Two walls, a hundred years apart
The second largest harbour in Cornwall was not built all at once. The village wrote its own rules for it four years before the first wall went up, and the wall that takes the weather off it did not arrive for another century.
My man lit the boats home and I kept the account of it — I knew to the hour what a barrel of oil was worth and what it cost to keep a lamp burning. So take my word on the harbour's real worth: come in on a bad night and the inner basin is the flattest, kindest water in Cornwall. Every pleasure you'll take here sits on top of that one plain fact — a place built so the boats could come home.
Rules before walls
In 1774 the Harbour Trust rules were written in the Ship Inn, four years before there was an inner harbour to apply them to. The book they were bound in was not cow leather. It was the skin of a ling, a fish of the cod family.
The inner harbour, 1778
The first wall enclosed the basin the fishing fleet still works out of — the basin at the foot of the valley. For a hundred years it stood on its own and took the sea directly.
The outer wall
A century after the inner harbour, the outer wall was built beyond it: the arm with the lamp on its head. It takes the worst of the storms off the inner basin, which is why there is still a fleet to see.
It was added in 1888 and partly destroyed three years later in the Great Blizzard of 1891 — the same March that wrecked the merchant vessel Bay of Panama with 23 lives lost, and accounted for a further 187 people and an estimated six thousand animals elsewhere. It was completely rebuilt by 1897.
The fishermen own the seabed
Mevagissey is unusual: the fishermen own the seabed around the harbour, which almost everywhere else belongs to the Duchy.
The original Harbour Trust documents — the harbour rules, and how the place was to be run — were written in 1774 in the Ship Inn. The volume was bound not in cow leather but in ling skin, a fish of the cod family.
Built, wrecked, and built again
The harbour stands on the site of a medieval quay. An Act of Parliament in 1774 allowed a new port to be built, and that is the one forming the inner harbour today.
An outer harbour was added in 1888 and was partly destroyed three years later in the Great Blizzard of 1891. That March also wrecked the merchant vessel Bay of Panama, with 23 lives lost; other accidents in the same storm accounted for a further 187 people and an estimated six thousand animals. The wall was completely rebuilt by 1897.
The harbour has held charity status since 1988. Today there are over sixty registered fishing vessels in the inner harbour and around seventy fishermen, working a wide range of methods: mackerel, sole, ray, lobster, crab and much else comes out of it.
Crabbing off the harbour wall
The inner harbour wall is the spot — sheltered from whatever the bay is doing, with railings to sit at and the water right below you. Drop a line baited with a scrap of bacon and wait; the crabs here can't get enough of it. If you've come without, the village shops sell crab lines and buckets a few doors apart.
Keep the little ones kneeling or sat at the edge, give your catch a bucket of seawater and a bit of shade while you count them, then tip them gently back for the next family to find. If you're here at the end of June, there's a crabbing competition on the harbour.
Fishing from the wall
Fishing from the harbour wall is excellent, and there is a tackle shop on the waterfront. In early summer it is not unusual to see four mackerel come out on a single line, cast after cast, with a row of anglers all bent over at once.
In the harbour mouth dogfish lie on the bottom — a member of the cat-shark family, rebranded as rock salmon in the chip shops — waiting for whatever goes over the side. In winter you can catch squid from the harbour at night, and, if you fancy it, conger eel.
For mackerel for your dinner, though, your best chance is one of the boat trips out of the harbour.
Boats out
The Fowey ferry leaves from the dock in the inner harbour. The Bessee Vee, for chartered fishing trips, goes from the outermost wall.
A self-catering cottage in St Austell Bay with sea views, a large garden and parking, close to the beach and the coast path. Book direct with the owner.
Book direct with the ownerMevagissey Harbour — a guide to the village, the bay and the people who worked it.