The China Clay Store
China Clay was first discovered in England on nearby Tregonning Hill in 1745. Before its discovery English pottery had consisted of coarse earthenware and stoneware ceramics. Pure white porcelain had been made in China for thousands of years but the rest of the world had nothing to compare and imported porcelain was a valuable commodity.
This building was built in 1893 for John Lovering who had the lease on the quarries that produced the clay.
Pottery manufacturers everywhere sought the formula for making hard white porcelain. It was William Cookworthy, a Plymouth-based apothecary-cum-potter (and Quaker) who discovered a rare type of decomposed granite, finer than most talcum powders and known locally as Moorstone, up on the hill. After 20 years of experiments, William patented his formula for fine porcelain in 1768 and established the Plymouth Porcelain Company to make china for the gentry. Unfortunately not being close to coal supplies for his kilns meant using wood, which was too expensive, and his factory lasted just a few short years before it was moved to Bristol. Josiah Wedgewood, a potter in Staffordshire (located close to those all important coal mines) fared much better.
Precious loads of raw china clay began leaving Porthleven Harbour, bound for Liverpool, in 1856, loaded in barrels made in the cooperage near the Harbour Head. 950 tonnes were shipped in the first year and trade would peak at 7,000 tonnes per year – that’s more than a ship a week!
This building was built in 1893 for John Lovering who had the lease on the quarries that produced the clay. It would have been brought down from the hill by horse and cart and loaded into the store by means of a chute at the back of the building. Clay was constantly being transported, stored here and then loaded onto ships via a further chute at the front of the building. Sometimes the amounts involved required day and nighttime loading of the cargo ships.
Built deep into the cliff, the China Clay Store has had a chequered past, until a triumph of engineering and damp proofing made it possible to keep it entirely dry. Derelict for 50 years, it has been at one time or another a Museum of Wrecks and a Meadery and was briefly the headquarters of a dolphin-watching society. Following a large investment and renovation in 2014 by the present harbour owners the Harbour and Dock Company, it’s now home to one of Porthleven’s fine dining restaurants.