Former Pilchard Net Fishing Cellars And Winches At Approx 50 And 70M To Southeast At Sw 654 225

Former pilchard net fishing cellars and winches at Gunwalloe

A group of seine net barking cellars with temporary and seasonal accommodation for fishermen, now roofless, dating from approximately 1803 with extensions around the 1840s and again before 1874. The cellars are located approximately 50 and 70 metres to the southeast of the main settlement.

The buildings are constructed of serpentine rubble walls with some dressed granite sills and lintels, and some wooden lintels. The scantle slate roof was removed around the 1950s. The original building's gable ends remain standing, though brick chimneys on the seaward gable have fallen.

The original structure was a two-room building: the left room served as a workroom with a large fireplace surviving, and possibly functioned as a net store, with accommodation above (though the floor has since been removed). A single-storey lean-to extension was added to the left after 1840 (not shown on the tithe map), and this room was widened before 1874. The main hearth flue was adapted for an iron copper used for barking nets, probably at the same time, and a further barking cauldron was fitted to the former workroom around 1920.

The building stands two storeys high. The original south front was symmetrical with two windows but no front doorway. The right gable end has a two-window front. Later extensions to the left feature ground and first floor windows adjoining the original left-hand gable end. The left-hand gable has two-window openings with brick jambs, with the ground floor opening being wider. A wide ground floor doorway and window opening above appear in the right-hand original gable end. Further doorways at ground and first floor rear of the extension, positioned roughly midway, presumably allowed independent access to first floor storage.

Interior features include a large fireplace with granite lintel in the former workroom, outer brick walling surrounding the Seine net copper, and a sloping brick floor in the left-hand part with a trough in the workroom floor near the hearth. Another flue exists in the far left gable end. Some ceiling beams survive in the left-hand room; elsewhere only sockets remain indicating former beam positions. Mortar remaining at window jambs suggests deep frames of either vertical or horizontal sliding sashes.

Three iron winches, dating from the late 19th century, survive to the south of the buildings. They are fairly complete, retaining drums, bearings, cogs and ratchets. The winch nearest the building was salvaged from the steam coal-carrying steamship Branklow, which was wrecked at Gunwalloe in 1890. These winches were used to haul seine boats partway up the cliff to protect them from the sea between fishing sessions. The great lengths of seine nets themselves, which could last up to 60 years if barked and repaired annually, were hauled in using large wooden manually-operated capstans positioned on the cliff. The capstans no longer survive, though circular impressions remain where they once stood.

A pilchard fishery was established at Gunwalloe in 1803, referred to as the Alert pilchard seine, comprising two complete seines with boats and all other necessary materials, a large loft or buildings for the seiners to lodge in during the season, and a capstan and rope complete.