Plymouth-born industrialist with Fowey family roots whose mines, harbours and transport projects linked mid-Cornwall.
Joseph Thomas Treffry was born Joseph Thomas Austen in Plymouth in 1782. After his father’s early death, he moved with his mother to the family home at Place in Fowey. He adopted the Treffry name in 1838.
His interests stretched across mines, quarries, clay, harbours and transport. Par served the south coast; Newquay offered a north-coast outlet. The practical ambition was to connect things that made money with the routes needed to sell them.
He died in 1850. His unfinished refuge at Towan Head was only one part of a much larger undertaking.
Sources
https://www.foweyharbourheritage.org.uk/mobile/their-story.php?pid=28 https://kresenkernow.org/SOAP/detail/8d6f5d52-9184-477d-900f-65b4b5e022d4/?fH=RefNo.keyword&tH=%5B%22TF%22%5D https://www.cornwallheritagetrust.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/Treffry-Viaduct.pdf
Connected subjects
- East Wheal Rose mine
- Treffry’s harbour of refuge
- Fowey Consols
- Henry Rowe, mason and contractor
- James Meadows Rendel
- Luxulyan Valley
- Ponts Mill
- Richard Treffry, Methodist preacher
- William West, mining engineer
- Fowey
- Lappa Valley
- Newquay Harbour
- Place, Fowey
- Treffry Viaduct, Luxulyan Valley
- William Pease
- Par Harbour
Read on
- Joseph Thomas Treffry: The Man Who Joined Cornwall’s Businesses Together
Most of us, faced with an awkward delivery, complain about the delivery company. Joseph Thomas Treffry’s approach was rather more expensive. He became involved in mines, harbours, waterways and tramways.
- The Harbour That Would Have Turned Towan Head Into an Island
Meet the man behind Newquay’s unfinished harbour, follow the cargoes that made it worth attempting, and imagine the town that might have grown around it.
- There Was a Railway Running Out of Newquay Harbour
A load of ore could reach Newquay and still have a cliff to get down. Follow the horses, miners and winding machinery that completed the journey.
- When Ships Sailed Up the Gannel
The families who built ships, the merchant who fought the mud, and a working river with very little interest in anyone's timetable.
- What Is Still Under Fistral Golf Course?
Newquay Golf Links looks like open ground. Archaeology, aerial photography and old maps suggest it is anything but: prehistoric enclosures, possible settlement, old mine shafts and a buried landscape beneath the turf…
- Cornwall Built Railways for Rocks Before It Built Them for Tourists
Newquay’s first railway story starts with Treffry’s mineral network and the harbour: rails moved rock before they carried holidaymakers.
- The Pub That Was Here Before Newquay Became Newquay
The Central Inn sits in the older town beneath Newquay’s resort story. Its history is useful precisely where the record refuses to be tidy.