Porthcurno
Encyclopedia
Porthcurno is a small village in the parish of St. Levan
located in a valley on the south coast of the county of Cornwall
, England in the United Kingdom. It is approximately 9 miles (14.5 km) to the west of the market town of Penzance
and about 3 miles (4.8 km) from Land's End
, the most westerly point of the English mainland. Access by road is only available from the north end of the valley along an 'unclassified'
spur road off the B3283 'B' class road
. The village comprises houses and apartment blocks together with a few commercial premises located along the access road known as "The Valley". There is a small sub post office
at the north end of The Valley and the road ends at St. Levan's Church about half a mile further on from the village. At the southern end of The Valley there is a small hotel, a public car park for about 200 cars, a small seasonal cafe and a public house
. The village is also accessible on foot by the South West Coast Path
, being about two hours walk from Land's End or about four hours walk from Penzance for experienced cliff walkers. There is an occasional bus service linking Porthcurno with Penzance, Lands End and nearby villages and hamlets including Newlyn
, Paul
, Sheffield
, Lamorna
, St Buryan
, Treen, Trethewey, Polgigga
and Sennen
.
'Porth-Curnow' meant 'Port (or Bay) of Cornwall'. Today there is some evidence of early commercial port activity from the remains of man-made stone tracks for horse-drawn vehicle
s which may have provided access to the beach, visible on one of the footpaths near the south side of the car park ascending the east side of the valley.
Porthcurno is unusually well known for its size because of its history as a major international submarine communications cable
station. In the late nineteenth century, the remote beach at Porthcurno became internationally famous as the British termination of early submarine telegraph cables, the first of which was landed in 1870, part of an early international link stretching all the way from the UK to India
, which was then a British colony. Porthcurno was chosen in preference to the busy port of Falmouth
because of the reduced risk of damage to the cables caused by ships’ anchor
s. In 1872, the Eastern Telegraph Company (ETC) Limited was formed which took over the operation of the cables and built a cable office in Porthcurno valley. The concrete cable hut, where the cable shore ends were connected to their respective landlines, is a listed building and still stands at the top of the beach. ETC and its cable operations expanded through the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, in 1928 to merge with Marconi's Wireless Telegraph Company Limited to form Imperial and International Communications Limited which was re-named Cable and Wireless Limited in 1934. Cable and Wireless Limited was a predecessor company of Cable & Wireless Worldwide.
In the Inter-War years
, the Porthcurno cable office operated as many as 14 cables simultaneously, for a time becoming the largest submarine cable station in the world, with the capacity to receive and transmit up to two million words a day. Porthcurno is still known colloquially
by the acronym 'PK' being represented in Morse code
as 'di-dah-dah-dit' followed by 'dah-di-dah'. In the early days of expensive telegraphy, this could be sent unambiguously with just two letters instead of ten.
Over the years, many apprentices were trained at the Porthcurno cable office in telegraphy
and supporting skills, initially by ETC and then by Cable and Wireless. In 1950 Cable and Wireless, now nationalised
, opened an engineering college offering courses in branches of telecommunications on the site for employees, secondees and external students. Porthcurno is still recalled today by long-serving staff at telecommunications offices across the World who were former students here. The cable office closed in 1970, exactly 100 years after the first cable was landed, but the college remained open, receiving substantial investment in buildings and training equipment through the 1970s and 1980s, but this also closed permanently in 1993. Subsequently some of the college buildings were demolished. After the closure of the college the award winning Porthcurno Telegraph Museum
was opened. This museum has been featured locally and nationally on educational programmes including the BBC
TV documentary series What the Victorians Did for Us
and Coast
. It occupies some of the former college buildings and includes many exhibits which are located in 'The Tunnel'.
in occupied France. To improve security a network of two parallel tunnels, connected by two smaller cross-tunnels, was bored into the granite valley east side by local tin mining
labourers, starting in June 1940, to accommodate the essential telegraph equipment. Each of the two main entrances was protected by offset and double bomb-proof, gas-proof doors. To provide evacuation for staff in case the defences failed, a covert
emergency escape route was provided by granite steps cut into a steeply rising fifth tunnel leading from the rear cross tunnel to a concealed exit in the fields above. Each of the main tunnel interiors was that of a windowless open-plan office constructed as a building shell within the granite void, complete with a pitched roof
to collect water seepage from the rocks, a false ceiling, plastered and decorated walls and all the necessary services. In total about 15,000 ton
s of rock were removed to construct the tunnels. The construction work progressed relentlessly day and night, taking nearly a year and the completed tunnels were opened in May 1941 by Lady Wilshaw who was the wife of Sir Edward Wilshaw, Chairman of Cable and Wireless at the time. The concrete defences around the tunnel entrances and the nearby buildings were camouflage
d with the help of a local artist, the design, when viewed from the air with some imagination, resembling a belt of trees, complete with rabbits and birds. The Tunnel environment being secure, dry, and at a virtually constant temperature proved to be ideal for the sensitive telegraph equipment and it continued to house the subsequently upgraded equipment after the War until the cable office closure in 1970. It was then used for training facilities for the Engineering College until the college itself also closed in 1993. Today the tunnel is both an exhibit itself and houses exhibits of the Porthcurno Telegraph Museum, operated by PK Trust, a charity formed by Cable and Wireless Limited.
cables of coaxial
construction, some of which were landed at Porthcurno. In the last twenty years or so these have all been superseded by their very high-capacity modern descendants, those using fibre optic technology as the transmission medium instead of copper
. These also have been landed at Porthcurno forming a significant link, part of the UK connection to the international telecommunications
'backbone' infrastructure
. These form parts of international cable networks and include systems known as Trans-Atlantic Telephone Cable 12/13 (TAT-12/13)
, Gemini, Fiber-Optic Link Around the Globe
(FLAG) and RIOJA. Each of these has thousands of times the capacity
of all of their predecessors' cables put together. However, all of the successors of the telegraph cables today use Porthcurno merely as a shore landing-point for connecting to the national telecommunications network, passing directly via landlines buried under the local roads to a terminating station at Skewjack
about 2 miles (3.2 km) inland from Porthcurno.
The cliffs and coastline around Porthcurno are officially designated Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty
and widely considered as some of the most visually stunning in the United Kingdom. Porthcurno beach and bay enclosed by the Logan Rock headland has been listed among the ten most beautiful bays in the World. The cliffs are enjoyed by walkers using the many public footpaths in the area and the protected South West Coastal Footpath passes through the area often within just a few yards of the clifftops. Coastal areas around Porthcurno, including those formerly owned by Cable and Wireless, are now owned, preserved and maintained by the National Trust
and the remainder by the local parish council on behalf of Cornwall Council. The nearby cliffs rise to 60 m to 70 m above mean sea level
and are formed from a bedrock of prismatic granite
; over the geological timescales having been eroded, shaped and divided vertically and horizontally sometimes almost into rounded cubic blocks.
An ancient bridleway, probably an early route to Porthcurno beach via the nearby Trendrennen Farm, about half a mile to the east of the village, has been opened by the Ramblers Association. This was probably used by horse-drawn carts to collect seaweed
which was used for land fertilisation.
Porthcurno beach and bay, a few hundred yards south of the village is situated in the shelter of the Logan Rock
headland just less than one mile (1 km) to the east. The beach is noted for its sand
of crushed, white sea shells, privacy and isolation rather than movement of ships. Porthcurno Bay has been described as “floored by glorious white sand that shines through translucent water". Sometimes combinations of wind, tide
s and sea currents can change the 'sandscape' dramatically in a few hours, but the volume of sand is sufficient that it is unusual for the beach to be completely inundated by the sea at high tide. To the immediate east of Porthcurno beach, on the other side of Percella Point is a small tidal beach called Green Bay. Sometimes this is accessible with caution from Porthcurno beach at low tide.
Another tidal beach called Pedn Vounder
lies further to the east between Porthcurno and the Logan Rock headland for which footpath access is by a steep and rugged path leading down from the cliff path. Often a sand bank forms off Pedn Vounder at low tide. Unlike the nearby fishing coves of Penberth
and Porthgwarra
, about one and a half miles (2 km) to the east and west respectively, Porthcurno has no known recent history of commercial fishing
activity.
About half way along the main coastal footpath from Porthcurno to Logan Rock another path loops off to the cliffs above Pedn Vounder beach. Beside this is a pyramid
built from granite blocks and painted white, about 3 metres (10 ft) tall. Originally at this point stood a hut which housed the termination of another submarine telegraph cable connected to the French port of Brest
owned by La Compagnie Francaise de Telegraphe de Paris a New York
, which was laid in 1880. Overhead lines carried the signals to and from Penzance, where the cable office was located. Some of the stone duct
ing which was built up on the cliffside to protect the cable is still visible from the footpath nearby. This was part of the first cable connection from the UK to the American continent passing from Porthcurno to Brest and then via the trans-Atlantic cable first to Saint-Pierre and Miquelon
near the coast of Canada, and then a further 500 km (310.7 mi) to Cape Cod
, Massachusetts
. In 1919, another Compagnie Francaise cable was laid to Porthcurno but this was terminated in the Cable Hut at the top of the beach a few hundred yards to the west where it remained in operation until 1962. The conspicuous pyramid replaced the hut because the former had previously been used by local fishermen as a land reference.
headland, about 30 minutes' walk from Porthcurno to the east along the coastal footpath around Porthcurno Bay is famous for the 80 ton granite
rocking stone (Logan Rock) perched at the top of the middle outcrop
of rocks on the small rocky peninsula
. Millennia of erosion
had balanced it so finely that one person could move it easily. In 1824, a group of sailors led by Lieutenant
Hugh Calville Goldsmith, nephew of the poet
Oliver Goldsmith
, and the worse for drink climbed up to Logan Rock armed with crowbars
and dislodged it, allowing it to fall down the cliff. Such was the disgust of the local people at this blatant act of vandalism
, that they complained to the Admiralty
and Goldsmith was ordered to replace the rock at his own expense. It took seven months, 60 labourers and cost Goldsmith £130 8s d
at 1824 prices to replace it. The original invoice
for equipment and labour is now displayed on the wall of The Logan Rock public house
in the nearby village of Treen.
Just to the north of the peninsula is evidence of an Iron Age
cliff fort
called Treryn Dinas, a scheduled monument comprising about five ramparts
, ditches and some evidence of round dwelling huts. There is a small rocky island off the Logan Rock peninsula called Horrace and another smaller granite island called Great Goular which is only visible at low tide.
is from the south west and the winters are unusually mild for its latitude
because of the influence of the warm Gulf Stream
sea current crossing the Atlantic Ocean
from warmer seas around the Gulf of Mexico
. The local area has some of the highest average annual air temperatures of the United Kingdom. In common with much of the south Cornish coast, summer daily maxima rarely exceed about 25 degrees Celsius
and sub-zero temperatures and frost are uncommon. The lower valley and beach enjoy a micro-climate being sheltered from winds in most directions. For the more exposed cliff-top areas, gale-force
winds are common throughout the year which occasionally cause moderate structural damage to buildings locally.
In the summer months Porthcurno is popular with families on holiday with young children who enjoy playing on the beach and perhaps some supervised bathing, as the beach is prone to strong rip currents. In the quieter seasons visitors tend to be local people and day-trippers from other parts of Cornwall. Many tourists come from elsewhere in the United Kingdom and abroad and may have rented self-catering or bed and breakfast accommodation nearby. The Porthcurno Telegraph Museum
and the Minack Theatre
, both bring visitors to the area.
During the Second World War, Porthcurno was designated a Vulnerable Point and was heavily defended and fortified as a part of British anti-invasion preparations
. At the beginning of the war a small guard of special constable
s was put on duty at the cable office and cable house, later superseded by a platoon
of soldier
s who camped on a former bowling green
. Porthcurno valley was declared a protected place and as many as 300 troops were deployed in the immediate area to guard the station. Passes were issued to residents and visitors who had business to be in the area and many mock attacks were staged. The defences included pillboxes
and a petroleum warfare beach flame barrage which could be operated remotely from the tunnel. At the end of the War, although some 867 bombs fell in the (Penzance) area and 3957 houses were damaged or destroyed, the only damage suffered by any communications equipment at Porthcurno was the destruction of an antenna
when a bomb fell at Rospletha Farm, located at the top of the hill about half a mile to the west of the cable office.
Much of the beach and surrounding shores previously owned by Cable and Wireless was donated to the National Trust
in 1993 in common with many other parts of the Cornish coastline.
Most of the houses along the valley were owned by the former Cable and Wireless Engineering College and sold off subsequent to its closure in 1993. Many of them have been converted to holiday flats
making the population very seasonally dependent. Today the major industry in the area is tourism.
, a unique open-air theatre
with a unique stage backdrop of Porthcurno Bay and the Logan Rock headland. It is an unusual setting for plays staged during the summer months ranging from the traditional Shakespeare to the more contemporary. The theatre is accessible on foot from the coastal footpath by a rugged path in the cliff face or more easily by road taking the steep narrow hill leaving Porthcurno to the south towards St. Levan Church and turning left at the top. It was built virtually single-handedly by the late Rowena Cade who worked there into her eighties with the support of local labourers. Today the Rowena Cade exhibition centre, coffee shop and theatre are open to visitors for most of the year except during performances.
A small headland to the west of the Minack Theatre called Pedn-men-an-Mere, which is now owned by The National Trust, (Cornish: 'rocky headland by the sea') is known locally as 'Wireless Point'. Here, exposed areas of granite bedrock
and concrete plinth
s retain the preserved remains of the base and guy wire
tether points of a wireless telegraphy
antenna
mast that was erected in 1902 by the Eastern Telegraph Company. It was thought that this was used to 'spy' on the early wireless transmissions by Marconi
, a developer of radio
, from the Poldhu
cliff top about 17 miles (27.4 km) to the east, across Mount's Bay
on the west side of the Lizard Peninsula. In those days Marconi's 'wireless telegraphy' was seen as a potential threat to the established 'cable and line telegraphy' on which the security of Porthcurno and many jobs depended. A small hut was built nearby to house the early wireless equipment and remained there for a further 21 years. The company mistakenly concluded that Marconi's efforts posed no threat to their cable business. Marconi's secretive development of the Shortwave
Beam Wireless System
at Poldhu would be so successful that Eastern and many other cable telegraph companies were forced into near-bankruptcy
by 1928.
There is a pair of large boulders near the cliff edge of which the smaller one, weighing about 5 tons, can be rocked by the weight of one adult.
Pedn-men-an-Mere overlooks the small secluded tidal beach of Porth Chapel to the west. Porth Chapel beach is named after the remains of a Christian site and medieval
chapel
visible next to the footpath about 30 metres (98.4 ft) above the beach. There is a spring
known as the St. Levan Holy Well further up the cliffside which may be reached by ancient granite steps. The steps were covered for many years but were discovered in 1931 by the Reverend HT Valantine and Dr Vernon Favel. They were restored in 2003, part of a Cornwall County Council restoration project and were opened by The Countess of Wessex.
The parish church of St Levan
lies a few hundred yards up the valley to the north. There is a small car park in a field next to St Levan Church.
St Levan
St Levan is a civil parish and village in Cornwall, United Kingdom. The village is situated approximately eight miles south west of Penzance....
located in a valley on the south coast of the county of Cornwall
Cornwall
Cornwall is a unitary authority and ceremonial county of England, within the United Kingdom. It is bordered to the north and west by the Celtic Sea, to the south by the English Channel, and to the east by the county of Devon, over the River Tamar. Cornwall has a population of , and covers an area of...
, England in the United Kingdom. It is approximately 9 miles (14.5 km) to the west of the market town of Penzance
Penzance
Penzance is a town, civil parish, and port in Cornwall, England, in the United Kingdom. It is the most westerly major town in Cornwall and is approximately 75 miles west of Plymouth and 300 miles west-southwest of London...
and about 3 miles (4.8 km) from Land's End
Land's End
Land's End is a headland and small settlement in west Cornwall, England, within the United Kingdom. It is located on the Penwith peninsula approximately eight miles west-southwest of Penzance....
, the most westerly point of the English mainland. Access by road is only available from the north end of the valley along an 'unclassified'
Great Britain road numbering scheme
The Great Britain road numbering scheme is a numbering scheme used to classify and identify all roads in Great Britain. Each road is given a single letter, which represents the road's category, and a subsequent number, with a length of between 1 and 4 digits. Originally introduced to arrange...
spur road off the B3283 'B' class road
Great Britain road numbering scheme
The Great Britain road numbering scheme is a numbering scheme used to classify and identify all roads in Great Britain. Each road is given a single letter, which represents the road's category, and a subsequent number, with a length of between 1 and 4 digits. Originally introduced to arrange...
. The village comprises houses and apartment blocks together with a few commercial premises located along the access road known as "The Valley". There is a small sub post office
General Post Office
General Post Office is the name of the British postal system from 1660 until 1969.General Post Office may also refer to:* General Post Office, Perth* General Post Office, Sydney* General Post Office, Melbourne* General Post Office, Brisbane...
at the north end of The Valley and the road ends at St. Levan's Church about half a mile further on from the village. At the southern end of The Valley there is a small hotel, a public car park for about 200 cars, a small seasonal cafe and a public house
Public house
A public house, informally known as a pub, is a drinking establishment fundamental to the culture of Britain, Ireland, Australia and New Zealand. There are approximately 53,500 public houses in the United Kingdom. This number has been declining every year, so that nearly half of the smaller...
. The village is also accessible on foot by the South West Coast Path
South West Coast Path
The South West Coast Path is Britain's longest waymarked long-distance footpath and a National Trail. It stretches for , running from Minehead in Somerset, along the coasts of Devon and Cornwall, to Poole Harbour in Dorset. Since it rises and falls with every river mouth, it is also one of the more...
, being about two hours walk from Land's End or about four hours walk from Penzance for experienced cliff walkers. There is an occasional bus service linking Porthcurno with Penzance, Lands End and nearby villages and hamlets including Newlyn
Newlyn
Newlyn is a town and fishing port in southwest Cornwall, England, United Kingdom.Newlyn forms a conurbation with the neighbouring town of Penzance and is part of Penzance civil parish...
, Paul
Paul, Cornwall
Paul is a civil parish and village in Cornwall, United Kingdom. It is situated two miles south of Penzance and one mile south of Newlyn.The village of Paul is represented on Penzance Town Council...
, Sheffield
Sheffield, Cornwall
Sheffield is a small settlement in Cornwall, UK, situated near the village of Paul, Cornwall.-History:Sheffield is thought to have been established to house the workers of the ‘Sheffield Quarry’ and later the surrounding farms. The settlement was built along the road into Penzance where the...
, Lamorna
Lamorna
Lamorna is a fishing village and cove in west Cornwall, United Kingdom. It is situated on the Penwith peninsula approximately four miles south of Penzance.-Newlyn School of Art and the Lamorna Colony:...
, St Buryan
St Buryan
St Buryan is a civil parish and village in Cornwall, United Kingdom.The village of St Buryan is situated approximately five miles west of Penzance along the B3283 towards Land's End...
, Treen, Trethewey, Polgigga
Polgigga
Polgigga is a hamlet in west Cornwall, United Kingdom. It is on the B3315 Land's End to Penzance road.Polgigga is eight miles west of Penzance and two miles east of Land's End. Nearby settlements include Trebehor, Trethewey and Bottoms....
and Sennen
Sennen
Sennen is a coastal civil parish and a village in Cornwall, United Kingdom. Sennen village is situated approximately eight miles west-southwest of Penzance....
.
Porth Kernow
The name Porthcurno evolved from the earlier spelling 'Porth Kernow' or 'Porth Curnow'. In the Cornish languageCornish language
Cornish is a Brythonic Celtic language and a recognised minority language of the United Kingdom. Along with Welsh and Breton, it is directly descended from the ancient British language spoken throughout much of Britain before the English language came to dominate...
'Porth-Curnow' meant 'Port (or Bay) of Cornwall'. Today there is some evidence of early commercial port activity from the remains of man-made stone tracks for horse-drawn vehicle
Horse-drawn vehicle
A horse-drawn vehicle is a mechanized piece of equipment pulled by one horse or by a team of horses. These vehicles typically had two or four wheels and were used to carry passengers and/or a load...
s which may have provided access to the beach, visible on one of the footpaths near the south side of the car park ascending the east side of the valley.
The Cable Station and Engineering College
Submarine communications cable
A submarine communications cable is a cable laid on the sea bed between land-based stations to carry telecommunication signals across stretches of ocean....
station. In the late nineteenth century, the remote beach at Porthcurno became internationally famous as the British termination of early submarine telegraph cables, the first of which was landed in 1870, part of an early international link stretching all the way from the UK to India
India
India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...
, which was then a British colony. Porthcurno was chosen in preference to the busy port of Falmouth
Falmouth, Cornwall
Falmouth is a town, civil parish and port on the River Fal on the south coast of Cornwall, England, United Kingdom. It has a total resident population of 21,635.Falmouth is the terminus of the A39, which begins some 200 miles away in Bath, Somerset....
because of the reduced risk of damage to the cables caused by ships’ anchor
Anchor
An anchor is a device, normally made of metal, that is used to connect a vessel to the bed of a body of water to prevent the vessel from drifting due to wind or current. The word derives from Latin ancora, which itself comes from the Greek ἄγκυρα .Anchors can either be temporary or permanent...
s. In 1872, the Eastern Telegraph Company (ETC) Limited was formed which took over the operation of the cables and built a cable office in Porthcurno valley. The concrete cable hut, where the cable shore ends were connected to their respective landlines, is a listed building and still stands at the top of the beach. ETC and its cable operations expanded through the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, in 1928 to merge with Marconi's Wireless Telegraph Company Limited to form Imperial and International Communications Limited which was re-named Cable and Wireless Limited in 1934. Cable and Wireless Limited was a predecessor company of Cable & Wireless Worldwide.
In the Inter-War years
Interwar period
Interwar period can refer to any period between two wars. The Interbellum is understood to be the period between the end of the Great War or First World War and the beginning of the Second World War in Europe....
, the Porthcurno cable office operated as many as 14 cables simultaneously, for a time becoming the largest submarine cable station in the world, with the capacity to receive and transmit up to two million words a day. Porthcurno is still known colloquially
Colloquialism
A colloquialism is a word or phrase that is common in everyday, unconstrained conversation rather than in formal speech, academic writing, or paralinguistics. Dictionaries often display colloquial words and phrases with the abbreviation colloq. as an identifier...
by the acronym 'PK' being represented in Morse code
Morse code
Morse code is a method of transmitting textual information as a series of on-off tones, lights, or clicks that can be directly understood by a skilled listener or observer without special equipment...
as 'di-dah-dah-dit' followed by 'dah-di-dah'. In the early days of expensive telegraphy, this could be sent unambiguously with just two letters instead of ten.
Over the years, many apprentices were trained at the Porthcurno cable office in telegraphy
Telegraphy
Telegraphy is the long-distance transmission of messages via some form of signalling technology. Telegraphy requires messages to be converted to a code which is known to both sender and receiver...
and supporting skills, initially by ETC and then by Cable and Wireless. In 1950 Cable and Wireless, now nationalised
Nationalization
Nationalisation, also spelled nationalization, is the process of taking an industry or assets into government ownership by a national government or state. Nationalization usually refers to private assets, but may also mean assets owned by lower levels of government, such as municipalities, being...
, opened an engineering college offering courses in branches of telecommunications on the site for employees, secondees and external students. Porthcurno is still recalled today by long-serving staff at telecommunications offices across the World who were former students here. The cable office closed in 1970, exactly 100 years after the first cable was landed, but the college remained open, receiving substantial investment in buildings and training equipment through the 1970s and 1980s, but this also closed permanently in 1993. Subsequently some of the college buildings were demolished. After the closure of the college the award winning Porthcurno Telegraph Museum
Porthcurno Telegraph Museum
The Porthcurno Telegraph Museum is a museum located in the small coastal village of Porthcurno Cornwall, UK. Porthcurno was the point at which many submarine telegraph cables—transatlantic and to other locations—came ashore...
was opened. This museum has been featured locally and nationally on educational programmes including the BBC
BBC
The British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. Its headquarters is at Broadcasting House in the City of Westminster, London. It is the largest broadcaster in the world, with about 23,000 staff...
TV documentary series What the Victorians Did for Us
What the Victorians Did for Us
What the Victorians Did for Us is a 2001 BBC documentary series that examines the impact of the Victorian era on modern society. It concentrates primarily on the scientific and social advances of the era, which bore the Industrial Revolution and set the standards for polite society today.-Rule...
and Coast
Coast (TV series)
Coast is a BBC documentary series first broadcast on BBC Two television in 2005. A second series started on 26 October 2006, a third in early 2007 and a fourth in mid-2009...
. It occupies some of the former college buildings and includes many exhibits which are located in 'The Tunnel'.
World War II tunnels
The cable office at Porthcurno was a critical communications centre and considered at serious risk of attack during the Second World War being only about 100 miles (160.9 km) from the port of BrestBrest, France
Brest is a city in the Finistère department in Brittany in northwestern France. Located in a sheltered position not far from the western tip of the Breton peninsula, and the western extremity of metropolitan France, Brest is an important harbour and the second French military port after Toulon...
in occupied France. To improve security a network of two parallel tunnels, connected by two smaller cross-tunnels, was bored into the granite valley east side by local tin mining
Tin mining in Britain
Tin mining in Britain took place from prehistoric times until the 20th century. Mention of tin mining in Britain was made by many Classical writers. As South-West Britain was one of the few parts of England to escape glaciation, tin ore was readily available on the surface...
labourers, starting in June 1940, to accommodate the essential telegraph equipment. Each of the two main entrances was protected by offset and double bomb-proof, gas-proof doors. To provide evacuation for staff in case the defences failed, a covert
Secrecy
Secrecy is the practice of hiding information from certain individuals or groups, perhaps while sharing it with other individuals...
emergency escape route was provided by granite steps cut into a steeply rising fifth tunnel leading from the rear cross tunnel to a concealed exit in the fields above. Each of the main tunnel interiors was that of a windowless open-plan office constructed as a building shell within the granite void, complete with a pitched roof
Pitched roof
A pitched roof is a roof for which one or more roof surfaces is pitched more than 10 degrees, and alternately a roof with two slopes that meet at a central ridge. Some definitions are even more general, including any roof with a sloping surface or surfaces....
to collect water seepage from the rocks, a false ceiling, plastered and decorated walls and all the necessary services. In total about 15,000 ton
Ton
The ton is a unit of measure. It has a long history and has acquired a number of meanings and uses over the years. It is used principally as a unit of weight, and as a unit of volume. It can also be used as a measure of energy, for truck classification, or as a colloquial term.It is derived from...
s of rock were removed to construct the tunnels. The construction work progressed relentlessly day and night, taking nearly a year and the completed tunnels were opened in May 1941 by Lady Wilshaw who was the wife of Sir Edward Wilshaw, Chairman of Cable and Wireless at the time. The concrete defences around the tunnel entrances and the nearby buildings were camouflage
Camouflage
Camouflage is a method of concealment that allows an otherwise visible animal, military vehicle, or other object to remain unnoticed, by blending with its environment. Examples include a leopard's spotted coat, the battledress of a modern soldier and a leaf-mimic butterfly...
d with the help of a local artist, the design, when viewed from the air with some imagination, resembling a belt of trees, complete with rabbits and birds. The Tunnel environment being secure, dry, and at a virtually constant temperature proved to be ideal for the sensitive telegraph equipment and it continued to house the subsequently upgraded equipment after the War until the cable office closure in 1970. It was then used for training facilities for the Engineering College until the college itself also closed in 1993. Today the tunnel is both an exhibit itself and houses exhibits of the Porthcurno Telegraph Museum, operated by PK Trust, a charity formed by Cable and Wireless Limited.
Submarine optical fibre cables
Porthcurno's association with international telecommunications links continues to the present day. The first successors to submarine telegraph cables were submarine telephonyTelephony
In telecommunications, telephony encompasses the general use of equipment to provide communication over distances, specifically by connecting telephones to each other....
cables of coaxial
Coaxial cable
Coaxial cable, or coax, has an inner conductor surrounded by a flexible, tubular insulating layer, surrounded by a tubular conducting shield. The term coaxial comes from the inner conductor and the outer shield sharing the same geometric axis...
construction, some of which were landed at Porthcurno. In the last twenty years or so these have all been superseded by their very high-capacity modern descendants, those using fibre optic technology as the transmission medium instead of copper
Copper
Copper is a chemical element with the symbol Cu and atomic number 29. It is a ductile metal with very high thermal and electrical conductivity. Pure copper is soft and malleable; an exposed surface has a reddish-orange tarnish...
. These also have been landed at Porthcurno forming a significant link, part of the UK connection to the international telecommunications
Telecommunications network
A telecommunications network is a collection of terminals, links and nodes which connect together to enable telecommunication between users of the terminals. Networks may use circuit switching or message switching. Each terminal in the network must have a unique address so messages or connections...
'backbone' infrastructure
Infrastructure
Infrastructure is basic physical and organizational structures needed for the operation of a society or enterprise, or the services and facilities necessary for an economy to function...
. These form parts of international cable networks and include systems known as Trans-Atlantic Telephone Cable 12/13 (TAT-12/13)
TAT-12/13
TAT-12/13 is a ring cable system consisting of the 12th and 13th consortia transatlantic telephone cables, in operation from 1996, initially carrying 2 × 5 Gbit/s....
, Gemini, Fiber-Optic Link Around the Globe
Fiber-Optic Link Around the Globe
Fiber-Optic Link Around the Globe is a 28,000-kilometer-long submarine communications cable containing optical fiber that connects the United Kingdom, Japan, and many places in between. The cable is operated by India's Flag Telecom, a fully owned subsidiary of Reliance Communications. The system...
(FLAG) and RIOJA. Each of these has thousands of times the capacity
Channel capacity
In electrical engineering, computer science and information theory, channel capacity is the tightest upper bound on the amount of information that can be reliably transmitted over a communications channel...
of all of their predecessors' cables put together. However, all of the successors of the telegraph cables today use Porthcurno merely as a shore landing-point for connecting to the national telecommunications network, passing directly via landlines buried under the local roads to a terminating station at Skewjack
Skewjack
Skewjack is the name of a plot of land in west Cornwall, United Kingdom. It is situated about 1.5 miles east of Land's End on the B3315 road...
about 2 miles (3.2 km) inland from Porthcurno.
Porthcurno coastal area
Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty
An Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty is an area of countryside considered to have significant landscape value in England, Wales or Northern Ireland, that has been specially designated by the Countryside Agency on behalf of the United Kingdom government; the Countryside Council for Wales on...
and widely considered as some of the most visually stunning in the United Kingdom. Porthcurno beach and bay enclosed by the Logan Rock headland has been listed among the ten most beautiful bays in the World. The cliffs are enjoyed by walkers using the many public footpaths in the area and the protected South West Coastal Footpath passes through the area often within just a few yards of the clifftops. Coastal areas around Porthcurno, including those formerly owned by Cable and Wireless, are now owned, preserved and maintained by the National Trust
National Trust for Places of Historic Interest or Natural Beauty
The National Trust for Places of Historic Interest or Natural Beauty, usually known as the National Trust, is a conservation organisation in England, Wales and Northern Ireland...
and the remainder by the local parish council on behalf of Cornwall Council. The nearby cliffs rise to 60 m to 70 m above mean sea level
Above mean sea level
The term above mean sea level refers to the elevation or altitude of any object, relative to the average sea level datum. AMSL is used extensively in radio by engineers to determine the coverage area a station will be able to reach...
and are formed from a bedrock of prismatic granite
Granite
Granite is a common and widely occurring type of intrusive, felsic, igneous rock. Granite usually has a medium- to coarse-grained texture. Occasionally some individual crystals are larger than the groundmass, in which case the texture is known as porphyritic. A granitic rock with a porphyritic...
; over the geological timescales having been eroded, shaped and divided vertically and horizontally sometimes almost into rounded cubic blocks.
An ancient bridleway, probably an early route to Porthcurno beach via the nearby Trendrennen Farm, about half a mile to the east of the village, has been opened by the Ramblers Association. This was probably used by horse-drawn carts to collect seaweed
Seaweed
Seaweed is a loose, colloquial term encompassing macroscopic, multicellular, benthic marine algae. The term includes some members of the red, brown and green algae...
which was used for land fertilisation.
Porthcurno beach and bay, a few hundred yards south of the village is situated in the shelter of the Logan Rock
Logan Rock
The Logan Rock near the village of Treen in Cornwall, England, UK, is an example of a logan or rocking stone. Although it weighs some 80 tons, it was dislodged in 1824 by a group of British seamen, intent on showing what the Navy could do...
headland just less than one mile (1 km) to the east. The beach is noted for its sand
Sand
Sand is a naturally occurring granular material composed of finely divided rock and mineral particles.The composition of sand is highly variable, depending on the local rock sources and conditions, but the most common constituent of sand in inland continental settings and non-tropical coastal...
of crushed, white sea shells, privacy and isolation rather than movement of ships. Porthcurno Bay has been described as “floored by glorious white sand that shines through translucent water". Sometimes combinations of wind, tide
Tide
Tides are the rise and fall of sea levels caused by the combined effects of the gravitational forces exerted by the moon and the sun and the rotation of the Earth....
s and sea currents can change the 'sandscape' dramatically in a few hours, but the volume of sand is sufficient that it is unusual for the beach to be completely inundated by the sea at high tide. To the immediate east of Porthcurno beach, on the other side of Percella Point is a small tidal beach called Green Bay. Sometimes this is accessible with caution from Porthcurno beach at low tide.
Pedn Vounder
Pedn Vounder is a tidal beach on the south coast of the Penwith peninsula, Cornwall, UK. It is immediately to the west of the Logan Rock headland, below Treen Cliff.The name of this location is from the Cornish 'pedn' and 'vounder' ....
lies further to the east between Porthcurno and the Logan Rock headland for which footpath access is by a steep and rugged path leading down from the cliff path. Often a sand bank forms off Pedn Vounder at low tide. Unlike the nearby fishing coves of Penberth
Penberth
Penberth is a coastal village and cove on the Penwith peninsula in Cornwall, United Kingdom. It is situated approximately seven miles southwest of Penzance.Penberth Cove is one of the last remaining traditional fishing coves in Cornwall...
and Porthgwarra
Porthgwarra
Porthgwarra is a small coastal village in the civil parish of St Levan, Cornwall, UK situated between Land's End and Porthcurno. Access to the cove is via a minor road off the B3283 road at Polgigga and leads to the car park in the village. There is a public convenience, public telephone and small...
, about one and a half miles (2 km) to the east and west respectively, Porthcurno has no known recent history of commercial fishing
Fishing
Fishing is the activity of trying to catch wild fish. Fish are normally caught in the wild. Techniques for catching fish include hand gathering, spearing, netting, angling and trapping....
activity.
White pyramid
Pyramid
A pyramid is a structure whose outer surfaces are triangular and converge at a single point. The base of a pyramid can be trilateral, quadrilateral, or any polygon shape, meaning that a pyramid has at least three triangular surfaces...
built from granite blocks and painted white, about 3 metres (10 ft) tall. Originally at this point stood a hut which housed the termination of another submarine telegraph cable connected to the French port of Brest
Brest, France
Brest is a city in the Finistère department in Brittany in northwestern France. Located in a sheltered position not far from the western tip of the Breton peninsula, and the western extremity of metropolitan France, Brest is an important harbour and the second French military port after Toulon...
owned by La Compagnie Francaise de Telegraphe de Paris a New York
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
, which was laid in 1880. Overhead lines carried the signals to and from Penzance, where the cable office was located. Some of the stone duct
Duct
A duct may refer to:* Duct , various ducts in anatomy and physiology* Duct , for transfer of air between spaces in a structure* Duct tape, a kind of adhesive tape* Ducted fan, motor for aircraft...
ing which was built up on the cliffside to protect the cable is still visible from the footpath nearby. This was part of the first cable connection from the UK to the American continent passing from Porthcurno to Brest and then via the trans-Atlantic cable first to Saint-Pierre and Miquelon
Saint-Pierre and Miquelon
Saint Pierre and Miquelon is a self-governing territorial overseas collectivity of France. It is the only remnant of the former colonial empire of New France that remains under French control....
near the coast of Canada, and then a further 500 km (310.7 mi) to Cape Cod
Cape Cod
Cape Cod, often referred to locally as simply the Cape, is a cape in the easternmost portion of the state of Massachusetts, in the Northeastern United States...
, Massachusetts
Massachusetts
The Commonwealth of Massachusetts is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States of America. It is bordered by Rhode Island and Connecticut to the south, New York to the west, and Vermont and New Hampshire to the north; at its east lies the Atlantic Ocean. As of the 2010...
. In 1919, another Compagnie Francaise cable was laid to Porthcurno but this was terminated in the Cable Hut at the top of the beach a few hundred yards to the west where it remained in operation until 1962. The conspicuous pyramid replaced the hut because the former had previously been used by local fishermen as a land reference.
Logan Rock
The Logan RockLogan Rock
The Logan Rock near the village of Treen in Cornwall, England, UK, is an example of a logan or rocking stone. Although it weighs some 80 tons, it was dislodged in 1824 by a group of British seamen, intent on showing what the Navy could do...
headland, about 30 minutes' walk from Porthcurno to the east along the coastal footpath around Porthcurno Bay is famous for the 80 ton granite
Granite
Granite is a common and widely occurring type of intrusive, felsic, igneous rock. Granite usually has a medium- to coarse-grained texture. Occasionally some individual crystals are larger than the groundmass, in which case the texture is known as porphyritic. A granitic rock with a porphyritic...
rocking stone (Logan Rock) perched at the top of the middle outcrop
Outcrop
An outcrop is a visible exposure of bedrock or ancient superficial deposits on the surface of the Earth. -Features:Outcrops do not cover the majority of the Earth's land surface because in most places the bedrock or superficial deposits are covered by a mantle of soil and vegetation and cannot be...
of rocks on the small rocky peninsula
Peninsula
A peninsula is a piece of land that is bordered by water on three sides but connected to mainland. In many Germanic and Celtic languages and also in Baltic, Slavic and Hungarian, peninsulas are called "half-islands"....
. Millennia of erosion
Erosion
Erosion is when materials are removed from the surface and changed into something else. It only works by hydraulic actions and transport of solids in the natural environment, and leads to the deposition of these materials elsewhere...
had balanced it so finely that one person could move it easily. In 1824, a group of sailors led by Lieutenant
Lieutenant
A lieutenant is a junior commissioned officer in many nations' armed forces. Typically, the rank of lieutenant in naval usage, while still a junior officer rank, is senior to the army rank...
Hugh Calville Goldsmith, nephew of the poet
Poet
A poet is a person who writes poetry. A poet's work can be literal, meaning that his work is derived from a specific event, or metaphorical, meaning that his work can take on many meanings and forms. Poets have existed since antiquity, in nearly all languages, and have produced works that vary...
Oliver Goldsmith
Oliver Goldsmith
Oliver Goldsmith was an Irish writer, poet and physician known for his novel The Vicar of Wakefield , his pastoral poem The Deserted Village , and his plays The Good-Natur'd Man and She Stoops to Conquer...
, and the worse for drink climbed up to Logan Rock armed with crowbars
Crowbar (tool)
A crowbar, a wrecking bar, pry bar, or prybar, or sometimes a prise bar or prisebar, and more informally a jimmy, jimmy bar, jemmy or gooseneck is a tool consisting of a metal bar with a single curved end and flattened points, often with a small fissure on one or both ends for removing nails...
and dislodged it, allowing it to fall down the cliff. Such was the disgust of the local people at this blatant act of vandalism
Vandalism
Vandalism is the behaviour attributed originally to the Vandals, by the Romans, in respect of culture: ruthless destruction or spoiling of anything beautiful or venerable...
, that they complained to the Admiralty
Admiralty
The Admiralty was formerly the authority in the Kingdom of England, and later in the United Kingdom, responsible for the command of the Royal Navy...
and Goldsmith was ordered to replace the rock at his own expense. It took seven months, 60 labourers and cost Goldsmith £130 8s d
£sd
£sd was the popular name for the pre-decimal currencies used in the Kingdom of England, later the United Kingdom, and ultimately in much of the British Empire...
at 1824 prices to replace it. The original invoice
Invoice
An invoice or bill is a commercial document issued by a seller to the buyer, indicating the products, quantities, and agreed prices for products or services the seller has provided the buyer. An invoice indicates the buyer must pay the seller, according to the payment terms...
for equipment and labour is now displayed on the wall of The Logan Rock public house
Public house
A public house, informally known as a pub, is a drinking establishment fundamental to the culture of Britain, Ireland, Australia and New Zealand. There are approximately 53,500 public houses in the United Kingdom. This number has been declining every year, so that nearly half of the smaller...
in the nearby village of Treen.
Just to the north of the peninsula is evidence of an Iron Age
Iron Age
The Iron Age is the archaeological period generally occurring after the Bronze Age, marked by the prevalent use of iron. The early period of the age is characterized by the widespread use of iron or steel. The adoption of such material coincided with other changes in society, including differing...
cliff fort
Hill fort
A hill fort is a type of earthworks used as a fortified refuge or defended settlement, located to exploit a rise in elevation for defensive advantage. They are typically European and of the Bronze and Iron Ages. Some were used in the post-Roman period...
called Treryn Dinas, a scheduled monument comprising about five ramparts
Defensive wall
A defensive wall is a fortification used to protect a city or settlement from potential aggressors. In ancient to modern times, they were used to enclose settlements...
, ditches and some evidence of round dwelling huts. There is a small rocky island off the Logan Rock peninsula called Horrace and another smaller granite island called Great Goular which is only visible at low tide.
Climate and tourism
The prevailing windPrevailing winds
Prevailing winds are winds that blow predominantly from a single general direction over a particular point on Earth's surface. The dominant winds are the trends in direction of wind with the highest speed over a particular point on the Earth's surface. A region's prevailing and dominant winds...
is from the south west and the winters are unusually mild for its latitude
Latitude
In geography, the latitude of a location on the Earth is the angular distance of that location south or north of the Equator. The latitude is an angle, and is usually measured in degrees . The equator has a latitude of 0°, the North pole has a latitude of 90° north , and the South pole has a...
because of the influence of the warm Gulf Stream
Gulf Stream
The Gulf Stream, together with its northern extension towards Europe, the North Atlantic Drift, is a powerful, warm, and swift Atlantic ocean current that originates at the tip of Florida, and follows the eastern coastlines of the United States and Newfoundland before crossing the Atlantic Ocean...
sea current crossing the Atlantic Ocean
Atlantic Ocean
The Atlantic Ocean is the second-largest of the world's oceanic divisions. With a total area of about , it covers approximately 20% of the Earth's surface and about 26% of its water surface area...
from warmer seas around the Gulf of Mexico
Gulf of Mexico
The Gulf of Mexico is a partially landlocked ocean basin largely surrounded by the North American continent and the island of Cuba. It is bounded on the northeast, north and northwest by the Gulf Coast of the United States, on the southwest and south by Mexico, and on the southeast by Cuba. In...
. The local area has some of the highest average annual air temperatures of the United Kingdom. In common with much of the south Cornish coast, summer daily maxima rarely exceed about 25 degrees Celsius
Celsius
Celsius is a scale and unit of measurement for temperature. It is named after the Swedish astronomer Anders Celsius , who developed a similar temperature scale two years before his death...
and sub-zero temperatures and frost are uncommon. The lower valley and beach enjoy a micro-climate being sheltered from winds in most directions. For the more exposed cliff-top areas, gale-force
Beaufort scale
The Beaufort Scale is an empirical measure that relates wind speed to observed conditions at sea or on land. Its full name is the Beaufort Wind Force Scale.-History:...
winds are common throughout the year which occasionally cause moderate structural damage to buildings locally.
In the summer months Porthcurno is popular with families on holiday with young children who enjoy playing on the beach and perhaps some supervised bathing, as the beach is prone to strong rip currents. In the quieter seasons visitors tend to be local people and day-trippers from other parts of Cornwall. Many tourists come from elsewhere in the United Kingdom and abroad and may have rented self-catering or bed and breakfast accommodation nearby. The Porthcurno Telegraph Museum
Porthcurno Telegraph Museum
The Porthcurno Telegraph Museum is a museum located in the small coastal village of Porthcurno Cornwall, UK. Porthcurno was the point at which many submarine telegraph cables—transatlantic and to other locations—came ashore...
and the Minack Theatre
Minack Theatre
The Minack Theatre is an open-air theatre, constructed above a gully with a rocky granite outcrop jutting into the sea...
, both bring visitors to the area.
History
Development of the area was dominated for over one hundred years by the operations of the cable station owned by Cable and Wireless plc and its predecessor companies. Probably over 90% of the inhabitants were either employees of Cable and Wireless or were directly supported by it.During the Second World War, Porthcurno was designated a Vulnerable Point and was heavily defended and fortified as a part of British anti-invasion preparations
British anti-invasion preparations of World War II
British anti-invasion preparations of the Second World War entailed a large-scale division of military and civilian mobilisation in response to the threat of invasion by German armed forces in 1940 and 1941. The British army needed to recover from the defeat of the British Expeditionary Force in...
. At the beginning of the war a small guard of special constable
Special constable
A Special Constable is a law enforcement officer who is not a regular member of a police force. Some like the Royal Canadian Mounted Police carry the same law enforcement powers as regular members, but are employed in specific roles, such as explosive disposal technicians, court security, campus...
s was put on duty at the cable office and cable house, later superseded by a platoon
Platoon
A platoon is a military unit typically composed of two to four sections or squads and containing 16 to 50 soldiers. Platoons are organized into a company, which typically consists of three, four or five platoons. A platoon is typically the smallest military unit led by a commissioned officer—the...
of soldier
Soldier
A soldier is a member of the land component of national armed forces; whereas a soldier hired for service in a foreign army would be termed a mercenary...
s who camped on a former bowling green
Bowling green
A bowling green is a finely-laid, close-mown and rolled stretch of lawn for playing the game of lawn bowls.Before 1830, when Edwin Beard Budding invented the lawnmower, lawns were often kept cropped by grazing sheep on them...
. Porthcurno valley was declared a protected place and as many as 300 troops were deployed in the immediate area to guard the station. Passes were issued to residents and visitors who had business to be in the area and many mock attacks were staged. The defences included pillboxes
British hardened field defences of World War II
British hardened field defences of World War II were small fortified structures constructed as a part of British anti-invasion preparations. They were popularly known as pillboxes by reference to their shape.-Design and development:...
and a petroleum warfare beach flame barrage which could be operated remotely from the tunnel. At the end of the War, although some 867 bombs fell in the (Penzance) area and 3957 houses were damaged or destroyed, the only damage suffered by any communications equipment at Porthcurno was the destruction of an antenna
Antenna (radio)
An antenna is an electrical device which converts electric currents into radio waves, and vice versa. It is usually used with a radio transmitter or radio receiver...
when a bomb fell at Rospletha Farm, located at the top of the hill about half a mile to the west of the cable office.
Much of the beach and surrounding shores previously owned by Cable and Wireless was donated to the National Trust
National Trust for Places of Historic Interest or Natural Beauty
The National Trust for Places of Historic Interest or Natural Beauty, usually known as the National Trust, is a conservation organisation in England, Wales and Northern Ireland...
in 1993 in common with many other parts of the Cornish coastline.
Most of the houses along the valley were owned by the former Cable and Wireless Engineering College and sold off subsequent to its closure in 1993. Many of them have been converted to holiday flats
Apartment
An apartment or flat is a self-contained housing unit that occupies only part of a building...
making the population very seasonally dependent. Today the major industry in the area is tourism.
Minack Theatre
Just out of sight of Porthcurno beach, in the cliff face to the west is the Minack TheatreMinack Theatre
The Minack Theatre is an open-air theatre, constructed above a gully with a rocky granite outcrop jutting into the sea...
, a unique open-air theatre
Theatre
Theatre is a collaborative form of fine art that uses live performers to present the experience of a real or imagined event before a live audience in a specific place. The performers may communicate this experience to the audience through combinations of gesture, speech, song, music or dance...
with a unique stage backdrop of Porthcurno Bay and the Logan Rock headland. It is an unusual setting for plays staged during the summer months ranging from the traditional Shakespeare to the more contemporary. The theatre is accessible on foot from the coastal footpath by a rugged path in the cliff face or more easily by road taking the steep narrow hill leaving Porthcurno to the south towards St. Levan Church and turning left at the top. It was built virtually single-handedly by the late Rowena Cade who worked there into her eighties with the support of local labourers. Today the Rowena Cade exhibition centre, coffee shop and theatre are open to visitors for most of the year except during performances.
Wireless Point
Bedrock
In stratigraphy, bedrock is the native consolidated rock underlying the surface of a terrestrial planet, usually the Earth. Above the bedrock is usually an area of broken and weathered unconsolidated rock in the basal subsoil...
and concrete plinth
Plinth
In architecture, a plinth is the base or platform upon which a column, pedestal, statue, monument or structure rests. Gottfried Semper's The Four Elements of Architecture posited that the plinth, the hearth, the roof, and the wall make up all of architectural theory. The plinth usually rests...
s retain the preserved remains of the base and guy wire
Guy-wire
A guy-wire or guy-rope, also known as simply a guy, is a tensioned cable designed to add stability to structures . One end of the cable is attached to the structure, and the other is anchored to the ground at a distance from the structure's base...
tether points of a wireless telegraphy
Wireless telegraphy
Wireless telegraphy is a historical term used today to apply to early radio telegraph communications techniques and practices, particularly those used during the first three decades of radio before the term radio came into use....
antenna
Antenna (radio)
An antenna is an electrical device which converts electric currents into radio waves, and vice versa. It is usually used with a radio transmitter or radio receiver...
mast that was erected in 1902 by the Eastern Telegraph Company. It was thought that this was used to 'spy' on the early wireless transmissions by Marconi
Guglielmo Marconi
Guglielmo Marconi was an Italian inventor, known as the father of long distance radio transmission and for his development of Marconi's law and a radio telegraph system. Marconi is often credited as the inventor of radio, and indeed he shared the 1909 Nobel Prize in Physics with Karl Ferdinand...
, a developer of radio
Invention Of Radio
Within the history of radio, several people were involved in the invention of radio and there were many key inventions in what became the modern systems of wireless. Radio development began as "wireless telegraphy"...
, from the Poldhu
Poldhu
Poldhu is a small area in south Cornwall, England, UK, situated on the Lizard Peninsula; it comprises Poldhu Point and Poldhu Cove. It lies on the coast west of Goonhilly Downs, with Mullion to the south and Porthleven to the north...
cliff top about 17 miles (27.4 km) to the east, across Mount's Bay
Mount's Bay
Mount's Bay is a large, sweeping bay on the English Channel coast of Cornwall in the United Kingdom, stretching from the Lizard Point to Gwennap Head on the eastern side of the Land's End peninsula. Towards the middle of the bay is St Michael's Mount...
on the west side of the Lizard Peninsula. In those days Marconi's 'wireless telegraphy' was seen as a potential threat to the established 'cable and line telegraphy' on which the security of Porthcurno and many jobs depended. A small hut was built nearby to house the early wireless equipment and remained there for a further 21 years. The company mistakenly concluded that Marconi's efforts posed no threat to their cable business. Marconi's secretive development of the Shortwave
Shortwave
Shortwave radio refers to the upper MF and all of the HF portion of the radio spectrum, between 1,800–30,000 kHz. Shortwave radio received its name because the wavelengths in this band are shorter than 200 m which marked the original upper limit of the medium frequency band first used...
Beam Wireless System
Imperial Wireless Chain
The Imperial Wireless Chain, also known as the Empire Wireless Chain, was a strategic international wireless telegraphy communications network, created to link the countries of the British Empire. Although the idea was conceived prior to World War I, Britain was the last of the world's Great Powers...
at Poldhu would be so successful that Eastern and many other cable telegraph companies were forced into near-bankruptcy
Bankruptcy
Bankruptcy is a legal status of an insolvent person or an organisation, that is, one that cannot repay the debts owed to creditors. In most jurisdictions bankruptcy is imposed by a court order, often initiated by the debtor....
by 1928.
There is a pair of large boulders near the cliff edge of which the smaller one, weighing about 5 tons, can be rocked by the weight of one adult.
Porth Chapel Beach
Middle Ages
The Middle Ages is a periodization of European history from the 5th century to the 15th century. The Middle Ages follows the fall of the Western Roman Empire in 476 and precedes the Early Modern Era. It is the middle period of a three-period division of Western history: Classic, Medieval and Modern...
chapel
Chapel
A chapel is a building used by Christians as a place of fellowship and worship. It may be part of a larger structure or complex, such as a church, college, hospital, palace, prison or funeral home, located on board a military or commercial ship, or it may be an entirely free-standing building,...
visible next to the footpath about 30 metres (98.4 ft) above the beach. There is a spring
Spring (hydrosphere)
A spring—also known as a rising or resurgence—is a component of the hydrosphere. Specifically, it is any natural situation where water flows to the surface of the earth from underground...
known as the St. Levan Holy Well further up the cliffside which may be reached by ancient granite steps. The steps were covered for many years but were discovered in 1931 by the Reverend HT Valantine and Dr Vernon Favel. They were restored in 2003, part of a Cornwall County Council restoration project and were opened by The Countess of Wessex.
St Levan
St Levan is a civil parish and village in Cornwall, United Kingdom. The village is situated approximately eight miles south west of Penzance....
lies a few hundred yards up the valley to the north. There is a small car park in a field next to St Levan Church.
External links
- Wire around the World Porthcurno to Alice Springs by Telegraph, BBC Radio 4
- St. Levan Holy Well restoration project
- Cornwall Record Office Online Catalogue for Porthcurno