Prussia Cove

Prussia Cove from the cliff top

Prussia Cove, formerly known as 'King's Cove', is a cove and a small private estate on the coast of Mount's Bay in the west of Cornwall. The cove is found to the east of Cudden Point.

Part of the area is designated as a 'Site of Special Scientific Interest', a Geological Conservation Review site and is in an 'Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty'. The eatate consists of four small coves and several cottages and houses. The names of the coves from west to east are Piskies, Bessy's, King's and Coule's. The area is accessible by foot from the South West Coast Path which runs along the coast here.

History

Prussia Cove is known for the 18th-century ship-wrecker and smuggler John Carter (born 1738), also known as the "King of Prussia"; thought to be from a childhood game he played, and this is said to be the origin of the name for the area. Testimony to the days of smuggling can be found in seven (now listed) cottages overlooking Coule's Cove and Mount's Bay, built in 1826 by the Coastguard and known today as Coastguard Cottages. Built above and overlooking the coves is a Victorian house built in 1885 for Henry Du Boulay, former Archdeacon of Cornwall in his retirement. The coastal path passes though a "circus" formed by the listed buildings of Porth-en-Alls and include a crescent shaped "Lodge". The complex was designed and built by Philip Tilden in 1911, but never completed due to the Great War.

In April 1947, HMS Warspite ran aground here whilst being towed to the breakers yard. She was later towed to, beached and broken up at Marazion.

This coast is notorious for shipwrecks: the inviting, relatively sheltered, waters of Mounts Bay are busy with fishing boats, but they may hide wind which blow up in a moment and prevent a ship under sail from turning away, and drive it onto the beach of or the rocks. Prussia Cove has been frequently a place of disaster:

In 1841, the schooner Mary Stuart of Cardiff was dismasted off Praa Sands, at the sight of which Lieutenant H S Smith of the Royal Navy with four men belonging to the coastguard and one man from Prussia Cove, went out in a boat to rescue the fellow creatures from peril their own boat was overwhelmed by a heavy sea and "Lieutenant Smith and the whole of his crew after swimming for a considerable time in sight of their wives and children were dashed against the rocks and all perished". An appeal raised £279-11-51/2d in subscriptions to support the widows and families.

On Sunday last, the bodies of Lieut. Smith and Wellspring, the chief boatman, who were so unfortunately drowned at Prussia Cove, in nobly attempting to render assistance to their fellow mariner, were picked up – the bodies were disfigured. Yesterday, that of Lieut. Smith was interred at Breage, and that of Wellspring, at Madron – the latter was carried from Penzance there by eight bearers, preceded by about twenty teetotalers, wearing white ribbon with a teetotal medal suspended – and a white flag, borne by the front member of that body: the whole joining in singing an appropriate hymn. The coffin was covered with a large flag. As the solemn and affecting procession proceeded up causewayhead, hundreds of individuals had assembled, whose mourneful countenances spoke audibly of their inward feeling and many were the expressions of sorry, regret and pity which involuntarily escaped them. The liberal manner in which subcribers have come forward toward the pecuniary relief of the poor widows and children is a sufficient proof that all entertain the greatest sympathy for the afflicted.

Cudden Point to Prussia Cove SSSI

Fishermen's cottages, Prussia Cove

Cudden Point is a prominent headland, owned by the National Trust which can be clearly seen from most of Mount's Bay. Together with Little Cudden and Piskies Cove, the area is designated as a Site of Special Scientific Interest and is listed, for its national importance, in the Geological Conservation Review. The SSSI notification reads:

″This is the best example in Cornwall of a mildly metamorphosed, differentiated tholeiitic intrusive greenstone that retains good relict igneous textures and mineralogy. It is characteristic of relatively large intrusive dolerite-gabbro sills in Cornwall and unique in that it is of tholeiitic composition and not alkaline. It is also internally differentiated and contains rare relicts of primary brown amphibole. The sheared and deformed Metamorphic facies|marginal facies has a chemistry indicative of contact metamorphism by hidden, shallow granite extension from the nearby Godolphin diapir.″

The vegetation consists of small patches of coastal grassland with colonies of the Silver-studded Blue (Plebejus argus), Small Pearl-bordered Fritillary (Boloria selene) and Grayling (Hipparchia semele) butterflies. Gorse (Ulex europaeus) and bramble (Rubus fruticosus) dominate on the more fertile soils. Above the headland is ″The Lookout″ built by the Government in the 1914–18 war for coastal observation and now used as holiday accommodation.

On film

In 2004, the period drama Ladies in Lavender starring Judi Dench and Maggie Smith was filmed there.

International Musicians Seminar

The International Musicians Seminar Prussia Cove held at Porth-en-Alls was founded by the Hungarian violinist, Sándor Végh and Hilary Tunstall-Behrens in 1972. The master class seminars are said to be "... an opportunity to broaden their (students) musical horizons and to make new contacts; stimuli which are vital to a developing artist". Former students and participants of the seminars are to be found among the world's leading soloists and leaders of the great orchestras of the world.

Outside links

• Location map: 50°6’5"N, 5°25’7"W
• Streetmap: SW556299
• Autobiography of John Carter
• The Autobiography of a Cornish Smuggler by Harry Carter (Project Gutenberg)