Portreath from the past

The Harbour

The historical harbour of Portreath provides a focal point for family exploration. Commenced in 1760 as an outlet for the mining industry its basins were once filled with small sailing vessels.

This "Welsh Fleet" sailed regularly out of the narrow harbour entrance loaded to the gunwhales with rich copper ore destined for the smelting furnaces of Swansea. They returned with Welsh coal to fire the boilers of numerous steam-powered beam engines which clustered round local tin and copper mines.

Giants of the Industrial Revolution, then residing in the area, strode its quays - Richard Trevithick inventor of the high-pressure locomotive, William Murdock, the inventor of gas lighting and James Watt the engineer. Here too a seine-fishing company was established in 1800 and large wooden sailing vessels were constructed and launched. Today the huge sailing fleet and steam-powered coasters which followed have been replaced by small and colourful fishing vessels off-loading catches onto the quays.

Historical Railways
What other cove can boast of once having two railways? The need for an efficient transport system for the vast amounts of mineral ore and coal passing between the local mines and Portreath Harbour resulted in the building of the Portreath to Poldice tramway, in 1809. It was a horse-drawn railway and the first in Cornwall. Towering above the village is also the great incline of the Portreath branch of the Hayle Railway, erected in 1838. This too was a mineral line linking the mines of Camborne and Illogan with the harbour. A stationary steam engine once moved trucks up and down its steep face whilst its network of rails fanned out along the quaysides.

Today it is possible to follow the routes of both railways, the former a pleasant walk along the wooded tram-way in the sheltered valley leading to the cove.

The Basset Family As with many such communities Portreath grew from humble beginning's thanks in the main to the commercial activities of one family, in our case this was the Basset family.

This noble family, signatories to Magna Carta, came to Britain in the time of William the Conqueror and settled in Kent. Eventually part of the family settled at Tehidy near Portreath where in 1617 records show that land was leased from them. It was from this period the Basset's family influence on the area came to bear, recognising the value and potential that a working harbour would bring to the mines and industry in the area from as early as the 1700s so they set about building the harbour most of which can still be seen today.

Their continued investment was substantial over the next 100 years of so and brought prosperity to this little village. Portreath was the main harbour for exporting minerals and ore to South Wales and importing coal also from Wales to fuel the great steam engines used so substantially in the tin mines inland. Other industries at that time included fishing, shipbuilding, rope making, tin streaming. The port that the Bassets had the foresight to build is still active, nowadays used mainly by small boat owners and an intrepid group of inshore fishermen.