Fisherman’s Cottage & Kingsley Museum

How fishermen’s families lived

Inside the cottage you can see how a Clovelly fisherman and his family lived in the 1930s. The parlour is decorated with domestic treasures of the period, including simple cottage furniture, colourful pictures and religious engravings. The tiny kitchen is plain but full of period charm. Upstairs there are two small bedrooms, a sail loft, and an attic complete with straw mattresses.

The cottage is packed with fascinating information and old photographs that give a vivid picture of Clovelly’s fishing heritage. Like all the early cottages in the village, it is built in cob and stone. A wall in the downstairs room has been left un-plastered to show how it was made – with a bottom layer of stones from the beach, and then a layer of cob (earth mixed with a little straw).

Wells once supplied Clovelly’s water, and older residents still remember how pure it was. In the front room of the cottage there is a typical village well. Residents would watch the level carefully, as sometimes, in heavy rain, it could overflow and cause a flood.