ROADS, BUILDINGS, HOUSES, FISHING BOATS, POPULATION

1066 before - Methleigh Manor (now Methleigh Farm) already existed by 1066

1780 Fishmongers Arms (site of present Institute Buildings) built about this year. Demolished 1883.

1790 First Methodist chapel built on Loe Bar Road, Gravesend (westerly end of current houses on Mounts Road)

1800-1810 Ship Inn (originally Ship Tavern) built. It is the oldest pub still standing in Porthleven.

1811 Village believed to have consisted of 63 dwellings.

+++ 1811 Population 220 +++

1814 Breageside warehouse built of granite

1814 Lime Kiln (Breagside) built.

1816 Salt Cellar built for storage of cargoes landed, including salt from Norway. Giant blocks of ice were stored in the Ice House on the other side of the harbour.

1818 Torleven Farmhouse was built

1825 Magistrates in quarter session certified that Porthleven harbour was completed to admit vessels of 200 tons.

1826 Porthleven Harbour opens for traffic.

1830 Bible Christians built a chapel.

1840 Anglican Church building began.

1840 Account House built on harbourside (later became Customs House)

1840 Larger Methodist Chapel built.

1841 St Bartholomew Anglican Church consecrated on 24 August 1841

1844 at Penventon Farm a new road was cut joining Helston to the Porthleven Road.

1844 school built next to St Bartholomew's church – 150 pupils

1846 the new PARISH OF PORTHLEVEN was created from parts of SITHNEY & BREAGE parishes.

__1848 63 boats, about 20 engaged in the mackerel fishery.

1800s (mid) The Gue /Gew houses built mid 1800s.Named after two fields that were on that site called "Gew Field" and "Great GewField" (seen on 1750 map of village field layout).Cornish word 'gue' or 'gew' used as a field name, frequently the best field on a farm or the one nearest the house.

 +++ 1851 Population 1012 +++ 

 +++ 1861 Population 1259 +++ 

1863 Torre House was built at the top of Fore Street for Captain Solomon Symons

__1870 50 boats in the harbour

 +++ 1871 Population 1562 +++ 

1875 The track to Stopgate Roseladden Gate) was made into a proper road

1876 The Commercial Hotel was built on the site of the former New Inn ( Now the Harbour Inn

1879 24 houses in Thomas Terrace were completed, named after the builder, Mr Thomas from Truro.

__1880 127 boats in fishing fleet employing 600 men and boys

 +++ 1881 Population 1873 +++ 

1883 Rockville (laterTye Rock Hotel) built on 4 acres of land. Site blasted from rock by Irish labourers.

1884 William Bickford Smith presented Porthleven with the clock tower. It replaced the old Fisherman’s Arms

__1885 over 100 boats in the harbour - 80 pilchard, 23 mackerel drivers, 20 crabbers. Mackerel boats usually had 7 men to a boat

1885 Sunnybank ( a large house) was built just north of Tye Rock. This has since been demolished and replaced with several private houses.

1886 Boslan house built for the Methodist minister Rev James E Hargreaves

1886 Seaview Terrace built on Breageside. (Now known as Ocean View)

1886 John Eddy was appointed Porthleven’s first street cleaner scavenger. There was no mains water or drainage

1887 Beacon Crag was built in 5 acres of land for a local artist, Harriet Anne Seymour

1888 houses built in Wellington Road , and named after their owner, Wellington Dale a Penzance Solicit.

1889 New cemetery created. It included a mortuary, walls paths and gates costing £115

1889 3 storey building (fish cellar & pilchard curing tanks), built on Breageside for William Taglio, a fish merchant.

1890 Porthleven received its first piped drinking water from a reservoir at Tregathenan Hill

 +++ 1891 Population 1891  +++ 

1892 (now Harbour View) 5 plots of land at the bottom Parish Road leased to four local men to build on by Harbour and Dock company.

1893 China Clay Stores (now Rick Steins Restaurant) built for John Lovering who had the lease on the Tregonning Hill clay-producing quarries. The building could hold 7,000 tons of china clay

1894 The Lifeboat Institution built a new boat house and slip way costing £1,481

1894 Ice House built. It was constructed from beach gravel and cement.

1895 Bar Lodge (at entrance to Penrose Woods, Loe Bar) built as a beach house for Squire John Peverell Rogers.

1896 Rural District Council ibegan mains drainage system to Porthleven – completed 1898.

__1897 BOATS: 50 pilchard drift, 38 mackerel drift, 31 crabbers, 10 mackerel seine,1 pilchard seine

1898 Fore Street James Kitto, boat builder, built a terrace of houses in front of his net drying field (now car park)

 +++ 1901 Population 1974  +++ 

1902 Buenos Aires Row (named after a ship lost near Porthleven) replaced by beginnings of Bay View Terrace.

1905 Bay View Terrace completed. The plot nearest the clock tower was originally a temperance tea room.

1905 5 new houses built at rear of Thomas Terrace & the 1879 Thomas Terrace was renamed Thomas Street

 +++ 1911 Population 1667  +++ 

1911 on The Square, a granite monument to commemorate the coronation of George V was the first public light in the village.18 lamps, providing the first night lights were erected

__1915 BOATS: 52 crabbers, 46 pilchard drift, 3  mackerel drift , 2 mackerel seine

 +++ 1921 Population 2002  +++ 

1928 Public Hall & Women’s Institute built in Wellington Road built by J M Ruberry at a cost of £1,400 on land given by the Squire of Penrose.

1928 The first Apostolic Church to be built in Cornwall was in Thomas Street, Porthleven.

1929 New chemist shop was built at tbottom of Fore Street by the Square. At this time Porthleven was not on the national grid. The chemist was one of the first shops to have its own light supplied by its own generator. (The first chemist in the village was opened by William Alfred Holloway. Originally located at the top of Fore Street he relocated to the bottom of Thomas Street which is still known by some as Chemist's Corner).

1929 Breageside bathing pool blasted out of the rocks. (can still be seen today)

1930 Electric light installed in St Bartholomew’s Church.

1930s SHOPS – TOTAL NUMBER 47: Torleven 3, Thomas Street 4, Unity Road 2, Peverell Road 3, Fore Street 16, Harbour Road 12, The Gue 2, Gravesend 3, Breageside 2.

 +++ 1931 Population 1976  +++ 

1932 Porthleven street lighting electricrified, power being supplied by Cornwall Electric Supply Company .

1936 Mounts Bay Terrace constructed.

__1939 BOATS – only 15 fishing boats based in the harbour

1940 Pill boxes constructed out of reinforced concrete

1947 Gibson Way - first 6 houses of the 15 acre site built.

1953 Navigation lights to harbour entrance onnected to mains electricity after 70 years of being lit using oil.

1953 Boslan estate - first tenant of a new general store was Mrs Mary Curnow. She stayed till her death in 1965.

1954 Gala Park football pitch. Bulldozers started work. (Gala Park & Tiddlywink Moor).
1956 TV reached Porthleven. Two reception masts erected: Chapel Down & Gravesend. A cable was then run around the village. People could pay to be plugged in. There were less than 12 sets in the village.

1956 Ocean Crescent. 16 semi detached houses and 2 semi detached bungalows were built

__1957 26 boats in the harbour: 6 mackerel, 2 pilchard drifts, and 18 crabbers

1958 Electric Lighting installed in the granite monument on The Square.

1959 Anson Cottages. Coastguards moved from their base on Peverell Terrace after 100 years to Ocean Terrace where two new houses, Anson Cottages and a station had been built.

 +++ 1961 Population 2241 +++ 

1961 Top of Unity Road - 2 prefabs demolished creating a way through to Sunset Hill (Wellington Road).

1964 Top of Unity Road - final 3 prefabs demolished

1967 behind Unity Road Work began on the Horseshoe area with detached plots being sold for £800 .

1970 Elliston Gardens - new block of flats were built and named after the long serving Porthleven GP

 +++ 1971 Population 3024 +++ 

1971 Elliston Gardens - 16 old peoples flats with a bungalow for the warden completed.

1972 Tye Rock Hotel opened its swimming pool to guests and members of the public.

1975 Torleven Road - New Junior School built but numbers attending so high that part  of the school was housed in Vicarage Road.

1980 Torleven Road - New Infant's School opened and for the first time in the village hstory all the children of Porthleven were housed on one site.

 +++ 1981 Population 3175 +++ 

1984 Sea Defence Wall - another cliff fall in tBlue Buoy area prompted talks which resulted in construction.

1985 Sea Defence Wall - Phase 1 completed. Specially shaped to act as wave wall deflecting the surf away.

 +++ 1991 Population 3145 +++ 

1993 Sea Defence Wall - completed December. Ttotal of 9 phases commencing in 1985. 435 metres of walling built by 5 different contractors at a cost of over £2 million for a life expectancy of between 60 and 100 years. This was by far the largest coastal defence undertaken in Cornwall

 +++ 2001 Population 3190 +++ 

 +++ 2011 Population 3094 +++ 

2013 Cornwall Council approved a housing development at Shrubberies Hill.