Welcome to the Cornwall Tourism Magazine - Towns in Cornwall - Newlyn page.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Cornwall Tourism Magazine - Newlyn.

 

Newlyn is a small town and fishing port located on the shores of Mounts Bay, just to the south of Penzance. Although it is a town in its own right , today it really forms part of the extremities of nearby Werrytown which is itself an urban extension of Penzance. Newlyn also hold the title of being England's most southerly town, although there are other settlements further to the south so I guess it depends on your definition of a town. It has a very long association with fishing so it is no surprise to know that today, fishing is still its biggest industry, but it also attracts a fair number of visitors because it is a very pretty town and being on the sea front, offers stunning views and everything that goes with a working fishing port and it also has a long history and was at one point,one of the most important towns in southern Cornwall. From a visitors perspective, it has a nice harbour, lots of Victorian and older buildings with narrow streets and is very popular with boat owners due to its protected harbour area. And given the stormy nature of the sea in that area, this is a very necessary element. So in many ways Newlyn is the classic seaside fishing port and is well worth a visit.

 

 

Newlyn's history.

 

The name Newlyn is an evolution of the Cornish word Lulyn which means a " pool for a fleet of boats ". The relevance of this is that the bay Newlyn, Penzance, Marazion and St Michael's Mount are located in is also known as Gwavas Lake which probably goes back to Neolithic times when the sea levels were a little lower than today and the bay would have been a tidal lake, almost like a lagoon in effect. Indeed when the tide goes out on the Marazion side, you can walk all the way to St Michael's Mount and further along the beach without getting your feet wet so you can see where the lake analogy comes from. Newlyn was first recorded as being called Nulyn back in 1278 and as Lulyn in 1292 so some where along the line, the two names were merged and Newlyn was the adopted name. But it was a settlement long before that as it belonged, along with Penzance, to the Manor of Alverton which was the manor of a Saxon Lord called Alward as recorded in the Domesday Book of 1086. After the Norman invasion, the Manor of Alverton passed to Robert, Count of Mortain who was William the Conquerors ( William 1st ) half brother. We also know that the Manor of Alverton was also very influential in the development of Penzance so it is very likely that it helped in the development of Newlyn as well and as mentioned above, we know Newlyn was definitely around in the 13th Century.

 

How Newlyn came about.

 

It is very likely that due to Gwavas Lake and the shallow beach areas back in the medieval period, Newlyn became a fishing port because it was very easy to land fishing boats on its shores and as all the landing rights and other property in the Newlyn area were owned by the Manor of Alverton, the ongoing income potential of this would have been pushed by the owners of the manor. In addition, it was protected from the worse of the seas anger by the large sea lake and it quickly became a very popular place for the fishermen to land their boats and this lead to its importance as a fishing port. A dedicated harbour was built up over a period of time and Newlyn was first recorded as a harbour in 1435. The harbour area was further expanded and turned Newlyn into the main fishing port in Mounts Bay. Although there was a small scale fishing industry all around Mounts Bay, Newlyn prominence meant that most of the catches were landed there and thus its success was guaranteed.

 

The expansion.

 

Up until the early 19th Century, the name of Newlyn only applied to the actual harbour area, not the settlement behind it, which was known as Streetanowan, ( this is where the current fish market is located today ). There was also an area known as Newlyn Town though because Streetanowan is recorded as being separated from "Newlyn Town" at high tide. Newlyn Town was located where the lower part of the modern harbour is located today. Newlyn is actually an amalgamation of three small hamlets that were all, at one time, separated by bodies of water. These being Tolcarne, Street-an-Nowan and Trewarveneth, so you can see where the name Streetanowan came from, however, the stretches of water between the three hamlets disappeared over time as the land was reclaimed and eventually they all merged into a single settlement.

 

Newlyn and Paul.

 

Newlyn also had a very strong association with the nearby small town of Paul which was also the local parish church is located and the villagers used to climb Newlyn Cliff to go to Paul through an area which is now known as Gwavas, to worship at Paul Church. In fact, up until the 1950's, an ancient stone cross stood on this route at Park an Grouse which translates to The Field of the Cross. However,this cross wasn't related to a Christian site, it was actually a homage to a Cornish Fairy called Bucca, who according to 19th Century Cornish folklore, was supposed to be a spirit that lived in the mines and coastal areas and took the form of a hobgoblin who would bring on storms. However, Bucca goes much further back in time than that and it is believed that he/she was actually an ancient pagan deity of the sea. But as with all things folklore related, this is disputed and rumour has it that the term Bucca actually relates to a pagan deity called Puca which is itself an abbreviation of the name of a deity called Pwca who originated from Scandinavia.

 

Pagans deities ...don't you just love them.

 

See, nothing is ever straightforward when it comes to folklore and it doesn't end there either. Evidently there were two Bucca's. A white Bucca called Bucca Widn who was, you guessed it, the good Bucca and a black Bucca called Bucca Dhuc who was responsible, amongst other things, for storms and the wind. In Penzance for example, it was customary to refer to storms that came from the south west as Bucca calling and sailors and the fishermen believed that they could hear Bucca's voice in the wind during storms. This is very likely related to the tail of the Sirens who according to legend where Mermaids who would draw ships and their crew onto rocks ( and their deaths ), with their irresistible voices.

 

Other Bucca legends.

 

Well we are not sure about that, but there are other legends associated with Bucca, one being that he/she was also a fertility deity in a more general sense and completely unrelated to the sea. However, as with many folklore deities, it is very likely that Bucca was not a single entity, but an amalgamation of a number of separate ones who have, over the millennia, been merged into a single one. Bucca is also used as a nickname for people who live in Newlyn, but whatever the truth about the origins, the Bucca cross has completely disappeared and its location is unknown, except that Bucca was also associated with the witch's coven of Ros An Bucca so maybe they have the cross?

 

Spanish raiders in the 16th Century.

 

The Spanish raided and destroyed Newlyn along with Penzance, Mousehole and Paul in 1595. Also known as The Battle of Cornwall, the 1595 raid was part of the Anglo-Spanish war that raged between 1585 - 1604. Led by a Spanish naval Commander called Carlos de Amésquita, three companies of men ( around 400 solider's ) with four war galleys arrived in Mounts Bay on 2nd November 1595 and proceeded to sack and destroy the nearby settlement of Mousehole.They then set sail again and landed between Penzance and Newlyn and attacked both settlements. On seeing the Spanish raiding party, the local militia who were employed to guard and protect Penzance, dropped their weapons and fled leaving the raid virtually unopposed.

 

A dozen good men.

 

Only one small group of 12 soldiers led by Francis Godolphin, Deputy Lord Lieutenant of Cornwall offered any kind of resistance, however, they stood no chance against the 400 Spanish raiders and once they were incapacitated, the raiders marched into Penzance and then ransacked it and destroyed Newlyn and Paul. Carlos de Amésquita also took a number of cannon from the various defenses as well as bombarding Penzance from his ships causing the destruction of over 400 houses. he then left all the prisoners ashore and fled back towards Northern France to avoid two English Fleets sent against him.

 

A battle with a Dutch Fleet.

 

On the way back on 5th August Amézquita ran into a Dutch squadron of 46 ships and after a battle, he sunk two of the Dutch ships and damaged a large number of the others, but being heavily outnumbered, his ships had also suffered significant damage and he had also lost over 20 men dead and a much larger number wounded so he stopped off at Penmarch in northern France, just down the coast from Brest, to repair his ships and then finally arrived back at Port Louis which further along the French coast by Lorient and also his original point of departure, on the 10th August. Carlos de Amésquita was an excellent soldier and commander and the fact that he took on 46 Dutch ships with just four of his own, shows you the character of the man. Also his raid on Penzance, Newlyn and Mousehole also shows his skill as a soldier and although he was greatly aided by a British turncoat called Richard Burley from Weymouth, to attack the Cornwall coast near to Falmouth and Plymouth where two English Fleets were based with just 400 men and 4 ships shows great audacity and courage. It also shows the vulnerability of Cornwall to attack which explains the great fear of a Spanish invasion during that whole period.

 

The Mayflower arrives in Newlyn.

 

A little known historic fact is that the Mayflower which took the first settlers to America arrived at Newlyn in 1620 to take on water. It had already stopped at Plymouth for water,however that water turned out to be contaminated so it stopped at Newlyn to replace the dodgy cargo and thus,Newlyn was the last place the Mayflower stopped in England before it sailed to America and eventually landed at Cape Cod on the US eastern seaboard. Today, there is a small plaque on the quay at Newlyn dedicated to a Mr Bill Best-Harris who was the historian who's research uncovered this fact. The Mayflower took 102 passengers and its 30 crew members to America to begin the Colony of Virginia.

 

The 18th Century Tsunami.

 

On the 1st November 1755, there was a massive earthquake about 120 miles out in the Atlantic off the Portuguese coast to the south west of Cape St Vincent. The earthquake was of a magnitude of between 8.5 - 9 on the MMS scale, which compares to the 2011 Japanese earthquake which had a magnitude of 8.9.,making it one of the most powerful earthquakes in Europe and just like the Japanese earthquake of 2011, a huge Tsunami was created that virtually destroyed Lisbon and most of the coastal settlements in and around the Algarve region killing in excess of 60,000 people. The Tsunami was over 60 ft tall and came as three separate waves, also hit the shores of Moroccan and the African West coast further south and caused huge destruction and lost of life over a huge area. The earthquake was also felt all over Europe as far north as Finland and waves of 40 ft also hit the Caribbean. But it didn't stop there.

 

A 10ft Tsunami hits Mounts Bay.

 

The Tsunami also travelled over 600 miles to the shores of Cornwall and hit Newlyn and Mounts Bay with a series of waves that were over 10 ft tall. Although, it was not as bad as the 60 ft waves that hit Portugal, Spain and North Africa, the 10ft Tsunami still caused substantial damage and loss of life along the Cornish Coast and all but washed Newlyn away. Whilst a 10 ft wall of water doesn't sound that bad, it was a surge of water that lasted almost 10 hours in duration and as the coastal area along Mounts Bay is actually quite flat and low in level, the wave surged inland to a distance of up to 20 miles in some places so the destruction was enormous and would have compared with the flooding seen in Japan in 2011 and the Indian Ocean Tsunami on Boxing Day in 2004. The Lisbon earthquake was, until the 2004 Boxing Day earthquake in the Indian Ocean, the most destructive earthquake in recorded history and globally killed in excess of 200,000 people and also displaced nearly 250,000 people in Europe and Africa.

 

Yeah, but when is the next one due?

 

The 1755 Lisbon earthquake occurred along the Azores-Gibraltar Transform Fault which is the boundary between the African and Eurasian continental plates and runs westward from Gibraltar out into the Atlantic. It has been quite active over the last 1000 years and has been responsible for a number of other earthquakes that hit Lisbon before 1755, including eight in the 14th century, five in the 16th century including one in 1531 that destroyed over 1,500 houses and another one in 1597 that caused three streets to completely vanish without a trace. It caused another three in the 17th century and a series of earthquakes between 1720 and 1750 before the really big one in 1755. As can be seen, there has been a lot of teutonic activity along the Azores-Gibraltar Transform Fault and although this has died down a lot since the 1755 earthquake, by looking at the pattern of earthquake related activity over the last 800 years, the possibility of another big one cannot be ruled out. However, as major earthquakes on the scale of the 1755 one are very rare, the likelihood of a huge wave hitting the Mounts Bay shore line any time soon is pretty remote, but given the nature of earthquakes along teutonic fault lines under the sea, we can never say never especially as Tsunamis have a habit of catching us out and are also unstoppable. Makes you wonder doesn't it?

 

 

Newlyn in more recent times.

 

Newlyn harbour is the largest fishing port in the UK and this reflects its long dependency on the fishing industry. Its major source of income during the 19th and mid 20th Centuries was Pilchards and Newlyn was perhaps the largest catchers of Pilchards in Cornwall up until the1960's. PIlchards were a major source of income for many fishing ports in Cornwall during he mid 19th Century onwards, but just as with Newlyn, the Pilchard eventually lost its importance in the mid 20th Century and many fishing communities effectively ceased to exist after the 1960's. However, a number of vessels have resumed pilchard fishing again from Newlyn and now use a modern version of the ring net which enables them to catch more fish and thus make Pilchard fishing a viable option again. There are also fishing vessels in Newlyn who focus on Lobster and Crab fishing which is a sector which continues to grow and ensures that Newlyn will remain a fishing port for the foreseeable future. In addition, its sheltered harbour is also very popular with boat owners and you will find many boats moored there throughout the year.

 

Riots over fish being landed on a Sunday.

 

On the 18th May 1896, Newlyn was the scene of a series of riots that lasted for three days between Methodist and Non-Conformist religious groups and outsiders over fish being landed on a Sunday, the Sabbath. Most if not all of the Newlyn fishermen practiced a ban on not landing fish on the Sabbath, however, as Newlyn attracted fishermen from all around the UK and a large number of non-Cornish fishing crews came from Lowestoft who did not recognise the ban of landing fish on Sundays. The Lowestoft fishermen would often land their fish on a Sunday because they could obtain a higher price for their catch than if they landed it on a weekday and this created a conflict between the two sides that erupted on 18th May 1896 when around 40 Newlyn fishermen, supported by a mob of nearly a thousand others, boarded the boats of the Lowestoft fishermen and destroyed their catch.

 

The riots begin.

 

After seizing 16 boats and destroying their catches ( records state that around 100,000 Mackerel were thrown overboard ) the Newlyn fishermen then send messages to other fishing communities ( St Ives, nearby Mousehole and Porthleven ) to intercept the non-Cornish fishing boats off their own shores ( around 1 00 in total ) to stop them landing their catches. However, within minutes of the riots starting, messages were also sent to local Police stations asking for assistance and reinforcements and by mid morning a large number of Police from all over Cornwall had arrived and were formed up in the town. The Newlyn Harbour Master also sent out a small steamer to warn the 100 non-Cornish fishing boats about what was happening and this was chased by a Newlyn Trawler. By Mid-afternoon things took a turn for the worst when the Porthleven fishing fleet arrived to support the Newlyn fisherman and on the next day, a full scale riot began.

 

The riots expand to Penzance and the army are called in.

 

On the 19th May, the local fishermen and the Police were involved in a number of violent skirmishes around Newlyn harbour with injuries being sustained on both sides. As the riots were erupting in Newlyn, the 100non-Cornish fishing trawlers still out at sea made for Penzance to land their catches and on learning this, around 300 Newlyn fisherman and their supporters made for Penzance to attack the Lowestoft crews but were met on the outskirts by a detachment of the Penzance Borough Police who were also supported by a large group of youths from Penzance and the size of the resistance against them, forced the fisherman to retreat back to Newlyn. BY now, the size of the riots had become almost unmanageable so the Army were called in and 400 soldiers from the Royal Berkshire regiment arrived that afternoon at Penzance railway station and awaited orders.

 

Things get serious.

 

It had been hoped that the arrival of an army regiment at Penzance would quell the riots, but this didn't happen and that evening, a huge riot broke out between the Newlyn, Porthleven and St Ives fishermen and the Penzance fishermen supported by the Lowestoft fishermen. The Police tried to intervene, however, they themselves were beaten back and then called in the army. The soldiers immediately made for Newlyn supported by around 300 Penzance fishermen and when they reached Newlyn bridge they met with some resistance, however, the Newlyn men stood no chance against a professional army and were quickly overwhelmed and the army then took possession of the Harbour and Piers. In addition, the Navy has sent HMS Ferret into Newlyn harbour which was a torpedo boat destroyer and made it very clear that if the Newlyn men and the others didn't cease their activities, their fishing boats would all be sunk. This effectively stopped the rioting in its tracks and by midnight, everyone had dispersed.

 

What was it really about?

 

It is only when you read contemporary reports from the time that you see that rather than being about breaking the Sabbath, it was more about the Newlyn fishermen's income. By the Lowestoft fishing crews landing their catches on the Sunday, their catch would have been the first fish sold on the Monday morning fish markets and as such they were able to command a higher price than the catches sold on the Tuesdays which would have been landed by the Newlyn fishermen, so we think the religious politics were used mainly as a smokescreen to draw the other fishing settlements in to support the Newlyn men. Territorialism was also involved. Cornish fishermen considered the fish stocks around Cornwall as being theirs and the Lowestoft fishermen as trespassers so the riots probably the result of long standing anger over outsiders taking away livelihoods, but given that Newlyn was the largest fishing port in the UK, it is hardly surprising that outsiders would want to land their catches there. The prices would be a lot higher than elsewhere for one thing and everyone wanted the highest prices for their catch, but the Newlyn men wanted it both ways as in, they get the highest prices but they only wanted their fish to be sold at the markets. Of course this was unrealistic and the riots didn't solve anything except get a few Newlyn fishermen arrested and convicted.

 

 

Newlyn in World War 2.

 

During the 2nd World War ( 1939- 1945 ), Newlyn was an important Air Sea Rescue base for fighter and bomber pilots and crews who were shot down or had to bail out over the channel due to damage sustained on bombing mission over Europe and the Air Sea rescue craft saved many airman's lives. The harbour was also bombed by the Luftwaffe during the war and the Germans hit a coal collier called the Greenhithe. They didn't sink it though and the crew beached the ship in the harbour. However, the Germans said on their Germany Calling propaganda broadcast, run by the infamous Lord Haw-Haw, that the Luftwaffe had sunk a British cruiser in Newlyn harbour. But as a collier which carried coal and a Royal Navy heavy Cruiser looked completely different in every way and there is no way you can mistake one against the other, the German bomber squadrons either got it wrong or exaggerated or the German Ministry of Propaganda simply , which was not unknown in those days. But whatever the reason, all they did was damage a coal ship which then beached and most of its cargo was salvaged. The Luftwaffe also bombed Roskilly Beach in 1942, but only very slightly damaged seven houses and blasted a few electricity cables. There were a few other bombs dropped on the area as well and in total, around 70 houses were damaged by bombing in Newlyn during World War 2.

 

 

Artists.

 

In the late 19th Century Newlyn became famous for its Newlyn School and Artists' Colony which included important painters such as Thomas Cooper Gotch, Albert Chevallier Tayler and Henry Scott Tuke. The largest collection of work done by the painters at Newlyn School is held in the Penlee House Gallery today which is located in Penzance and they have a collection of Newlyn Copper's work on display that was produced between 1890 - 1920. Newlyn also has its own gallery, the Newlyn Art Gallery which houses a collection of modern art that is well worth seeing. It is not hard to see why Artists were attracted to Newlyn, being a busy fishing port and by the sea would have given them lots of compositions to work from and they only had to go out a few miles in those days to be right out in the countryside and whist you couldn't really call Newlyn a " little Bohemia "in those days, the Artist Colony definitely added to its rich tapestry. I just wonder how the hard fishermen took to them. It would have made for some interesting dynamics I think.

 

 

Newlyn today.

 

Today, Newlyn is still an important fishing port and you can often see many trawlers and fishing boats in the inner and outer harbour's, but it is also a very popular holiday destination with its small narrow streets, small fisherman's houses and of course the harbour area. Whilst it is not quite the same size as Falmouth, the harbour is very popular with boat owners due to its protection from the outer harbour wall which provides very still water, even when the seas are running very high. And whilst the harbour area is not suitable for swimming, there are a couple of beaches nearby, but the reason most people go to Newlyn is because it is like stepping back in time, in the architectural sense and you really get a feel for what it must have been like living there in the 18th and 19th Centuries. So if you are in the area, we recommend you definitely come and visit Newlyn.

 

 

 

 

 

Towns in Cornwall - by map.

 

Please use the map to locate the town of your choice and click on the appropriate icon and link which will take you to the relevant towns page where you can find out about its history, what to do and see there, local villages, images and other interesting items and facts. Alternatively, you can use the manual selection section below where we have alphabetically listed most of the major towns in Cornwall in their appropriate region. To use it, just click on a Town name button and the link will take you to its relevant page.

 

Using the map.

 

To locate a town, please put your curser on the map face, left click your mouse and then use it to move a scroll around the map. The towns will all have a small white balloon icon so when you wish to view a town page, left click on the towns icon, and then click on the link that will appear with the towns name on it. You will then be taken to the towns relevant page. You will find the map on all town pages so if you want to look up another town, just locate it on the map and click on the appropriate icon as described here.

 

Map of Cornwall - Click on the balloon icon link to a town and click on the link when it opens.

 

 

 

 

 

 

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