Pilchards Corner The White Cottage Union Cellars Including The White Cottage And Pilchards Corner

Pilchards Corner, also known as the White Cottage and Union Cellars, is a building dating from the early 19th century that originally served as fish cellars and now provides storage and domestic accommodation. Constructed from stone rubble and cob, it features some weatherboarding and is slate-hung. The roof is made of slate and asbestos slate with hipped ends.

The structure consists of a two-storey range on the southwest, with a narrow single-storey wing extending from the southeast and another narrow single-storey range at right angles on the northeast, creating a 'U' shaped plan around an open courtyard. A front wall encloses the yard on the northwest, set slightly back with a central entrance and double doors. The courtyard has been grassed to form a garden for the two converted houses on the southwest. The White House, located to the north of the two-storey range, retains its 19th-century windows.

Historically, pilchards were loaded into leaky hogsheads and placed on a wooden platform or gutter against the wall. The fish were crushed using large stones suspended from long pressing beams that fit into brick niches, which are still largely intact along the outer wall of the northeast wing. Storage lofts for nets and tackle were likely located on the southwest, while the single-storey wings on the southeast and northeast were probably originally open-fronted to the yard, with roofs supported by timber posts. This design provided shelter for the pilchard catch, facilitated the drying of fish, and allowed for the storage of merchandise brought in at the quay of Port Gaverne. Additional converted fish cellars are located to the east (Venus cellars) and to the southeast (Liberty Cellars and Rashleigh Cellars).