Newlyn Harbour & Fish Market 8th July 2026

From Wikipedia Newlyn is a seaside town and fishing port in south-west Cornwall, England, and is one of the largest fishing ports & fish markets in England. More than 600 vessels and 100 fishermen land up to 40 different species of fresh fish each day at Newlyn Harbour – including hake, turbot, mackerel and cuttlefish to name but a few. The Fish Market comes to life at around 4am each morning when the graders and sorters organise the day’s catch by size and species to prepare it for auction. Buyers arrive soon afterwards to gather around the rows of red boxes. The auction then begins and purchases are transported to fine dining eateries throughout Cornwall and beyond Newlyn lies on the shore of Mount's Bay close to the town of Penzance. The principal industry is fishing, although there are also a variety of yachts and pleasure boats in the harbour, as Newlyn has become a popular holiday destination with pubs and restaurants. The settlement is recorded as Nulyn in 1279 and as Lulyn in 1290, and the name is thought to be derived from the Cornish for "pool for a fleet of boats" which is thought to refer to the shallows offshore known as Gwavas Lake, traditionally the principal mooring for the fishing fleet in the area. Before the rise of Newlyn as an important settlement the landing rights and most properties within the Newlyn area were owned by the Manor of Alverton. Newlyn's history has been strongly linked to its role as a major fishing port. The natural protection afforded by the Gwavas Lake (an area of seawater in Mount's Bay) led to many local fishermen using this area as a preferred landing site. The Spanish Raid of 1595 destroyed Penzance, Mousehole and Paul as well as Newlyn. In 1620 the Mayflower stopped off at Newlyn old quay to take on water. A plaque on the quay reads "To the memory of Bill Best Harris 1914 – 1987 Historian and son of Plymouth whose researches indicated that the MAYFLOWER 16 – 8 – 1620 docked at the Old Quay Newlyn for water and supplies making it the last port of call in England. The water supply at Plymouth being the cause of fever and cholera in the city". In 1755, the Lisbon earthquake caused a tsunami to strike the Cornish coast more than 600 miles (970 km) away from the epicentre. The sea rose ten feet (3 m) in ten minutes at Newlyn, and ebbed at the same rate. The 19th-century French writer, Arnold Boscowitz, claimed that "great loss of life and property occurred upon the coasts of Cornwall". Before the 19th century, "Newlyn" referred only to the area near the old quay. The part of the village that now contains the fish market was known as "Streetanowan", this was separated at high tide from "Newlyn Town" the site of the lower part of the modern harbour being reclaimed land and formerly a beach. In fact Newlyn comprises three discrete hamlets all previously separated by bodies of water, being Tolcarne (Tal Carn: Brow of the Rocks), Street-an-owan (Street-an-Owan: Oxen Street) and Trewarveneth (Farm/Manor on the Hill). In the 1880s a number of artists moved to the town and formed an artists' colony. The painters of Newlyn came to be known as the Newlyn School. In 1896 Newlyn was the scene of the Newlyn riots following protests over the landing of fish on a Sunday by fishermen from the north of England, the local Cornish fishermen being members of the Methodist church and as such strong supporters of sabbatarianism. From 1915, the Ordnance Survey tidal observatory was established in the harbour and for the next six years measurements of tidal height were taken every 15 minutes. This tidal gauge data was used to calculate the mean sea level at Newlyn, Ordnance Datum Newlyn, which became the vertical datum the Ordnance Survey uses to map altitudes throughout Great Britain. In 1937, the fishing vessel Rosebud sailed to London to deliver a petition to the Minister of Health on behalf of those villagers whose homes were threatened under the government's slum clearance scheme. During the Second World War Newlyn was a base for the air sea rescue craft covering the Western Approaches. The harbour was bombed during the war, hitting the collier Greenhithe, which was beached in the harbour at the time and supplied coal to the east coast drifters, which travelled to Newlyn during the mackerel fishing season between the wars. Reporting the event on the Germany Calling propaganda broadcast Lord Haw-Haw announced that the Luftwaffe had sunk a British cruiser in Newlyn Harbour. Newlyn, along with nearby Mousehole and Paul, was the last stronghold of the Cornish language, presumably due to the strength of its fishing fleet. Thank you for watching. #Cornwall #drone #cinematic #sea #coastline #fishing #harbour #fishingport