Fowey

Compiled from an article written by Sam Guy and other local sources.

A Brief History	Click on the pictures for a better view
	Fowey takes its name from the river on which it stands. It rises on Bodmin Moor near Brown Willy. The centrepiece of the town is a castle like house called 'Place'. This has been the family home of the Treffry family for over 500 years. Much of the old town is squashed in along the shoreline and was built to serve the ships that visited the port. Several quays remain; Whitehouse Slip for ferries to Polruan and Mevagissey; Town Quay for the water taxis running crews to and from the visiting yachts; Albert Quay so named after Queen Victoria and Prince Albert once landed there; Berrill's Wharf which now accommodates the Fowey Lifeboat but was until the sixties used for discharging coal; Riverside quay which used to be used by the Bodinnick ferry; and Caffa Mill where the ferry now leaves to Bodinnick
.	The Harbour Authority is the Fowey Harbour Commission and was founded in 1869. Currently, it comprises 9 commissioners including the Harbour Master who is also the Chief Executive. He, with his deputy and staff, run the daily affairs of the port. The harbour extends up the river to Lostwithiel and on the way includes the villages of Polruan, Bodinnick, Mixtow, Golant, Penpol, Lerryn and St Winnow
	Fowey's maritime history stretches back to the Middle Ages when the harbour was prolific in providing men and ships for the siege of Calais. Fortified blockhouses mark the entrance, a result of the raid by the French on Fowey in 1457 when much of the town was burned. A cable was strung across the harbour to prevent a repeat until the local sailors would stand for them no longer.
	Cargoes through the port included the exports of copper, tin and china clay and the imports of coal, timber, limestone and general cargo. Coal was unloaded at Berrills Wharf as late as the 1960s. Today the sole export is china clay but this was a relatively new cargo, the first being exported in 1869. Prior to this Fowey was used only as a port of refuge by the ships using the main china clay ports of Par, Charlestown and Pentewan.
	Dredging in the lower harbour in the early part of the 20th century allowed access to the berths upstream by larger vessels. This allowed china clay to be shipped regularly through the port.
	All pilots and their boatmen lived, until recently, in Polruan. Lookout for ships was kept from an old fisherman's lookout. Contact was made with an aldis lamp and the pilot with two boatmen would put to sea in a 20' boat to between five and six miles from the shore. Once aboard the boat would be towed back to port behind the ship and then the boatmen would moor the ship.
	In the 1970s the lookout was switched to an old coastguard lookout and a VHF radio installed. This allowed the four pilots to arrange a loose partnership that became a legal partnership when the Fowey Pilots amalgamated with the two Par Pilots in 1988. The number dropped to 5 in 1991 and has remained at that level since.
	In 1995 the Fowey Pilots' Association as it became known introduced a scheme whereby mariners who were interested in becoming a pilot were able to train with the pilots in their own time so that replacements for retirement and illness were already in a position to start immediately.

A Brief History