St Mawes Harbour Conservation Trust

St Mawes and the Roseland form part of the South Coast Central section of the Cornwall National Landscape (formerly AONB). It includes the magnificent dramatic cliffs and coastline of Mevagissey Bay, Veryan Bay and Gerrans Bay separated by the headlands of The Dodman, Nare Head, and St Anthony Head and beyond this the enclosed seascape of the Carrick Roads.

The coastal landscapes combine with a narrow strip of rural agricultural hinterland to form a unique combination of a tranquil landscape of well-managed farmland framed within a stunning, globally renowned, coastline including fine sandy beaches at Towan, Pendower, Portholland and Caerhays.

As well as the church towns of Gorran and Veryan are the quintessential coastal villages of Portscatho, Portloe and the Porthollands.  Away from the coast, settlement is generally sparse and consists of mainly small rural hamlets and farmsteads linked by narrow winding lanes. At narrow junctions, traditional black and white cast iron directional fingerposts echo a bygone era.

This tranquil, unspoilt agricultural landscape is however never far from the coast and its influence.

At the western end of the Roseland peninsula lies the well-known village of St Mawes with its picturesque harbour marking the entrance to the Carrick Roads.  With its origins in the fishing industry the village is now a popular tourist resort with a busy harbour providing ferry access to Falmouth and beyond.  The harbour is a magnet for recreational sailing and other water sports and activities.

But there is another aspect of the harbour which has only recently been fully understood. In the waters in front of the village lies a rare combination of marine habitats – lush green meadows of seagrass grow alongside beds of maerl, a coralline seaweed. Each of them are hotspots of biodiversity, and each offers a precious nursery area for commercial fish and shellfish species. But the maerl bed has another surprise – it has been estimated to be more than four thousand years old.

The combination of the picturesque harbour within the designated landscape and the focus of tourism, recreational boating and nature conservation brings considerable pressures to the management of this uniquely sensitive and important location.  The day-to-day management of the harbour is undertaken by the St Mawes Pier & Harbour Company with the assistance of a number of other organisations all united by a shared ambition to conserve and enhance all of the attributes of its iconic character.

The St Mawes Harbour Conservation Trust is one of these organisations and over recent years has raised funds to undertake a detailed survey of the underwater habitats of the harbour in order to be able to monitor any changes to these and to promote their sensitive management.

The Trust, with support from Cornwall Council, has recently commissioned a short film “The Hidden Wonders of St Mawes Harbour” – by Falmouth film-maker Lewis Jefferies and Roseland-based author Philip Marsden.  This film celebrates these underwater habitats describing the beauty, use and habitats of the harbour.  It is intended that this film will allow these to be better understood by those using the harbour and in doing so to assist in their conservation and enhancement.

In conjunction with the launch of the film on 19th July, there will be a public presentation on the Quay at St Mawes 19th July, 1400-1600, while the film will be shown in the cinema at the St Mawes Hotel at the same time.

The St Mawes Harbour Conservation Trust hopes the film will engage and inform the widest possible audience in seeking to promote the sympathetic and informed management and use of the harbour and to conserve and enhance its cherished landscape, seascape and rare marine habitats.

This article was co-written by the Cornwall National landscape Team and the St Mawes Harbour Conservation Trust. The article was shared in The Cornishman, Cornish Guardian and West Briton.