CHARLESTOWN

The historic harbour town of Charlestown offers the chance to step back to a bygone age

JOE VALENTINE

On Cornwall’s rugged south coast, the historic maritime village of Charlestown started life over 200 years ago as a huddle of fishermen’s cottages. The day’s catch of pilchards would be brought ashore, pressed to extract their oil and stored in barrels in the cottage cellars. Look closely and evidence of the fish cellars can still be seen, but today Charlestown is dominated by the harbour that transformed its fortunes, which is now a UNESCO World Heritage Site. When the china clay industry in nearby St Austell boomed in the late 18th century, an entrepreneurial local man, Charles Rashleigh, saw an opportunity, and built a harbour here in 1790, from which the ‘white gold’ could be shipped to the potteries of the Midlands. The harbour and village grew and prospered, bustling…

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Britain (Digital) - 1 Issue, Nov/Dec 2024

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