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Duporth
Duporth maps
Historic maps of Duporth and the local area, hand-drawn by Ordnance Survey and Samuel Lewis. View all Duporth maps
Duporth photos
We have no photos of Duporth, although we do have photos of these nearby places:
Charlestown| Porthpean| Carlyon Bay| St Austell| Trenarren| Biscovey| Polgooth| Pentewan| Par| St Blazey| Carthew| Tywardreath| Polkerris| Menabilly| Mevagissey| St Ewe| Pridmouth| Luxulyan| Portmellon| Lanlivery| Fowey| St Stephen| Polruan| Golant| Roche| Gorran| Bodinnick| St Gorran| Gorran Haven| St Winnow
Duporth area books
Displaying 1 of 16 books about Duporth and the local area. View all books for this area
You can read extracts and browse photos from these books.
Memories of Duporth
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Cornwall memories
The Tiny Port of Charlestown
I briefly attended Charlestown Infants' school in 1942 as it accepted children a years earlier than Mount Charles Infants (just a mile away) which I lived just a few yards from on Porthpean Road. I was four years old at the time.
During those war years the quaysides around the inner dock had corrugated iron buildings that were used in the fitting out of inshore mine-sweeper vessels. These boats were built at nearby Par and had their engines and machinery fitted at Charlestown. These sheds were removed at the end of the war and once more the harbour looked very much as it had when it was built by Charles Rashleigh in the last decade of the 1700s.
Inspite of wartime restrictions, we locals were permitted access to the beaches and the one on the eastern side of the harbour entrance was our destination whenever the weather allowed. As we grew older mother would be waiting for us there with a snack when we raced down the... Read more
So Many..
I was born 1941 in Raneleigh Road Nursing Home in Mount Charles. I was brought up in Rope Walk Lane opposite the old Primary School. There was a cement works part way down the lane. My mother (aged 19) worked in the 'Food Office' in St Austell dealing with ration books and the allied administration. Her boss she called 'Cherpie' and he was I understand a nice man.
Charlestown to me was a venture playground where we climbed cliffs, took and ate seagulls eggs, ran over rocks at speed, became very sunburned and suffered and may still!! We ran out and swam off the large pipe that took the sewage away from the 'Coastguard Beach' being the pebble one beneath the path to Duporth.
Large noisy lorries came down and deposited clay into shutes to fill the small cargo boats and we hung on the the back of them going up the hill out of the village on our bikes. The boats were usually named with 'ity' at... Read more
The Boat House Porthpean Beach
The tall building at the bottom left hand side of the slipway leading down to the beach was used by a Mr Axford who had two or three wooden rowing boats that he hired out by the hour. He would sit on a bench outside the boathouse and having paid the appropriate monies one was issued with a pair of oars and allocated a boat. My dad bought one of Charlie's boats in the early '50's which we kept on the quay at Charlestown and used it for recreation fishing. We initially powered it with a 4hp Seagull outboard. Then, on one of our fishing trips we come across a large quantity of wood planks that must have washed overboard from some freighter in a storm. In that great tradition of Cornish wreckers we salvaged as many of these 15 or 16 foot long boards as we could pile onto our boat, leaving just a narrow gap to stand in as we ever so slowly made our way back to... Read more
Anti-Invasion Defences-Porthpean Beach
During the invasion scare of WW2, Porthpean beach was protected from seaborne landings by the Germans by having anti-landing craft defences built along the length of the beach at I believe, the low tide mark. This consisted of an A-frame structure constructed from scaffold piping. Possibly this had mines attached but I have found no confirmation of this.
Additionally, on the slope leading up from the beach there were pyramid shaped, concrete pillars about four or five feet high that would prevent vehicles using it.
One of these can be seen in the photo "View from beach c. 1955"
I lived on Porthpean Road at MountCharles from 1939 till 1955 and now live in Illinois, USA
Anti Invasion Devices
I spent many happy hours on Porthpean beach, both with my family and my friends during the summer holidays. I remember the anti invasion devices well as we used them as monkey bars. After the war they became very rusty with many sharp rusty edges to get snagged on.
I also remember during the war years that a few miles off the beach were some bombing targets and we used to watch bomber pilots practising their skills from time to time.
Peter, I believe you were a year behind me at St. Austell Grammar school and that a few years back I think we swapped emails. I now live in Marblehead, Massachusetts, having moved here in 1968.
St Austell Fore Street - Rivera Restaurant
The Rivera!! Once a week after school in 1964- 65, a group of us (mostly 6th-formers from the Grammar School, which was co-ed by that time) used to gather upstairs in the Rivera Restaurant (on the right in the photo) and order tea and buttered teacakes - all we could afford - and we'd make them last an hour or more. I'm sure we were often noisy, and took up a lot of room, much to the consternation of other customers and the staff, but we were regulars too, just learning how to be adults. I remember most of the old shops along Fore Street - WH Smith on the corner opposite the church where I was confirmed, the Home and Colonial store, which had boxes of biscuits with glass lids, just at the right height to tempt young children, Northcott's the butcher across the street from H&C (Stuart Northcott was in my class at school), and Sydney Grose, where we purchased our school uniforms. Saturday mornings were spent at... Read more
Adam And The Ants
I remember my first concert there. It was fantastic - Adam and the Ants. I was 14! It was a long time ago. My mum still lives in St. Austell but I live in Plymouth. Wonderful memories from my younger days as I'm now 44. My name back then was Maria Searle and I went to Poltair, I wonder if anyone knows me?
