Newquay
Newquay is a town on the north coast in Cornwall, England, United Kingdom. It is a civil parish, seaside resort, regional centre for aerospace industries with an airport and a spaceport, and a fishing port on the North Atlantic coast, approximately north of Truro and west of Bodmin.
The town is bounded to the south by the River Gannel and its associated salt marsh, and to the north-east by the Porth Valley. The western edge of the town meets the Atlantic at Fistral Bay. The town has been expanding inland since the former fishing village of New Quay began to grow in the second half of the nineteenth century.
At the 2021 census the population of the parish was 23,626 and the population of the built up area as defined by the Office for National Statistics was 24,545.
History
Prehistoric period
There are some pre-historic burial mounds and an embankment on the area now known as The Barrowfields, from Trevelgue. There were once up to fifteen barrows, but now only a few remain. Excavations here have revealed charred cooking pots and a coarse pottery burial urn containing remains of a Bronze Age chieftain, who was buried here up to 3,500years ago.In 1987, evidence of a Bronze Age village was found at Trethellan Farm, a site that overlooks the River Gannel.
The first signs of settlement in the Newquay region consist of a late Iron Age hill fort/industrial centre which exploited the nearby abundant resources and the superior natural defences provided by Trevelgue Head. It is claimed that occupation of the site was continuous from the 3rd century BC to the 5th or 6th century AD. A Dark Ages house was later built on the head.
Domesday Book
The settlement which is now known as Newquay was not mentioned in Domesday Book, although a parcel of land was recorded at Treninnick, which is now part of suburban Newquay. Treninnick was then part of the manor of Coswarth and consisted of one virgate with five sheep. The village of Crantock is the only other recognisable name in the Newquay area also recorded in Domesday Book,.Funds to build a 'new quay'
In 1439, Edmund Lacey, Bishop of Exeter granted an indulgence to build a new quay from which the town would later derive its modern name. However, this appeal did not succeed, and the harbour remained largely undeveloped until the early 17th century, although it is thought to have had a succession of short wooden piers since the 15th century, and possibly before that.Medieval to Early Modern period
The origins of modern Newquay can be traced back to the medieval period to a small cluster of cottages known as "Towan," located where the Central Inn now stands. About away was another settlement called "New Quay," referring to a small harbour within the Manor of Towan Blystra. Despite occasional confusion, "Towan Blystra" is not a Cornish equivalent of Newquay, and there is no historical record of the name "Newquay" being rendered in Cornish. The two settlements were connected by a track that eventually became today's Fore Street. The local economy at the time relied primarily on fishing, agriculture, and some mining activityThe earliest mention of a fish market in the area dates back to 1571, found in the Arundell papers. It is believed that this market may have been located in what is now Central Square, though fish trading also likely took place directly at the quay and in nearby cellars. The public house later known as 'The Central' became a hub of local trade, with farmers parking wagons of grain in the square and conducting business inside the inn.
According to the accounts and financial reports of the Arundell papers from 1575, there is a mention of 'fysh bought at Newkaye,' which is likely one of the earliest recorded references to Newquay.
Richard Carew's Survey of Cornwall, published in 1602, includes the lines: "Neyther may I omit newe Kaye, a place in the North coast of this Hundred, so called, because in former times, the neighbours attempted, to supplie the defect of nature, by Art, in making there a Kay, for the Rode of shipping, which conceyt they still retayne, though want of means in themselves, or the place, have left the effect in Nubibus ."
In 1615, Thomas Stuer, who was Lord of the Manor, applied for permission to build a single pier, and the development of the modern harbour then began.
The Huer's Hut
The Huer's Hut at Newquay, Cornwall served as a lookout point from which a man known as a huer could keep watch for the arrival of the pilchards. They could be discerned by the water turning a dark reddish-brown and by the flocks of seagulls which dived down to feed on the fish. The huer would announce the arrival by shouting "hevva, hevva" or through the use of a trumpet after which he would direct the townsfolk to the fish by waving tree branches above his head. The word huer has the same derivation as the "hue" in hue and cry, after this action.The Huer's Hut at Newquay has been described as "a particularly fine late mediaeval specimen". The listed building description states that the current structure dates from the late 18th and early 19th centuries, though a plaque on the structure claims 14th-century origins. The plaque also states that the structure may have been used at an earlier time as a hermitage and lighthouse.
The structure was restored in 1836, at which point the fireplace may have been significantly altered. It received protection as a listed building on 24 October 1951 and is currently categorised as grade II*
Central Inn
The origins of the original inn on the site of the present Central Inn are unclear. An inn was recorded on this site in 1755, which was probably built of freestone and topped with a thatched roof, later slate. It served as an early place of trade. In her publication "Old Newquay," Sarah Teague Husband described the inn in the 1850s as being "two or three hundred years old" and in a state of disrepair,.The inn was rebuilt in 1859, and was known as the Commercial Inn until early in the 20th century.
Dr William Borlase visit in 1755
, who was a Cornish antiquarian and the Rector of Ludgvan, visited Towan Blystra in 1755 during a tour of Cornwall. He wrote:"Passed the Ganel and went about a mile further to a place of about twelve houses called Towan Blystra, a furlong further to the New Quay in St Columb Parish, here is a little pier, the north point of which is fixed on a rock, the end in a cliff; at the eastern end there is a gap cult about 25feet wide into the slaty rock of the cliff: This gap lets small ships into a basin which may hold about six ships of about 80tons burthen and at spring tides has 18feet of water in it, upon the brow of the cliff is a dwelling house and a commodious cellar lately built."The dwelling house mentioned by Borlase is believed to be referring to 'Quay House' one of the oldest building in the town, the Newquay edition of the Homeland Handbooks book described it as having a "picturesque front and low grey roof may be observed beyond a gate marked 'Private'."
19th century
The first national British census of 1801 recorded around 1,300inhabitants in the settlement which would have include the small settlements which would become Newquay.In 1832 the London-based entrepreneur Richard Lomax bought the manor of Towan Blystra. This included the small harbour at what was becoming known as New Quay.
The proposal included a description of New Quay and Towan and the unpaved track between the settlements. It also showed some buildings including an inn,, cottages along what would become Bank Street and other structures connected with the fishing industry, such as the cellars, where the fish were dried and packed in barrels. Lomax began the construction of the north and south quay, but he died in 1837 before his harbour had been completed.
The harbour was at its most prosperous in the 25years following its purchase in the 1870s by the Cornwall Minerals Railway. In 1872 the middle jetty was added to expand capacity.
To the north of the harbour there were fish cellars in the 19th century, where pilchards were salted and packed in casks. The two remaining areas are Fly cellars and Active cellars, although the others have disappeared.
A mansion called the Tower was built for the Molesworth family in 1835: it included a castellated tower and a private chapel as they were Roman Catholics and no church for that denomination existed in the area. The Tower later became the golf club house. After the arrival of passenger trains in June 1876, the town started to develop with many rows of private houses and hotels began to emerge.
Victorian hotels
Several major hotels were built around the end of the 19th century, the first being the Great Western Hotel which opened in 1879 on Station Road, now Cliff Road. The original hotel was enlarged and altered in the 1930s. Other early first-class hotels included the Victoria, the Atlantic and the Headland near Fistral, Many smaller hotels were also being opened. Some were created around the turn of the century by converting large houses, many of which had been built originally by wealthy visitors as holiday homes, particularly along Narrowcliff.20th century
Three churches were built early in the twentieth century, including the present day parish church of St Michael the Archangel, which was consecrated in 1911. Growth of the town eastwards soon reached the area around the railway station: Station Road became Cliff Road around 1930, and the houses beyond, along Narrowcliff, were also converted into hotels. Narrowcliff was known for a while as Narrowcliff Promenade, and then Narrowcliff Road. On some pre-war maps, it is spelt Narrowcliffe.At the time of the First World War the last buildings at the edge of the town were a little further along present-day Narrowcliff. Post-war development saw new houses and streets built in the Chester Road area, accompanied by ribbon development along the country lane which led to St Columb Minor, some away. This thoroughfare was modernised and named Henver Road, also some time in the 1930s. Development continued in this direction until the Second World War, by which time much of Henver Road had houses on both sides, with considerable infilling also taking place between there and the sea.
A thriving knitting industry became established in Newquay in the early part of the 20th century. In 1905, Madame Hawke began selling machine-knitted garments in a shop in the centre of the town. Debenhams was sent a sample of her work and commissioned her as a supplier. She opened a factory in Crantock Street, which has since been converted into housing. Several competing knitting companies were also set up in the town in this period.
In the early 1950s, the last houses were built along Henver Road. After that, there was a virtually continuous building line on both sides of the main road from the other side of St Columb Minor right into the town centre. The Doublestiles estate to the north of Henver Road was also built in the early 1950s, as the name of Coronation Way indicates, and further development continued beyond, becoming the Lewarne Estate and extending the built up area to the edges of Porth.
Other areas also developed in the period between the wars were Pentire and the Trenance Valley. Other streets dating from the 1920s included St Thomas Road, which provided the approach to the town's new cottage hospital at its far end, to be followed by others in the same area near the station, such as Pargolla Road.
More recent development has been on a larger scale: until the late 1960s, a passenger arriving by train would not have seen a building by the line until the Trenance Viaduct was reached. Today, the urban area starts a good inland from the viaduct. Other growth areas have been on the fringes of St Columb Minor and also towards the Gannel. More development beyond Treninnick, south of the Trenance Valley, has taken the urban area out as far as Lane, where more building is now under way. The Trennnick/Treloggan development, mainly in the 1970s and 1980s, included not merely housing but also an industrial estate and several large commercial outlets, including a major supermarket and a cash and carry warehouse.