North Cornwall is a smash hit
As new movie Fisherman’s Friends fuels the county’s feelgood factor . . .
ESTATE agents may be crying into their coffee cups at the sluggish state of the property market in the rest of Britain, but in North Cornwall they are expecting a bumper summer. Why? Because later this year the final series of Poldark is to hit our television screens and the film Fisherman’s Friends was released last week. The story of the shanty singers from Port Isaac, who rose from performing in the pub to becoming the first traditional folk act to have a top-ten album, is set to do wonders for house sales.
‘Whenever there’s a series of Poldark, I get buyers looking for mean and moody farmhouses on Bodmin Moor,’ says Clare Coode of Stacks property search. ‘With Fisherman’s Friends, I anticipate requests for cute little cottages overlooking the harbour.’
Of course, many buyers are already familiar with the narrow streets of Port Isaac, thanks to the Doc Martin TV series, which has been running since 2004.
They know every inch of the steep hill leading down past the 18th-century Golden Lion pub and the dog-leg turn before The Platt — the area adjacent to the beach — where the fishermen land their catch and where much of the action in the series has taken place.
The Port Isaac captured on screen is heartwarming, but what is it like to live there? Someone who should know is lobster fisherman, Jeremy Brown, one of Fisherman’s Friends singers.
‘It’s a wonderful place for children,’ says Jeremy, 58, whose family have lived in Port Isaac for five generations. ‘They have the valley where they can run free and climb trees, as well as the harbour for sailing. The schools are good and there’s Wadebridge, eight miles away, for the cinema and sports teams.’ HOLIDAY cottages can bring in a good return. The four-bedroom Rose Cottage on Dolphin Street, in Port Isaac, was for sale for £515,000 last summer. It rented out for 26 weeks of the year, bringing in about £20,000.
A worry for retirees contemplating moving house is that they won’t be accepted by the locals — especially if the place has had an influx of tourists. Jeremy says it is not a problem in Port Isaac.
‘Newcomers can meet people in the village hall, where we put on coffee mornings and dances,’ he says. ‘The Lifeboat station is the hub of the community, then there’s the pub. We had a great singsong there for St Piran’s Day — our patron saint — and many of the new faces joined in singing Trelawney.’ The final Poldark series will spark interest in properties in North Cornwall film locations such as Bodmin, the Camel Estuary near Padstow and Porthcothan, near Newquay.
Many of the wild clifftop shots, with the thunderous sea as a backdrop, were filmed near Port Quin, where Epphaven House, which is for sale, feels like a part of the Poldarkian landscape.
This Twenties four-bedroom house stands in six acres of gardens, with its own path leading down to the rocky Epphaven beach. It’s on the market with Jackie Stanley ( jackie- stanley.co.uk) for £2.5 million. North Cornwall is undeniably pricey — particularly Rock, where TV chef Gordon Ramsay recently bought a house for £4.4 million (and knocked it down to build a holiday home); Polzeath, a favourite with surfers; and Trebetherick, where the homes usually stand on large plots. The Padstow side of the Camel Estuary, especially Constantine Bay, is much sought after and the arrival of the Pig Hotel chain at Harlyn Bay should make that area even more upmarket. But you will find better value east of Port Isaac and west of Newquay, as well as inland in pretty little villages such as St Merryn and Wadebridge, where house prices were 8 per cent up last year.
Mawgan Porth is now popular as it is just two miles from Newquay airport, which enables some to commute weekly to London. White Lodge is a two-bedroom apartment a short walk from Mawgan Porth beach, for sale with Charts Edge ( chartsedge.co.uk) for £390,000.
Is it time to pack your wetsuit?