400 million years ago: Harbour Cove Slates formed. You can see them today at Trebetherick Point and Gravel Cavern above younger Polzeath slates because of a major geological event, called “The Trebetherick Thrust”, part of the Padstow Confrontation, caused major deformation and movement of the rocks in our region
360 Million Years Ago: beautiful pale green to purple Polzeath Slates formed
298 Million Years Ago: granite on Bodmin Moor formed as an individual pluton of the Cornubian Batholith now forming the granite backbone of Cornwall
298 - 260 Million Years Ago: Mainstage Mineralization including tin, tungsten, arsenic, and copper, were deposited within cooling granite. A lode running from Breakneck Cavern, under Medla and then under Tinners Hill to Polzeath is a good example of this mineralization
237 - 231 Million Years Ago: The Cross Course Mineralisation, which included lead, silver, zinc, and iron, occurred
2.6 Million Years Ago: the wave-cut platforms seen around Newland Island and Pentire Point start to form. Some of the platforms have formed during earlier interglacial periods when dramatic climate oscillations corresponded with lower sea levels (cold), and higher sea levels (warm)
120,000 years ago: raised beach deposits at Greenaway beach, seen today in the cliff face, show layers of dune sand, beach sand, and fossil sand as well as layers of stony loam, a breccia of slates on end and leaning, and lower head material. These deposits are the subject of debate regarding their origin as either glacial, raised beach, or river sediments, and contain various markers like beetles, pollen, and molluscs. The Trebetherick boulder gravels are also found within these deposits, and are themselves of uncertain origin.
10,000 years ago: the Camel Estuary flooded. This was at the end of the last ice age which started about a million years ago and had different phases. The Camel, the “Crooked River”, is an example of a Ria and the second longest Cornish river
8000 years ago: sand bars, including the 'Doom Bar', formed around the Camel estuary when sea-level rise speeded up and deposited sands in a short space of time
6000 years ago: Daymer Bay forest, with many long lived trees like oak and yew, grew but was submerged by rising sea levels and buried in sand around 4000 years ago (not discovered/revealed until about 1800)
2500 BC: Bronze Age people construct Tumuli around Polzeath, including on Miniver and Tinners Hills overlooking Polzeath, until about 800 BC
2000 BC: The technology of smelting copper and tin to form a durable alloy is first seen around the copper deposits of Cyprus. Because the Mediterranean region had few tin deposits a tin trade started in Cornwall, initially focusing on river gravels containing ore. Phoenicians, a maritime trading culture that flourished from approximately 1550 to 300 BC, very likely came to Harbour Cove and Stepper Point because Cassiterite, a tin ore, was to be found around here
1600 BC: The Nebra sky disc, a Bronze Age map of the Cosmos, although found in Germany in 1999, was crafted using Cornish tin, copper and gold.
352 BC: first written mention of the Cornish Tin Industry
100 BC: The Cliff Castle at The Rumps probably built. A significant example of an Iron Age settlement reflecting its strategic importance at a time of social change when local communities were adapting to a new era of iron tools and weapons
55 BC: Romans arrive in Cornwall (until 410 AD). They quarry tin at Mulberry Down (13 miles south of Polzeath)
1086: The Domesday Book compiled: Rosminver Manor (renamed St Minver), Trewornan Manor to east by River Amble, Pentire Manor to north, Penmayne Manor (an ancient sub-manor) to south of Polzeath. The total population of the whole of Cornwall about 26,000 (about that of St Austell today)
1184: Hundred of Trigg probably given “shire” suffix. Our Trigg area is one of ten administrative hundreds in Cornwall and extends to Bodmin Moor
1201: Cornish Stannary Charter granted by King John established 4 areas for smelted tin to be taxed: Helston, Truro, Lostwithiel, Liskeard
1260: St Endellion church built. St Minver & St Enodoc likely have earlier sites
1269: Bishop of Exeter, Walter Branscombe, sets the St Minver boundaries
1337: Duchy of Cornwall gives title to run the Black Tor Ferry between Padstow and Rock
1350: Half the population of Bodmin killed by Black Death
1485: Wadebridge’s first bridge across River Camel
1490: Slate quarrying starts along the North Cornwall coast around Trebarwith
1497: Cornish Rebellion march on London protesting against tax (to raise funds to fight the French)
1580s: First recorded mining at Pentire, with discovery of lead ore
1590 Shilla Mill (milling corn until 1885)
1630 Trebetherick was 6 farmhouses including Higher and Lower Farm, Males Barns and Mohay
1660: Rabbit warren at Pentire (100 acres). One by Brea Hill too (until 1860).
1664: The Barton of Pentire granted a licence to mine lead ore
1664: Cornwall mostly Royalist in English Civil War. Surrender of most Cornish Royalist forces in 1646 and many, like local Roscarrock family, fined
1690: Quaker Burial ground on road between Polzeath and St Minver. High walls partially rebuilt in 1833. Different trees planted on each burial plot
1693: Joel Gascoyne starts mapping two Cornish landowners’ estates. The Robarts landholdings will go into the Lanhydrock Atlas and the Grenvilles’ will become the Stowe Atlas. By 1699 other Cornish landowners helped finance Gascoyne to complete the first accurate one inch to one mile county map of Britain.
1743: Charles & John Wesley bring Cornwall Methodism. Andy Cameron (started Wavehunters 2002) is related, although Charles, the prolific hymn writer, wrote no hymns with a nautical theme
1758: William Borlase, geologist and naturalist who wrote “The Natural History of Cornwall” mentions mining for antimony at Pentire
1779: Bodmin jail built. In use until 1927
1791: Trewornan-bridge built to replace a dangerous ford
1793: 120 tons of lead ore sold from Pentire
1793: Inventor Sir Goldsworthy Gurney born at Treator, Padstow. From 1812 to 1820 was a doctor in Wadebridge. Among his many inventions were the “horseless steam carriage” and Bude Light. Dies 1875
1796: sixty-five foot whale washed up on Polzeath beach. Carcass used as manure and some bones to build Whale House in the grounds of St Minver House
1807: The great slate road from Delabole to Port Gavern built to ship-out slate
1813: OS published their first one inch to one mile map of the Polzeath area. Surveyed 1803-1810
1814: Cpt William Bartlett (24) and crew drown off Stepper carrying pipe clay to Liverpool
1815-19: The Pentire Silver and Lead Mine is a major producer of lead ore.
1819: Jan 2nd, sail barge carrying lead ore from Pentire sinks at Polzeath, six drown
1819: Jan 12, brig Isabella wrecked at Trebetherick and cargo of figs widely reported in press as having been wildly fought over by Bal Maidens of Pentire and locals on St Minver Common
1825-27: Mining for copper takes place at Pentireglaze
1827: “Doyden Castle” built on cliffs at Port Quin by Samuel Symons, a wealthy gentleman of Wadebridge who built it as a pleasure house for entertaining and owned mines from there up to Trevigo Farm and a former Mansion
1829: First Padstow lifeboat
1830: Daymark at Stepper (cost £27)
1830 Polzeath “Beach House” built by the captain of the local mines, it was originally called "The Pleasure House”
1841 Polzeath population: 44
1841: 8 man gig wrecked on Newland Rock /Island while collecting gulls’ eggs, 2 men drown
1842: Settlement of Byng NSW Australia first named the Cornish Settlement after the pioneering Cornish farmers who crossed the Blue Mountains. Some were from St Eval and it is certain that Cornish miners would have led the first gold rush in Australian history nearby in 1851
1843: Mining at Pentireglaze is restarted on the Costbook principle
1845: Mining begins on Tinners Hill, New Polzeath, in the "South Hill Mine"
1846: The lease for Pentireglaze mine is revoked due to ineffective management
1847: Trevose LightHouse (flashes every 7.5 seconds) automated 1995
1848: A new mining lease is drawn up for Pentireglaze
1848: Alfred Lord Tennyson in North Cornwall (May to July) touring with Rev Hawker, among others, to places like Tintagel
1850: The Pentire & Pentireglaze United Lead-Silver Mines is formed
1853: Pentireglaze mine produces 540 grams silver
1854: Meeting houses and chapels at: Tregenna (for Protestant dissenters), Tredizzick, Stopatide (Methodists) and Rosserow (Bryanites)
1855: Polzeath mine opened (closed 1856). Miners path named Tinners Lane
1856: Both Pentire and Pentireglaze mines close for good
1856: First RNLI lifeboat at Padstow
1858: Harbours and Refuge Parliamentary Select Committee recommends blasting Stepper Point to enable ships to enter the Camel Estuary more safely under sail power. The quarried area today is a result of both this and the future use of the hard dolerite for building WW2 airfields locally
1856: Coastguard Act. Watch on the coast is passed to Admiralty
1861: Trebetherick Mine (Trewiston Mine) closed, although reopens turn of century
1864: St Enodoc’s north chapel restored. A thousand people attend the reopening 29 July
1865: the barque Juliet wrecked at Trebetherick with all 17 crew saved but half the cargo of 400 barrels of rum washed ashore at Polzeath and William Ham of St Austell dies of alcohol poisoning
1869: Port Isaac’s first lifeboat
1870: While on an architectural job to restore the parish church of St Juliot the young Thomas Hardy fell in love with Emma Gifford. “A Pair of Blue Eyes” set at Endelstow was published in a serialised form in 1872 and features the first “cliffhanger”. After Emma’s death he returned in 1913 to visit “their” places
1879: Stone for Eddystone Lighthouse from De Lank Quarry, Blisland, shipped on barges out of Camel Estuary, after being cut in Wadebridge, until 1882. The very first wooden Eddystone lighthouse was completed in 1698
1879: Until now every local farm kept a flock of sheep and grew mostly wheat, oats and barley. At this time sheep were mostly replaced by North Devon beef cattle
1880: Coastguards’ rocket apparatus housed by Trebetherick Store (until 1930)
1882: a new venture was proposed to mine just the South Hill portion of the Pentireglaze Silver-Lead Mine. Due to challenges in securing mining rights and a bleak outlook for returns, the venture failed. The damaged mining land was reclaimed for the Pentireglaze estate
1884: Methodists hold first service in Polzeath in the Account House for the mine (later became first Post Office)
1885: last oxen used on local farms. Horse drawn bus to Wadebridge
1886: Wadebridge Town Hall built
1888: Golf first played around St Enodoc church. 1890 club formed, 1891 golf clubhouse first built, moved 1937 (18 hole course laid out 1907)
1891: Publication of "In the Roar of the Sea” a novel by Sabine Baring-Gould, set in and around Polzeath featuring "Cruel" Coppinger, a smuggler operating from Pentireglaze
1892: Dinham freshwater mill stops milling corn twice a week, Dinham saltwater mill stops milling bone (used for manuring root crops)
1892: St Minver Cricket Club established
1893: Rock ferry sinks, two drown
1894: Pentire View houses built (on the site of where a cottage stood from 1837)
1895: Rock Hotel built (knocked down 1978 and site used for Mariners Pub)
1895: Percival Institute St Minver built
1895: The North Cornwall Railway built in stages with the 10 mile Delabole to Wadebridge section opened on 1 June (closed 1966)
1897: Typhoid fever in Wadebridge due to poor sanitation and water supply. 9 die and results in new reservoir above town opened 1900
1898: Metropole Hotel Padstow built, opened 1904
1898: Atlantic Terrace, Pentireglaze Estate, built
1898: Old Methodist Chapel, “The Tin Tabernacle”, on Chapel Corner (replaced and moved as road widened 1933) also used as Methodist school hall
1899: London and South Western Railway (LSWR) open line to Padstow (closed 1967)
1900: Polzeath Lodge Hotel built (became Pinewood flats in 1950s)
1900: On her way to save both the Arab rowed lifeboat and the stricken brig the Peace and Plenty, the James Stevens steam lifeboat capsizes with 8 of the 11 crew drowned. Another 3 on the Peace and Plenty drown but 6 are saved by the Trebetherick Rocket Brigade. The Arab wrecks on Greenaway rocks but all crew survive
1902: Rock Hill Methodist Chapel built
1903: Atlantic House Hotel opened on what was Pentireglaze Estate (now New Polzeath). Serving as a school in WW2 it was demolished in 2015. Rebuilt and rebranded as Atlantic Bar and Kitchen with apartments and boutique hotel 2020’s
1905: Enys Tregarthen from Padstow publishes "The Piskey-Purse," set in Polzeath as part of a collection of Cornish legends and tales
1906 “Medla” the landmark villa between Pentireglaze Haven and Polzeath Beach built by the Downing family but later bought by the Courtaulds, a family of textile manufacturers and art collectors. Used as a final film location in the last Doc Martin in 2023
1908: “West Ray” house built in Trenant Valley. Postcard series named after house
1910: “Doyden House” built Port Quin by former Prison Governor for his retirement. Now National Trust
1911: Foghorn at Trevose Lighthouse (until 1963)
1912: George Grosvenor tries to save his brother-in-law, Ralph Evans, but both drown swimming at Polzeath
1913: Old Accounts office for Polzeath mines on “Tabernacle corner” becomes Post office (until 1936). In the 1870’s the building was used as the playroom for the Pleasure House next door
1913: Decommissioned railway carriages start to be put into “shanty town” (Westrae rd, Sun cove and Trenant Nook) as instant prefab holiday homes. The Great Western Railway's acquisition of the Rhondda & Swansea Bay Railway brought these third-class carriages from South Wales to the Cornish coast
1914: July, Orion-class dreadnoughts, HMS Thunderer and HMS Conqueror, on exercise in Padstow Bay
1914: September, “For the Fallen” written by 45 year old Laurence Binyon on Pentire cliffs after the August “Battle of Mons”. His poem reflects the naiveté of the time, when many believed the war would be over by Christmas. Commemoration plaque erected by PARA (Polzeath Area Residents Association) in 2003
1915: June, SS Armenian with a crew of 174, sunk by U-Boat-38, 24 miles off Trevose with 1,400 mules. Although the USA was not then in the war, 29 crew members were drowned, including twelve American mule handlers. 9 unidentified Americans buried in two mass graves at St Endellion
1916: D.H. Lawrence stays in J.D. Beresford’s holiday home at Porthcothan to finish “Women in Love”. A three hour walk from Polzeath via the Padstow ferry
1917: Arnold Bax’s Tintagel holiday with pianist Harriet Cohen… the affair and visit inspires symphonic poem and, perhaps indirectly, Carl Jung’s visit to Polzeath via Dr Heston Baynes
1918: RAF Crugmeer (Padstow airfield) 3 miles southwest of Polzeath has airships and biplanes. operational until 1919
1922: New Polzeath tennis courts open (repurposed as a car park in 1938)
1922: Maycocks Art shop opens on beach front (until 1966) now TJ’s started by Ted and Jayne Shepherd in 1987
1923: Polzeath Seminars given by Carl Jung
1924: Bodyboarding using wooden surfboards starts in Polzeath
1925: Two breakwaters built for Port Isaac
1927: Trebetherick Telephone Exchange starts with the 1957 automated exchange building still running opposite the St Moritz turning
1927: Piped water from Crowdy reservoir turned on by the future King Edward VIII who also plays golf at St Enodoc where the pipes reach. Polzeath’s water now mostly comes from the De Lank system
1927: BP petrol sold from new PO stores. Shell petrol sold opposite Couch Garage
1928: Greystones Private Hotel built in New Polzeath (70’s renamed Pentire Rocks Hotel but short lived and now a private housing complex called Pentire Rocks). Also in New Polzeath, Whinchats built with covenants restricting the development of both property and land below
1929: “Tinners Hill”, annex to “Pemberton”, built for Lady Wills of Wills Tobacco, Bristol
1934: Polzeath road bridge built, replaces footbridge and ford
1935: National Trust acquires Pentire and the Rumps (Pentireglaze land acquired later) after a public appeal and letter to The Times asking for £7,500 to purchase the 360 acres
1935: The Polzeath block of shops built on the site of Couch’s Tea Rooms. Will include Dairy and Stotts Newsagents (later run by Howard and Brian). Today’s shops now centred on Spar
1936: “Penglaze”, the only house on the beach at Pentireglaze Haven, built
1937: “Stepper” one of the first houses built on the Greenaway cliffs by Lewis Brown of Wadebridge. Also “White Wings” on Daymer Lane and “Brock”
1937: RNAS St Merryn, HMS Vulture l, 6 miles south-southwest of Polzeath (closed 1956)
1937: The People newspaper reports on “Britain’s Loneliest Boy” 8 year old Percy Dingle from Port Quin lived among 20 adults
1938: Polzeath and Trebetherick get electricity
1939: West Hill Park school evacuated to Atlantic House Hotel (until 1945) 40 boys and 10 staff
1939: Aldersbrook, East London Children’s orphanage evacuated to Polzeath Lodge Hotel, St Moritz Court, Tristram and other local houses
1939: HMS Vulture ll at Treligga airfield, located 8 miles east-northeast of Polzeath (until 1955)
1939: HMS Medea wrecked on Greenaway rocks after breaking her tow on way to the scrapyard with a crew of 4 on board. 1 drowned. Built in 1915 as HMS M22 as a M15-class Monitor warship with a crew of 69, converted and renamed around 1925 as a minelayer then 1937 becomes a training ship.
1939 RAF / USAAF St Eval airfield, located 7 miles south-southwest of Polzeath (until 1960’s)
1940: RAF St Mawgan airfield 10 miles south-southwest of Polzeath (until 2013 RAF)
1940: German invasion expected (Dunkirk May 26th - June 4th). Home guard started, mines and barbed wire put into sand dunes around Daymer Bay and across Polzeath beach. A British sea mine washes up below Greenaway and all houses in area evacuated
1940: Ivy Cottage, 18th century cottage above Pentire View, nearly burns down as reported in the August edition of the Cornish Guardian
1942: Enid Blyton publishes “Five on a Treasure Island”, the first of 21 in the Famous Five series. In it the 3 children are disappointed not to be going on their usual family holiday to “Polseath”
1942: Davidstow Airfield 14 miles east-northeast of Polzeath (RAF until 1945)
1942: Trebetherick Royal Observer Corps operate from Pentireglaze (until 1968)
1942: August, General Gott shot down on his way to take command of Eighth Army in North Africa. His family live at “Beniguet” near Trebetherick Point for rest of war
1943: American B-17 Flying Fortress forced to make an emergency landing at Treligga (HMS Vulture II)
1944: Minefield "HW A3", fatal to U-1021, laid by HMS Apollo 3 near Trevose
1945: last of the Sherborne School Harvest Camps. Boys based in tents in field by Stepper. A response to wartime labor shortages in local farms
1945: Valley Caravan Park started by William A Taylor. Now owned and run by Martin Taylor (b 1941)
1946: St Moritz hotel opens
1946: Polzeath WI moved to Trewint recreation ground, Rock
1948: “North Coast Recollections” in John Betjeman's Selected Poems published
1948: Lingham Club built for ex-servicemen and women, serves as Polzeath’s twice weekly cinema. Becomes Carters Pub in 90’s
1949: David Lean films the “Madeleine” horse riding scene on Polzeath beach
1950s: Polzeath Lodge Hotel becomes Pinewood flats
1950: Davidstow Creamery starts. Now the largest UK cheese factory and largest mature cheddar plant in the world. Supplied with quality milk from local farms like Trevigo near Port Quin
1950 : July 11th George VI visits St Enodoc Golf Club. Land bought by Duchy of Cornwall in 1950 but freehold sold to Club in 1987
1952: Formula 1 on Davidstow airfield track until 1955
1955: Drought in North Cornwall severely affects over 25% of households who still don’t have a water supply
1956: Archbishop Cardinal Bernard Griffin dies on holiday at “Winwaloe”, New Polzeath, aged 57
1957: Population of Wadebridge 2,900 and Rock, Polzeath and district 1,800. Wadebridge Secondary School opened
1958: St Endellion Summer Music Festival founded (1974 Easter festival)
1960 : Underground Nuclear Bunker built at Pentireglaze for Trebetherick ROC (until 1968)
1962: Hawker's Cove lifeboat station decommissioned, new station built at Trevose Head. The actor Edward Woodward lives here until his death in 2009
1966: The North Cornwall Railway line closes
1967: Wadebridge railway station closed to passengers. Freight continued to use the station until 1978. Bodmin Branch Line remains operational for freight until 1983 but now steam and diesel tourist attraction
1970: Strongbow Explorations Ltd acquires mineral rights in the area. Name changed to Cornish Metals Limited in 2020
1973: “Polzeath Court” built as a holiday letting complex by musician Basil Tait (d.2014) who had a recording studio in Polzeath and recorded with Frankie Vaughan. In 1988 the flats were sold by Malcolm Cole (father of Jeff Cole of Cole Rayment and White) with 999 year leases. Around the same time Westward flats near the Oyster Catcher are incorporated (originally as Basseltone Residential Company Ltd)
1973: The 300 mile Cornwall section of the South West Coast Path formally opened. The 630-mile national trail runs from Minehead in Somerset to South Haven Point in Dorset
1978: Ann’s Cottage store started for surfers by Rob Harris MBE (1949-2021)
1975: “Poldark” first TV series filmed, Doyden Folly for Dr. Enys' surgery and house until 1977
1976: “The Eagle has Landed” filmed in sand dunes between Rock and Daymer Bay in heat wave
1979: Skopelos Sky (Gk) wrecked off Port Quin. Crew saved by Wessex rescue helicopter
1979: Tintagel air crash
1982: Reinforcement of the cliffs below Atlantic Terrace, New Polzeath
1983: Mini Series “Jamaica Inn” filmed Polzeath and Port Quin
1984: John Betjeman buried St Enodoc
1987: Cornwall Air Ambulance starts
1988: Camelford mass poisoning. Tanker driver puts aluminium sulphate in the wrong tank early July but not reported to public for 16 days. Some in Polzeath get green hair (from dissolved copper piping) but longer term effects on 20,000 people mostly dismissed by SWW in light of their upcoming 1989 privatization plans
1988: First “Surf to Save” event based on grass and beach opposite the Atlantic House Hotel in October. Inspired the 1990 charity “Surfers Against Sewage”
1990: Polzeath Surf Life Saving Club (PSLSC) starts in a shed by L. Anderson, Malcolm the Australian and a small group of locals. Headquarters opened by Duke of Edinburgh 8 June 2000
1991: Jonathan Stedall directs BBC’s “Tresoddit for Easter” with the Weber family on holiday in Cornwall at Rock and Di’s Dairy
1991: UK’s first commercial windfarm at Delabole opened by dairyman turned pioneering wind farmer, Peter Edwards. Sold to Good Energy in 2002 who replace turbines with four more powerful ones
1991: Wadebridge bypass opens
1993: American “brat pack” film part of film “Three Musketeers” at Pentire
1993: Tom Kay starts selling clothing from the back of his car based at his parents in Polzeath. Becomes Finisterre surf wear company 2003 and based in St Agnes
1994: “Doom Bar Bitter” first brewed by Bill Sharp of Sharp's Brewery, Rock. He didn’t think the name would catch on and called it DBB but it did and by 2011 it had been sold to Molson Coors for £20m
1995: Polzeath Marine Conservation Group founded as a volunteering organisation to protect the marine environment of Polzeath
1995: Maria Asumpta wrecked at The Rumps. Three crew drowned and the captain convicted
1995: Fisherman's Friends formed, 2010 sign record deal and films made about them in 2019 and 2022
1995: “Surfs Up” starts as the first surf school in Polzeath with a grant from the Princes Youth Business Trust. Incorporated in 2008 with Peter and Jane Craske as directors
1996: Bristol supermarket fire kills 21 year old Fleur Lombard. The first female member of the fire brigade to die in UK peacetime service. Memorial in the top left corner of St Enodoc churchyard
1997: “Swept from the Sea” film cast, including Sir Ian McKellan, stay in Polzeath. Local stand-ins include Tamsyn Robinson for Rachel Weisz (Amy Foster) and Bill Cornish for Vincent Perez. Locals play extras at the village set built at Port Quin, many as the drowned bodies from a wreck
1997: Ben Harbour starts Harbour Construction (incorporated 2004)
2000: Mark Crowdy’s “Saving Grace” film released and used as basis for “Doc Martin” TV series 2004-2022 (80 episodes)
2001: Population of Polzeath and Trebetherick 1,449
2002: Wavehunters started by Andy Cameron and Oli Daglish as a surf minibus service. Their Polzeath surf school starts in 2003 and a marine adventures section added 2013
2004: Boscastle and Crackington Haven flash flooding, August 16. 150 airlifted by helicopters from roofs and trees
2007: “Tubestation” community coffee shop starts in Methodist “school hall” at chapel corner
2007: Steve and Sheila Perry incorporate their “Cornwall at War” museum sited on former Officers’ mess at RAF Davidstow
2010: Top Gear, Series 15 Episode 4, “Motorhome Cliffhanger Challenge” filmed on Polzeath beach and South Winds campsite
2010: Rock Oyster Festival first held at Porthilly but since based in Dinham House estate
2012: Daily Mail Headline: “Royal beach boys William and Harry show off their body boarding skills as they hit the surf (meanwhile Kate stays dry at the tennis)”
2013: North Cornwall Book Festival started by Sue Harbour at Trefelix, Daymer Lane (originally for the six churches of St Endellion, St Enodoc, St James the Great at St Kew, St Michael’s at Porthilly, St Minver and St Peter’s in Port Isaac). Now yearly at St Endellion
2013: Family speedboat tragedy in Camel Estuary with out-of-control boat circling the family thrown into water killing husband and daughter. There is still no legal requirement for kill cords
2013: The Nook, renamed Treasure House, one of the oldest houses in the Trenant Valley, replaced with a new building
2015: Single-engine plane glides into The Point after propeller falls off over New Polzeath and narrowly misses workman on Atlantic Terrace
2019: 36 acres of Polzeath Beach, from Cockett Haven by the Atlantic Steps to the side of Pentireglaze Haven along Slipper Point, bought by ACH land (managed by Wavehunters for Adam Hayward). Other parts of the beach are owned by the Perry family (Steve runs the Cornwall at War Museum), the Duchy of Cornwall (sublet to Cornwall County Council) and the National Trust
2019: Tina Robinson starts “Our Only World” a charity whose mission is to restore the oceans by providing water refill stations, seAlive tiles, and education through books and music
2021: Triple Seven (or 777) a superyacht chartered by actor Tom Cruise after the filming of Mission Impossible 7, moors in Padstow Bay
2022: Davidstow Creamery fined £1.5m for environmental offences into River Inny. The largest fine ever awarded for an EA conviction in SW England
2023: National Trust create a new woodland footpath from the top of New Polzeath down to the Pentireglaze valley
2024: Proposals put forward to build seaweed farm in Port Quin Bay leads to the formationn of Two Bays Trust with hub at Trevathan Farm
Can you help?
I'm currently piecing together the story of Polzeath's past, but there's always more to discover. Perhaps you have some interesting stories or missing dates that you'd be willing to share?
If you have any information that could fill in the gaps or add another layer of detail to Polzeath's history, please let me know!
Additionally, if you have any old photographs of Polzeath or the surrounding area, I would be grateful if you'd be willing to contribute them to the project. Please feel free to contact me with anything you think might be helpful including corrections if you think I’ve got something wrong!
Bill Bartlett, 1 Polzeath Court, New Polzeath, PL27 6UA
0748 646 1998 email wnbartlett@gmail.com