Today everyone recognises Port Isaac in photographs because of its starring role as Port Wenn in the very popular television show, Doc Martin but to me it is much more than that, as my ancestor Elizabeth Couch married Isaac Hawker in Port Isaac on 3 May 1862.

Marriage of Isaac Hawker and Elizabeth Couch on 3 May 1862 at St Endellion.

They migrated to Australia on the Accrington arriving in Melbourne on 24 August 1862. This couple were my great great grandparents.

As a result, I have visited Port Isaac twice and delved into what it was like to live there in the past. Isaac and Elizabeth had been working at Roscarrock Farm on the outskirts of Port Isaac when they married – she was a dairymaid and he was a labourer.  However, the Couch men were all fishermen and mariners, making their livelihood from the ocean and having to negotiate the very tricky entrance to the port itself, made for a very dangerous livelihood.

Port Isaac is on the North West coast of Cornwall and the local parishes are St Endellion and St Kew, both of which feature prominently in my family’s history.

Map of St Endellion from Genuki.

I found a fascinating document which shows what life was like here before 1834 and I am including a couple of extracts as they provide so much background to my family’s life.  The document is: “Summary Memoirs, of the Parish of ENDELLION® Prior. to the year; 1834 written by John Watts Trevan.”

This first quote illustrates what life was like at this time and the second provides detail about some of the Couch seaman:

“Port Isaac a small fishing town, but the largest and most thickly inhabited place in this parish. It contains about one hundred and forty dwelling houses, inhabited mostly by seafaring people. Being as mean, dirty, tumultuous place as can well be conceived, therefore a refuge for al tag, rag, and bobtail from all quarters and without the least control or government, the streets narrow and filthy as almost to render them impassable in the time of wet weather. It contains open place of worship which is a commodious Wesleyan Methodist chapel which about fifty-five members of society are attached thereto. Port Isaac is fast going to decay, not being near so lovely as formerly, as many respectable families once resided here, and all the better most houses are occupied by poor families and likewise in consequence of the slate trade being removed to Port Gavern and the failure of the pilchard fishing.”

Of the four men listed below, the first, Charles Couch, is my GGGG grandfather and the other three are all my GGGG uncles.

“COUCH, Charles, Fisherman. Originally from S.t Kew, Charles first came into the parish as a hog dealer at which he carried a great hand for many years. He was likewise Master seaman to the ‘Good Intent’ pilchard seine for several years. Married Honour Phillips by whom he has ten children, mostly dispersed. No. at present to family – 5.
COUCH, C. Master Mariner. Is master of a vessel called the ‘Afơ in the employ of Messrs Rosevere and Sloggatt at Boscastle. Married his cousin Mary, daughter of Humphry Phillips. They have three children – 5 in household.
COUCH, Samuel, late Seaman. Samuel died about two years since, left a widow daughter to Jane Bishop aforesaid, with many children – 6. Samuel was an excellent seaman.
COUCH, Nicholas, master of the “Jane’, in the employ of Mesrs Rosevear and Sloggatt of Boscastle. Married Tamson Midlen of St. Teath. Have a family of four children – 6.”

Fishing boats in Port Isaac 2016. The breakwater, which made the harbour safer to enter, was built in the 1930s. Image by author.

So life was tough back then.  When storms struck, women often waited in vain for their menfolk to return from the sea.  Entering the harbour was difficult especially during bad weather.). Port Isaac became accessible by train in 1895 but until then you could only reach the village by boat or by foot or on horseback. It is easy to understand why Elizabeth and Isaac fled across the seas to Melbourne shortly after their marriage in 1862. 

When I was in Port Isaac, I visited the bookshop and asked if they had any books on the local history.  I was very happy to find that a local man, Geoff Provis had written two books, one of which they had in stock.  I was thrilled to find pictures of some of my ancestors in the books namely, “The Fishermen of Port Isaac” and “The Seafarers of Port Isaac”.  Geoff describes the lives of the people in the mid 20^th century when Port Isaac doesn’t seem to have been much better than it was in the 1830s.  Geoff shares many stories of shipwrecks and rescues, of the pilchard fishing days and of his childhood in Port Isaac.  In his young days there was still no sewerage; everything flowed down the hill in to the sea and Geoff says the children still loved to swim in the sea.  The council condemned the village and built new homes up on the top of the hill.  The original village homes were then bought up, renovated and used as holiday homes by wealthy people.  I made contact with Geoff and discovered that we are distant cousins.  He put me in touch with another cousin who runs a FaceBook page called Port Isaac Heritage which I follow and I love reading the old stories and seeing the historical photos which people post – some of which include my family members.

Geoff posted this week that there is a great deal of concern about the future of this lovely village.  The fishing industry has been decimated with the overfishing by large ships from other ports.  The popularity of Doc Martin has led to an increase in tourism which is tricky to handle in such a tiny village.  House prices have collapsed after Covid and local businesses are having to pay huge rents for their premises.  What will Port Isaac be like in the future?

Di Edelman in Squeezy Belly Alley, Port Isaac in 2016. Personal album of author.

There are many tales of smuggling in these coastal villages of Cornwall but the only reference I can find to any wrongdoing by the Couch family so far is a mention in the Criminal Registers of Cornwall that Honour Couch nee Phillips, my GGGG grandmother, was sentenced to 18 days imprisonment for receiving stolen goods.  My guess is that this would have been goods that washed up on shore after a shipwreck.  Their life was very tough.  The seas were rough and Port Isaac was not a safe port.  Honour, like all the wives of Mariners through the ages, would have not known when, or if, her husband would return and many were left with young children to care for on their own. Fortunately, Charles and Honour both lived very long lives.

Finally, a photo of me in Squeezy Belly Alley in Port Isaac.  The Alley, formally known as Tempe Bar, runs from Fore St to Dolphin St and is one of the narrowest laneways in the world.

If you’re planning to visit Port Isaac, I suggest you park in the carpark on top of the hill and walk down as all of the streets are very narrow and there’s no parking in the village itself.  It’s quite a walk back up the hill, though – just ask my husband.  I’ve made him do it a few times!  For me, it was well worth the effort.