About Newquay
Heva!
Heva heva was a cry commonly heard on the headland above Newquay and indeed all along the Cornish coast up until about 200 years ago. For the cry, issued by the huer, signalled the arrival of huge shoals of Pilchards in mid-July, the fishing of which was once a very lucrative industry in Cornwall. The Huer's Hut high above the quay, is one of the finest examples in Cornwall and is well worth a look. Close your eyes and imagine the huer's excitement at spotting a huge shoal out in the blue Atlantic, meaning financial survival for the then small fishing community.
Fully laden boats would then return to harbour, fish would be gutted and carefully placed in huge piles (baulks) of layer upon layer of salt. Baulked for a month, the fish would then keep for at least a year. The fish could then be placed by hand usually by women into wooden hogshead barrels, each barrel holding up to 3000 fish and pressed to yield 8 or 9 gallons of surplus but valuable oil used to be used in lighting. In a good year up to 40,000 barrels were exported.
Typically a pilchard palace would comprise 3 boats - the seine boat and two smaller follower boats, two nets and of course a cellar. The larger seine net was often a quarter of a mile long and up to 60 feet deep. The seine boat would have a crew of 6 to 8 rowers and a steersman. The follower boats would carry the smaller stop net. The shoal would then be encircled by the seine net, the open end closed with the stop net, and the whole mass slowly pulled towards shallower water, by men working huge wooden capstans.
Originally the cellars were in the fishermen's cottages. Later purpose built pilchard fishing stations with cellars, often called palaces, could be seen in villages such as Port Isaac, Newquay, Perranporth, Cadgwith, Sennen Cove and St Ives. Most have now disappeared although good examples still remain at Penberth Cove. By the 1850's seining was in decline as the shoals diminished with drift netting and overfishing no doubt contributing to its demise.
