Newlyn, Cornwall

SAILORS MISSION, NEWLYN

As a boy during the Second World War I served as a Sea Cadet at Newlyn where on numerous occasions we made use of the facilities at the Sailors Mission. I loved to listen to the old sailors talking about past memories and often shared in a mug of steaming hot tea.
Every so often my mother would ask me to visit the harbour where I would find the fishermen returning with their catch. Sometimes if they were in a good mood they would throw me a few fish which I would proudly present to Mum.

Happy days remembered with great affection.

My great grandfather

This is a photo of Henry Kitchen, my mother's grandfather, who was also one of Stanhope Forbes' favourite models.  He was painted sitting in the rowing boat in Forbes' painting 'The Lighthouse', which now hangs in Manchester Art Gallery, and I have also read an account of  a diary which he kept, when taken to London to be presented to Queen Victoria, on designing a new type of trammell net.  According to my mother he was also the fiddler in the village band, and I remember being taken to visit a relative in Newlyn and viewing a beautiful  portrait of Henry Kitchen holding his fiddle, engraved upon a mirror.  I have no idea who the artist was, but would love to see it again.  
In the photo he's standing in front of his home and birthplace, Vine Cottage. How wonderful it is to have such links to the past...does it explain why I have never been seasick?

Victorian and Edwardian Maritime Album

This picture, which features the old quay, was taken some months before the completion of the new harbour. During the mackerel season, Newlyn bustled with freelance boatmen who earned their living ferrying the catch in clinker- built rowing boats known as bummers’ gigs from fishing boats anchored offshore to waiting salesmen on the quayside. The practice died out during the early years of the 20th century with the introduction of steam drifters that were equipped to land catches directly on to the jetties.

Cornwall A Century Ago Photographic Memories

Although the bathing boys are the subject of this photograph, of particular interest is the steam coaster alongside the new pier in the background, where construction work still appears to be going on. The boy on the right holds a model fishing lugger.

Cornwall A Century Ago Photographic Memories

Cornwall’s greatest fishing port is seen here at high tide with a number of fishing vessels. The newly-completed North or Victoria Pier is on the left, with the South Pier with its lighthouse at the back.