Porth, Cornwall


Porth or St Columb Porth is a sea-side village and cove in the civil parish of Newquay, Cornwall, United Kingdom. It was formerly a small shipbuilding port, importing coal from south Wales. The village is to the east of a sandy inlet with the Iron Age promontory fort of Trevelgue Head, on the northern side. A promontory fort is a coastal headland, isolated from the mainland by a stone, turf or earthen rampart.

Glendorgal

On the southern side is the Glendorgal Hotel, built in 1850 as a gentleman's residence. In 1878 it was the residence of Arthur Pendarves Vivian, the member of parliament for the constituency of West Cornwall, who carried out extensive alterations in that year. In 1882 it was bought by Sir Richard Trevithick Tangye, a Cornishman born in Illogan who became a mechanical engineer, and along with his brothers started an engineering firm in Birmingham. The house became the residence of the Tangye Baronetcy created on 10 July 1912 for the industrialist Harold Tangye, the son of Sir Richard. Three generations of the Tangye family lived in Glendorgal including Sir Richard's grandson Derek Tangye; the author of the Minack Chronicles, nineteen novels based on a small-holding near Lamorna Cove in West Cornwall. In 1950 the house was opened as a hotel by Nigel Tangye, brother of Derek.

Porth Veor Manor

Located overlooking the beach, Porth Veor Manor hotel was owned and run in the 1920s by author Charlotte Mary Matheson and her husband Stanley Threlkeld. A prominent woman farmer, Charlotte wrote several novels including The Generation Between, still available in print.

Notable residents

have included: