The place name Talland is from the Cornish words tal (meaning "brow") and lan (meaning "church site" or "monastic enclosure") so this is generally thought to mean something like "the holy place on the brow of the hill". A Celtic Missionary, known as St Tallanus, is said to have erected a holy altar where the altar of the current church now stands.
As you might have guessed, Kiln Cottage is built on the site of a lime kiln.
Internally, a lime kiln consisted of a conical stone or brick-lined chamber which was loaded from the top with alternating layers of limestone and carbon-rich fuel such as charcoal, peat or coal. At the side of the kiln was an alcove known as an "eye" which was used to access the kiln and remove the quicklime from a hole at the bottom of the chamber. The kiln was often run continuously with more layers of fuel and limestone added to the top as the previous layers worked their way down through the kiln. Air was drawn in through the bottom of the kiln and heated up as it passed through the quicklime (also cooling the quicklime) before it reached the level where combustion was taking place.
In 1922 the French Trawler "Marguerite" lost her bearings and went aground in a southwesterly gale. The boat was equipped with a radio and sent an SOS signal saying it had run aground on Eddystone Reef. The Looe lifeboat was launched and began the long row out to Eddystone. In fact the trawler was so far off course that it was on the rocks of Talland Bay, but the crew could not see the land through the thick drizzly mist. About half an hour later the trawler was spotted and a motorised fishing boat was sent to tow the lifeboat back to Talland Bay. Once in Talland Bay, the lifeboat was released. By now, the trawler was up on the rocks with a huge sea breaking over her. The coxwain of the lifeboat used the lifeboat's anchor in the marine equivalent of a "handbrake turn" to keep the lifeboat afloat whilst bringing it alongside the trawler on the rocks and was able to rescue all 21 of the crew.
It is said that as the tide receded, the locals thought it a shame that the 50 tonnes of fish aboard the ship might go to waste and despite a guard being placed on the shore to protect the property, managed to creep in from the seaward side without the guard noticing. However, when they arrived, they found that the boat's acetylene lamps had spilled their calcium carbide (used to generate the acetylene) into the fish hold, contaminating the fish. In fact, the heat generated by carbide reacting with the water on the wet fish may have cooked them.
The vetches are a family of wildflowers that is a sub-group within the pea and bean family. Their pretty purple flowers are quite like mini sweetpea flowers. The leaves are also very distinctive, organised in a neat row either side of the stem. Common vetch is a wildflower but is also sown by farmers in some grazing fields to improve the nutrition for ruminants and to introduce more nitrogen into the soil.
West Cliff Old Court is a 6 bedroom Edwardian house with landscaped gardens built in 1911. Due to the remote location, it is not connected to mains water so the water supply comes from a spring fed by water draining from Talland Hill. It's a private property and not open to the public.
Buddleia are originally from northwest China and Japan where they grow in forest clearings, on riverbanks and on limestone outcrops where they are able to survive with minimal nutrients. They were introduced into the UK as an ornamental plant in the late 19th Century and can found in many gardens. Some have escaped and established a niche on industrial land which resembles their native limestone outcrops.
The shrub is commonly known as the Butterfly Bush as the flowers are profuse, rich in nectar and are in the shape of champagne flutes; butterflies and bees have sufficiently long drinking apparatus to reach the bottom.
The plant has two types of leaf; the broad green leaves are replaced with shorter hairy grey leaves during the winter which are more resistant to frost and the drying effect of cold winds.
During winter, from November to March, winter heliotrope is visible along the edges of roads and paths as carpets of rounded heart-shaped leaves.
The name of the plant is Greek for "sun direction" because the flowers turn to follow the winter sun.
The memorial was created to commemorate the local men who died in the First World War. It has been added to for the Second World War, and the Falklands War.
During the First World War nearly 10,000,000 military personnel and over 10,000,000 civilians were killed. A further 23 million people were injured. In addition, over 8,000,000 horses, mules and donkeys and more than 1,000,000 dogs lost their lives. The sixteen million animals that served in World War 1 are commemorated with purple poppies.
Records show that by the 14th Century, Polperro was already a busy port and that the main occupation of the men and boys was fishing. The pilchard fishing boom came much later, with the first export of pilchards from Polperro reported as being made in 1783. During Victorian Times, Polperro had three pilchard factories, two of which were owned by Italians, reflecting one of the main export markets.
For many generations, Cornish fishermen wore hand-knitted wool jumpers known locally as "knit-frocks". These are similar to Guernsey jumpers and were made from wool dyed navy blue with indigo. If well-made, they could last for more than twenty years. Young boys were therefore given oversized jerseys that reached to their knees to grow into. Each fishing family wore their their own distinct pattern which meant that if a jumper was lost, its wearer could be identified.
A total of ten individual patterns from Polperro have been recorded, but the knitters never worked from written patterns. They were passed on within families by practical demonstration.
As well as knitting for their family, many women earned money as contract knitters; a skilled knitter could make a knit-frock in a week often whilst looking after children at the same time. In the 1851 census, 28 women and girls in Polperro were listed as "knitters". At the beginning of the 20th century, women could earn between 2s. 6d. and 2s. 9d. for a knit-frock and up to 3s. 6d. for a "fancy" one, whereas at this time, a full-time domestic servant earned only an average of 9d. each week.
Although the current lighthouse was built in 1911, this replaced another built in 1904. The lighthouse was decommissioned in 1958 when three new lights were established. When it was operational, the light was visible for 12 miles. In place of the railings was a whitewashed stone rubble wall.
The path below the coast path, leading to the lighthouse, is known as Reuben's Walk after Reuben Oliver - a local magistrate who, even when he became old and blind, regularly walked along here to the lighthouse. A coastguard lookout was also situated alongside the lighthouse but this was demolished in 1989.
The Warren is said to take its name from the rabbit farming that took place for meat here in mediaeval times although it is an equally fitting description of the narrow street.
You can optionally nip across the bridge to explore the other side of Polperro and return here to continue on the route.
Follow the lane ahead to reach a junction with a sign for Talland Street.
Despite the name, the Roman Bridge was built in the latter half of the 19th Century replacing an earlier version with a flat timber lintel that was photographed in 1854. Given Polperro's history of flooding and the proximity of the bridge to the sea, it's more than likely that the bridge, like Boscastle's, has been rebuilt a number of times over its history after damage from floods or storms.
The return route is up Talland Hill to the right.
First, you might want to explore Polperro a bit more and rest yourself for the climb up the hill.
Follow Talland Hill upwards until you eventually reach a junction on the right just after a school sign.
Kirk House at the bottom of Talland Hill was still in use as the Sion Central Church until the 1950s. It was built as an overflow for the main Methodist Central Church on Fore Street. At the end of the 20th Century it was purchased as a holiday home by actor Kris Marshall (who appeared in "Love Actually" and "Death in Paradise"). He allowed the band Republica to use it as a recording studio to create their single "Christiana Obey".
In December 1708, the East India Company ship Albermarle was driven ashore near Polperro in a violent storm. The ship was laden with cargo which included silks, wool, pepper, coffee, indigo and diamonds. The ship was wrecked and sank and little of the cargo was recovered, but even the small fraction that was recovered (likely to be mainly textiles which floated) was immensely profitable to the residents of Polperro as the total value of the ship was estimated at around £40,000, which today would be many millions of pounds. For weeks afterwards, the seas were turned blue by the sunken indigo dissolving into the water. Attempts were made to locate the wreck and salvage the sunken cargo but these were all unsuccessful. It is thought the location was somewhere to the east of Polperro, towards Talland Bay and the diamonds are likely to be buried in the sands on the seabed.
Two pairs of towers, known as "measured mile markers", are set exactly one nautical mile apart and are used by ships to calculate their speed. The ship sets a steady course on a bearing perpendicular to the markers. When the two markers align, the time is noted and again at the second pair of markers. The ship then turns around and repeats the process in the opposite direction and the average of the two values is taken. Now that ships have GPS, this can be used to measure speed, but the markers are still used by some ships coming out of refit at Devonport. At night, the marker towers are illuminated so they can be seen from the sea.
Talland Bay was used in one of the largest smuggling operations of the 20th Century. In 1979, police found 1.5 tonnes of Moroccan Gold cannabis wrapped in Christmas paper and hidden in a secret underground store beneath the café's counter. In all, 30 tonnes - with a street value of over £100 million at today's prices - had been imported by the smuggling gang using a converted fishing boat. The owner of the café was jailed and only legal herbs are now used by the café's new owners.
The present church dates from the 13th Century and the bell tower was originally completely detached from the church. The church was enlarged in the 14th and 15th Centuries and reconstructed in the Perpendicular Gothic style, and at this point the bell tower was joined into the church. Much of the mediaeval woodwork and carved pews from the Tudor era have survived. There is also an elegantly carved Elizabethan tomb of Sir John Bevill.
During the 19th Century, part of the churchyard collapsed into the road and the gravestones now lining the path were salvaged from the rubble.
The Net Loft on Peak Rock is thought to be on the site of Polperro's 19th Century chapel. The lower part of the building was used for boat building and the upper floor was used to store sails and nets - hence the name. It fell into disuse during the late 20th Century and was restored in 2015-16 by the National Trust.
Chapel Pool is a tidal bathing pool built in the 1940s. Its south-facing aspect means that the sun warms it up beyond the temperature of the sea once waves stop flooding it. By the 21st Century, the steps cut into the cliff leading down to the pool had deteriorated to the point of being impassable due to the constant battering of the sea. In 2001 they were restored by the National Trust with help from The Royal Engineers. The pool is accessible from about half tide, but note that it is a steep climb down the steps (with no handrails) to reach it.
The museum was formerly a pilchard processing factory, thought to be built in the late 19th Century, when the pilchard industry was just starting to decline. The building now contains a collection relating to the smuggling and fishing in the village from the 18th Century and includes a photographic record dating from 1860.
The harbour walls and first pier (on the south side of the harbour) dates from the late 17th Century. They were damaged by storms in the 18th and early 19th Century and subsequently rebuilt. Then in 1824, a particularly violent storm nearly entirely destroyed the pier. After this, the two piers enclosing the harbour were rebuilt in their current configuration. The third pier as added in 1861 and some further improvements were made to the harbour and piers in the late 19th Century.
The Three Pilchards was built in the early 16th Century, making it the oldest pub in Polperro. As you might guess, the name alludes to the pilchard catch which was predominantly exported to Italy where Catholic restrictions on eating meat resulted in demand for fish as an alternative. The name of the pub is rumoured to have arisen when two Italian brothers settled in the village and sampled one pilchard from each of the three rival processing factories to determine which to trade with.
It is said that in the 19th Century, the presence of a saddled mare outside the pub was a sign to locals in-the-know that smuggled goods were available over the bar.
The river in Polperro is known as the Pol which is a somewhat utilitarian name from the Cornish word for a pool or anchorage (i.e. most probably the harbour). It's also known as the Polperro River. The source of the river is near Pelynt and there are also tributary streams near Barcelona.
There are two shingle beaches at Talland Bay. The right-hand beach (with the café) is known as Talland Sand which as the name suggests is the more sandy of the two beaches. The other one is known as Rotterdam Beach.
On both beaches, as the tide goes out, finer sand is revealed. A large rock platform with rockpools along the cliffs to the right is also uncovered at low tide. The rocks are particularly colourful with reds, brown and greens.
At low tide, another small beach to the far left - known as Stinker Cove - joins with Rotterdam beach. There is no separate access to this beach so care must be taken not to be cut off by the tide.
The name of the building is said to have come from when the building was used as a bakery and the old lady who ran it recorded her sales with a small "o" for selling small loaf and large "O" for a large loaf. When she received payment she marked her ledger with an "x" or "X".
Known locally as "The Noughts", the building was a pub for many years and was used in the filming of The Tale of Little Pig Robinson.
At the start of the Second World War (1939-1940), Cliff End was home to Austrian painter Oskar Kokoschka (1886-1980) who had been deemed a "degenerate" by the Nazis and fled from Czechoslovakia to the UK. He painted a number of anti-fascist works during the war. His painting The Crab is based on the view from his house in Polperro and combines a the immediately recognisable landscape with a political allegory about how much help Britain (the crab) was giving to Czechoslovakia (swimmer fleeing a shipwreck) at the time.
East Moorings was used as a filming location for the 1958 film "Another Time, Another Place" starring Sean Connery, Lana Turner and Glynis Johns.
Whilst the film was being made, Lara Turner's real-life jealous boyfriend Johnny Stompanato (who turned out to be a gangster from LA) threatened Sean Connery with a gun. This proved an error of judgement as Connery was a karate black belt and twisted Stompanato's wrist forcing him to drop the gun, and the gangster fled off set. Several months later, Johnny Stompanato was stabbed to death by Lara Turner's daughter for abusing her mother but the mob held Connery responsible and he had to go into hiding for a short period.
After her starring roles in "A Taste of Honey", "Girl with the Green Eyes", "The Knack….and How to Get It" and "Dr Zhivago" during the 1960s, the actress Rita Tushingham lived in Seaways during the 1970s and her husband became landlord of the Blue Peter Inn.
Rowland Emett was an inventor of eccentric mechanical devices that featured in the film Chitty Chitty Bang Bang. He was also worked as an illustrator for Punch magazine. Many of his illustrations were drawn in his harbour-side studio in Polperro.
From the mid 1940s, his family spent summers in Polperro and after the war they moved permanently to a cottage in the village.
More about his work is available from the Rowland Emett Society.
During late winter or early spring, if you encounter a patch of plants with white bell-shaped flowers, smelling strongly of onions, and with long, narrow leaves then they are likely to be three-cornered leeks. Once you're familiar with their narrow, ridged leaves, you'll be able to spot these emerging from late October onwards.
The plants get their name due to their triangular flower stems. As the name also suggests, they are members of the onion family and have a small bulb. In fact, in New Zealand they are known as "onion weed". They are also known as "snowbell" due to their white bluebell-like flowers.
Three-cornered leeks are native to the Mediterranean and are first recorded as being introduced to the UK in 1759. By Victorian times, they had become well-established in the wild. They thrive in the moist, mild climate in Cornwall and are salt-tolerant so will grow almost anywhere, even on the coast.
The plant spreads to form dense colonies, crowding-out native species. The onion-flavoured seeds are very attractive to ants who carry them quite large distances and forget some of them, allowing the plant to colonise new areas. In fact three-cornered leeks are so invasive that they are illegal to plant in the wild.
All parts of the plant are edible by humans and the flavour of the leaves is relatively mild so they can be used in recipes in place of spring onions or chives. They are at their best for culinary use from November to April. By mid-May, they have flowered and the leaves are starting to die back.
The long leaves can be mistaken for bluebells or daffodils which are both poisonous but do not smell of onions. However, fingers that have previously picked 3-cornered leeks also smell of onions and so mistakes have been made this way.
All plants in the onion family including three-cornered leeks are poisonous to dogs. Keep dogs away from the plant and wash their paws if they come into contact with it.
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