Pentewan

Village and harbour

The village and its harbour date back to medieval times, when Pentewan was mainly a fishing community, with some stone-quarrying, tin-streaming, and agriculture. Leland, writing in 1549, referred briefly to 'Pentowan' as "a sandy bay witherto fischer bootes repair for socour". Between 1818 and 1826, local land- and quarry owner Sir Christopher Hawkins substantially rebuilt the harbour, partly to improve the existing pilchard-fishery and partly to turn the village into a major china clay port. At its peak, Pentewan shipped a third of Cornwall's china clay, but continual problems with silting (caused by tin and clay mining) and the rise of the rival ports of Charlestown and Par Docks meant that Pentewan's status as a port lasted for little more than a century. The last trading ship left in 1940. After that, the harbour entrance gradually silted up, though it was still possible for small boats to enter the harbour in the 1960s. Now, although the water-filled basin remains, Pentewan harbour is entirely cut off from the sea.

Tramway and railway

In 1829, Sir Christopher Hawkins made further improvements by linking the harbour to St Austell by means of a horse-drawn tramway that hauled china clay from the quarries on St Austell moor and tin from the Polgooth mines for shipment from Pentewan. Coal was shipped in and transported to the mines and (later) to the St Austell gasworks. In 1874, the engineer John Barraclough Fell replaced the tramway with a narrow gauge railway. This operated until 1918, when the rails and locomotives were requisitioned by the War Office. The Pentewan Railway was almost entirely a mineral line, but did occasionally transport passengers on special excursions. A Sunday school outing was described by A. L. Rowse in his memoir A Cornish Childhood. Part of the old railway line, from London Apprentice to Pentewan, is now a footpath and cycle path.

Mines and quarries

Pentewan stone

Pentewan Quarry was the source of a fine building stone, a variety of elvan. Many medieval churches in Cornwall, including those at Botusfleming, Duloe, Fowey, Golant, Gorran, Lostwithiel, Mevagissey, St Austell, and St Columb Major, were wholly or partly constructed out of the stone, as were some later buildings such as the eighteenth century Antony House. In 1985 blocks of Pentewan stone were recovered from the beach near the quarry to restore St Austell church.

Tin mining

'Happy-Union', a stream work for tin, was opened near Pentewan in 1780 and was worked down the valley towards the sea. A second working, 'Wheal Virgin', went up the valley. The tin streamers considered both to be places where "the old men had been", since they uncovered charcoal ashes, human remains, and bones of animals "of a different description from any now known in Britain". John William Colenso (father of the bishop of the same name) invested his capital into these workings but the speculation proved to be ruinous when the investment was lost following a sea flood. The Happy-Union closed in 1837, Wheal Virgin around 1874.

History

The Domesday Book and the Manor of Pentewan

Pentewan was originally known as 'Lower Pentewan', 'Higher Pentewan' being a separate and earlier settlement to the south-west of the village, centred on Barton Farm.

Second World War

A pill box was erected in the harbour and the beach mined as part of the dragon's teeth anti-tank defences. and an air raid on the port in August 1942 destroyed the Methodist chapel and damaged several houses.

Natural history

Pentewan was probably once visited by grey whales (Eschrichtius robustus) as two of the seven known European grey whale fossils were found here. The grey whale prefers shallow seas and the shallow sea over the continental shelf of the South Western Approaches is one of the widest in north-western Europe. The first grey whale to be seen in the Atlantic in centuries was sighted in 2010. The Northwest Passage was then ice-free apparently allowing a grey whale from the Pacific to reach Europe. More whales are likely to follow. In 2005 a proposal was made to reintroduce them to Pentewan.

The submerged forest of Pentewan is another interesting part of its past natural history. This forest was submerged so quickly that oysters are now found fastened to its tree stumps.

The village today

Since 1945, Pentewan has been dominated by the large 'Pentewan Sands' caravan and camping site that covers much of the beach to the west. The village itself contains the Ship Inn (owned by the St Austell Brewery), a post office, and several shops. Pentewan Board School, designed and built in 1877/78 by Silvanus Trevail, is now a restaurant. Many of the older buildings, as well as the harbour, are constructed out of Pentewan stone. Some – including All Saints Church, completed in 1821 – were built by Sir Christopher Hawkins as part of his long campaign to improve the village. A former village pub was named The Hawkins Arms, but has now been converted to a guest house called 'Piskey Cove'. Tourism is the only substantial industry remaining in the village. Session guitarist Tim Renwick is a Pentewan resident.

Cornish wrestling

Cornish wrestling tournaments have been held in Pentewan for many centuries; there is a recorded tournament in Pentewan in 1302.

References

References

1. Ordnance Survey: Landranger map sheet 204 ''Truro & Falmouth'' {{ISBN. 978-0-319-23149-4
2. (11 December 2020). "Cornwall Industrial Settlements Initiative | Historic Cornwall".
3. "Pentewan Railway 2 Information and Photographs". Aditnow.co.uk.
4. "The Clay Trails of Cornwall". Claytrails.co.uk.
5. Cox, J. Charles (1912) ''Cornwall'' (County Churches). London: G. Allen & Company, p. 10
6. Ashurst, John & Dimes, Francis G., eds. (1998) ''Conservation of Building and Decorative Stone''; 2nd ed. Oxford; Woburn, Mass.: Butterworth-Heinemann {{ISBN. 0-7506-3898-2; p. 53
7. Colenso, J. W. (1828) "A description of the Happy-Union tin stream work at Pentuan", in: ''Trans. Royal Geological Soc. Cornwall''; no. 3 & 4, pp. 29–39
8. In 1086, Higher Pentewan was listed in the [[Domesday Book]] as the [[Manorialism. Manor]] of 'Bentewoin', one of many Cornish manors held by [[Robert, Count of Mortain. Robert, Comte de Mortain]]. It was subsequently held by the families of Pentire, Roscarrock, Dart, and Robartes (the [[Earl of Radnor. Earls of Radnor]]), then by Sir [[Sir James La Roche, 1st Baronet. James La Roche]], the [[Member of Parliament. MP]] for [[Bodmin (UK Parliament constituency). Bodmin]] (1768–80), and (in 1792) by the Rev. [[Henry Hawkins Tremayne]] of nearby [[Heligan]].[[Fortescue Hitchins. Hitchins, F.]] (1824) ''The History of Cornwall'', p. 474
9. (2 August 2005). "WW2 People's War – A childhood in Pentewan and the bombs seemed to follow me". BBC.
10. "WW2 People's War – "When Bombs Fell" – The air-raids on Cornwall during WW2 : Part 6 – 1942 (complete year)". BBC.
11. (1979). "The North-West European Shelf Seas: The Sea Bed and the Sea in Motion I. Geology and Sedimentology". Elsevier Oceanography Series.
12. (2012-12-02). "Atlantic Gray Whales in: The Gray Whale: ''Eschrichtius Robustus: Eschrichtius Robustus''". Academic Press.
13. (1936). "Recent and older finds of the California grey whale in the Atlantic.". Temminckia.
14. (27 September 2013). "Big freighter traverses Northwest Passage for 1st time". Reuters.
15. (19 April 2011). "Gray whale (''Eschrichtius robustus'') in the Mediterranean Sea: anomalous event or early sign of climate-driven distribution change?". Marine Biodiversity Records.
16. (2011). "The Northwest Passage opens for bowhead whales". Biol. Lett..
17. (2000). "The south-eastern North Sea: losses of vertebrate fauna during the past 2000 years.". Biological Conservation.
18. (18 July 2005). "US whales may be brought to UK.".
19. (1999). "The 'Submerged Forest' palaeosols of Cornwall". Geoscience in South-west England.
20. Malcolm Surl. "Schools designed by Silvanus Trevail". Luxsoft.demon.co.uk.
21. Tripp, Mike: ''Cornish Wrestling: A History'', Federation of Old Cornwall Societies (Cornwall) 2023, p. 19.
22. Eyre Roll, 1302: National Archives (Kew), JUST 1/117A, membrane 54d [crown pleas, hundred of Powder].