Porth had a nineteenth-century shipbuilding trade. The 1879 Ordnance Survey labels a Shipwright Yard on the inlet’s northern shore; the earlier launch site is not precisely fixed.
The northern shore of Porth was once a working waterfront. An Ordnance Survey map surveyed in 1879 and published in 1881 labels a “Shipwright Yard” beside the road at the foot of the headland.
Shipbuilding is documented at Porth before that map. Little Jane was launched there in January 1858 from the yard of Martyn and Lewarn. The report does not place that launch on a precise plot, so the 1858 event and the later mapped yard must not be treated as one surveyed site.
The yard label is absent from the map revised in 1906. That change records what the later map shows; it does not supply a closure date. Porth was one of several shipbuilding places around Newquay, distinct from the Gannel and harbour yards.
Sources
OS Cornwall XXXI.16, surveyed 1879 / published 1881: https://maps.nls.uk/view/105993340 revised 1906 / published 1907: https://maps.nls.uk/view/105993343 Royal Cornwall Gazette, 29 January 1858, p.5: https://www.britishnewspaperarchive.com/image-viewer?issue=BL%2F0000180%2F18580129&page=5 CNMA transcription: https://cornishnationalmusicarchive.co.uk/content/cornish-brass-bands-st-stephen-in-brannel/ W. H. Verran, specialist abstract: https://snr.org.uk/shipbuilding-at-newquay-and-notes-on-local-vessels/
Connected subjects
Read on
- Before the Deckchairs: When Porth Was a Working Beach
Ironworking above the beach, shipwrights beside it and a launch with its own brass band. Porth’s holiday view leaves quite a lot out.