I could have done with my ultra wide angle lens here, but I was travelling light and didn't have my camera bag with me. This is Charlestown on the south coast of Cornwall, just outside St Austell.
It grew out of a small fishing village called West Polmear (also West Porthmear). Prior to the building of the harbour, vessels landed goods and loaded on the beach. The harbour with its associated buildings was developed in the Georgian era (specifically from 1790 when work on building the outer quay began to 1799 when the first dock gates were erected). The new town was named after local landowner Charles Rashleigh who had a hand in its design. The works were to the plans of England's first recognised civil engineer, John Smeaton, who designed the Eddystone lighthouse that now sits on the Hoe at Plymouth, and is known as Smeaton's Tower.
Charlestown harbour was initially built to facilitate the transport of copper from nearby mines but its main function subsequently became the export of china clay from the region's quarries. The inner harbour is now home to several tall ships though one or two other vessels seem to have made the port their home as well.
The tall ship below us is the Phoenix, which was built in 1929 in Denmark originally as an Evangelical Mission Schooner.
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