Porthleven, Cornwall

Historical Description

Porthleven, a village and a chapelry in Sithney parish, Cornwall. The village stands on Mounts Bay, 2½ miles WSW of Helston station on the G.W.R.; is a small seaport; and has a post, money order, and telegraph office under Helston. A harbour was constructed here at great cost, but cannot be entered without difficulty in tempestuous weather. The chapelry was constituted in 1844. Population, 1996. It sends six members to the Sithney parish council. The shore is rugged, and shows some curious intersections of slate rocks by trap dikes. The living is a vicarage in the diocese of Truro; net value, £190 with residence. Patron, the Vicar of Sithney. The church was built in 1841, and restored and enlarged in 1891. There are Wesleyan and Bible Christian chapels, a library with reading-room, and coastguard and lifeboat stations.

Maps

Online maps of Porthleven are available from a number of sites:

• Bing (Current Ordnance Survey maps).
• Google Streetview.
• National Library of Scotland. (Old maps)
• OpenStreetMap.
• old-maps.co.uk (Old Ordnance Survey maps to buy).
• Streetmap.co.uk (Current Ordnance Survey maps).
• A Vision of Britain through Time. (Old maps)

Newspapers and Periodicals

The British Newspaper Archive have fully searchable digitised copies of the following Cornwall papers online:

• Royal Cornwall Gazette
• Cornishman
• West Briton and Cornwall Advertiser
• Lake's Falmouth Packet and Cornwall Advertiser

Visitations Heraldic

We have a copy of The Visitations of Cornwall, by Lieut.-Col. J.L. Vivian online.