safeguard these amenities, and to preserve the essential character of the Creek and its amenities for present and future generations. The Society makes any necessary representations to public authorities, industrial organisations and individuals in order to ensure that the creek is not endangered by the decrease of the ebb and flow of salt and fresh water, causing further silting up of the creek; by undesirable shoreside developments; or by other factors, including pollution, which are considered damaging to the preservation of the creek. Also to offer support and collaboration with other areas and associations which have similar objectives.

(For further information, access http:restronguetcreeksociety.org/)

4.3.1 The seat at the end of the Point overlooking the Pandora Inn.

The Restronguet Creek Society, provided and funded a seat for the residents of the Point at the end of Marble Head Quay overlooking Restronguet Creek. (JBC, Editor, 2010).

The public house at Restronguet Passage was originally a ferryman's cottage and an inn serving the crossing. During the late 18th century a quay and timber ponds were built here as a trans‑shipment point for the imports and exports of Perran Foundry, heavy lifting gear was also installed for loading machinery onto ocean-going ships, including in 1880 the last Cornish engine to be manufactured at the foundry, bound for Barrow-in-Furness.

On the opposite side of the creek is Marble Head Quay, also of late 18th century date, and on the beach to the north of this the keels of two ketches.

(Cornwall Archæological Unit 1997)

Mr Terry Blackburn, his mother and family had been evacuated from Bethnal Green, first to Harcourt and then to Marble Head Cottage where they lived from 1939 to the early 1950s. Mr Blackburns’ father was serving in North Africa with the Royal Engineers at the time.  He was wounded and returned to recuperate at the Headland Hotel in Newquay before rejoining his family on the Point. Mr Blackburn is resident in Feock.

Mr Blackburn and his brothers operated the ferry to the Pandora Inn, when they were available.  The Americans who were stationed on the Point from 1943 to mid 1944  acquired a punt which they gave to the Blackburn family when they left. The Blackburn brothers rowed the Americans over to the Pandora and were well rewarded with sweets, gum and fruit which were almost unobtainable in this country at the time.

The brothers rowed over to the public house to fill a two-handled galvanised bath with drinking water to provide clean water to Marble Head Cottage. Mr Blackburn remembers that when they moved into the cottage, the two person external closet at the edge of the cliff backed onto and over the Creek.

He remembers that the beer for the Pandora was offloaded at the end of the Point and then floated across to the public house.

A Mr. Jacobsen operated the ferry before the Blackburn brothers. He lived in the cottage on Marble Head Quay with his daughter. He was considered to be the semi official ferry boatman.

Mr Blackburn and his brothers operated the ferry from 1944 to about 1955, and from then Wing Commander Huddleston the owner of the Pandora Inn operated the ferry until the early 1960s using a small motor boat.

Mr and Mrs Terry Blackburn provided the photograph of the ferry bell on the stand to the left of the footpath, before it was stolen, 02/07/2010.

(John Crowther)

 

4.3.2 From ANNE MARTIN ,

PRINCE GEORGE, British Columbia, Canada
By email, July 9th, 2010

I am delighted to have discovered your website. I lived briefly at Restronguet Point at the start of World War 11, before my family moved to Loe Beach. Feock.  My parents, Captain and Mrs. Fred Graham. rented the Jacobson’s cottage for holidays before the war, and my mother, her sister and I moved there from London when war was declared.

I can’t find the reference now but visiting the Friends ol Restronguet Point website a few months ago I came across information about the ferry that used to operate between the Point and the Pandora. Mr. Jacobson was mentioned but there was no information about him so I thought I could fill in some details.

I don’t know his first name but Mr. Jacobson was born in Denmark and served on sailing ships. (Peter Jacobson, advised by Peter and Lorretta Neilsen, the present owners of the modernised and extended cottage, JBC). His wife had been born in the 200 year-old cottage we rented, just down the lane from the Jacobson’s house. They had one child, Betty, with we kept in touch until her death in Falmouth. We took her to see the old house when it was being converted into holiday cottages. The house had been built by her father and she was delighted to hear from the building contactors how well it bad been constructed. On the same occasion, we took Betty to St. Feock church and there she found her father’s grave on the south side of the church. The graveyard was overgrown at the time so it was difficult to find,

Mr Jacobson with passeger Anne Martin, 1935.

The ferrymans cottage, 1965, now Bodelvan, enlarged and modernised

Access to the house and the cottage was off the road down a lane that was nearly opposite the laundry. We stayed there only during the summers before the war and then for a about a year from 1940 - 1941. My early memories there include being rowed about by Mr. Jacobson with his walrus moustaches, seaman’s cap and pipe, and playing in the derelict boats that were lying on the quay. I also remember the ship’s bell that was used to summon Mr. Jacobson from his house to row people across the Creek. I took a photo of it in 1951 but never saw it again. We presumed it bad been stolen.

I remember Betty Jacobson waved a tea towel at a passing plane as she stood on the front door step of her parents' house and was mortified when she saw the Swastikas on the wings. Our incident was a week or so after that. It was probably in late spring 1940. My father was home on leave and we rowed together across the creek to the Pandora Inn opposite. Halfway across, a German Stuka flew up the creek and strafed us. My father flung himself forwards to cover me and, as I collapsed under him, I could see and hear the bullets hitting the water all around us.

Junkers 87 G-1 Stuka dive bomber

Your website also listed details of notable Restronguet residents. You may be interested to know that Mr. Fred Fairbrother and his wife lived at “Casanton”. He graduated in The Honours School of Chemistry at Manchester University In 1908, and was elected Fellow of the Royal Institute Chemistry in 1957, He spent his career in education, finishing as headmaster of the Cedars School Leighton Buzzard. He had a lifelong interest in growing roses, was a member the National Rose Society for many years and became President in 1959. His book “Roses” was published in collaboration with the RHS in I962. Mr. Fairbrother used to coach me in maths and chemistry during school holidays. (I went to the Truro High School for Girls) and after each tutorial he would take me round his garden overlooking the Carrick Roads and demonstrate the intricacies of rose breeding. His wife had a particular interest in breeding delphiniumns.

Thinkrng of various residences at Restronguet, I recall my paternal grandmother and an aunt living  briefly in a disused railway carriage there. I don’t know what its history was.
I was in Feock last autumn and was delighted to be recognised by Mrs. Joyce Lilley the late Jack Lilley’ sister-in-law.

Anne Martin (nee Graham)
Feock resident 1939 to 1958

 

4.3.3 Reprinted from the St Feock Parish Magazine.

October/November 2010

PANDORA INN

Jeffrey Rumble

Since I wrote about the Pandora Inn, Mylor, in the June edition of this magazine, several points of interest have come to light which I believe are worth a mention. My thanks to those who have contacted me.

Initially may I say that I am totally convinced that the naming of the pub Pandora has nothing whatsoever to do with Capt. Edwards of the wrecked frigate HMS Pandora. When his disaster occurred he organized a text-book evacuation of his ship which was documented in sworn statements by his officers. These records were produced at his court martial, and he was exonerated of all blame. He certainly did not retire to Cornwall and he lived on in the Navy eventually becoming the forty-third most senior officer at the time of his death. So the fact that a model of his ship could be found on display at the Inn for many years has only given undeserved credence to the myth. It was put there as an ornamental feature by the then owner with the agreement of the Brewery. However it was sold on once the true circumstances became clear. It was a huge model some five feet in length enclosed in a glass case but it was a bit primitive in its construction. This did not prevent it being quickly purchased locally when placed on the market. I am told that it has been seen in the last few years in the Maritime Museum in at Queensland, Australia, but the circumstances are not revealed. Of course it could be there because that particular Museum has a growing collection of artifacts, many recovered from the wreckage of HMS Pandora as discovered by divers. I await confirmation from the Museum that their model Pandora is not our model Pandora.

In my previous article I suggested that a list of landlords of the pub may help to establish a link to the name. Not so, it seems, because the subject of the licence was the ferry business itself, not specifically the premises. The ferry was a vital link in the road between Falmouth and Truro and lay in the gift of the Enys Estate who leased it to the various operators over the years. The ferry-men thoughtfully provided refreshment facilities for their passengers, using the nearby cottage, which subsequently became the Inn.

In the early 1800’s the ferry was operated by Alexander Luben, and on his demise his widow continued the business, later assisted by her niece. This lady’s father in law was Ebenezer Clyma of Feock, who operated a weekly service between Devoran and Plymouth with a schooner, the Ebenezer, commanded by his son. The Ebenezer carried a general cargo known as portage. When in 1848 the vessel was retired its replacement, a similar schooner, was named (you’ve guessed) the Pandora. It was then that the landlady decided to change the name of her pub, at that time known as the Ship, to match her husband’s new command.

Now I’m sorry to say that my talent as a researcher has much to be desired, and there is always more to be discovered, but I think we have arrived at the end of the Pandora story.

 
Jeffrey Rumble

4.3.3.1.

Reproduced by permission of the editors of the St Feock Magazine, February/March 2011, and Mr Colin North.   (John Crowther)

PANDORA’S BOX
The Pandora story in a recent magazine may be basically true, but it has several anomalies, which opened a mild version of Pandora’s Box. In order to underline the authenticity of the story that will be told for many years to come in the Pandora Inn, I decided to research the people involved, in the census returns and parish records. The following variations came to light.
The original ferryman’s name was spelt Alexander LOBAN and after his death, his widow Harriett took her married niece Amelia (Ferris) Cock as an Assistant. She was not married to the Clyma family of sailors as suggested. It was her daughter, also Amelia Cock who married Stephen Clyma in1846. The census records this Amelia as “A sailor’s wife” living alone at Trevilla in1851 and l86l, Stephen presumably was at sea. Her father-in-law was also Stephen Clyma (senior), not Ebenezer as reported; the latter was born l8ll/1812 and was her husband’s elder brother. Amelia Cock left the Inn between the l85l and l86l censuses. Probably when her husband died in November l85l and Harriett took Blanche Ferris, her niece in law as her assistant. The census first records the name Pandora Inn in 1871 (though this is not necessarily critical) when Harriett was “retired Inn-keeper” with Blanche as Licensed Victualler.
Andrew Campbell, a former landlord of the Inn, reported the name Pandora recorded in trade journals from 1851 onwards and it was he who first questioned the origin of the name. He researched the schooner Ebenezer, subsequently replaced by Pandora in 1851 and owned by the Clyma family, in the Sherborne Mercury (a SW weekly similar to the West Briton) but without giving dates. He said they were coastal schooners providing a weekly service to Plymouth and working from the quay adjoining the Inn car park. Called Strange- ways (weke) Quay, it had been built to overcome the long wait for the tide to reach Devoran and Perran quays. I have been unable to confirm the sources of his story. Searches of shipping news in the West Briton show the Ebenezer arriving at port of Truro up to August 29 1856, five years after it was said to have been replaced. So if the Pandora replaced the Ebenezer, it would have been Harriett and Blanche, not Amelia, who changed the Inn name to Pandora after that date. There were several schooners called Pandora on the Lloyds Register of Ships in the 1850’s but none of them working near Cornwall, except a Falmouth packet Pandora trading with South America.
Ebenezer was recorded up to 1835. Built at Plymouth, owned by Clyma & Co.
But the system of registering changed then and was subject to subscription.
Possibly the Clyma family elected not to pay, hence no further record.
Both Amelia Cock’s father Peter Ferris and Blanche Ferris’s husband William were ship builders, but I cannot find evidence of either of them having built these schooners. There is no record of the Pandora in the Register of Ships for the ports of Truro or Falmouth and I have still to find confirmation of Andrews story in The Sherborne Mercury. The paper is on micro film in the Cornish Studies Library at Redruth, but is difficult to read, so the search goes on and a big question mark remains open in Pandora’s Box. Ironically, if you take a walk round St. Feock Church, adjacent to the path at the southeast corner you will see the gravestone of Stephen Clyma and his wife Amelia who died in1881. If only there was a medium that could communicate with them, then we would have the whole story first hand!
Colin North

4.3.4 The Brass Ferry Bell, the Point to the Pandora.

 

The sketch of the bell was provided by Mr Bob Acton who kindly authorised the reproduction. He passed the sketch to Tom Rouncefield the secretary to the Friends.

The notice below the bell read,"NOTICE, THIS BELL MUST NOT BE USED FOR ANY OTHER PURPOSE THAN CALLING THE FERRY" The second and smaller notice lists the "FERRY HOURS".

 

Photograph of the bell, 1951, donated by Anne Martin, 18.10.2010, from her records of the Point. Prince George, British Columbia

"I also remember the ship’s bell that was used to summon Mr. Jacobson from his house to row people across the Creek. I took a photograph of it in 1951 but never saw it again. We presumed it bad been stolen".

4.3.5 The Ferry and the bell.

I met Mr and Mrs Terry Blackburn, now residents of Feock, on the morning of August the 26th 2009 to clarify the history of the bell.

They understood that the bell and supporting structure were the property of the Pandora Inn and that the ferry rights remain with the owners of the Pandora Inn.

The ferry bell was originally a substantial brass casting, approximately 12” in height, held in a wrought iron structure, supported on a substantial timber frame, the bell rope hanging down below the main supporting deck. The composite timber structure was originally housed in an alcove within the Marblehead Cottage boundary wall slightly above the lawn area and the present gate to Seaways.

The bell was originally the ships bell from the the SS Penpol. (Reference, Bob Acton).The name of the ship was cast into the bell as illustrated in the sketch.

Mr Blackburn cannot remember the supporting wrought iron superstructure, however the supporting timber structure was reduced in height and moved across the pathway before the concrete seat was provided by the Restronguet Creek Society. The structure was reduced in height by cutting off the lower section, maybe due to the decayed nature of the timber.

In the later part of 1955 the bell was found missing, maybe stolen for scrap. The ferry service was discontinued in the late nineteen sixties.

The outcrop of white marble can be seen to the right of the steps at Marble Head. Single white marble stones can be seen in the Cornish hedges to the properties at the end of The Point. Presumably, the other natural stone used within the hedges came from the banks to the Creek.

(Mr and Mrs Terry Blackburn in discussion with JBC,  November 2007, and August 2009)

“An unpleasant accident was recorded on the southerly route in 1791 at Restronguet. The ferry was transporting several people and three horses when one of the animals took fright in mid-stream capsizing the boat in its terrified struggles. Which was worse for the passengers, the flailing hooves of the horse or being flung into the cold water?”

(Acton 1993)

 

4.4 Pandora Ferry.

Tim Light, MD.,King Harry Ferries, Pandora Ferry.

2010
We carried 387 passengers over the two months with the maximum in one day being 49. We carried well from Point Quay and most users seemed to get a party together for supper at the Pandora with some even walking on to Mylor for supper. 8 volunteer crew supported the 5 skippers we trained and they were all fantastic and really made the little service great fun to be involved with for our passengers. A moment of note, using a rowing punt when the ferry was not able to run, one of the skippers had to go for a dip to clear a fouled propeller but still got his passengers safely home.

2011
We are currently investigating how we can make it work for 2011 and one of the ways we are looking at is that our company pays all the running costs as a donation to charity and then users have free use of the ferry but are asked to contribute to a charity (likely to be RNLI and Shelterbox) With this method we help sustain the service the passengers get free usage and the charity gets increased contribution – seems like a winner really.

We are likely to only run on days when we are able to run for lunch and supper or over 4 hours and would also like to run in June to avoid the summer monsoon.

Information & Bookings: 07772 30 22 32
Website: www.kingharryscornwall.co.uk

Walks: There are fantastic walks on either side of the ferry crossing and you can buy a King Harry’s Cornwall Area Map onboard the ferry. It is a 40 minute walk to Trelissick Gardens and the King Harry Ferry and if you want to walk the whole estuary you can do this starting at either St Mawes or Falmouth.

There is no car parking at Restronguet or the  Point

4.5 Marble Head Quay, formerly Harracrack or Harcourt Quay

          

(opposite Restronguet Passage)

Marble Head Quay

... The said Quay is most excellently well suited for landing Coals, and shipping Copper Ores; to which Purposes it has been hitherto applied; and lies at a convenient distance from the most considerable Copper Mines in the County. The Depth of Water along Side of the Quay, when the Tide is up, is at Neap Tides, at least ten Feet. ... It was Built about five years ago by Chasewater Company, at the Expense of £200 and upwards ...

Truro, March 7th, 1783.

(From a poster reproduced in the Restronguet Creek Society Newsletter 2000)

The Quay was used by fishermen to dry out their nets and to lay up their boats, until property development in the late 1950s closed the carriageway linking the quay to the main road.

The then owner of Seaways, a Mr Porter, took in the land between Seaways and the Creek, extending the property by approximately three times the area. The pathway extending from the Quay around the tip of The Point and along the south bank of the Carrick Roads to Loe Beach was also closed, the pathway being taken into the adjoining properties.

(Terry Blackburn in discussion with JBC,  November 2007).

4.6 Truro oyster fishery

The Truro oyster fishery, lying along the River Fal’s Carrick Roads, is populated by the British species known as the ‘flat’ or ‘edible’ oyster, Ostræ Edulis. For many, fishing in the Fal is and has been a leisure activity, or at most a part‑time occupation. Around Penpol and Point there were very few men with fishing as their main occupation, especially when there were more lucrative jobs on offer. Those that did fish for oysters were usually recorded as "oyster dredgers". This was also the name for the boats they used.

Today the Restronguet Creek oyster dredgers are the world’s last oyster boats to use only sails or oars. The dredgemen work the oyster beds with triangular iron dredges dragged along the riverbed as the boat is allowed to drift. This might seem inefficient but the fishermen have agreed not to use powered boats, not as a quaint refusal to move with the times but in order to preserve stocks. Oyster fishing has now died out on the east coast of England, but in the Fal today the quality and quantity are as good as they have been for fifty years.

The rights of individuals to collect oysters from the waters around Falmouth have been exercised since at least the late 16th century. During the mid 19th century over fishing led to a scarcity of oysters in the South East of the country, hence a sharp increase in their price. The result was that not only professional fisherman came in droves to Falmouth, but men from other trades who were attracted by the high returns. On a fine day up to 200 boats could be seen oyster dredging.

Commercial oyster dredging continues on a greatly reduced scale, but some things have not changed, notably the bye-law forbidding the removal of oysters by engine powered craft. This means that the oyster fishermen today use techniques and equipment that have remained largely unchanged for hundreds of years. I consider that the Councils, working together, should provide access and practical facilities to continue to use their undoubted and unique skills to the  best advantage.

( NMMC, JBC, 28.12.07).

Oyster fishermen to be spared £4,000 licence fee

Oyster fishermen in a part of Cornwall will not have to pay for new licences if European leaders sweep away the licensing exemption scheme.
Sarah Newton, MP for Truro and Falmouth, said she has secured assurances from the Marine Management Organisation (MMO) that fishermen working on the Fal Estuary will be saved from paying the £4,000 per licence.
Fishermen of the Port of Truro Oyster Fishery have been gathering oysters from the Fal for more than 500 years. The Fishery is the last remaining commercial fishing fleet under sail in Europe.
Marine Fisheries Licensing was introduced by the European Union in 1992, but an exemption was secured meaning Fal oyster fishermen did not need to buy Marine Fisheries Licenses.
European leaders are reviewing the exemptions may remove the exemption covering the Port of Truro Oyster Fishery.
If the move goes ahead the cost of buying a Marine Fisheries Licence could be as much as £4,000.
Mrs Newton said she was assured by Sir Bill Cailaghan, chairman of the MMO, that if they extended Marine Fisheries Licences to the Port of Truro Oyster Fishery fisher- men will not be charged for licences.
She said: “I am pleased that progress has been made in securing the ongoing viability of the Port of Truro Oyster Fishery. The Fishery, and the annual Fal Oyster Festival, is an asset to Cornwall, and I will continue to do all I can to ensure that the last fleet under sail in Europe continues to supply oysters for generations to come.”

The Western Morning News, 14 October 20ll

4.7 Shipbuilding

A thriving shipbuilding industry flourished during the nineteenth century and continues today at Penpol boatyard. The best known of the local boat-builders were William 'Foreman' Ferris, Peter Ferris, Frank Hitchens, Tom Hitchens, Stephen Brabyn and more recently Terry Heard and Ralph Bird (Pilot Gigs).

The most famous of these was undoubtedly William 'Foreman' Ferris of Restronguet. His first boat was the “Harriet” built in 1861 at Low Hill in Pill Creek. The second was the “Six Brothers” in 1890 at Ponsmain, the same place he built the “Florence” five years later in 1895. He built many other craft besides these Falmouth working boats and perhaps his finest was the beautiful 101-foot coasting schooner “Rhoda Mary” in 1891, claimed to be the fastest of her kind ever built.

(Davies 1989)

I believe that you will find that the schooner was constructed c.1868

(Tom Champagne, January, 2009)

John Stephens acquired the Ferris yard at Canon Yard, but continued to employ “Foreman” Ferris. There was also a sizeable shipyard at the seaward end of Devoran Quay. This was run by a Hugh Eddy Stephens I believe was a distant relative of John. This yard built ships of up to 175 tons.

(Barry Simpson, August 2007).

Ralph Bird, the founder of gig racing.

The Ralph Bird, the last boat, of the 29 boats built by him, lined up in Newquay Harbour on Saturday the sixth of October 2007.

The Cornish pilot gig is a six-oared rowing boat built of Cornish narrow leaf elm, 32 feet long with a beam of four feet ten inches.

It is recognised as one of the first shore-based lifeboats that went to    vessels in distress, with recorded rescues going back as far as the late 17th century.

The original purpose of the Cornish pilot gig was as a general work boat and the craft used for taking pilots out to incoming vessels off the Atlantic. In those days, the race would be the first gig to get their pilot on board a vessel (often those about to run aground on rocks) got the job and hence the payment.

The trim 32ft boats were the multitasking workhorses of Cornwall’s bustling harbours conveying brides to weddings, corpses to funerals and racing out to sailing ships to bring them in to a safe berth.

He discovered the three gigs built between 1812 and 1838 and rescued from rotting in a pilchard cellar by Newquay Gig Club, the Newquay, the Dove and the Treffry.

Then in 1981, he talked the club into loaning them out for the first Three Rivers Race in Truro.

Within five years, there were four gig clubs in Cornwall and two years later, The Cornish Pilot Gig Club Association (CPCG) was born.

Norman Edwards, Chairman of the CPCG, summed up what many felt:

” If it wasn’t for Ralph Bird’s working drawings and his quiet drive , the sport of gig rowing  wouldn’t be where it is now and the gigs wouldn’t  be the boats they are”.

(Lyn Barton, Western Morning News, 06.10.2007, Extract).

4.8 Barges

Until the second world war, there were a number of barges based on Restronguet and often crewed by men who lived in Feock and Devoran.
These barges were used mainly for carrying stone from the quarries at St Keveme, but they also loaded a great deal of sand from Restronguet Creek and were employed in general cargo work as required. For instance they often carried corn or bricks. They frequently worked up to Truro, Tresillian, Penryn, Point, Perran-ar-worthal, Gweek and Ruan. Usually the crew consisted of two men who normally had to discharge the cargo and sometimes to load it as well, so the work was extremely hard.

In those days ships used to work up to Devoran and it was necessary to keep the channel clear, so the barges were usually moored under Harcourt or under Tregunwith wood. At that time there was much more water in the creek and Mr W. Trebilcock  says that in his grandfather’s time, the Norwegian timber ships could lie afloat off Marblehead. There were two pilots based on Devoran and, when a ship was due to come up the river at night, they would row  down and place a on each of the posts that marked the channel. There were two classes of barges; the ‘outside barges’ which were fully decked and had bulwarks, and the ‘inside barges’ which had no bulwarks. Some of the latter were completely undecked and some had narrow coamings. The ‘outside barges’ carried mainsail, staysail, jib and topsail with a standing topmast and crosstrees. The ‘inside barges’ carried only mainsail and jib and only one of them carried a small bowsprit, the jib being taken to the stemhead.

An extract from the”Feock with Devoran and Carnon Downs in the 19th Century”. Compiled from information supplied by Messrs W. Trebilcock,R. Mitchell, H. Bersey, A. George and R.Ferris

4.9 Rowing Races

In the days when there were many fishing boats and other working boats located in the river and owned by people in the Devoran area, rowing races were held on most evenings in the summer when the tide served. Crews and individuals used to race against each other and would often change boats to eliminate any advantage since some boats were well known to be faster than others.

The course was usually from Carnon Mine, round an old hulk off Devoran lower quay, down to the channel post off Chycoose and back to finish off at Camon Mine.

The boats were usually the l foot skiffs or the 15 foot oyster dredging punts with a crew of three, two with an oar and one with paddles. A number of boats were built with racing especially in mind.

There was great rivalry between crews from Devoran and Coombe and races were held at Coornbe, Pill, Restronguet, Point, Devoran and Feock. However the men from Coornbe and those of Devoran used to join forces to send crews to compete at Hayle Regattas and were successful.
Mr B.J. Marshall, Mr Jack Marshall

An extract from the ”Feock with Devoran and Carnon Downs in the 19th Century”. Compiled from information supplel by Mr R Michell, Mr R. Ferris and Mr A. George.

 

4.10 Dredgemen past and present

A ‘haul-tow’ punt off Bellevue.

As in most spheres of physical occupation, oyster dredging has produced a tough breed of men, their lives moulded by the vagaries of wind and tide and the intricacies of working a boat under sail. And, inevitably, the lifestyle has produced its fair share of characters and incidents that will long be remembered around the estuary of the Fal as long as there are names like Ferris, Vinnicombe, Laity, West and Gunn out on the water.

Although the dredging season is a winter job only, it must be realised that most of the men in it spend their entire lives afloat, turning their hands to a variety of other activities during the summer months, mackerelling, trawling, long-lining and even scalloping, often adapting their oyster boats for the purpose.

(Davies, ibid.)

The rights of individuals to collect oysters from the waters around Falmouth have been exercised since at least the late 16th century.

During the mid 19th century over fishing led to a scarcity of oysters in the South East of the country, hence a sharp increase in their price. The result was that not only professional fisherman came in droves to Falmouth, but men from other trades who were attracted by the high returns.

On a fine day up to 200 boats could be seen oyster dredging.

Commercial oyster dredging continues on a greatly reduced scale, but some things have not changed, notably the bye-law forbidding the removal of oysters by engine powered craft. This means that the oyster fishermen today use techniques and equipment that have remained largely unchanged for hundreds of years.

I consider that the Councils, working together, should provide access and practical facilities to continue to use their undoubted and unique skills to the  best advantage.

 

(JBC, January 2008).

 

4.11 A Typical working boat

A Typical Working Boat

A typical Working Boat, a good example of the type being ‘Florence’ built by William ‘Foreman’ Ferris in 1895. She is 289” in length, has a beam of 89 and a draught of 510. She is full in the bilge with low floors and has her maximum beam on the waterline. The full bilge allows her to lay on her side without legs and to rise again on the tide should she need to do so, as is the case with the boats kept in Pill Creek and the upper reaches of Mylor and Restronguet Creeks where the boats dry out completely at low tide. Her forefoot is only slightly rounded with a draught for’ard of about 4ft., and she has a long straight external ballast keel of approximately 25cwt. It is about 2Oft long & deep and 6’ wide and in addition to providing the necessary stability is of great benefit in maintaining a true course when the helm is left unattended, unlike short keeled boats which have a tendency to yaw and broach and need more attention on the helm. The entry is quite fine and the run is long and clean with a high tucked transom stern, the bottom of which meets the waterline. The stern is almost upright but the top inclines slightly forward, the stern post has a greater incline though this time the top leans aft. The rudder is hung outside on the sternpost in the usual manner for craft of this type and is supported by means of a gudgeon and pintle top and bottom with the bottom of the rudder having a pin which fits down into a hole in the keel skeg.

Refer to Chapter 2, ‘The History of Falmouth Working Boats’, By Alun Davies, printed by Cornwall Lithographic Printers, for the full description.

4.12 Agriculture

4.12.1 The 1842 Feock Tithe Map

By 1842 tithes were owned not by a rector but by lay men, in the case of Carnon Downs largely by Thomas G Watkin of Killiow whose family acquired them from the Gregor family. Edward Boscawen owned tithes of part of Tregye and Thomas Messer Simmons owned tithes of Killiganoon and Halgarrick. The vicar of Feock was entitled to an extract a small portion. Every plot of land was drawn on a map and numbered, over a thousand of them, and a list was made in a book of each plot with its landowner, tenant, sub-tenants, acreage, value, and the sum of money to be paid to the tithe owner. In effect it was a tax on land. The map and list are preserved in Cornwall Record Office. The map is large, I.800x266 cm and a line 26 cm long represents 30 chains. It is fragile, tattered in parts and repaired;

Most of the land was owned by the big three estates, Lemon, Boscawen and Agar-Robartes.  Killiganoon was owned by Thomas Simmons and small plots were owned by Hill, Enys and Hugos. Nearly all the land is described as arable, that is, it was capable of being tilled. Some seams, ‘meadow’, and a 37 acre patch between Old Carnon Mill and the top Bissoe Road is waste.

The work was done by short tenants who leased a plot or two, and lived on the profits of the land, white subject to strict conditions of good husbandry, that is improving fertility and often having to build or repair a house, and allowing the landlord certain rights, access to water for instance or the right to dig for minerals and convey them.

It happens that a series of censuses at 10-year intervals began in 1841. The Feock ones list in neat handwriting the inhabitants with ages and occupations. Addresses are not given, only the name of a road or farm.

The tenancies were for fields without houses, people moved house often so that between censuses there were changes, and some surnames occur in many households while others are in the census but not in the tithe map list,

The overall picture is that by 1842 most of the land was tenanted and farmed in plots of all sizes. Most of the men and children over 12 years of age had jobs outside their homes, and most of the married women did not. On average there were 6 people to a house, sometimes including lodgers, visitors and servants.

Not until 1920 did tenants on a large scale buy their own plots and become farmers on scattered settlements in the western end of Feock parish.

(“Carnon Downs Backalong”, EJ Irving, Carnon Downs Local History Group).

 

4.13 Market gardening

Market gardening began in the Restronguet Point area in the 1840s and continues to this day around Penpol and Tregoose. A market garden established at Rosmerrin during the inter-war years ran for some years thereafter. Tenants of Mr Daniell’s land on The Point at that time in the 1840’s included those with the names Stephens, Looweartha, Harracrack and James Williams. The lane on this map ends approximately three‑quarters of the way down to the end of The Point. The small rectangular outline on the western shoreline of The Point (forming part of the green perimeter on OS map extract above) is Marble Head Quay. The small lane which connected the quay to the roadway opposite Laundry Cottage is not shown, but still exists as an access to Chy‑en‑Garth and Bodelvan. Beyond Marble Head Quay, a footpath which gave access to the end of The Point is now closed.

For further information check the Apportionment in the CCC Record Office, this will give the names of all the fields, the tenement names and owner and tenant and what each field was used for. (Nick Johnson, March 2007).