In the meantime, we have been given access to some old photos/postcards (example below), visit our Photograph Gallery and view the Beach History Album for a good look at the full set, they're a fantastic peek at days past.

You might like to view some images from the Harbour History Album too.

We have also been given a copy of the original Indenture document - the legal document of the sale of the beach from Arthur Basset to Tywardreath Parish Council in 1914! You can see it in the Indenture Gallery though it is a bit small to read so we've also made it available in the Document Downloads page for you to download, though as it is in eight parts it may take you a while.

Adrian Wildish has had some research done (by Alan Jones and Richard Larn of Shipwrecks UK Ltd) into the Capitaine Remy which was wrecked off Little Hell. He says "The picture of the upturned Hull actually looks like it was attached to the buoy that was just outside Par Harbour, it was probably moved there to prepare it for moving to Fowey for scrap. I remember seeing what was left of the boilers in the late sixties (we all thought they were WW2 U-boats sunk in the sand) in the sand at Little Hell. There is nothing showing now but I imagine if you went over the area with a metal detector you would soon find the boilers"



Read the story of the Capitaine Remy, which includes a link to photos of her being built, all kindly given to us by Adrian.

On the 24th March 1947 the 244 ton coaster "Empire Contamar" was carrying 325t of house coal from Maryport, Northumberland, to Par . At 10pm she entered St Austell bay in a terrific south westerly gale.

They had missed the tide to enter Par by 90 minutes. They were delayed because of weather, the captain decided to go to anchor . At 1am the captain a Mr Augustus Williams aged 50 of Penzance, quickly realised that they had begun to drag their anchors in the worsening conditions.

Immediately the captain started firing distress rockets , he fired 30 in total, but the nearest coastguard station was Polruan and the flares at first were not seen because of the high cliffs of the Gribben head. At 1.30 am they struck the callyvardor rock (now named killyvarder) and with mountainous seas breaking around the ship they huddled under the shelter of the wheelhouse, the hatchboards were now being ripped off the ship and all the windows were smashed out of the wheelhouse. They clung there, huddled together like this until 5.30am with the sea up to their chests, all hope fading away of being rescued.

The captain now gave every man a flare should the worst happen as the rising tide was now completely covering the entire ship with every wave. The lifeboat maroon went off at 04.20, and by 04.40 the lifeboat under the command of coxswain Jack Watters cleared the entrance to Fowey harbour, it took a further 45 minutes to reach the ship such were the sea conditions.

With the lifeboat now alongside, the lifeboat crew threw a line to the ship, the captain caught it and made fast, as he was doing this a tremendous 20ft high sea broke over the ship and the lifeboat went up on the crest of it , the engineer Philip McDaid saw the danger and pulled the captain away from the rail just as the lifeboat came crashing down, landing onto the rail, damaging her bows in the process, fortunately she was still seaworthy.

Now a crewman of the coaster fell between the ship and the lifeboat, he was very badly battered and bruised when the lifeboat eventually got him aboard. The crews ordeal finally ended when at 7 am they were landed at Fowey , they were taken to the mission and given a bath and hot food. The rescue of the men of the Empire Contamar earned the coxswain of the lifeboat a Bronze medal for recognition of bravery in appalling conditions.

~~~~~

John Cloke has kindly shared some photographs and personal history with us.

"My Great Grandfather Edwin Robbins from my Mother, his Granddaughter apparently fathered thirteen children - seven boys and six girls, one of whom was Eilleen my Grandmother. The era of the photos would be 1930s as my Mother remembers attending his funeral when she was twelve or fourteen, which would put it at 1935 or 1937. Irwin was the Pilot or perhaps the Pilot's Boatman, at Par Harbour. He was also the coxswain of the then Polkerris lifeboat which the crew could only reach by rowing across the bay!"

Things stayed in the family, as eventually the old man's Grandson became the Pilot's boatman to Pilot Tommy and then to Pilot Roger Dunn, the job finally passing to his son Tommy Endean on his death. Tommy held the job until the end at Par Harbour.