Porthcurno (, meaning "pinnacle cove", see below) is a small village covering a small valley and beach on the south coast of Cornwall, England in the United Kingdom. It is the main settlement in a civil and an ecclesiastical parish, both named St Levan, which comprise Porthcurno, diminutive St Levan itself, Trethewey and Treen.
It is centred west of the railway, market, and resort town of Penzance and from Land's End, the most westerly point of the English mainland. Road access is via the north end of the valley along a long cul-de-sac with short branches off the B3283 and land traditionally associated with the village, including its beach, is on the South West Coast Path.
Amenities and homes The village comprises houses and apartment blocks together with a few commercial premises along the access road known as "The Valley". The road curves inland past Minack Point to St. Levan's Church about from the village. At the southern end are: Large public car park A small seasonal café A public house. The South West Coast PathSt. Levan Parish Plan (2006); p 5
The route is marked as two hours from Land's End or about four hours walk from Penzance for the most agile cliff-side path walkers.Ordnance Survey Explorer Map, 1:25,000 scale, Sheet 102 Land's End
A low-frequency bus service links Penzance, Lands End and nearby villages and hamlets including Newlyn, Paul, Sheffield, Lamorna, St Buryan, Treen, Trethewey, Polgigga and Sennen.
Porthcurno is largely not farms or fisherman's cottages today, having its linear centre inland, centred west of the railway, market, and resort town of Penzance and from Land's End, the most westerly point of the English mainland. In most local-level organisational and community bodies, it is in civil and ecclesiastical parishes named Saint Levan and usually spelled as St Leven since the 18th century.Ordnance Survey Landranger Map, 1:50,000 scale, Map Sheet 203 Land's End and the Isles of ScillyResult of Ecclesiastical and Ancient Parishes Finder The Church of England. Retrieved 12 March 2015.
The Cable Station and Engineering College
Porthcurno is unusually well known for its size because of its history as a major international submarine communications cable station. In the late nineteenth century, the remote beach at Porthcurno became internationally famous as the British termination of early submarine telegraph cables, the first of which was landed in 1870, part of an early international link stretching from the UK to India, which was then a British colony.Godwin; p 67 Porthcurno was chosen in preference to the busy port of Falmouth because of the reduced risk of damage to the cables caused by ships' anchors.Hart-Davis; p 102 In 1872, the Eastern Telegraph Company (ETC) Limited was formed which took over the operation of the cables and built a cable office in Porthcurno valley. The concrete cable hut, where the cable shore ends were connected to their respective landlines, is a listed building and still stands at the top of the beach. ETC and its cable operations expanded through the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, in 1928 to merge with Marconi's Wireless Telegraph Company Limited to form Imperial and International Communications Limited which was renamed Cable and Wireless Limited in 1934.Godwin p 75 Cable and Wireless Limited was a predecessor company of Cable & Wireless Worldwide and Cable & Wireless Communications.
In the inter-war years, the Porthcurno cable office operated as many as 14 cables, for a time becoming the largest submarine cable station in the world, with the capacity to receive and transmit up to two million words a day.Godwin p 75. Porthcurno is still known colloquially by the acronym 'PK' being represented in Morse code as 'di-dah-dah-dit' followed by 'dah-di-dah', communicating with a line operator and testing connections, an acronym often sent.Bell; p 4Cutler
Over the years, many apprentices were trained at the Porthcurno cable office in telegraphy and supporting skills, initially by ETC and then by Cable and Wireless. In 1950 the latter, nationalised, opened its Porthcurno engineering college which provided many courses in branches of telecommunications for employees, secondees and external students. The cable office closed in 1970, exactly 100 years after the first cable was landed, but the college remained open, receiving substantial investment in buildings and training equipment through the 1970s and 1980s; however, due to its isolation from towns, it closed in 1993. Some of its buildings were demolished. After the closure of the college, the award-winning Porthcurno Telegraph Museum was opened. This museum has been featured locally and nationally on educational programmes, including the BBC TV documentary series What the Victorians Did for Us and Coast. It occupies some of the former college buildings and includes many exhibits, in 'The Tunnel'.
World War II tunnels The cable office at Porthcurno was a critical communications centre and considered at serious risk of attack during the Second World War, being only about from the port of Brest in occupied France.FootBell; p. 6 To improve security, a network of two parallel tunnels, connected by two smaller cross-tunnels, was bored into the granite valley east side by local tin mining labourers, starting in June 1940, to accommodate the essential telegraph equipment.Godwin; pp. 76–77 Each of the two main entrances was protected by offset double bomb-proof and gas-proof doors. To provide evacuation for staff in case the defences failed, a covert emergency escape route was provided by granite steps cut into a steeply rising fifth tunnel leading from the rear cross tunnel to a concealed exit in the fields above.
Each of the main tunnel interiors was that of a windowless open-plan office constructed as a building shell within the granite void, complete with a pitched roof to collect water seepage from the rocks, a false ceiling, plastered and decorated walls, and all the necessary services. In total about 15,000 tons of rock were removed to construct the tunnels. The construction work progressed relentlessly day and night, taking nearly a year, and the completed tunnels were opened in May 1941 by Lady Wilshaw who was the wife of Sir Edward Wilshaw, Chairman of Cable and Wireless at the time.Bell; p 1, p 29Bell; p 5
The concrete defences around the tunnel entrances and the nearby buildings were camouflaged with the help of a local artist: the design, when viewed from the air with some imagination, resembled a belt of trees, complete with rabbits and birds.Bell; p 12 The tunnel environment being secure, dry, and at a virtually constant temperature proved to be ideal for the sensitive telegraph equipment and it continued to house the subsequently upgraded equipment after the war until the cable office closure in 1970. It was then used for training facilities for the Engineering College until the college itself also closed in 1993. Today the tunnel houses exhibits of, and is itself an exhibit of, the Museum of Global Communications, operated by PK Porthcurno.Godwin; p 79
Porthcurno coastal area
The cliffs and coastline around Porthcurno are officially designated Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty. Part of the Cornwall Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONB) and widely considered as some of the most visually stunning in the United Kingdom.Knowlden; pp 8–9
Porthcurno Beach and bay enclosed by the Logan Rock headland has been listed among the ten most beautiful bays in the World.St. Levan Parish Plan (2006), Introduction The cliffs are enjoyed by walkers using the many public footpaths in the area and the protected South West Coastal Footpath passes through the area often within just a few yards of the clifftops. Coastal areas around Porthcurno, including those formerly owned by Cable and Wireless, are now owned, preserved and maintained by the National Trust and the remainder by the local parish council on behalf of Cornwall Council.King; p 49Fedden; p 448 The nearby cliffs rise to 60 m to 70 m above mean sea level and are formed from a bedrock of prismatic granite; over the geological timescales having been eroded, shaped and divided vertically and horizontally sometimes almost into rounded cubic blocks.Knowlden; p 8Transactions of the Royal Geological Society of Cornwall, Vol. 17 (1950)
An ancient bridleway, probably an early route to Porthcurno beach via the nearby Trendrennen Farm, about half a mile to the east of the village, has been opened by the Ramblers Association. This was probably used by horse-drawn carts to collect seaweed which was used for land fertilisation.
Porthcurno Beach and Bay, a few hundred yards south of the village is situated in the shelter of the Logan Rock headland just less than to the east. The beach is noted for its sand of crushed, white sea shells, privacy, and isolation rather than the movement of ships.Andrews; p 506Long; p 184Andrews; p 24 Porthcurno Bay has been described as "floored by glorious white sand that shines through translucent water".Rainsley; p 147 Sometimes combinations of wind, tides and sea currents can change the 'sandscape' dramatically in a few hours, but the volume of sand is sufficient that it is unusual for the beach to be completely inundated by the sea at high tide. To the immediate east of Porthcurno beach, on the other side of Percella Point is a small tidal beach called Green Bay. Sometimes this is accessible with caution from Porthcurno Beach at low tide. Another tidal beach called Pedn Vounder lies further to the east between Porthcurno and the Logan Rock headland for which footpath access is by a steep and rugged path leading down from the cliff path. Often a sand bank forms off Pedn Vounder at low tide. Unlike the nearby fishing coves of Penberth and Porthgwarra, about to the east and west respectively, Porthcurno has no known recent history of commercial fishing activity.
Demography + 2011 published statistics: population, home ownership and extracts from physical environment, surveyed in 2005Key Statistics: Population; Quick Statistics: Economic indicators . (2011 census and 2001 census) Retrieved 27 February 2015.Output areaHomes owned outrightOwned with a loanSocially rentedPrivately rentedOtherkm green spaceskm roadskm waterkm domestic gardenskm domestic buildingskm non-domestic buildingsUsual residents km totalSt Levan (civil parish)102 54 19 4179.180.130.130.180.030.044469.75
White pyramid About halfway along the main coastal footpath from Porthcurno to Logan Rock another path loops off to the cliffs above Pedn Vounder beach. Beside this is a pyramid built from granite blocks and painted white, about tall. For navigation, it replaced a brightly coloured hut which housed the termination of another submarine telegraph cable connected to the French port of Brest owned by La Compagnie Française de Telegraphe de Paris à New York, which was laid in 1880.Godwin; p 75Information from the commemorative plaque mounted on the pyramid. Overhead lines carried the signals to and from Penzance which had the cable office.Godwin; p 69 Some of the stone ducting which was built up on the cliffside to protect the cable is still visible from the footpath nearby. This was part of the first cable connection from the UK to the American continent passing from Porthcurno to Brest and then via the trans-Atlantic cable first to Saint-Pierre and Miquelon near the coast of Canada, and then a further to Cape Cod, Massachusetts. In 1919, another Compagnie Française cable was laid to Porthcurno but this was terminated in the Cable Hut at the top of the beach a few hundred yards to the west where it remained in operation until 1962.Godwin; p 74
Logan Rock