I love Port Isaac Playing Cards

I heart Port Isaac Port Isaac, was a busy coastal port from the Middle Ages to the mid 19th. century when it was an active harbour where cargoes like stone, coal, timber and pottery were loaded and unloaded. Fishing and fish-processing were also important and today there are still fishermen working from here although tourism plays an increasingly important role. Most of the old centre of the village consists of 18th. and 19th. century cottages, many officially listed as of architectural or historic importance, along narrow alleys and 'opes' winding down steep hillsides. A LITTLE ABOUT THE DISTRICT Bodmin Moor North Cornwall is the coast edge of Bodmin Moor with high, rocky cliffs. The whole area is very hilly with deep valleys where little streams run down to the sea. Port Isaac and Port Gaverne are in two of these valleys - two separate communities. HISTORY Stone, ores, limestone, salt, and heavy commodities were shipped and trans-shipped in Port Isaac's little harbour until the 19th. century. Then new ships, too large to be able to visit Port Isaac were being used to trade further overseas. The railway and the motor lorry finally ended the coastal trade and at the start of the 20th. century. Port Isaac became a holiday village. The name could mean 'The Corn Port' (yzack = corn). In 1340 it was registered as a fishing village. It was a sheltered harbour on an otherwise inhospitable coastline. PORT ISAAC in TV and FILM The Village of Port Isaac, was frequently used as a 'set' for filming the Poldark series, and 'Nightmare Man' where it was beautifully depicted albeit as a village in the Hebrides! More recently the Port Isaac has become associated with the TV series 'Doc Martin' ( in which Port Isaac was tranformed into the fictional Port Wenn) and the Film ' Saving Grace'. Doc Martin a British television comedy drama starred Martin Clunes as a doctor whose tactless manner causes mayhem in the small Cornish community of Port Wenn. Created by Dominic Minghella, The series was filmed on location in the village of Port Isaac, North Cornwall, with filming of most interior scenes and production carried out in a converted barn at a local farm. martin Clunes plays surgeon Martin Ellingham, whose glittering career comes crashing down around him when he develops a phobia which prevents him conducting operations. Saving Grace was a comedy/crime film, starring Brenda Blethyn, Craig Ferguson and Martin Clunes filmed in 2000. After Grace Trevethyn's husband commits suicide, he leaves her in economic ruins, Grace left by herself is now facing loosing her house because all the money her husband owed. Together with her gardener she uses her plant-cultivation ability to grow a certain drug. Amy Foster or Swept from the Sea has it was called when released in America, is a 1997 movie based on a 1903 story, Amy Foster by Joseph Conrad. It stars Rachel Weisz, Vincent Perez, Ian McKellen, Kathy Bates and Zoe Wanamaker and was directed by Beeban Kidron. The story concerns a Russian, unable to speak English but able to play chess, shipwrecked on the coast of Cornwall on his way to America. Neighbouring Port Gaverne developed in the nineteenth century as a slate, coal, limestone handling port where shipbuilding also took place - the large buildings have all been converted into holiday accommodation. At low tide there is small, sheltered, sandy beach with an abundance of rock pools which is probably the safest beach in North Cornwall for small children. Unspoiled Port Gaverne Slate from Delabole quarry was loaded here into the heavy sailing sea ketches which were broad enough to rest upright on the beach between tides. This is now a peaceful spot with little commercialisation. Port Quin The neighbouring village was abandoned on two occasions, once when all the men were drowned at sea and again when the pilchards failed. It is now a quiet, peaceful place with no shops - not even a tea room!