The Fish Curing Stores
Stand on the grass at the Harbour Head and walk to the right hand end as you face out to sea. Across the road you’ll find a square building originally used by Italian pilchard merchants.
The harbour with the Fish Curing Stores in the background. Pilchards, also known as sardines, were caught in abundance off the coast of Cornwall from around 1750 until the late 1800s. The trade from Porthleven was less than other Cornish ports but there was still a steady flow of these silvery fish, which formed a large part of the local winter diet. The ground floor of this building was originally filled by six-foot deep vats of brine for preserving pilchards, which were then flattened and packed for export.
Henry Cowls and Sons
Built in the late 1800s, the ground floor of this building was originally filled with six-foot deep vats of brine for preserving pilchards, which were then flattened and packed for export. This was a very pungent operation! By the early 1900’s all three floors of the building were occupied by Henry Cowls and Sons but a fire in 1912 destroyed the building before the horse-drawn fire engine could arrive from Helston.
Henry Cowls and Sons from above after the fire of 1912
The top floor was the netting room and the huge net machines crashed through into the fish tanks below. Following the fire the company moved to new premises on Prospect Place.
The stores as holiday flats in the 1960s
Holiday flats once occupied this building but it now houses private dwellings. You’re now on the west side of the harbour, known as Breageside. Porthleven was originally two parishes (Breage and Sithney) either side of the creek. It probably wouldn’t have developed into what you see today had another harbour been built at Loe Pool, as mooted in 1837. Walking along Breageside you’ll pass the natural oak pergolas built by the current Harbour and Dock Company in 2009 to house the Harbour Market which runs three days a week in season. Several established local businesses started out as market traders here.