Directions to Caerhays Castle when the great shoals of Lime, sand & seaweed herring and pilchard arrived The two coves also served Caerhays Estate St Austell Cornwall off the Cornish coast. Farming as small harbours for the communities would then importing of the limestone have turned their attention that was burnt in great to taking a harvest from the stone kilns built in the early sea. In medieval times smoked East & West nineteenth century in each pilchards were exported to hamlet. The western of the Spain and Italy, but by the two kilns in East Portholland end of the Tudor period were Portholland has been removed (partly as apparently no longer being a result of the encroachment made, pilchards for export of the sea, but not before it then being simply cured and housed a public conenience) pressed in hogsheads, such while the eastern survives as was practiced in the cellar behind the cottages. Most immediately beside the lime easily seen now is the three- kiln. part kiln at West Portholland. The earliest kiln, that nearest Here a stone wall has a line the road, with an ‘eye’ on each of six sockets built to take From Truro: fi rst turning right From St Austell: fi rst turning end, was built in 1805 and the ends of beams which off the A390 after Grampound after the end of Sticker by- the two extensions towards were weighted at their other (signposted to Tregony and St pass (signposted to Tregony the sea, each with a further ends and pivoted on the lids Mawes) then follow signposts - B3287) turn right at fi rst eye, were not only put up but of loosely coopered barrels to Caerhays. junction and then follow had also been abandoned by or hogsheads into which signposts to Caerhays. around 1875. The alcove-like From St Mawes & King Harry pilchards had been packed; eyes were used for fi ring and Ferry: take right turning the pressure of the weighted From Mevagissey: head for emptying the large round from A3078 (signposted to beam squeezed out Gorran Churchtown and look stone or brick-lined ‘pots’ Veryan) and next turning left oil from the fi sh. for signpost to Caerhays at which widened as they rose signposted to Caerhays. Gorran High Lanes. to the top of the kilns and Admission in which the lime stone was Opening Dates placed in layers alternated Gardens Gardens Open with slow-burning fuel. The Adults £5.50 18th February to 1st June lime from the kilns would Children under 16 £2.50 10.00am - 5.00pm have been used in the local Children under 5 free 7 days a week building trade (in mortar, House (conducted tour only) (Last entry 4.00pm) plaster, etc) and also to Adults £5.50 House Open sweeten the acid soils of Children under 16 £2.50 local fi elds. 10th March to 30th May Children under 5 free 12.00am - 4.00pm Sea sand and seaweed Gardens & House Monday to Friday collected from the Adults £9.50 (inc bank holidays) beaches would also Children under 16 £3.50 Reservations have been carted away Children under 5 free recommended and applied to the fi elds. The resources of the sea, beaches and foreshore Caerhays were used in common, and unconstrained, by a range Castle & Gardens of local people, in the same way that those who make the Gorran, St Austell, Cornwall PL26 6LY fullest use of Portholland now, Tel: 01872 501310 / 501144 the visitors who come to relax, Email: estateoffi [email protected] play and fi sh on the beaches West Portholland lime kiln and rocks are not constrained. Supported by the Cornwall Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty – www.caerhays.co.uk Sustainable Development Fund’ East & West Portholland is likely that both valleys have of the lain from Polgrain, become silted and sanded up on the Ordnance Survey in the last few thousand years. map surveyed in 1879. Prehistoric people may have Little is documented about had to negotiate tidal creeks this building, but it may be running some way inland, signifi cant that its construction probably further at East followed the removal from Portholland. within the park of Caerhays Mill; perhaps the grain from Steep-sided valleys with the estate was brought down fast-running streams such as here for milling when the those running down to the park was improved after the two Porthollands are ideal for Williams family took over the establishing corn mills and estate. former mills survive in both. The oldest is that which lies about half a mile up the West Shingle, seaweed, sand and East Portholland in the early 20th century; note Portholland valley, Tretheake surf at West Portholland thatched roofs; allotment gardens and grazed cliffs Mill, to which tenants of ancient Tretheake manor Few coastal villages are as unspoilt as the example of the farmsteads Christian, East Portholland would have been obliged to that were once often found Wesleyan Methodist. In take their grain for grinding two Porthollands, arranged at the heads close to Cornish beaches. recent times, before they into fl our and meal. Its dried of adjacent sandy coves, at the feet of It contributes greatly to the were given up and converted, up mill pond lies immediately picturesquely functional upstream of the Penvose deep twisting valleys, and separated by a these chapels were largely Enjoying the peace at East character of West Portholland, under the control of certain turning and the substantial Portholland with anti-tank crumbling slatey headland. as do the massive limekiln and local families: the Guys and leat that brought water to the defences still in place. adjacent fi shing cellars and Trounces at West Portholland, mill’s overshot wheel can still boathouse. and the Kerkins at East be seen as a ditch and bank Defended beaches Lying mercifully beyond the Pengelly Farm, just yards from Portholland. below the Portholland road. reach of coaches, and under West Portholland beach, has During the Second World War the beaches were provided the conservative management been there since at least 1465. The tall three-storeyed of a thoughtful landowner, The name, from the Cornish Pengelly is a now rare example of the with defences against any building furthest upstream landing by Germans. An anti- they have not developed pen and kelly, means head of farmsteads that were once often found on the western side of the the standard paraphernalia the wood, suggesting that tank wall across the width of close to Cornish beaches valley in East Portholland the beach at West Portholland of most Cornish beaches. It trees rather than furze and was recorded as Portholland is easy to imagine historic bracken once covered the survives. At East Portholland Corn mill, with its mill race iron scaffolding poles were communities sheltering here steep slopes of the valley East Portholland, the larger running along the uphill side close to the occasionally running inland. With its fi ne Cliffs, creeks & mills used to create massive and of the two hamlets, is mainly complex structures across the raging sea as comfortably as stone barn and its Charolais Both Porthollands are residential now, but in West Portholland sands, again intended to stop do the present inhabitants. sheep, Pengelly is a now rare protected from the erosive Bible Christian chapel Victorian times it had a corn landing craft and tanks. mill, a lime kiln and a public power of the sea by strong house, The Cutter Inn. The concrete walls. The defences Fishing early nineteenth century also extend westwards from terrace housed many of East Portholland onto the Although there is limited the Caerhays estate’s farm more exposed headland evidence for recent use workers. Each Portholland has with its sloping slippery of the Porthollands for a non-conformist chapel, both slatestones, along the commercial fi shing, there is now converted to dwellings, midslope of which runs the no doubt that both would but both still dominating minor road that links the two once have served as bases their settlements. Each was villages. The boulder and for coastal fi shing, either as of a different denomination, concrete walls here regularly permanent settlements or serving rival strands of require repair, reminding as places used seasonally, non-conformism; that at us that little in this world is Pengelly Farmhouse, West West Portholland was Bible permanent. For example, it Portholland, early 20th century.