Fowey
Ali Wood explores southern Cornwall’s beauty spot, a harbour town steeped in history
Pilotage guide to Fowey
There are few harbours in Britain where you get a cruise liner anchoring amongst Cornish gigs, a Russian ship loading china clay, and the BBC filming Poldark. Welcome to Fowey Harbour – where multitasking is all in a day’s work. Even the harbourmaster doubles as the pilot, managing to park 150m ships while policing the waters.
This south Cornwall harbour sees 300 ships a year and 7,000 leisure boats, yet for somewhere so busy, it’s surprisingly quaint. The town of Fowey on the west bank is a maze of whitewashed fishermen’s cottages and narrow streets, and the estuary beyond a stretch of idyllic wooden creeks that inspired Kenneth Grahame’s The Wind in the Willows.
‘There is nothing – absolutely nothing – half so much worth doing as simply messing about in boats,’ says Ratty to Mole in chapter one of the beloved children’s book. Having explored the Fowey estuary by kayak, I have to say I agree, so am delighted to see it again with the harbourmaster, Captain Paul Thomas.
It’s a glorious bank holiday, and it seems everyone under the age of 10 is out crabbing off Albert Quay. People complain, Paul tells me, but he ignores them. ‘It’s nice to see kids having fun,’ he says. ‘The crabs spend all day going up and down but they’ve got choosy about their bait.’
The kids move their buckets aside for us to climb aboard the launch and a minute later we’re on the water, motoring towards the harbour entrance. On the cliff above Readymoney Cove is the pretty Italianate villa, Point Neptune. The property belongs to Dawn French but it has another claim to fame; the ornate iron gates are referred to in the famous opening lines of Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier. The novelist lived in the coach house opposite but later moved to Menabilly on Gribbin Head, which features in some of her books, including Rebecca and My Cousin Rachel.
You can walk to Menabilly from Readymoney Cove, passing St Catherine’s Castle which marks the entrance to the harbour. Built as part of Henry VIII’s south coast defences, the fort was again used to defend the harbour during World War II.
Before the castle, the harbour was defended by two blockhouses – one in Fowey and the other in Polruan – with a great chain stretched between them, which would be raised to keep out the French and Spanish. Fortunately, no such hazards threaten today’s shipping.
‘There’s nothing to concern a yacht,’ says Paul. ‘Small craft should avoid entering at half ebb with a gale force
southerly wind – you’ll find a standing sea which could be tricky, but apart from that there are no nasties, and there’s a sector light to guide you in.’
Out in the bay, a race is going on – there are maybe 50 yachts of various sizes, including the locally-built Troys.
Fowey has always been a busy port. From pre-Roman times until the 13th century, ships would visit to trade for the tin that was panned throughout Cornwall. It was also a key location for smuggling. ‘You can still see the metal stakes driven into the cliffs, which they used escape the revenue men,’ says Paul.
England became involved in a series of wars from 1739 onwards, and ships would regularly come in to ‘press’ men for the Navy. By the 19th century, the harbour was crowded with all sorts of ships, from men of war and East Indiamen to privateers and brigs supplying Nelson’s squadrons. In World War II, the docks were rebuilt so Fowey could serve as a base for the Air Sea Rescue service and a departure point for American Forces on D-Day.
We head back along the eastern side of the harbour, passing Punches Cross, a white wooden cross on the rocks. ‘Up at the top you can see the ruins of a monastery,’ says Paul. ‘There are lots of theories about the cross, but I believe the monks put it there to mark the harbour limits so they could collect their dues.’
Near the cross, Paul points out a lateral mark that indicates Lamp Rock. If you find yourself this side of the channel, don’t hug it too closely, he advises, as the rock extends further underwater.
Tucked behind Polruan blockhouse are two pretty beaches, known locally as boys’ cove and girls’ cove. The kids from the school at Polruan used to swim here, but for decorum’s sake had separate coves. You can still swim here today, but if you’re not arriving by boat you have to scramble over the rocks from the blockhouse.
Polruan school children still consider it a rite of passage to swim in the harbour. Before they go to secondary school, they take part in an organised swim from
Polruan to Fowey. ‘There’s not a lot of love lost between Polruan and Fowey,’ Paul says. ‘Polruaners say Fowey is the money side and they’re the sunny side, and Fowey folk call Polruan Little Russia as it can be very cold in the mornings.’
We head past a row of blue visitor moorings towards Pont Pill, where you find visitor pontoons 1 and 2. The Swinging Ground at the entrance to the creek is where they turn the big ships. Occasionally, Paul will find a visiting yacht anchored here and have to wake the skipper at dawn. ‘We don’t encourage people to anchor in the harbour; they tend to go in inconvenient places,’ says Paul. ‘The spot might seem sensible, but we’ll have left it clear to swing a ship.’
That said, Paul agrees there are nice places for a bilge-keeler to anchor upriver towards Lerryn and Lostwithiel. Just talk to the harbour office first, as there are salmon fishing nets and it’s useful to know the channel and how it moves.
We continue up the estuary past Bodinnick where Paul points out Ferryside, the house that used to belong to Daphne du Maurier’s family. Her son Kits now lives there, and waves to us from his garden.
The cottage is built into the cliffs and only has three walls. It was here that Daphne du Maurier wrote her first novel, The Loving Spirit, though she never lived in the house. Instead, she stayed with her housekeeper on the other side of the river, it being considered incorrect in those days for a young lady to live alone.
On the western bank on the river is the new self-service fuel pontoon. Just ahead of that, by the swinging ground, are two large wharves where the ships load the china clay. The cargo is brought here by rail and by a private haul road linking to the operations in Par. A little-known fact, Paul tells me, is that the Queen uses that stretch of railway on the Royal Train. ‘It’s a beautiful railway. They’d stop the clay trains, and she’d park up on the river St Winnow for her breakfast.’
Wiseman’s Reach is the limit of the lower estuary, but before we head back
towards Albert Quay, Paul shows me Penmarlam pontoon, a peaceful shorelinked pontoon in Mixtow, which is very sheltered and has showers and toilets.
‘The café here is an absolute sunspot,’ he says. ‘You can have a drink or a meal here, or walk the dog across the fields to the pub at Bodinnick, and not worry too much about other people.’
Just outside of Mixtow Pill on the river is visitor pontoon number 6, known as the Grid Irons. It’s also a sheltered place to moor, with a footpath from the shore into Bodinnick (though you’ll need your tender or a water taxi to get ashore).
As we return to Albert Quay, I find myself chuckling at Paul’s stories. There was the occasion his colleague had to twice stop a beautiful woman from skinny-dipping off pontoon number 5 (it’s too dangerous to swim in the river, other than at Readymoney Cove or the beach off the Esplanade). Another time, during the filming of Poldark, he noticed they’d chopped the blade off the paddle belonging to the actor Aiden Turner to make it easier for him!
Even today, the BBC is out filming. This time it’s for the antiques show Flog It! There’s a scene about boatbuilding at Peter William’s yard and later, Paul tells me they’ll be filming presenter Paul Martin rowing with the Fowey River Gig Club.
Presumably, this is a busy day for Paul, but he shakes his head. Today is quiet. Tomorrow he’s expecting the Silver Whisper, a 140m cruise ship on her circumnavigation of Britain. ‘She looks absolutely stunning when she’s in port. She’ll drop two anchors, then some passengers will go ashore to Fowey, while others will be bussed to the Eden Project.’
It’s clear Paul is fond of every vessel he welcomes into Fowey, whether a rowing boat or a ship. In fact, he says the leisure side is increasingly important. ‘You never know how long the commercial side is going to last. The shipping is almost exclusively to do with the clay, and we’re working hard to find different cargoes to bring through.’
Fortunately, the leisure side shows no sign of slowing. With its historic villages, tranquil moorings and romantic creeks, Fowey Harbour really is a special place. Where else can you watch Poldark, be inspired by Daphne du Maurier and eat breakfast downriver of the Queen?