Bright start to the week as the port record goes again!

Dark clouds, bright skies and rays of sunshine fall over the harbour this morning, and it isn't raining...

even more rays inside the market...

 from the beam trawler Cornishman...

that's a whole lot of whiting roe...

top quality seine net fish always look good...

as do these reds from the beamer...

reds were very much the predominant hues morning...

never mind the reds, the port record was broken again, this time by the Cornishman with 90 boxes of soles...

two tone boxes of fish...

if oly there was a decent market for these fish out there, a longlining bonanza waiting to happen...

there's a clue in the name...

signs of better mackerel fishing on the market this morning with the handline guys...

looks like some interesting research underway for Cefas...

the ringnetter Vesta, landed a few fish over the weekend, though they proved somewhat elusive in terms of quantity...

a bright start to the day gets brighter...

as the sky opens up...

it's a sign of the times, these boats would be fishing if there were skippers and crews out there to take them...

the there's a key berth going while the St Piran is away for a paint-up...

while the Ali-Cat gets her paint job done closer to home...

two more deep-drafted boats take up berths on the end of the Mary Williams pier, the modern fleet is very quickly out-growing the harbour and its shallow waters...

as did the harbour 140 years ago when the Old harbour was the sole provider of shelter for the fleet of the day.

 

Fantastic fireworks light up Newlyn tonight!

Another year and another winning display from the Newlyn Harbour Christmas Lights crew - more than enough to make Marcia and the team proud! 

Fireworks video Christmas bonus soundtrack courtesy of Boilerhouse performing live at Argoe restaurant, a five-piece a cappella group specialising in songs faithful to, but not usually heard in, the Cornish repertoire. 

Awesome sights and sounds!

They took the Bait!

Local film maker (using traditional film rather than digital countries) Mark Jenkin is currently wowing the film world with his piercing look at Cornwall's relationship with tourism.

Down the hill in the village, someone has attached a handwritten sign to a lamp-post: “Newlyn fishermen deserve better.” The sentiment is vague, but palpably desperate. In 2016, Newlyn was the largest fishing port in England for landings, but it is among the 25 of Britain’s 41 ports classified as deprived. In May, a report outlined the mental illness crisis in Cornwall’s fishing community, stemming from poor work-life balance, precarious employment and weather, dangerous working conditions and sleep deprivation.

“They’re the last hunters, and they’re my heroes,” says Jenkin. “I’d really love them to see it and for them to know that there is somebody who’s putting the complexity of their lives on screen rather than being treated simplistically as a political bargaining chip. They’re always demonised, whether it’s politically or environmentally.”

The EU referendum took place about a year before Bait started shooting, but the result didn’t change Jenkin’s story. “You could see it coming,” he says. “It’s a disenfranchised people who were given the chance to reject something. Fishermen are always getting screwed over.” Still, he doesn’t think Brexit is the answer. “A complete rethink in how you treat working people and industry is actually what’s needed. The fishermen will get screwed over again.”

Bait’s local premiere takes place at Newlyn Filmhouse, an arthouse cinema in a former fish merchant that opened in April 2016. It is a brilliant local resource, but doesn’t it exemplify the tensions in Jenkin’s film? “There’s a danger that Newlyn will get gentrified like a lot of other places,” he admits. The old warehouse “could have easily been holiday flats. It is a funny one – I’m opposed to gentrification, but if it’s an arthouse cinema, we’ll let it go.”

That is not as much of a cop-out as it sounds: “The thing is, with Newlyn, historically, there’s always been a link between the arts world and the world of fishing,” says Jenkin. “They’re not that different, really.”

He brings up the prewar slum clearances, when Penzance town council intended to replace 350 “squalid” Newlyn houses with a new estate. Artists including Stanhope Forbes and Geoffrey Garnier joined local fishing families in challenging the plans. Together, they managed to save more than a third of the homes. It comes back to the idea that Jenkin has spent two decades refining: rural communities can’t afford to be stagnant. They have to evolve, but the line between survival and exploitation is a fine one.

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1438173/news

Newlyn Art Gallery - Conversations about time and place.

Just as the bronze memorial statue outside Newlyn Art Gallery makes a connection between the land and those that go down to the sea so Magda Stawarska-Beavan, Rebecca Chesney and Lubaina Himid have created three very different works for their current exhibition titled, Conversations about time and place.

“A rural ecologist, an urban drifter and a diasporic optimist examine the invisible layers underneath, the lost spaces on the edge and the forgotten places in between.” Lubaina Himid.  

The exhibition explores the work of three artists, Magda Stawarska-Beavan, Rebecca Chesney and Lubaina Himid, who consider the poetic investigation of place, space and time, through painting, sound installation and place-based research. 

All three artists use their work to uncover the hidden, understand a place as it is experienced by those who know it well, and remember apparently unknown histories.

Each artist has made new work for the show. See here for details.

Invisible Narratives is curated by Lubaina Himid CBE, winner of the 2017 Turner Prize.

The show runs until May 29th.

Also part of the current show is a piece by Rebecca Cheney that draws inspiration from the historic Tidal Observatory at the end of the South pier in Newlyn.  For nearly 100 years navigational charts cited sea levels as being taken from the tidal observatory in Newlyn.  Newlyn Tidal Observatory was established to determine mean sea level as a starting point for measuring height and levelling throughout the UK, and provides some of the longest sea level records ever kept. The length and consistency of the observatory workings give the data collected huge historical significance - especially so with regard to global warming and climate change.

Yesterday afternoon the gallery was treated to a talk...

from Richard Cockram, the vice-chairman of the Newlyn Archive, on the history and importance of the observatory...

and from artist Rebecca Chesney on how a visit to the observatory inspired new work for her show, Invisible Narratives...

Rebecca's work uses the data from the observatory...

 starting in 1916 up to 2018...

in a longitudinal piece...

on paper strips reminiscent of the paper roll used by the original Munro gauge recorder...

since the recordings taken in the first few years...

moving to the last few, it is easy to see how sea levels are continually moving upwards. It is possible to view see the live data streamed from the observatory's bubbler gauge along with hundreds of other stations that form a global network.

Also included in the exhibition is Rebecca's Forewarning, a three-screen video and sound installation filmed in 2018 on South Walney Island off the coast of Cumbria.

Local photographer Greg Martin produced a series of images on the day of a visit organised by Richard Cockram on behalf of the Newlyn Archive - the visit was also recorded by for Through the Gaps here.

For June, the gallery is planning a walk & talk tour in the harbour - which will necessitate a 6am start and appropriate footwear in order to see and hear the fish auction in full swing!

Bottle Top Factory - exciting new workspace project in the heart of Newlyn!

Overlooking Newlyn and Mounts Bay and largely hidden behind houses is the Bottle Top Factory which, up until 2012, produced millions of bottle-tops a year for dozens of companies including Chanel and Fabergé.

Below is a short video giving some insight into the fascinating background to the bottle-top works and those who worked there and an idea of what the proposed project will bring to the disused site.

The Bottle Top Factory Studios, Newlyn. from bottletopfactorystudios.co.uk on Vimeo.

Monday morning market in Newlyn - Fishermen's Arms up in flames.

Newlyn can always guarantee an excellent mix of rays landed on the market and this Monday, despite fish from only a couple of beam trawlers, was no exception...

along with a good supply of monk tails... 

lemon sole...

brill...

even more ray...

which fish is this?..

the colourful red mullet...

almost tropical looking John Dory...

and a particularly large cuttlefish specimen...

the beam trawlers do their bit to help keep the crabber fleet in bait...

while Dover...

lemons...

and megrim sole go to make up the bulk of a beam trawler's trip by weight if not value...

 

the odd box of octopus...

ray wings show just how meaty these delicious fish are... 

while the fine weather over the weekend allowed the handline fleet from St Ives to pitch in with some good catches of mackerel...

there's one of your boxes Mr Pascoe...

clear the decks, all is set for another trip...

Venture II prepares to land at the market...

in the early hours of this morning, four people were taken to hospital for treatment after one of Newlyn historic pubs, the Fishermen's Arms was gutted by fire...

looks like another Fishermen's Mission ceramic fish has been completed and is all set to be auctioned to help raise funds for the Mission's work in supporting fishermen and their families in times of personal need.. 

while Tom, created in tribute to all those who have lost their lives providing fish...

is greeted by another stunning break of day.