LEGEND has it you could once walk from one side of St Ives harbour to the other by stepping from fishing boat to fishing boat.
In 1908 there were a staggering 1,207 men and boys listed as fishermen in St Ives.
It is a startling statistic from a different time.
Those 1,207 fishermen supported their own families and countless other boatbuilders, net-menders and merchants.
The figure comes from a fascinating reprint of the Ordnance Survey Map for St Ives from 1906 which shows a town many wouldn't even recognise.
It also lists the landmarks, institutions and industries that made the town unique and are now part of its rich heritage.
On the back is an excerpt from Kelly's Directory of Cornwall 1910, which says: "The population here are largely dependent on the fishing industry, pilchards and herrings being at times in great abundance: the pilchards are cured and packed in hogsheads, and are chiefly exported to Italy, and the herrings to supply London and other markets.
"The number of fishing boats registered as belonging to the port under Part IV of the Merchant Shipping Act 1894 on December 31, 1908, was 269, requiring 1,207 men and boys to work them. Boatbuilding is carried on to some extent; there are also sail and netting manufactories."
Contrast that with today, with the number of men fishing out of St Ives numbering around 50 to 60 in the summer, but with some of them coming from Newlyn.
"If you're talking St Ives fishing now, you're talking maybe 30 to 35," said fisherman Stuart McClary.
Stuart will be 63 in October. He still fishes in St Ives and has raised his sons Stuart Jr and Bentley to fish, too. Stuart Jr still fishes in St Ives, while Bentley has gone into deep-sea fishing.
Stuart Sr said: "When I started in St Ives we were all 18-, 19-and 20-year-olds. I'm the oldest one left now.
"There's no money in it any more so the younger generation are not coming in.
"I reckon in another ten years you won't see any fishermen in St Ives. I have a youngster starting with me, my nephew, who's just left school, and I hope he sticks at it but there are really only two or three youngsters fishing in St Ives now."
He remembers a time when the harbour would be full of fishermen and the atmosphere would make the hardships worthwhile.
He said: "It feels very different now. The fishing has changed.
"You can't rely on the mackerel so you've got to be prepared to fish in different ways, with pots, with line, with tangle nets.
"I look back over the years and at the fish I've caught and it's amazing the amount of mackerel I've had. You could catch 300 or 400 stone in a day. Now you're lucky to get 100 stone in a tide. The mackerel just aren't there."
Steve Bassett, whose father brought him up to be a fisherman in St Ives, is now the harbour master.
He said: "I have records that show that in 1847 there were 400 boats and 735 men employed in the pilchard fishery alone.
"My family has fished here for generations but I was the last in the line.
"I stopped about 13 years ago, having gone on to fish in Hayle and in the North Sea.
"It's entirely different to when I was coming up through.
"Then it was a way of life. Times have changed and it's a lot harder for the guys.
"When I was doing it, it was fun; now it's so heavily regulated and if they aren't fishing for a day they are losing money."
The 1906 map captures that "different time" and is a real eye-opener.
The map, published by specialists Alan Godfrey Maps, also comes with an essay by Tony Clifford, who is based in Leedstown but does the accompanying research for many of the series.
He tells how the names of many of the villages, hamlets and mines that disappeared or were absorbed by the growing town have survived in street names including The Stennack – stennack being Cornish for "tin ground".
The essay details the coming of the artists and the lineage of the key families.
The replacement of fishing with art also helped to bring the tourism that is St Ives' bread and butter today.
As harbour master Steve Bassett said: "It's a different picture now.
"St Ives was fishing. Tourism is the thing now."
Old Ordnance Survey Maps – St Ives 1906 – The Godfrey Edition is available via Alan Godfrey Maps of Consett, County Durham, or online at www.alangodfreymaps.co.uk priced £2.50.
