Cornwall
The Western Colony

Porthcurno, with a steeply shelving beach and quiet, uninhabited valley was ideal for the Eastern Telegraph Company’s first (and last) station in the chain of submarine (or underwater) telegraph cables that linked London to Bombay. The telegraph station opened in 1870, and almost from the start was used as a training school. The teaching staff and their families were housed nearby in several handsome villas. By 1903, the number of staff and the quantity of messages had outgrown the original buildings, making necessary the construction of a new telegraph office across the valley. The men posted to Porthcurno considered it a remote outpost and described themselves as ‘Exiles’. Nevertheless, they made themselves comfortable; the station had a billiard room and a theatre. Tennis courts were laid out in the 1880s, a sports field followed in 1893, and a six hole golf course in 1912.

Family Life: Hearth and Home

The station at Porthcurno served a dual role. It was both the company’s busiest telegraph station and its main training school. It soon became clear that to perform these roles effectively the station would need a core personnel of mature and experienced men to maintain efficiency and instruct probationers. Most of the men chosen for the role had families that they expected to bring with them. In response, the company started a building programme. Between 1873 and 1898, the company constructed fourteen family houses. In 1883, the Parish Mission Room was also built in the valley. This functioned as a school where the telegraphers’ children were taught by a governess appointed by Superintendent William Henry Ash. Despite building the houses and school, the Eastern Telegraph Company had not set out to create a village at Porthcurno. The water supply was erratic, though the houses had their own cess pits and wells, and there was no shop. Instead, the company horse and cart would go to Penzance three times a week for meat, bread and other supplies.

Local Impact: Porthcurno and St Levan: Class, Staff, Locals and Labour

In the nineteenth century, British society was strictly divided by class. The men and women from the Eastern Telegraph Company who settled in the valley were from the middle class, and socialising was restricted to members from within this group. Land owners, solicitors, merchants, clergymen and other professionals from St. Levan, and the neighbouring parishes would frequently be invited to soirees and entertainments at the station.

The majority of local people, however, would never have met anybody socially from the station. Instead, they were relegated to providing goods and services to the company, such as gardening and maintenance, or providing accommodation for probationers and telegraphers. Others found employment within the valley households, but it was not until the 1880s that the first locals were employed by the Eastern Telegraph Company itself and then only as ancillary staff.

Leisure: Fun and Games at Porthcurno

As the telegraph station grew in size and population, it quickly took on the air of a boarding school and barracks. It was an irony that whilst the students and clerks at Porthcurno were connected to the world through the submarine cables they operated, they were physically isolated. Their own word was ‘exiled’, in the far west of Cornwall. The result was to give those stationed at Porthcurno a frontier spirit of self-containment, a pattern which was repeated in the many Eastern Telegraph Company stations around the world.

The company recognised the need to provide resources for leisure and enjoyment. The telegraph station had a billiard table, tennis courts and later a sports field and golf course. Teams were formed to play rugby, football and cricket against local teams, including the first recorded game of rugby in West Cornwall. Not all leisure activities were physical. The telegraph station had its own theatre and an active amateur dramatic society (a precursor to the Minack Theatre), whilst others stationed here would scour the fields in search of archaeological remains and Prehistoric flints.

Telegraphers at Porthcurno: Life and Work at Porthcurno

For most of the telegraphers and students based at Porthcurno, life revolved around the quarters, now known by the name Zodiac House. Here the telegraphers ate, slept, and trained. The working day was based around an eight-hour shift including night duty. In the quarters, each telegrapher had his own room with a bed, chest of draws, table and chair. They were encouraged to bring their own pictures to give their rooms a more homely feel.

Social life in the quarters revolved around the mess, organised and administered by a “Mess Captain” elected from amongst the staff. Four meals were served in the quarters each day: breakfast, lunch, dinner and tea. The quarters had a domestic staff of five: a cook, a kitchen maid, two housemaids and a waitress all under the control of the station matron.

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The beach at Porthcurno was isolated and unused, and below the waterline it shelved steeply. It was an ideal landing site for the submarine cable connecting the United Kingdom to India. In addition, the absence of fishing boats meant that the cable was secure from snagging on fishing nets or anchors. By 1880 Porthcurno beach had four cables running out from it and by 1918 it had nine.

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    • The beach at Porthcurno was isolated and unused, and below the waterline it shelved steeply. It was an ideal landing site for the submarine cable connecting the United Kingdom to India. In addition, the absence of fishing boats meant that the cable was secure from snagging on fishing nets or anchors. By 1880 Porthcurno beach had four cables running out from it and by 1918 it had nine.
    • Eastern Telegraph employees ended up in Porthcurno for a variety of reasons, some to be trained, some to recover from illness, and many just "passing through" on their way to their next posting overseas. The mobility of the population seems to have had little impact on the locality. On occasion however, there were problems when a telegrapher was posted abroad before settling his accounts with local traders. In such circumstances Superintendent Ash would ask head office to dock the telegrapher's wage by the amount and then settle the bill himself from the Porthcurno Station petty cash. Another impact might be the sending back to Cornwall of exotic food or gifts, as illustrated here by this label from a parcel of Muscatel Raisins sent to Cornwall from Gibralter.
    • Almost from the start the decision was made to use the facilities at Porthcurno as a school for training Eastern Telegraph Company staff. Writing in 1877 Lady Emma Pender, wife of the E.T.C. Chairman wrote of it: "There is a telegraph station near to the Lands End, put down in a secluded bay, and no doubt tryingly lonely in these days when men of every station in society require so much amusement and excitement. ...now it is a kind of school for preparing young men for the telegraph positions abroad."
    • The Telegraphers at Porthcurno were well aware that they were working with a technology that few other people understood, but that many found fascinating. This fete at Porthcurno in 1897 included a "Museum Display" of electrical exhibits from the station. In addition the telegraphers displayed exotic items that they had collected on their travels.
    • From the 1870s onwards the "Exiles Musical and Dramatic Club" provided one of the most popular forms of entertainment at the Porthcurno Station. Plays, concert evenings, and 'drawing room soirees' were all provided by the Exiles and visitors from all around the locality and the local newspapers were invited to attend. The first purpose built theate was opened at the station in 1879 and was replaced by a new building (now the Cable Station Inn) in 1889 and it was claimed that this was the only purpose built theatre west of Truro.
    • All the telegraphers and probationers sent to Porthcurno in the years before the First World War were men. However, the instructors and senior staff were often married and they bought with them their wives, children and servants. These families, like that of Assistant Superintendant Spratt, seen here, maintained a life of genteel middle class respectability in the valley.
    • The first accomodation for married men was a terrace of four cottages built 1873-4 at a cost of £1,400. The cottages were small and had only three bedrooms, one of which was very small so unsuitable for large families. Built without proper foundations, their floors resting on the ground, and with mortar made from beach sand, they were damp and in constant need of maintenance. Though badly damaged by a fire caused by a Guy Fawkes Night firework in 1916 they survived until 1960 when they were replaced by a contemporary block of flats. This photograph shows the houses as they appeared in the 1880s.
    • This picture shows Porthcurno valley children in 1883. A school was established in Porthcurno in 1880 on the suggestion of Miss Elizabeth Andrews, a teacher from Penzance. The residents from the valley with children all contributed toward the cost and Miss Andrews took the job of governess and teacher. When the Mission Room was built in 1883 this was used as the school house. There were fourteen children under sixteen recorded as living in Porthcurno in the 1881 Census.
    • St Levan Church played an important part in the life of the station. The Reverend Paul d'Ockham Silvester lived in the valley in what is now called Porthcurno House and was a regular visitor to the station, in both a social and pastoral capacity. The company gave an annual donation of £10 to the upkeep of the Church and was instrumental in its restoration in 1875 as well as the construction of the Porthcurno Sunday School building in 1883. All staff were expected to attend on Sundays and George Spratt, the Assistant Superintendent, was both Rector's Warden and Choir Master. Evidence of the close links between the Station and the Church can still be seen at the Church today. There are several memorials including the east window which commemorates three telegraph men who died in service and was paid for by their collegues. In addition there are several graves in the churchyard of Eastern Telegraph Company employees. Lastly the church bible was donated by the Company (by that time c
    • The Roskestal Bus of Geoge Williams outside Roskestal farmhouse, circa 1900. For some local people the telegraph station provided business opportunities. Coal and other supplies were provided by merchants and shops in Penzance, and local building firms were used for the construction and maintenance of company buildings. George Williams, farmer of Roskestal, established a transport business to carry provisions and people between Penzance and Porthcurno, and the Eastern Telegraph Company was his biggest client.
    • Junior clerks playing leapfrog in the road in 1911. Respectability was an important part of Victorian and Edwardian life. The clerks and probationers were expected to behave like gentlemen and Porthcurno had its own rule book to make sure that they did. The playing of comic tunes on the piano and swimming on Sundays was forbidden whilst church attendance was compulsory. Smoking was only allowed after 10pm and the consumption of beer discouraged. Worst of all was over familiarity with the servants. Breaking the rules could result in a rapid overseas posting or dismissal.
    • Before the First World War guns were not licensed or restricted in the way they are today and shooting and rabbit hunting were common recreations for telegraphers. Although Porthcurno had a rifle club, shooting seems to have been more popular in the overseas stations. When in 1910, the Brodrick Challenge Cup was established as a shooting tournament for teams from across the Easten Telegraph Company, Porthcurno never entered any teams.
    • Billiards was a popular game amongst middle and upper class gentlemen in the 19th century and no officer's mess or grand house was without its billiard room. The first billiard room at Porthcurno was in a hut adjacent to the staff quarters, but in 1878 a purpose built billiard room was provided in the new extension to the staff quarters. Electric lights were installed in 1887. Games were played against local teams, including a team from the Western Union Telegraph Company based in Penzance.
    • There were five domestic staff employed in the staff quarters, all under the direction of the Matron. There was a cook, kitchen maid, two housemaids and a waitress. Rooms had to be cleaned daily and meals needed to be cooked and served to the men working at the station. Breakfast was available between 7.30 and 10 in the morning, and was usually porridge, eggs, bacon or fish, bread and butter, tea or coffee. Lunch was served between 11.30 and 1pm followed by Dinner, in two sittings at 3 and 4pm, of meat with two kinds of vegetables and bread, with pastry or fruit for desert. Tea or Supper was served at 7 or 8pm and comprised bread and butter with jam or cake and tea.