Polperro's Historic Harbor
Smuggler's Haven, Fishing Village, Romantic Cliffs and Pixies
Dec 4, 2007
If one were to dream up a romantic seaside town—complete with modern art galleries, charming restaurants, a working harbor, cliffside houses visited by terns and gulls and the intrepid owner or holiday-maker, and smuggler’s lore to make one’s hair stand on end—one could not do better than Polperro.
No more than fifteen miles or so from Plymouth, Polperro lies right on the English Channel and right off the A387. You can drive to it these days, but you’ll have to park at a “pay and display” car park at the top of a steepish hill. Residents can drive down, to offload or pick up, as can commercial vehicles. All others must walk, or take a ride on the quaint horse-drawn carriages departing frequently, during shop opening hours, from a terminal across from a restaurant also worth noting, the 14th century Crumplehorn Inn.
Buy a 'Piskie' for Luck
Walking down toward the water, there are shops selling typical seaside goods—salt water taffy and swimming gear, that latter to be used, possibly, at a small but lovely beach at the foot of the town. There are also shops selling crafts and a unique shop selling Cornish ‘piskies', or pixies as they are called across the Tamar River in Devon (and elsewhere in England’s southwest). You can buy a piskie for every sort of desire. Do you want to get rich? There’s a piskie for that. Do you want to get well? There’s a piskie for that, too. And for love. And success. And safety.
Smuggling First, Fishing Second
While the stroll to the harbor is romantic, offering charming houses and miniscule gardens as well as the shops, the harbor itself is the key to Polperro. First, it harbored smugglers. Even today, it isn’t difficult to see why. A stroll around either side of the harbor, deeply incised into the surrounding cliffs, brings with it a view of deep coves and caves where barrels of almost anything might be stashed. When John Wesley, early Methodist church leader and theologian, visited, he “remarked that all the locals were involved in smuggling,” according to the Cornwall Guide.
While it is unlikely smuggling has ever totally ceased—after all, the harbor can accommodate quite large boats, from the continent or anywhere, without benefit of a significant customs presence—fishing and fish processing became, some time after Wesley’s 1762 visit, an important source of income. According to The Literary Guide & Companion to Southern England, pilchards were landed in large quantities in the village. Pilchards are much like herring, a small, silvery fish that lends itself well to canning. Factories sprouted near the harbor, employing women and children in cleaning and salting the fish. Pilchards were also, according to the Guide, salted and cured “and then the oil was pressed from them using large screw presses” after which they were packed into barrels and shipped.
Today, fishermen still empty their holds on the quays in Polperro harbor.
Sources:
Cornwall Guide, http://www.cornwalls.co.uk/Polperro/
Cooper, Robert M. The Literary Guide & Companion to Southern England. Revised ed. Athens, OH: Ohio University Press, 1998.
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