The Box is a major cultural and heritage attraction and archive, which opened in Plymouth’s city centre in September 2020. Its collection, formally the South West Film and Television Archive (SWFTA), is the regional film archive for the South West of England, comprising the combined programme libraries of Westward Television and Television South West (TSW). It also includes a significant number of donated film collections dating back to the early 1890s.
This film is part of Free
Artist Mecca of Polperro
Historic fishing village of Polperro is mecca for artists
From the collection of:
Overview
Polperro is captured as a quiet fishing village famed for its 19th Century salted pilchard industry and for drawing in the artist. The quaint and charming village sits with pride and veneration where the steep valley of the River Pol meets the protected inner harbour beyond which lies a sandy beach and Willy Wilcox Cave. The Polperro gaffers are all but gone although the salted pilchard industry continued to the mid-noughties in Newlyn, Cornwall.
Laudadio Teglio with his sons took on the pilchard business in the 1860s. Originally from the Genoan Jewish Community, they set up in Polperro, Plymouth and Newlyn exporting pilchards to their native Italy. Tourism is the mainstay of today’s Polperro and a coastal fishery exists with 13 registered boats from trawlers fishing for pollack, cod, sea bass, mackerel, monkfish and flatfish to scallopers and crabbers. An Arts and Crafts Festival is held annually and galleries abound. The harbour fishing village remains an inspiration combining untamed Cornish landscape with the historic and untouched fishermen’s cottages by the sea conjuring up images of a smuggling past.
Related
Watch for free
In Cornish Seas In Cornish Seas
Travelogue 1956 29 mins Location: Looe
Off the Atlantic coast of Cornwall are perilous waters populated by pirates, smugglers and sharks
Watch for free
Scenes on the Cornish Riviera Scenes on the Cornish Riviera
Advert 1912 19 mins Silent Location: Plymouth
From Saltash to St Ives, a whirlwind tour of Edwardian Cornwall.
Watch for free
Polperro Polperro
News 1966 4 mins Location: Polperro
Locals are concerned about the commercial exploitation of the village as tourism ramps up.
Watch for free
Polperro 1931 Polperro 1931
Amateur film 1931 9 mins Silent Location: Polperro
Charming early amateur film taken on the south coast of Cornwall
Watch for free
Polperro flood damage Polperro flood damage
Current affairs 1976 4 mins Location: Polperro
Flooding has caused extensive damage to Polperro
Watch for free
The Cornish Riviera The Cornish Riviera
Travelogue 1916 5 mins Silent Location: Polperro
Sail away to a bygone Cornwall in this wistful coastal travelogue
Watch for free
China O'Brien: The Reunion China O'Brien: The Reunion
Documentary 2024 60 mins
Cynthia Rothrock, Richard Norton and Keith Cooke reunite three decades on from the groundbreaking martial arts classic.
Watch for free
Women in Action Panel Discussion Women in Action Panel Discussion
Inside Film 2024 28 mins
Action Xtreme - the UK's leading action film studio - hosts this panel discussion with four leading women in action cinema - Soo Cole, Jo Rolison, Jadey Duffield and Ioanna Karavela.
Watch for free
Starve Acre - Exclusive Q&A Starve Acre - Exclusive Q&A
Short interview 2024 24 mins
Daniel Kokotajlo talks to Nia Childs about Starve Acre, his folk horror about a couple digging deep into grief in the heart of the Yorkshire Dales.
Watch for free
Sky Peals - Exclusive Q&A Sky Peals - Exclusive Q&A
Short interview 2024 30 mins
Sky Peals director Moin Hussain and lead actor Faraz Ayub talk to Tomisin Adepeju about their magic realist drama.
Watch for free
Inside the Archive: The Early Films of Michael Powell Inside the Archive: The Early Films of Michael Powell
Documentary 2024 42 mins
Documentary exploring the BFI National Archive’s role in rediscovering and remastering the early films of Michael Powell.
Watch for free
Inside the Archive: The Riviera Revels Inside the Archive: The Riviera Revels
Short documentary 2024 12 mins
Bryony Dixon, curator of silent film at the BFI national archive, explores the origins of a series of comic travelogues, and Michael Powell's involvement in making them.