Mevagissey

The name Mevagissey is derived from the names of two saints, St Meva and St Issey. The first record of this hamlet was in 1313, but there were local settlements as far back as the Bronze Age. Two Bronze Age burial urns were discovered at nearby Portmellon. The largest fishing village in St Austell Bay, Mevagissey was, like many Cornwall fishing villages, used for transporting pilchards as well as contraband. Once an important centre of the pilchard industry, in the 19th century catches of over 12,000 tons a year were landed here. The catching and processing of the fish employed nearly everyone in the village and, as well as smoking, salting and packing the fish, there were boatbuilders, net makers, rope makers, coopers and fish merchants. The need to process the catch within easy reach of the harbour created a labyrinth of buildings separated by steeply sloping alleyways. Some of these alleys were so narrow that the baskets of fish sometimes had to be carried on poles between people walking one behind the other.

Mevagissey’s Inner Harbour, as it appears today, dates from the 1770s, when an Act of Parliament of 1774 allowed the construction of the ‘new’ pier and jetties. The original pier, where the East Pier now stands, dated back as far as 1430. Many of the buildings around this area of the town date from the late 18th century when stone cottages and warehouses were built in place of the town’s original cob cottages. The Outer Harbour was built so that the size of the port could be increased to cater for the needs of the growing fishing fleets. However, it was destroyed in the Great Storm of 1891 and it was not finally finished until 1897.

If drinking in the atmosphere on the harbourside is not enough for you, the village offers an excellent museum, an aquarium displaying locally caught fish, a fine model railway exhibition, art galleries, shops, pubs and restaurants.

Mevagissey Museum is the village’s main attractions. The building has as much history as the exhibits inside: it was built in 1795 for the construction and repair of smugglers’ boats, and most of its roof beams were recycled from the revenue-dodgers’ old vessels. The museum has a broad collection of artefacts that cover not only the pilchard industry but also old agriculture machinery, a collection of 19th and 20th century photographs depicting village life and the story behind Pears soap. In 1789, Andrew Pears, a young Cornish barber, went to London where he began to groom the rich and influential. His customers’ complaints about the harshness of the available soap led Andrew to experiment and develop a softer soap that was more gentle on the skin - the still popular Pears soap.

Another attraction found close to the harbour is the World of Model Railways, which houses a fascinating display of some 2,000 models and over 30 trains; the detailed scenery through which the trains run is exceptional, and even includes local features such as the china clay hills, a Cornish tin mine and even the fabled Beast of Bodmin lurking in the shadows. A well-stocked model shop caters for everyone from the enthusiast to the complete beginner, and those interested in Thomas the Tank Engine will also not be disappointed.

The old RNLI lifeboat station that was built on the quayside in 1897 to allow for quick and easy launching has now become The Aquarium, amazingly admission is free but visitors are invited to make a donation - all the money being used to maintain the harbour. The lifeboat station closed in the 1930s after this original building had sustained regular and repeated storm damage.