Our Shoreline, Your Story: The Living Timeline of Polzeath
Most people see Polzeath as a place for a holiday, but for those of us who have walked these sands for decades, it is a living history book. This timeline traces the journey of our coast from 400-million-year-old slates to the vibrant community we see today.
But a timeline is only half the story.
While I have documented the arrival of the Romans, the drama of 19th-century shipwrecks, and the evolution of our campsites, the most important details are held in your memory. The 'Golden Threads' of a family summer in the 60s or the secret history of a cliffside chalet are equally important.
Do you have a date to add, a correction to make, or a photo from a bygone era? Help me build this archive of Polzeath life. Your recollections are the missing pieces of our puzzle but you can send me an email on wnbartlett@gmail.com and I will add them
Stuck on where to start? Download my Free Memory Jogger. It’s a curated guide designed to help you 'sandlark' through your own past and uncover the stories that matter most to you and your family.
If you feel your stories are too precious to be lost, let me help you capture them. My Legacy Discovery Day turns a 3-hour guided interview into a professional, printed memoir and digital audio archive for you, family and your followers! It also makes a great gift to an older family member before it is too late!
400 Million Years Ago: Harbour Cove Slates formed. 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 (giant bubble) off of the underground mountain range (15 miles deep in some places) called the Cornubian Batholith which now forms 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 – 410 AD: Romans arrive in Cornwall; they quarry tin at Mulberry Down
273–337: The Polzeath Roman Hoard (2025) shows that “our” side of the estuary was part of a major maritime gateway and trading post. Barry Pengelly’s discovery of Roman bronze coins (follis) in New Polzeath provides the "other half" of the story found at Padstow by the Channel 4 Time Team dig (2012)
410: End of Roman Rule in Britain. This marks the start of the Early Medieval period in Cornwall, characterised by the emergence of the independent kingdom of Dumnonia and new cultural influences
550: The Ogham memorial stone erected at St Kew for “ Justus”. His name is carved twice using two different alphabets. One version uses Latin letters, while the other uses Ogham, an ancient Irish script made of simple notches and lines carved into the edge of the stone. It is one of the earliest examples of a "written record" ever found in the local area
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: Our area around Bodmin Moor was officially named Triggshire. At this time, Cornwall was split into ten "Hundreds"—which were essentially neighborhoods used for tax and law. Giving it the name "Shire" showed it was an important district with its own local court and officials. It was managed by a Bailiff who answered to the High Sheriff and the Earl of Cornwall
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). There was one under Brea Hill too (until 1860).
1646–1664: After years of fighting for the King in the Civil War, the Cornish forces finally surrendered. To keep their homes, local Royalist families like the Roscarrocks were forced to pay huge "loyalty fines" to the new government. These debts changed the fortunes of local landowners for generations
1664: The Barton of Pentire granted a licence to mine lead ore
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 go into the Lanhydrock Atlas and the Grenvilles’ 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 to them, although Charles, the prolific hymn writer, never wrote a hymn with a nautical theme
1758: Cornish expert William Borlase recorded that antimony was being mined at Pentire. This rare, brittle metal was prized because it could be mixed with lead to make hard-wearing "type" for printing presses and stronger pewter for the home
1779: Bodmin Jail Built as one of the first "modern" prisons in England. Built using 20,000 tons of granite it was famous for its advanced design, which featured individual cells, segregated areas for men and women, and even running water. It served as the center for justice in Cornwall for nearly 150 years, hosting over 50 public executions before finally closing its doors in 1927.
1791: Trewornan Bridge Built by a local vicar to replace a dangerous river crossing, the bridge originally had a "toll hut" where travelers paid a fee to cross. In 2022, the bridge was nearly destroyed when a car knocked a large section of the original stone wall into the river. Because it is a protected historic site, engineers had to find the original stones and piece them back together by hand to save it
1793: 120 tons of lead ore sold from the mines at Pentire. At the time, lead was a "war metal"—desperately needed to make musket balls for the British army and navy during the wars with France
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 the Bude Light, so bright it was used to light the Houses of Parliament. One of Cornwall’s most famous scientific minds but dies poor in 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 became a major producer of Silver-Lead ore, allowing miners to dig up two valuable metals at once. The lead was so high-quality that every ton of ore yielded about 20 ounces of pure silver. Flat-bottomed sail barges could pull onto the beach at high tide to take the heavy crushed ore away for processing
1819: Jan 2, 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 fought over by Bal Maidens of Pentire and locals on St Minver Common
1825-27: Mining for copper takes place at Pentireglaze. Unlike lead, copper was found much deeper underground, requiring expensive pumps to keep the seawater out of the tunnels. However, because copper required huge amounts of expensive coal to process, the venture only lasted two years before the mines returned to more reliable silver and lead
1827: Doyden Castle – The Cliffside "Folly". Wealthy businessman Samuel Symons built this miniature castle at Port Quin as a "pleasure house" for entertaining friends with drinking and gambling. Symons was a powerful local figure who owned the land and mines stretching from the coast to Trevigo Farm. Now owned by the National Trust, the building is a famous filming location, appearing as "Pentire Castle" in Doc Martin and as a home in Fisherman’s Friends 2
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 named “The Cornish Settlement” after the pioneering Cornish farmers who first crossed the Blue Mountains. Some were from St Eval and it is certain that Cornish miners would have led the first Australian gold rush near The Cornish Settlement in 1851
1843: Mining at Pentireglaze is restarted on the Costbook principle. A uniquely Cornish way of running a business where a group of about 30 to 50 local "Adventurers" (investors) shared the risks and rewards. Every few months, they met to go over the books; if the mine made money, they shared the profits, but if it lost money, they all chipped in to pay the bills. This system allowed the community to pool their money to restart the mine without needing a bank
1845: Mining begins on Tinners Hill, New Polzeath, in the "South Hill Mine"
1846: The lease for the Pentireglaze mine is revoked due to ineffective management. This brought work to a standstill until a more capable team could be found to restart the pumps and get the miners back underground
1847: Trevose Light House (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 just 540 grams of silver. While this was a relatively small amount—enough to make about 85 silver coins—it was a sign that the "silver-rich" veins were still active. For the investors, even this small yield was proof that the mine still held treasure, encouraging them to keep the expensive pumps running for another year
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. The high cost of pumping seawater out of the deep tunnels, combined with falling metal prices worldwide, made the mines too expensive to run. Heavy machinery was sold off but you can still see the "adits" (drainage tunnels) and mounds of waste rock
1856: First RNLI lifeboat at Padstow
1858: a Parliamentary Committee recommends blasting the cliffs at Stepper Point to help sailing ships enter the Camel Estuary. The high cliffs blocked the wind, causing ships to "lose their way" and wreck on the Doom Bar. By removing the rock, they hoped to let the wind reach the sails more consistently. The massive "bite" taken out of the cliff today was deepened further during World War II, when the hard dolerite stone was quarried to build airfield runways
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. William Ham visiting from 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 new Pentireglaze Estate which later becomes New Polzeath
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 and there is a horse drawn bus to Wadebridge
1886: Wadebridge Town Hall built
1888: Golf first played around St Enodoc church. 1890 club formed, 1891 clubhouse first built, moved 1937 (18 hole course laid out 1907)
1891: Publication of novel "In the Roar of the Sea” by Sabine Baring-Gould, it is set in and around Polzeath and features "Cruel" Coppinger, a smuggler operating from Pentireglaze
1892: The End of the Dinham Mills. The Freshwater Mill stopped its twice-weekly grinding of corn, while the Saltwater (Tidal) Mill stopped processing bone. These bones were ground into "bone meal," a fertilizer used for manuring root crops like turnips and potatoes. As steam power and industrial transport improved, these local water-powered mills could no longer compete with large-scale factories
1892: St Minver Cricket Club established
1893: Rock ferry sinks, two drown
1894: Pentire View terraced 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: A devastating outbreak of Typhoid fever in Wadebridge, caused by contaminated drinking water and a primitive sewage system. The disease claimed 9 lives and left many seriously ill. The tragedy served as a "wake-up call" and an engineering project launched to build a new reservoir on the high ground above the 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) opens 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, Polzeath Beach House, 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 in 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 wash up locally and 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 but only 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 site of TJ’s started by Ted and Jayne Shepherd in 1987
1923: The world-famous psychiatrist Carl Jung holds a series of influential seminars in Polzeath in the summer. Inspired by the landscape, his assistant famously noted, "In Cornwall the fire burns in him."
1924: Bodyboarding using wooden surfboards starts in Polzeath
1925: Two breakwaters built for Port Isaac
1927: Trebetherick Telephone Exchange starts. For thirty years, calls were connected by hand until 1957, when the current automated exchange building was constructed 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 reached). 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: The Tanners Hill Estate is acquired by Lewis Brown, a well-known Wadebridge builder also responsible for properties at Greenaway. The plot is 182 acres and covers from the New Polzeath cliffs, Tinners Hill and back to present day Robbie Love’s campsite
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 after a public appeal and letter to The Times asking for £7,500 to purchase the 360 acres. The Pentireglaze land is acquired later.
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)
1936: “Penglaze”built, the only house in the valley by the beach at Pentireglaze Haven
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” an 8 year old Percy Dingle from Port Quin who 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 the way to the scrapyard with a crew of 4 on board. 1 drowned. Built in 1915 as HMS M22 (a M15-class Monitor warship with a crew of 69) converted and renamed around 1925 as a minelayer and then in 1937 became 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 with boys based in tents in the field by “Stepper”, Trebetherick. 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)
1945: Lewis Brown dies. His 182 acre Polzeath Estate and his building business devolved to his sons, Claude Jack Vincent Brown and Peter Oswald Brown.
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. Although the land is bought by Duchy of Cornwall in 1950 the freehold sold to Club in 1987
1952: Formula 1 on Davidstow airfield track until 1955
1952: A significant portion of the 182 acre Brown Estate (the campsite land, Trenant, and Little Portkillock) is sold to the Love family
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
1956: An estate development map for the "Tanners Hill Building Estate" is amended. It outlines the future Tinners Drive and Tinners Way, consisting of 28 numbered building plots
1957: Population of Wadebridge 2,900 and that of Rock, Polzeath and district 1,800. Wadebridge Secondary School opens
1958: St Endellion Summer Music Festival founded (1974 Easter festival starts)
1960 : Underground Nuclear Bunker built at Pentireglaze for Trebetherick ROC (until 1968)
1961: The Whitehouse built by the Lewis Brown company of Wadebridge. 1968 Basil Nimmo Tait (later the developer of Polzeath Court) buys and then runs a recording business, TC Records, from the Whitehouse
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 continues to use the station until 1978. Bodmin Branch Line remains operational for freight until 1983 but now a 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 but it was not reported to the 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 . Britain’s largest mass poisoning featured in a BBC documentary “Poison Water” 2025
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 so that A39 traffic no longer has to squeeze across the old bridge
1993: Roserrow Golf & Country Club opens on former farming land
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: over two years "Roserrow Village" developed around the historic Grade II listed farmhouse
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 who own part of Polzeath Beach, 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: Jeremy and Eva Davies buy Roserrow Golf and Country Club and further develop and rebrand it as The Point at Polzeath
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 in the grounds of Carn Mar during its redevelopment
2019: 36 acres of Polzeath Beach, from Cockett Haven and the bottom section of the Atlantic Steps, to the side of Pentireglaze Haven along Slipper Point, bought by ACH land owned by Andy Cameron and two others and managed by Wavehunters. 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: Proposal put forward to build seaweed farm in Port Quin Bay leads to formation of Two Bays Trust. A coastal conservation, mental health and wellbeing support charity based at Trevathan farm, St Endellion
2025: Polzeath Village Community Interest Company formed
2025: Beach Art and Polzeath Walks Festivals
2026: Polzeath Community Film Festival
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